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MultiNav Pro+ BLE - does TX power scale down automatically at short range?

Jennifer JohnsonJune 23, 2026
So I've been messing around with the MultiNav Pro+ BLE module for a data logging project and something's been bugging me. I know the module is rated for 50km range which is insane, and that obviously means it's pushing some serious TX power to hit those numbers. My question is whether the module does any kind of automatic power control when the devices are physically close to each other - like if two nodes are sitting 10 meters apart, is it still blasting at full power the whole time or does it back off?
 
Reason I ask is I've got a setup where most of the time my nodes are clustered pretty close together (within a building), but occasionally one goes out into the field and needs the long range. I don't want to be burning through my power budget at full TX when it's completely unnecessary, and the super-cap system in the power kit is great but I'm still trying to be smart about draw. If I have to manually set TX power in firmware depending on use case that's fine, I just want to know if there's a register or API call for that or if the module handles it transparently.
 
Also slightly related - at max TX power, is there any concern about the BLE radio interfering with the GNSS module if they're both running at the same time? 2.4GHz and L1 GPS are pretty far apart in frequency but I've seen some sketchy behavior in other projects with RF front-ends that strong. Would love to hear if anyone's actually tested this combo in the field before I commit to the full hardware layout.
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Replies

AdamJune 23, 2026
@Jennifer Johnson good questions, and honestly a really well-thought-out use case — the mixed indoor/field scenario is something I've seen come up a few times with this module.
 
On the automatic power control question: the module doesn't do transparent adaptive TX power on its own the way some cellular modems handle it. The 50km spec is the radio running at full tilt, and it stays there unless you tell it otherwise. The good news is you absolutely can set TX power in firmware — the STM32WB07 at the core of this thing exposes TX power control through the HCI layer, so you can call it programmatically based on whatever logic makes sense for your deployment. For your use case I'd probably just build a simple state machine — indoor/cluster mode runs at reduced power, and when a node transitions to field deployment it bumps back up. The AI firmware builder in the Club Dev Hub is actually pretty decent at scaffolding that kind of conditional power management if you want a starting point without writing it from scratch.
 
On the GNSS interference question — you're right that 2.4GHz and L1 GPS (~1575MHz) are far enough apart that direct frequency interference isn't really the issue, but where people get into trouble is wideband noise from the PA and harmonics, plus the GNSS receiver being extremely sensitive by design. In my experience running them together, physical separation on the board matters more than most people expect, and keeping the GNSS antenna away from the BLE antenna is the obvious one, but also making sure your ground plane is solid between them. If you're seeing sketchy behavior in the field it's usually trace routing or a noisy LDO shared between both front-ends rather than actual RF bleed-through. Would be curious what layout you're working with — if you want to share it in the project thread someone here has probably hit the same issue.
James WilliamsJune 23, 2026
Honest answer - I don't think the MultiNav Pro+ has adaptive TX power built in, at least not in any of the firmware versions I've run, it just stays at whatever power level you've configured (defaults to max). You'd have to implement your own closed-loop control using the RSSI readings if you want it to back off at close range, which is totally doable but not automatic out of the box. Worth double-checking the datasheet appendix though because I might be wrong about the newer firmware revisions.
Barbara LopezJune 23, 2026
James is right from my experience - no automatic power scaling, it stays pinned at whatever you set in the config. I actually built a basic closed-loop RSSI thing for a mesh project last year and it worked fine, just poll RSSI every few seconds and step the TX power down in chunks when you're consistently above like -60dBm or whatever threshold makes sense for your setup.
Barbara MooreJune 23, 2026
Yep same experience here, no automatic APC on the MultiNav Pro+ - what James and Barbara said is accurate. One thing I'd add is watch out for saturation/clipping issues if you've got two nodes sitting super close and you're still running full TX, I've seen some weird RSSI readings and dropped packets in that scenario even though you'd expect it to be rock solid. Definitely worth implementing that closed-loop control if your nodes are going to be at varying distances.
Karen RodriguezJune 23, 2026
Yeah backing up what everyone's said, no automatic power control - and the saturation thing Barbara M mentioned is real, had a project where two nodes about 2m apart were basically unusable until I dropped the TX power manually, RSSI was all over the place. Definitely just implement the RSSI loop, its not that much work and gives you way more control anyway.

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