Why does an CH-101 in RX Only mode still generate a pulse?

By zawadabowfortcom , 22 May 2021

I'm having an issue with Direct Pitch and Catch with the CH101 and Short Range firmware (although it happens with the normal and Pitch Catch firmware too).

Sensor 0 is set to TX/RX and Sensor 1 to RX only. I trigger the int line on both sensors, and a Pulse is sent from Sensor 0 to Sensor 1. The pulse is received by Sensor 1. Distance in this case is 195mm.

However Sensor 1 receives another pulse at the start too, there is nothing to generate this pulse except the RX Only receiver which should not be transmitting. The pulse is invariant and doesn't change in timing, position or amplitude, even if I block between the TX and RX, it's just always there. Because of this pulse, the CH101 doesn't provide any useful range values and it makes it difficult to identify pulses from amplitude data manually, especially as it gets close to the transmitter.

Attached image from Sensor 1 shows the issue. The peak labelled Catch is from the TX, I have confirmed that because it's at the correction position and it varies according to the position.

What do I need to do to prevent an RX_ONLY CH-101 from transmitting? Thanks.

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