nrf24L01+ range and some software issues
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Hi @mfalkvidd, thanks for quick response.
the info in the link you provided is not clear to me. on the pi side i launch the mysGeteway as a mqtt client that connects to mosquitto server, and have also openHab 1.8.3 with mqtt binding, all this works without a problem. so i don't realy know which of these components is a controller and should assign the node ids.
regarding the powering the nrf, on the pi side the nrf module is connected with about 10cm cables directly to the pi header (3.3v pin #17 for the power). and there is also 10uF ceramic smd capacitor soldered directly between vcc and gnd pins on the nrf module pcb. On the atmega side the nrf module is almost directly soldered into the atmega board with maybe 1.5cm wires for the gnd and vcc (and also the 10uF ceramic smd capacitor between gnd and vcc pin on the nrf module pcb).
So on the atmega side the power shouldn't be any issue, for the pi I will try to power the nrf module with separate 3.3v regulator to check if this will change anything.
From the nrf datasheet the power consumption should be max 13.5mA so pi and atmega should easily deliver this amount of power, so maybe 10uF capacitor is not enough for the filtering ? As a side note the nrf modules are getting quite hot, considering power consumption of only 13.5 mA this is very wierd ...@rozpruwacz as mentioned on the list linked from the page I mentioned, OpenHab is a controller.
However, I think I read somewhere that it is not possible to hand out node IDs through mqtt, so you'll need to either use a different type of gateway or continue assigning node IDs manually. Either way is fine.
As for the power, the capacitor on the nrf module has proven, over and over again, to be insufficient. That is why the radio connection instructions and the troubleshooting instructions mention adding an extra capacitor. It is not about the amount of power, it is about the stability of the power. You are of course free to ignore the collective experience of the community, but why are you asking in the forum if you don't want to use the answers?
The heat sounds strange. I haven't seen that in any of my modules. Maybe the vendor sent defect modules?
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@rozpruwacz as mentioned on the list linked from the page I mentioned, OpenHab is a controller.
However, I think I read somewhere that it is not possible to hand out node IDs through mqtt, so you'll need to either use a different type of gateway or continue assigning node IDs manually. Either way is fine.
As for the power, the capacitor on the nrf module has proven, over and over again, to be insufficient. That is why the radio connection instructions and the troubleshooting instructions mention adding an extra capacitor. It is not about the amount of power, it is about the stability of the power. You are of course free to ignore the collective experience of the community, but why are you asking in the forum if you don't want to use the answers?
The heat sounds strange. I haven't seen that in any of my modules. Maybe the vendor sent defect modules?
@mfalkvidd said:
@rozpruwacz as mentioned on the list linked from the page I mentioned, OpenHab is a controller.
However, I think I read somewhere that it is not possible to hand out node IDs through mqtt, so you'll need to either use a different type of gateway or continue assigning node IDs manually. Either way is fine.
ok, understand, i can assign node id's staticaly, no problem.
As for the power, the capacitor on the nrf module has proven, over and over again, to be insufficient. That is why the radio connection instructions and the troubleshooting instructions mention adding an extra capacitor. It is not about the amount of power, it is about the
stability of the power.so the additional 10uF should be sufficient, so what else could degrade the range ?
btw. a did this trick (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpMnauHeR7Y) and it helped a lot, but it gets a little big :)The heat sounds strange. I haven't seen that in any of my modules. Maybe the vendor sent defect modules?
i will try to measure the current.and what about the issue with the communication not recovering from the blackout, e.g. if the mysGateway goes down the node would never recover unless i will recycle the power.
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@mfalkvidd said:
@rozpruwacz as mentioned on the list linked from the page I mentioned, OpenHab is a controller.
However, I think I read somewhere that it is not possible to hand out node IDs through mqtt, so you'll need to either use a different type of gateway or continue assigning node IDs manually. Either way is fine.
ok, understand, i can assign node id's staticaly, no problem.
As for the power, the capacitor on the nrf module has proven, over and over again, to be insufficient. That is why the radio connection instructions and the troubleshooting instructions mention adding an extra capacitor. It is not about the amount of power, it is about the
stability of the power.so the additional 10uF should be sufficient, so what else could degrade the range ?
btw. a did this trick (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpMnauHeR7Y) and it helped a lot, but it gets a little big :)The heat sounds strange. I haven't seen that in any of my modules. Maybe the vendor sent defect modules?
i will try to measure the current.and what about the issue with the communication not recovering from the blackout, e.g. if the mysGateway goes down the node would never recover unless i will recycle the power.
@rozpruwacz not sure why it is not recovering. It should, but as your log shows it doesn't :( . Perhaps the trobleshooting recommendations in https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/5174/solved-non-healing-tsm-msg-len-error-hours-into-run/4 can help - enable the sanity check and see if the debug output says anything useful.
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i found the solution for not connection not recovering from the blackout (https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4593/battery-sensor-and-re-connecting-to-gateway/2)
the sketch i'm using is "sleeping" between button presses and the transport layer have no time to reestablish connection. adding the wait statement to the sketch solves the problem. -
i found the solution for not connection not recovering from the blackout (https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4593/battery-sensor-and-re-connecting-to-gateway/2)
the sketch i'm using is "sleeping" between button presses and the transport layer have no time to reestablish connection. adding the wait statement to the sketch solves the problem. -
i measured the current drown by the nrf module connected to the pi, it is above 100mA ! no wonder it gets so hot ... i ordered new ones and one with external antenna.
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with wierd leds blinking is the same problem :) the sleeping causes them to sometimes turn on but not turn of and sometimes turn of but not turn on, without sleeping they work ok :)
@rozpruwacz said:
with wierd leds blinking is the same problem :) the sleeping causes them to sometimes turn on but not turn of and sometimes turn of but not turn on, without sleeping they work ok :)
The blinking leds feature was originally created for gateways, which need to have power all the time to receive messages. The feature was recently extended to make it possible to enable on repeaters, which also need to have power all the time to receive messages.
Sleeping nodes generally want to minimize power consumption, so blinking leds is generally not something a sleeping node wants to do. Using remote debug might be better if troubleshooting is the goal.
So I am not surprised that the feature doesn't work for sleeping nodes, it was not designed with that in mind. But if you (or someone else) wants it, it should be possible to adjust the code to handle sleeping nodes as well.
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yeah, now it makes perfect sense. i saw how to configure leds in "Advanced Gateway Options" section and somehow assumed that this is the same for nodes ...
so now my problems are solved accept for the radio range which i hope will be solved when i get my new fresh radios :)
thank you very much for helping me ! -
great news :) with the new nrf modules there is no more range problem :) for the gatewane i use nrf24l01+pa+lna and for the sensor node nrf24l01+. now from every place in my small flat the connection is perfect :)
