CC2500/FrSky signal problems

I swapped my OrangeRx 610 for a D4R-II, and the range went from fine to hundreds of feet to about 40 feet. This is pretty much unusable.

Since the D4R-II has RSSI now, I get a reading for signal strength - but there's no documentation as to what it means. With the Tx & Rx both sitting on my desktop, about a foot apart, it reads 50. I suspect that's not good, but would like confirmation on that.

I get the same behavior on the desktop from several D4R-II's. This makes me suspect that the problem is the CC2500, though it may be the connection. Anything I should look at there? In particular, I'm using relatively long signal lines, so maybe there's a timing issue there and I should shorten them?

Any other suggestions for things I might try before ordering another CC2500?

has_pa, line commented out?

No, it's not commented out. The module has a PA.

...and is it: = 1 ?

Yes.

The replacement CC2500 showed up, and doesn't work - just shows up as missing when I boot deviation.

The wiring is right - pretty much just moved the wires from the old one. Connections all beep as fine. I verified that I'm getting 3.2+ volts between the vcc & ground lines. So if it's not the module, it's my job soldering on the pins.

Now that I have a logic analyzer I trust a little, I'm trying to figure out if I can debug this further before giving up and ordering another module.

Is there some test I can make to double check that I have things connected properly? Given that the module isn't responding, are there signals I can watch for on some pins that should still show something on power on? If they show the right values, is there some way to distinguish between an rf module that's not responding and a pin that's connected to the Devo but not the rf module?

Did you resolve this issue? If so, what was your solution

Yes. The wiring was wrong - I was misreading the docs (which have since been clarified), and failed to add the jumpers it needed to the module. Adding those solved things.