Node's becoming unreachable
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@mrwomble Measure the temp of the meat on the BBQ and the kettle itself. I get a push message from Domoticz when the centre of the meat hits a certain temperature regarding the switch I flipped for cow, chicken, fish and so on...
@Sander-Stolk Now that is taking home automation to a whole new level. Nice! Adding that to the list of sensors I want to build. It's a long list and growing all the time... :smile:
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@tbowmo The IKEA Fantast probe with MAX6675 breakout board.
@Sander-Stolk I have exactly the same problem with my bird house node. It is about 20 m away from the repeater. Both are 1000 m radios and aluminium shielded. The repeater uses LOW setting. The birdhouse node used MIN for 3 weeks and worked fine, then the dropouts appeared, sometimes for a whole day there is no message coming through. The repeater is working fine, I tested it with @AWI's quality meter sketch. The birdhouse node is 10 times checked, it is ome of the "My Slim AA ..." nodes, very simple setup. I recently changed the radio setting to LOW, but same results, it works for a few hours then dropouts start.
Unfortunately I cannot advise you, just tell you that I have similar problems. I have no idea what to do, I discussed in detail with @Oitzu but I am still having dropouts.
I will need to do further testing if the repeater can reach the node, what is sure is that the node cannot reach the repeater.
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one thought, is there any changes in the humidity in the air, when the signals drops out?
Could be that the radios are just on the edge of what they can do reception wise, and then if the weather turns bad, and the humidity steps up, it causes some of the troubles?
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one thought, is there any changes in the humidity in the air, when the signals drops out?
Could be that the radios are just on the edge of what they can do reception wise, and then if the weather turns bad, and the humidity steps up, it causes some of the troubles?
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Well it was just a thing that just popped up in my head. :) Even though they are marketed as 1000 meter, it all depends on multiple things, like any walls between the nodes, type of wall material, is it wet? is it dry? etc.
@tbowmo No, it does not seem to be the humidity. Now in the evening that the temperature drops and the humidity rises I have quite regular readings.
Anyway, it's strange. Nobody is at home -- Conditions did not change. It did not work last night and during today (readings once very two hours more or less), but since the late afternoon I get readings every 10 minutes (as it is supposed to be). So: What is better now then it was last night and evening and during today? The moon phase???
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@hek I will start debugging today when I'm at home from this node.
@Sander-Stolk - Maybe you can try a metalic/aluminium case? I have seen much better performance of my network since i change GW and repeaters to a aluminium case.
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Ok! So I found some issues but not fixed completely...
What I found out is that my Shed node is sending through my attic-node. Why? I dont know but parent was 1 and distance 2.
After a Clear EEPROM on the Shed-node and disconnected the Attic-node, re'-uploaded the original sketch and voila a few Find parents and Fails but then I saw 4-4-0-0 instead of 4-4-1-0.
So that was one problem fixed. The attic-node was not isolated with foil so now most of the time the Shed-node is sending OK and not so many Fails.
I've ordered a new type of radio with a shield and a external antenna as some may know from the comparison video of the NRF24's on youtube.Is there a way to make the parent (0) static to prevent node's from seeking and broadcasting?
So that I can force my Shed-node to always contact the parent 0 instead of roaming towards the strongest link.
I know that I can redirect node's to use a specific repeater node but not a parent node.So far this update. When the kids are not in sleeping I will check their node's to find out if there is something wrong.
Keep you all posted!
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To be sure that the radio is not interrupted or failing in any other way because the lack of power, I've connected the radio with a voltage regulator so 5v in and 3.3 volt out with CAP.
It helped a little but not much hence the order of a new radio for the Shed which is isolated.
This is the one to test: http://www.icstation.com/22dbm-100mw-nrf24l01ppalna-wireless-transmission-module-p-4677.html -
@Sander-Stolk - Maybe you can try a metalic/aluminium case? I have seen much better performance of my network since i change GW and repeaters to a aluminium case.
@sundberg84 said:
@Sander-Stolk - Maybe you can try a metalic/aluminium case? I have seen much better performance of my network since i change GW and repeaters to a aluminium case.
@Sander-Stolk said:
This is the one to test: http://www.icstation.com/22dbm-100mw-nrf24l01ppalna-wireless-transmission-module-p-4677.html
I'm checking these out to see if I can fix the radio problem once and for all
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To be sure that the radio is not interrupted or failing in any other way because the lack of power, I've connected the radio with a voltage regulator so 5v in and 3.3 volt out with CAP.
