Never been able to get MySensors to work

[Tmaster]

2 years and keep trying without ask help??!!!
I'm using lot of sensors since i'm registered on this forum and it works since first day.I only had problems with nrf24 chinese clones range,so a i changed all network to rfm69 and now i have an sensor 50m away from house and keep working every day.
the only diference is that i use a serial gateway connected to raspberry pi. It's the arduino version with and rfm69 conected by usb.
order some rfm69 from ebay and try again and order an arduino pro mini (1.x€) and an genuineftdi(clones won't work) or even an arduino nano with original ftdi chip and connect it by usb to the pi. I assure that it works.:+1:

[MagnusF]

At first I'm no expert of MySensors or openHAB.
Perhaps I had luck but got the connection between MySensors and OH to work from
the beginning with only minor problems. The system has now been working for almost 2 years and I did it this way.
OH is installed on a RPi 3B, have a serial gateway on an Arduino Nano with nrf24L01 pa+lna the nodes (5 pcs) are built on Arduino pro mini.
The nodes are 3 Door/Window sensors, one relay and one tempereture/humidity sensor.
Since the gateway is placed in the basement and the nodes are on first floor one of the nodes is using nrf24L01 pa+lna and the other nrf24L01+.
The nrf24L01+ are chines and I bought about 15 of them and tested them at a distance of 12m through 2 wooden walls and have to scrap 3 of them.
The gateway and nodes have all standard sketches according to MySensors examples with minor changes. All nodes have fixed node_id.
Installation:
Downloaded "openHABianPi" SD card image file.
Wrote the image to a SD card and put it in the RPi.
Started the RPi and after some minutes OH was up and running.
Complete insructions can be found at https://www.openhab.org/v2.4/docs/installation/openhabian.html.
Connected the gateway to OH via a USB cable.
Went to MySensors/Controller/openHAB and followed the "Install instructions" at https://github.com/tobof/openhab2-addons/wiki.
Used Paper UI to configure the thing "MySensors serial gateway" and not .things file.
Now the nodes (things) pop up in the Inbox. Don't remember if I had to restart the RPi, gateway and nodes.
I hope this can help someone.

[zookazim]

@iamtheghost I feel your pain brother. I am a newbie to MySensors and although got up and running relatively quickly with openHAB and an old Raspberry Pi 1 controller/gateway - I still spend days trying to sort out radio issues. At the moment it's replacing a standard nrf24L01 with the pa+lna version ... been at it for a couple of days without successful comms with gateway.

Two years trying ... I salute you. Keep holding on to the fact that when it works it will be so satisfying :-)

[zboblamont]

@iamtheghost Much as I admire those who got it all to work first time, the tenacity of those who have managed to get radio working against the unknown, and every sympathy for those who haven't, I really question the logic of the default MySensors recommendation with so many pirates and scammers flooding the market, and known 2.4GHz penetration problems.
I have no doubt Nordic stand by their products, unfortunately it is their popularity which encouraged the pirates to flood the market such that even major suppliers have problems with verification.
I can only suggest doing as I did with a router and a mobile to verify radio paths are solid, then you will know if the 2.4 devices should work, if not change frequency.
My own decision to go go with 433MHz against 2.4GHz was based on this crude but effective first step, identifying blind spots. The standard RFM69 devices have not caused a single issue in 2 years, and as yet piracy is uncommon.

[Tmaster]

@zookazim be carefull with the nrf24 amplified boards.some times you just have less range because you incresed the signal power and starting have ecos and distortions on signals. I only has 1 amplified card and had poor range,just before change everyting to rfm69w ,not even need to be the hight power(hw )version to have more range than on 2.4 ghz cards

[alowhum]

I stopped using the amplified version and just used a normal version with an antenna. You can find them online. Works great.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32794109125.html

[zboblamont]

@tmaster Be careful not to compare apples and oranges, the frequency of the two devices react differently, higher frequencies tend to be more liable to attenuation and have shorter range.
What is also often overlooked in the higher power versions of the 2.4 devices is the additional preamplifier stage which can make a difference at the reception extremes but overload in closer proximity...

