Wireless nRF24L01+ sniffer for MySensors

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux When I am sure that everything really works (including my Uno/Radio) I will sure write a wrap-up to you blog!

[Yveaux]

@marceltrapman said:

both x64

The console application is 32bits. I don't know if the 32 bits versions are included in the 64 bits installers...

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux said:

The console application is 32bits. I don't know if the 32 bits versions are included in the 64 bits installers...

That was not the issue...

Below is the wrap-up that I also posted on your blog:

There are 3 things that I bumped into though that I would like to share with you and those that decide to use the sniffer.

1. Immediately after starting** 'Nrf24Sniff.exe -P6'** (the rest is default in my case) I got this error message 'The program can't start because MSVCR110.dll is missing...'. It basically complains that 'Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2012 SP 4' is not installed but that is not true. After doing a bit of searching I found that I needed to** install or repair 'Microsoft Essentials'**.
   Once this was done the program works as expected (don't ask me why, this must be pure MS genius).

2. Once Wireshark was started like described I noticed that the Nrf24Sniff console window displayed a *'Wait for sniffer to restart' *message. The author mentions that this will only take a few seconds but in my case I actually needed to reset the Arduino for it to go away. No exception.

3. After creating the correct setup in Wireshark I expected data to show up but it did not. I wondered why and ran a complete test to see that the Ardiuno was ok, radio sufficiently powered etc. but that was all ok. I then re-read the article and found that the author says 'when monitoring MySensors 1.4beta traffic (at non-default 1Mb/s)'. I completely missed this and that caused the issue.The MySensors 1.4beta is set to 250b/s by default. Once I started the sniffer like 'Nrf24Sniff.exe -P6 -r2' everything works as expected.

Now I have to find some time to read the third article so that I understand what happens on my screen :)

Anyway, good stuff and a big thank you goes to @Yveaux ...

[epierre]

@Yveaux can you do me a favour ? colord blind people cannot read red on black... they represent 10% of the population...

Also, does your software runs under nano ;-)

[marceltrapman]

@epierre said:

Also, does your software runs under nano ;-)

I can't think of a reason why it would not work.
Just try (once you can read the blog :) ).

[epierre]

@Yveaux ah a vb programmer... you need to install the msvcr110.dll msvcr110.dll t to make it start with wine. (does not work with mono...)

then I have wireshark but I don't understand what to do next...
"Connect Wireshark to \.\pipe\wireshark to continue..."

[epierre]

@marceltrapman yes but for the reason just above I can't... had to select all the text to read...

 mono Nrf24Sniff.exe 
 Cannot open assembly 'Nrf24Sniff.exe': File does not contain a valid CIL image.

[marceltrapman]

@epierre said:

@marceltrapman yes but for the reason just above I can't... had to select all the text to read...

I was really... Joking with you :)

BTW I can imagine that trying to make this work with wine will give you all sorts of issues that are hard to comment on for those that don't use it.

[Yveaux]

@marceltrapman said:

Below is the wrap-up that I also posted on your blog:

Ok, thanks again man!

[Yveaux]

@epierre said:

@Yveaux can you do me a favour ? colord blind people cannot read red on black... they represent 10% of the population...

What is red on black? Some coloring in Wireshark?
If so, I don't choose the colors, Wireshark does! I just mark it as 'warning'.
Have a look at Edit->Preferences->User Interface->Font and colors to see if you can change it to your likings.

AH, now I see what you mean! The text on my blog :-)

Also, does your software runs under nano ;-)

I didn't test it, but don't see why it shouldn't!

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux said:

What is red on black? Some coloring in Wireshark?

It is your blog.
Mostly white on black but, when highlighted, also red on black...

[Yveaux]

@marceltrapman Colors are not my top priority right now, but I'll put in on the list then. Thanks for the hint.

[Yveaux]

@epierre It's not written in vb! Shame on your! It's pure hardcore C!
If you get it to run on Linux (?) using Wine then let us know please!

[epierre]

@Yveaux yes I did... but I stopped here not knowing how to do it:

Connect Wireshark to \.\pipe\wireshark to continue...

[Yveaux]

@epierre It's in the blog: start a new command window and navigate to the wiresrak directory (c:\program files\wireshark)
Then run:

 wireshark -k -i \\.\pipe\wireshark

And it should automatically connect to the named pipe (which is written to from the nrf24sniff.exe tool) and start capturing.

[epierre]

@Yveaux yes but through wine are they POSIX compliant so my linux wireshark can connect to it ?

[Yveaux]

@epierre I guess not, as Linux uses files as named pipes and \.\pipe\wireshark is not a regular Linux file path...
Furthermore the Wireshark dissectors should compile on Linux, but I didn't test it.
You could try to also run windows Wireshark through Wine, maybe the named pipes will pass the data along just fine...

[Yveaux]

@marceltrapman said:

2. Once Wireshark was started like described I noticed that the Nrf24Sniff console window displayed a *'Wait for sniffer to restart' *message. The author mentions that this will only take a few seconds but in my case I actually needed to reset the Arduino for it to go away. No exception.

I changed the nrf24snif.exe to explicitly reset the Arduino (works for Uno) by lowering DTR/RTS lines. Should work for (most?) other Arduino's too, but I don't have any other to test one.
For me it seems to work now. Could you test if this works stable for you too?

Oh yeah, I added support for some status leds to the Sniffer, connected to A0..A4 and via resistors to GND:

• A0 sniffer monitoring (LED turns off during reset)
• A1 sniffer receiving a packet
• A2 sniffer transmitting (serially) a packet
• A3 new configuration received
• A4 buffer overflow

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux Nice.

When I find the time I will test it for Uno and Mega.
Not sure that I have a free Nano right now.
Also not sure that I have a soldered Pro Mini.

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux

Oh yeah, I added support for some status leds to the Sniffer, connected to A0..A4 and via resistors to GND:

• A0 sniffer monitoring (LED turns off during reset)
• A1 sniffer receiving a packet
• A2 sniffer transmitting (serially) a packet
• A3 new configuration received
• A4 buffer overflow

Maybe I should create a (little) shield for this that holds the radio as well.
Or just use a prototype board...