NRF24 connection issues

[parachutesj]

Dear all,
I have some connections issues between the nodes and the serial gateway and Openhab. I am not sure what the issue is: I have a gateway on a Nano with external power and a capacitor 47nF as suggested – tried several radios, the normal NRF24L01+ and the amplified version but all with similar results. When starting up, I can wander through my rooms and send/receive through the node basically everywhere in the house. After using the amplified version, it even worked everywhere. Running for a while it stops (after minutes or hours) Sometimes the serial gateway which is connected via USB to a Raspberry 3 seems to be stuck, other times the nodes seem to be out of range. One node still is available while others aren’t.
I changed the power via configuration which did not change anything – one node is even in the same room, node in wall behind the switch and the gateway on the table, about 4m distance (13 ft) but is losing connection. I never restarted any of the nodes, only GW and connection came back for some nodes.
Also Caps are soldered to the nodes, power regulators to 3.3V everywhere.
I actually thought I am going to connect the serial GW directly to the Raspberry and avoiding the USB connection but since it seems more related to the radios I think maybe another Capacitor would do or even other radios?
For my gateway, I already ordered a shielded version and hope that this will do the trick, possibly the whole batch of the ordered radios is crap.

I am running out of ideas. I hoped I can get a stable network and forget about the nodes. My test with an ESP and http-protocol worked for several weeks very stable and hoped to get even more stability in using a separate network and not wasting capacity in my WIFI.
But at the moment, it looks like it is very difficult having a combination of Arduino, radio, capacitor, power regulator and possible other components which work rock solid.

Is there a possibility to test the network? Guessing other channels and having similar issues afterwards is not the way I would like to proceed.

Summary of issues and indications:
a) Sending out the request via Openhab, node not receiving, indicating in the openhab.log st=failed; restart PI, back to work
b) One of the further nodes stopped working while even further ones worked before – no real solution so far
c) Same as a) except placing a dummy node/repeater somewhere it picked the signal up and worked, so conclusion is that GW/PI still work and a range issue (temporary) or other external noise…

Would it bring any benefit if I connect the GW to the PI via serial direct connection and and debug via USB on serial monitor or is there any other possibility to access serial monitor while connected directly via USB to the PI?
Also any network scanner able to detect anything?
What about DECT phones, might they be problematic?

Thanks for your hints and ideas.

Cheers,
SJ

[parachutesj]

@parachutesj
One addition I found in thread https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1664
(Which NRF24 is the best) a code to do some testing. However the performance I am getting with my radios seems to be ok