[Solved] Repeater node causing Problems

[grumpazoid]

@electrik I tried it on its own 662K regulator and pretty sure I also tried direct 3.3V from my bench PSU. I'll maybe have one more go at that.

[grumpazoid]

I am pleased to say that I have finally got all my sensors and repeater up and running without errors - All battery reports are coming in every 1 or 2 minutes as per my sketch.

The problems were definitely radio related.
Here is what I have done to get it running error free.

1. Start with all the sensors close to the gateway and see if there are any errors.
2. I had one node that was powered with an LM2596 and dropped out after a few hours. Adding in a LC filter has fixed it. Strangely my ethernet gateway is also powered by a LM2596 but is running quite happily. That does however use an amplified NRF24 module on a breakout board.
3. I powered up my repeater again and repositioned the sensors to where I wanted them. I have told the sensors closest to the repeater that they should use that as their parent node.
4. It was unclear on MYSCONTROLLER, if the repeater was being used, but as soon as the repeater is powered down, sensors loose contact so I know it is working.
5. My repeater radio is NRF24L01 with added wire antenna. Much improved range.

[grumpazoid]

Doh!!!!

So I have done some more testing. I am still getting intermittent data loss. I get this even if I eliminate the repeater. Every few hours a message from a sensor does not get through. I have tried reading up on how to get the node to resend but there does not seem to be an easy documented way.

This thread seems to sum it up.

[Sergio Rius]

This lost message is sent isolated, or it is a part of several ones sent at the same time?
I ask for this because if several messages are sent in a row this is is somewhat expected. You will find examples of "sleep between send"

What also does make sense to me is that if happens at nodes, also should happen at the gateway.
I've experienced nodes being dropped by the gateway when a section of the network powers up at the same time.

How do you control your messages? Do you use only domoticz or are monitoring with myscontroller? (Take care with domoticz)

[grumpazoid]

@sergio-rius Each node sends a battery voltage every 2 minutes. If the PIR is tripped then it wakes from sleep and sends PIR tripped and also the battery voltage.
I currently have Domoticz set to send me an email if it does not receive the battery voltage. I have tried MYScontroller but not sure how I would monitor all those messages over a few days? Does Domoticz have issues?

I have currently taken the repeater out of the equation and replaced the NRF24L01+PA+NLA on the gateway with a NRF24L01+. So far only 2 errors in 24 hours from the furthest away sensor. Have moved it closer for testing.

Update - after 2 hours I got the first failed message. I can understand that nodes may try to send at the same time but there must be a way to keep retrying?

[flopp]

I have had very strange errors and I don't know what I found out. :neutral_face:
I had a repeater with a nRF24 PA+LNA working good for about 1 year, suddenly this repeater causing that the GW got hanged, no data was received from any nodes.
I power off the repeater down, restarted GW and everything started to work normally.
Last week I took time to solve the problem, it was still annoying me!!!
Reprogram the same Arduino Nano and nRF with PA+LNA, worked for 2 days, then stopped.
Same Arduino Nano but changed to nRF24 without PA+LNA, worked 1-2 days then stopped.
Changed to Arduino UNO and nRF with PA+LNA, worked 2 days.
Arduino UNO and nRF24 without PA+LNA worked 2 days.

I was so frustrated and didn't had any idea. I had been running 2.3.0 on almost all my nodes, so I tried to change GW to version 2.3.1 and Repeater to version 2.3.1(Arduino UNO with nRF24 without PA+LNA) now it has worked for at least 1 week.

My Arduino Nano is fake and UNO is genuine.

Maybe you can get some help from this? :)

[grumpazoid]

@flopp As far as I know everything is running on 2.3.1
I now have all my nodes very close to the gateway. Will keep testing for a few days.

[grumpazoid]

So after some considerable time and loss of sanity I now appear to have a stable setup. I'd like to share what I have done in the hope it may save others a lot of time and frustration.

By enabling debug in the sketches, I eventually realised that I could not get any node to communicate reliably with the gateway. I was getting lots of NACKS even at short distances.

I was sure that the problems were radio related but after trying many NRF24 modules I was about to give up.

Then I read a post somewhere about ground planes.

As a last resort I added a piece of aluminium between my gateway antenna and the radio. (PA/LNA Version). Eureka!! This has pretty much solved the NACK issues.

Following this one or two nodes still intermittently lost contact after a few hours or days. What is strange is that even if moved close to the gateway, errors continue until the gateway is power cycled? I still don't know why this is.

I solved this problem by converting the Node PCB antennas into a dipole antenna as detailed at https://www.instructables.com/id/Enhanced-NRF24L01/.
Now all nodes stay connected.
Now after a couple more weeks of testing all is still good.

I am using Domoticz with the MQTT output passed onto Node Red and now have some really cool things going on.

A big thanks to all that replied and pointed me in the right direction.

[electrik]

Good to hear it is working good now. About the aluminium piece, this is mounted over the antenna connector and connected to ground?

[grumpazoid]

@electrik Yes, I drilled a 6.5mm hole, just big enough for the SMA connector to fit through and then screwed the antenna back on. Because the plate sits inbetween the radio and antenna, and touches the outside of the SMA, it is connected to ground.