[Yveaux]

@alowhum said in Never been able to get MySensors to work:

I stopped using the amplified version and just used a normal version with an antenna. You can find them online. Works great.

The link actually does point to a pa+lna module (the BTE16-50), using a nRF24L01+ 'compatible' IC, the SI24R1.
This would definately not be my module of preference...

[alowhum]

@Yveaux Ah, I didn't realise!

it's working well though.

[Neo Mod]

@iamtheghost sorry for the late reply.

I moved to ThingsBoard which acts both as a controller (via the Rule Chain engine, a very powerfull yet very simple method to instantiate all kind of operations. For example: I'm fetching my sensors data every 5 minutes and uploading to wunderground and windy) and as a web gateway to access data with a nice UI.

Sensors are still based on the "same old" NodeMCU board, and guess what: each variation of those boards (AMICA, Lolin, Lolin v3, etc.) now is working perfectly. I removed the radio module, since it won't be used anymore, and some of them are powered via battery shield (18650 LiPo with recharge port to be connected to a solar panel, for example).

Here an example of one of my dashboards: you can also notice a ReedSwitch sensor and an Alarm Module that displays and Alarm each time the sensor reports "door open" and sends me an e-mail alert.

As for those stating that NodeMCU is a "wrong" choice: probably it is if one would like to use MySensors Library. But "per se" NodeMCU boards are extremely versatile, more than Arduino or WeMo which requires "stacking up" various modules/shields to obtain the same functionality offered by a NodeMCU in almost half the space.

@kimot the radio module selection should be based upon the user-case scenario, at least as long as MySensors Library officially supports both NRF24 and RFM69. One case where you might want to stick with 2.4Ghz network is when your area is "heavily populated" by radio signals and interference from an airport less than 50km away in line-of-sight.

@Tmaster I can assure you, at least in my case and I think that this has been the same for iamtheghost, I tried EVERY possible hardware variation out there. I spent months buying original components, both from resellers and producer.

@iamtheghost said in Never been able to get MySensors to work:

@neo-mod said in Never been able to get MySensors to work:

@iamtheghost I'm sorry I could not post any kind of solution, but just to say "Me too!".

Two years and half of experimentations, different platform (ESP8266 / ESP-12) but same radio and same h/w for the controller, and in the end I had your exact same results.

Same as you, I did everything I could to figure out the problem, including spending and "insane" amount of time (and money!) in sourcing the same hardware components from different sources.

I did change the hardware (wires, components, microSD, cables, power sources, etc. etc. ) so many times that I can't even count; that poor raspberry of mine has been flashed over and over; same goes for the ESP-module, which I have also tried in every possible "flavour" (NodeMCU, Lolin, Amica, WeMos, etc. ). And in doing so I left quite a trail of "weird and unsolved" problems here in the forum.

In the end, just like you have discovered, I could never make it work!
I was captivated by the idea of having a "mesh sensors network" working around my building, especially because I have wide areas not covered by WiFi and I was intrigued (to say the least) by the possibilities promised by MySensors. But as you said, "It promises all the bells and whistles for cheap home automation, but despite my every effort, I cannot even read a simple DHT11". (*)

(to be precise, in my case it was also a BME280; I switched to those AIO sensors after failing with DHT variants)

I did never solve the issues, and I abandoned this platform when I reached the verge of my patience having exactly the same sketch with the same hardware (really, the same sensor, the same radio, the same wires, and two identical boards) working on one board and failing on another.

After 2 years and a half I gave up on the idea of a "mesh network" and moved to another library (still free and still available to install on a raspberry to use as a controller, and with a beautiful UI)... wish I had done it sooner. In 4 days I fixed my whole network, having a plethora of sensors constantly reporting, never hanging up for any reason (I mean, I tried removing power in 60 seconds intervals for 5 minutes and in the end they all rebooted correctly with no errors) and with the bonus feature of outputting "eye friendly" data due to the different controller.

Hence, I perfectly understand your situation and I know how it feels: the best suggestion I can give you is to "move on" and use a different library/architecture.

I knew I wasn't alone. I totally accept and encourage platforms that are geared towards EEs and programmers, and MySensors is definitely that. Even as a programmer by trade, it's still difficult.

What library are you using now? I'm piqued.