💬 MySensors Gateway for Raspberry PI

[scalz]

Hi.

Looks nice :simple_smile:
If i can give some advices.. :

• have you tested it when both radio modules are soldered ? I think you may have some issues then, because you have missing pullups for radio modules.
• i would add some decoupling capacitors + some filtering. Because RPI has not the best noise-free power supply. that could decrease sensitivity and range. but maybe still enough for the range you need.
• your RF transmission line is a bit "funky".. I don't know how long it is, but you may need to impedance match this route to your SMA connector (else some detuning, and worse rf).
  And i wouldn't have put the pin hole for a wire antenna like that (after drills in the mismatched transmission..). Also i think it's useless, for a wire antenna you already can use the drill of your sma connector.

My 2cents ;)

[gohan]

I'd add a place for a voltage regulator from 5v to 3.3 for the more powerful radio versions, since being the gateway it could be worth using them

[llegoff]

Hello,

• It's for NRL24L01 only, or RFM69HW only, we can't solder both module.
• It would probably be better to add a 3.3v regulator and capacitors
• i find a impedance calculator, the width of the transmission line should be 2.41mm
  

thanks for the comments.

for you what is the better connertor, SMA or U.FL ?

I will modify the pcb

[gohan]

I'd vote for sma as many projects are also using it.

[NeverDie]

@scalz said in 💬 MySensors Gateway for Raspberry PI:

i would add some decoupling capacitors + some filtering. Because RPI has not the best noise-free power supply. that could decrease sensitivity and range. but maybe still enough for the range you need.

Especially this. +1

I've read of others grappling with this issue on a Pi, and reportedly its a huge problem. So, heads up. Not sure if all the Pi's are the same in this respect, though, or whether some models have less of a problem with it than others. Maybe you can side-step the brunt of the noise by just picking the right model of Pi in the first place? Anyone happen to know how the different Pi models compare to one another with respect to noise?

Sounds like a good project!

[llegoff]

The U.FL connector is smaller and will reduce the length of the track. The U.FL SMA cords are not very expensive, and so you can place the SMA connector where you want on the case of the Raspberry Pi.

On the pcb v1, R4 is a resistance of 0ohm, which in the case where no SMA connector is used, to connect the track to the wire antenna connector J3

[llegoff]

change to V2

[luizrrocha]

Hi, great project. I want one as soon as possible !

Quick silly question: it supports the PA+LNA version of the NRF24L01, right ?

[gohan]

@luizrrocha yes, just don't use the unshielded ones

[Andrea_J]

Hello, I'm new to this forum.
Is it possible to have both radio active at the same time on a RPi gateway? Why did you choose to have just one at a time?
Thank you,
Andrea

[mfalkvidd]

@Andrea_J welcome!

So far, nobody has spent the time necessary to figure out how to support multiple radios. There have been some attempts, but no successes. You are very welcome to try.

[gohan]

@Andrea_J In theory you could have 2 instances of mysensor gateway running from separate directories, but given that adding an arduino as gateway is very cheap I don't know if it is worth the effort, but if you are willing to try, let us know the results :D

[sundberg84]

Or just two arduino gateways with different radios on two usb ports on the raspberry controller... works like a charm and as @gohan said quite cheap.

[Andrea_J]

Thank you all for your answers!
I'm not a programmer, the best I can do is to try to implement the software others created, sorry.
But it would be very nice to have a controller and both radio on a single Rpi.
If I'm not wrong, the RPi having 2 SPI chip enable, has the possibility to control those two radio. So it shold be just a software question, not a hardware one, isn't it?

[mfalkvidd]

@Andrea_J correct.

But as @sundberg84 already said, running multiple radios on the same rpi is already supported by using usb. Build a serial gateway, plug it in and you're done.

[TriXwooD]

I tried two radios and 2 instances of mysensor gateway running from separate directories... not really succesfull... on spi0 (spi0.0 and spi0.1) using the select line.

going to try spi0 and spi1 next...

https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/7702/double-spi-radio-raspberry-pi

[TriXwooD]

Got two radios working using spi0.0 and spi1.0, no luck with running both radio's on spi0 (spi0.0 and spi0.1) probably has to do with the cs/ce lines...

see link above...

qr code and logo is a large enough space that could hold a second radio (lora/nrf24 choice combi? :-)

[llegoff]

@TriXwooD
Hello, I route the v3, with a connector for an NRF on the spi1, and maybe a button for inclusion.
available soon ...

[llegoff]

Hello V3 is online

[TriXwooD]

Way cool!

I definitely have to learn this skill in next couple of months.