Which applications is a range of roughly 100 m enough for?
The roughly 100 m open-area range of the SF100 and SF200 covers most applications where the operator uses the machine within sight: in-shop hoists, service lifts, bucket loading, doors and barriers, fixed cranes. This figure is an open-area value; concrete walls, steel structures and inverter interference noticeably reduce the real distance.
A wireless crane remote control is almost always used within line of sight, because the operator must not give a command without seeing the load move. For that reason what is decisive in practice is not the catalogue range but the longest diagonal of your working area.
Typical situations where roughly 100 m is comfortably enough:
- Overhead hoist or monorail in an enclosed workshop.
- Fixed-position crane, service lift, load platform.
- Doors, barriers and similar fixed mechanisms.
- Working around a vehicle with a truck-mounted crane.
Situations where it may not be enough: long rail-mounted gantry crane runs, large warehouse areas, layouts with a large number of concrete or metal walls in between. In these scenarios the roughly 150 m open-area range of the ST series is a more suitable starting point.
A safe planning rule: leave a clear margin above the real distance you measured, and do not leave the antenna inside the panel. Most range problems stem not from distance but from the antenna being left inside a metal enclosure or routed close to power cables.
The full topic: 433 MHz or 2.4 GHz?