rfm69hw on a raspberry pi 4, power issues

[kiesel]

Hi,

I am trying to build a raspberry pi gateway with a rfm69hw chip.

I built a hat for the pi and the connections seem to be fine, my problem is range.

I am using the signal scanner sketch and it shows me that the sending node has to max out TXPowerLevel when it talks to the gateway.

I repurposed one of my other nodes as a gateway and there sending was fine at TXPowerLevel 0, so it must be the gateway.

I soldered a 470uF capacitor to the radio on the pi and that helps for the first lets say 50 messages, but then the same pattern reappears: The node maxes out its power level.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I know I could just use a serial gateway, but to be honest I got it into my thick skull that the gateway has to be hat for the pi (mostly because otherwise all that time would have been wasted ;)).

I have some step up boosters to 3.3v (the ones I use for the nodes), should I try to power the rfm69-chip from one of the boosters?

[kiesel]

So from what I can read here this might not be a power issue after all?

This is the sketch I am using for the signal scanner:

/*
 * The MySensors Arduino library handles the wireless radio link and protocol
 * between your home built sensors/actuators and HA controller of choice.
 * The sensors forms a self healing radio network with optional repeaters. Each
 * repeater and gateway builds a routing tables in EEPROM which keeps track of the
 * network topology allowing messages to be routed to nodes.
 *
 * Created by Henrik Ekblad <henrik.ekblad@mysensors.org>
 * Copyright (C) 2013-2019 Sensnology AB
 * Full contributor list: https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/graphs/contributors
 *
 * Documentation: http://www.mysensors.org
 * Support Forum: http://forum.mysensors.org
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 *******************************
 *
 * REVISION HISTORY
 * Version 1.0 - tekka
 *
 * DESCRIPTION
 * ATC mode settings and signal report functions, on RFM69 and RFM95 nodes
 *
 */

// Enable debug prints
#define MY_DEBUG
#define MY_SIGNAL_REPORT_ENABLED


#define MY_NODE_ID 3

// Enable and select radio type attached

// RFM69
#define MY_RADIO_RFM69
#define MY_RFM69_NEW_DRIVER   // ATC on RFM69 works only with the new driver (not compatible with old=default driver)
#define MY_IS_RFM69HW
//#define MY_RFM69_ATC_TARGET_RSSI_DBM (-70)  // target RSSI -70dBm
//#define MY_RFM69_MAX_POWER_LEVEL_DBM (10)   // max. TX power 10dBm = 10mW

// RFM95
//#define MY_RADIO_RFM95
//#define MY_RFM95_ATC_TARGET_RSSI_DBM (-70)  // target RSSI -70dBm
//#define MY_RFM95_MAX_POWER_LEVEL_DBM (10)   // max. TX power 10dBm = 10mW

#include <MySensors.h>

// ID of the sensor child
#define CHILD_ID_UPLINK_QUALITY (0)
#define CHILD_ID_TX_LEVEL       (1)
#define CHILD_ID_TX_PERCENT     (2)
#define CHILD_ID_TX_RSSI        (3)
#define CHILD_ID_RX_RSSI        (4)
#define CHILD_ID_TX_SNR         (5)
#define CHILD_ID_RX_SNR         (6)


// Initialize general message
MyMessage msgTxRSSI(CHILD_ID_TX_RSSI, V_CUSTOM);
MyMessage msgRxRSSI(CHILD_ID_RX_RSSI, V_CUSTOM);
MyMessage msgTxSNR(CHILD_ID_TX_SNR, V_CUSTOM);
MyMessage msgRxSNR(CHILD_ID_RX_SNR, V_CUSTOM);
MyMessage msgTxLevel(CHILD_ID_TX_LEVEL, V_CUSTOM);
MyMessage msgTxPercent(CHILD_ID_TX_PERCENT, V_CUSTOM);
MyMessage msgUplinkQuality(CHILD_ID_UPLINK_QUALITY, V_CUSTOM);

void setup()
{
}


void presentation()
{
  // Send the sketch version information to the gateway and controller
  sendSketchInfo("ATC", "1.0");

  // Register all sensors to gw (they will be created as child devices)
  present(CHILD_ID_UPLINK_QUALITY, S_CUSTOM, "UPLINK QUALITY RSSI");
  present(CHILD_ID_TX_LEVEL, S_CUSTOM, "TX LEVEL DBM");
  present(CHILD_ID_TX_PERCENT, S_CUSTOM, "TX LEVEL PERCENT");
  present(CHILD_ID_TX_RSSI, S_CUSTOM, "TX RSSI");
  present(CHILD_ID_RX_RSSI, S_CUSTOM, "RX RSSI");
  present(CHILD_ID_TX_SNR, S_CUSTOM, "TX SNR");
  present(CHILD_ID_RX_SNR, S_CUSTOM, "RX SNR");
}

void loop()
{
  // send messages to GW
  send(msgUplinkQuality.set(transportInternalToRSSI(_transportSM.uplinkQualityRSSI)));
  send(msgTxLevel.set(transportGetTxPowerLevel()));
  send(msgTxPercent.set(transportGetTxPowerPercent()));
  // retrieve RSSI / SNR reports from incoming ACK
  send(msgTxRSSI.set(transportGetSendingRSSI()));
  send(msgRxRSSI.set(transportGetReceivingRSSI()));
  send(msgTxSNR.set(transportGetSendingSNR()));
  send(msgRxSNR.set(transportGetReceivingSNR()));
 //to serial
 Serial.print("transportInternalToRSSI(_transportSM.uplinkQualityRSSI): "); Serial.println(transportInternalToRSSI(_transportSM.uplinkQualityRSSI));
 Serial.print("transportGetTxPowerLevel(): "); Serial.println(transportGetTxPowerLevel());
 Serial.print("transportGetTxPowerPercent(): "); Serial.println(transportGetTxPowerPercent());
 Serial.print("transportGetSendingRSSI(): "); Serial.println(transportGetSendingRSSI());
 Serial.print("transportGetReceivingRSSI(): "); Serial.println(transportGetReceivingRSSI());
 Serial.print("transportGetSendingSNR(): "); Serial.println(transportGetSendingSNR());
 Serial.print("transportGetReceivingSNR(): "); Serial.println(transportGetReceivingSNR());
 Serial.println("Waiting");
  // wait a bit
  wait(10000);
}

And this is how I compiled the gateway:

./configure --my-transport=rfm69 --my-rfm69-frequency=868 --my-gateway=mqtt --my-is-rfm69hw --extra-cxxflags="-DMY_RFM69_RST_PIN=29" --my-controller-ip-address=127.0.0.1 --my-mqtt-publish-topic-prefix=mysensors-out --my-mqtt-subscribe-topic-prefix=mysensors-in --my-mqtt-client-id=mysensorsgateway1 --my-mqtt-user=mysensors --my-mqtt-password=redacted --my-port=1883

Any ideas how I can test mysensors 2.2 with the raspberry pi 4? From what I understand that version of the pi isn't supported until version 2.4 alpha?