The full simulation of the Axial Mode Helical Antenna showed some interesting behavior. Antenna was set up as though mounted directly above a dispenser.
Orientation of antenna for this test.
There were several positions where signal was blocked.
The lowest, closest position showed very poor reception. My initial reaction is that this is due to the mass of liquid mounted beneath the antenna. This is a potential problem with the helical “directional from above” concept. To correct this, the antenna would have to be mounted higher, further out from the “wall,” and angled back toward the dispenser. This mounting creates its own set of problems by introducing additional hardware, but is interesting in it’s potential for quality results.
You also see that at the top, the two furthest out motes were cut off fairly effectively. In the ECDF you can see that the response was good with the exception of the lower, nearest mote.
Exhibits fairly good separation between ranges.
Good separation at the target 0.50/0.75 range, however the performance at 0.25 negates the usability of this particular setup.
I plan to test a few additional configurations of the directional antenna to see if we can more closely replicate the proof of concept results.