How to properly debug Serial Gateway nRF24L01+ ?

[karl261]

Hi,

I have a problem with my serial gateway described in more detail here:
http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/797/pimatic-mysensors-controller-plugin/57
I am using the 1.5 mysensors library. And an arduino nano with a nRF24L01+ which has worked for 3 weeks before it started to do weird stuff.

My question is now, how can I get some debug messages? I never get any output, apart from the

0;0;3;0;9;gateway started, id=0, parent=0, distance=0
0;0;3;0;14;Gateway startup complete.

So, I tried to add

rf24.printDetails();

in the MyTransportNRF24.cpp but it did not show anything. I also discovered

#define FAILURE_HANDLING
 #define SERIAL_DEBUG
//  #define MINIMAL 

in the RF24_config.h and that it has something to do with what debug output is shown. But whatever combination of these I do, I never see any debug output.

What am I overlooking?
Thanks!

[karl261]

No one? Really? I can't get the output of
RF24 printDetails();
in my sketch.
Can anybody tell me how I can use the printDetails(); function in the SerialGateway.ino to show the radio details on the serial console? I can't get it to work... I am using the 1.5 library.

[hek]

You might get some help from here:
http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2461/rfm69-temperature-and-how-to-check-rfm69-is-set-to-high-power

[karl261]

@hek Thanks a lot! That really helped. Finally had time to look into it. So for other people I will try to write down what I did. I tested this for one of my sensors.
I am using Mysensors 1.5 master branch.

1. MyTransportNRF24: I commented out the "private:" to make the rf24 function public.
2. RF24_config.h: I commented out the "#define MINIMAL" to make some more functions available in RF24.cpp.
3. then I added to my sketch:

• "#include <printf.h>" in the beginning, I found the file somewhere on the net.
• in the void setup() function I added "printf_begin();" I do not fully understand this, but it seems to define stdio. Because I read in RF24.h
  printf.h

/**
   * Print a giant block of debugging information to stdout
   *
   * @warning Does nothing if stdout is not defined.  See fdevopen in stdio.h
   */
  void printDetails(void);

• in the void loop(); I added "radio.rf24.printDetails();"

... and after several months of research it is finally printing some debug output. For example: PA Power = PA_HIGH

I wonder why this is so difficult to use and there is so little info about debugging.

Hope it helps someone!