It helped a little but not much hence the order of a new radio for the Shed which is isolated.
This is the one to test: http://www.icstation.com/22dbm-100mw-nrf24l01ppalna-wireless-transmission-module-p-4677.html@Sander-Stolk said:
This is the one to test: http://www.icstation.com/22dbm-100mw-nrf24l01ppalna-wireless-transmission-module-p-4677.html
Looking at the module I see that the shield is NOT touching the ground of the antenna. Is that correct? Or is it connected all together on the back side of the module?
This is also what I thought to see in my own experiments, that it was better when the Al foil was not touching the gnd of the antenna.
Still my shielding is imperfect. It does not work at MAX setting.
Looking at the proposed module I see that really everything is covered by the shield. I will try to enlarge my foil wrapping, but not touching the gnd.
Hmmmm, guess I will have to do more tests. There are various opinions here about toching the ground with the foil or not.
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I don't have a good experience with the shielded radio's. Also with these there are many variations. The shielding of the 3 (different) shielded nodes I have is grounded. Which is what it should be.
Much has been written about it on this forum I.e -
I think I have to replace the shed-node. This Arduino Mega just stops in its loops and last night it just hangs. No more fast blinking led.
Will convert it to a Nano but have to figure out how because of the many childs. -
Ok! So I found some issues but not fixed completely...
What I found out is that my Shed node is sending through my attic-node. Why? I dont know but parent was 1 and distance 2.
After a Clear EEPROM on the Shed-node and disconnected the Attic-node, re'-uploaded the original sketch and voila a few Find parents and Fails but then I saw 4-4-0-0 instead of 4-4-1-0.
So that was one problem fixed. The attic-node was not isolated with foil so now most of the time the Shed-node is sending OK and not so many Fails.
I've ordered a new type of radio with a shield and a external antenna as some may know from the comparison video of the NRF24's on youtube.Is there a way to make the parent (0) static to prevent node's from seeking and broadcasting?
So that I can force my Shed-node to always contact the parent 0 instead of roaming towards the strongest link.
I know that I can redirect node's to use a specific repeater node but not a parent node.So far this update. When the kids are not in sleeping I will check their node's to find out if there is something wrong.
Keep you all posted!
@Sander-Stolk said:
Is there a way to make the parent (0) static to prevent node's from seeking and broadcasting?
#define MY_PARENT_NODE_ID 0(For 2.0.0) -
I don't have a good experience with the shielded radio's. Also with these there are many variations. The shielding of the 3 (different) shielded nodes I have is grounded. Which is what it should be.
Much has been written about it on this forum I.e@AWI ok, I guess you are right. I will do some more tests with grounded foil.
Actually I have some really nice and thick Al metal. I could use it to build some better permanent shielding of the module.
Actually I would like to give my repeater a metal enclosure. But it is built in a way that inside its case the 220 V are converted to 5 V. So I prefer the plastic case. I am too afraid that by some stupid failure there are 220 V on the case and somebody touching it. Hm, so maybe I should rebuilt the repeater with an external 5 V supply and a metal case.
I am totally sick of these NRFs that all perform differently. 😉
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@AWI ok, I guess you are right. I will do some more tests with grounded foil.
Actually I have some really nice and thick Al metal. I could use it to build some better permanent shielding of the module.
Actually I would like to give my repeater a metal enclosure. But it is built in a way that inside its case the 220 V are converted to 5 V. So I prefer the plastic case. I am too afraid that by some stupid failure there are 220 V on the case and somebody touching it. Hm, so maybe I should rebuilt the repeater with an external 5 V supply and a metal case.
I am totally sick of these NRFs that all perform differently. 😉
@karl261 said:
I am totally sick of these NRFs that all perform differently. 😉
Same here! So I radically solved my problems with connectivity by moving to rfm69 radios. It took some time and effort to make 'adaptor' pcbs to connect rfm's to my existing nodes, especially for 5v nodes, as rfm's are not 5v tolerant and require voltage level converter. I don't have comprehensive statistics for now (finished switching only a few days ago), but even first tests gave stable communication range far beyond that I ever saw with nrf's
