@The-Grue: Don't be embarrassed by it...pretty sure you are not the first one that fell for this trap and certainly not the last one. Hopefully also other readers on the forum can benefit from your (bad) experience in this way.
Thanks for reporting back and good to hear that some of your trust has returned towards the nrf24 and your part shops with a "good name" .
@antonholmstedt a pro mini fits if you cut the corners, check out https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/6612/door-sensor-remix-of-some-mys-community-efforts
Does this help:
http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/748/manual-assigning-node-id-s-for-network-with-repeaters
I agree with you that the serial messages are not perfectly documented, but realise that this site has been made (as far as I know) by a bunch of people that share their 'love' for home automation.....
boozz
@Shivanand-Chanderbally I recently finished a node using the acs712 and found it to be very sensitive to nearby magnetic fields. It is best to have it as far away from these as you can.