[Tutorial] Raspberry Pi NRF24l01 direct connection

Sander Teunissen

to run the gateway:
sudo ./PiGatewaySerial (without sudo I get the error below)

Could not create a symlink '/dev/ttyMySensorsGateway' to PTY! (13) Permission denied

running:
ls -l ttyMySensorsGateway

gives the following:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May  7 17:27 ttyMySensorsGateway -> /dev/pts/2

I checked the makefile and it says

TTY_GROUPNAME := tty

But it doesn't seem to do anything...Any ideas ?

Andreas Maurer

The symlink alwayshas 777. Everyone can use it.
Please have a look at /dev/pts/2 This device should have the configured groups.

Ok?

Sander Teunissen

@Andreas-Maurer said:

The symlink alwayshas 777. Everyone can use it.
Please have a look at /dev/pts/2 This device should have the configured groups.

Ok?

Yes. Ok!
It works.
Thanks !

Sweebee

I tested it on my Rpi B+ its working fine, but the cpu load is always 100%. Is this normal?

Roberto Brunialti

An other silly question: can I install a controller into the same raspberry pi (the one with this gateway and nrf )? Are all controllers suitable for such a configuration ?
Thanks!

Andreas Maurer

For my Point of view, every Controller which is able to use the Serial Gateway.

joaoabs

@Sweebee

Same here. I'm afraid that with the PI at 100% there is no much use of this code becasue we can't do anything else...

Strange that the PI that is much powerfull than an arduino gets so high CPU for something that an arduino nano can do...

Could it be something that could be improved?

Cheers,
Joaoabs

Andreas Maurer

I have no problem with it. fhem as controler and mysql as DB is running on the same PI.
The Gateway is not even listed in "top"

joaoabs

@Andreas-Maurer

Do you mean you don't have any problems with the fact the CPU is at 100% or you simply don't have the same sympthom?

Thanks for replying,
Joaoabs

hawk_2050

Hi,

I think the problem with the PiGatewaySerial showing as consuming 100% is not a real problem. I also see the CPU consuming 100% using the top utility, however as soon as you run another process, for example a user python script, on the Pi, you will notice that top will suddenly report that PiGatewaySerial is using only a few percent of the CPU.

Cheers
Richard

markusand

Hi! I want to use RPi as a controller, with direct radio connection and pimatic. I've followed both posts but not sure how to make it work together. I know @Vladut-Grecu is using the same configuration, could you please point me to the right direction?

Roberto Brunialti

Ok. It seems the gateway is working as i get the same final screen when I run it. But... does it has a verbose mode? How can I know If it is working? I tried with a test node, unfortunately it seems not working ... or simply it does'nt give any feedback...

minscof

I used this gateway on a wheezy debian (RPI2) for several months and everything was ok. I upgraded my raspbian to jessie, and then the CPU load was always 100%. So I try to revert to wheezy, but i have now the same problem : CPU stays at 100 % .

So there must be a system configuration somewhere to improve this gateway and prevent it to use all the CPU.

Do you have an idea ?

Thanks

**Solved **: see this post

davy39

Hi,
I'm trying to setup a direct connection between domoticz and /dev/ttyMySensorsGateway
Waiting for my hardware (no NRF24l01 attached yet), I'm actually playing around with the software part.
I did install Domoticz and MySensorsGateway on the Pi and I'm getting a /dev/ttyMySensorsGateway symlink at boot time.

The problem is that I can't see it on domoticz interface when trying to choose a serial port on "Mysensors gateway USB" device : only /dev/ttyAMA0 ....

Is that because no NRF24 is connected or there is a specific configuration to make /dev/ttyMySensorsGateway appearing as a serial port (chown, udev ....)

Thanks for your help

fets

Hi everybody,
I'm new in mysensors world and I would like to use my pi2 with direct connection to nrf24l01.
There is a new release of the arduino library but I can't find the raspberry one.
Somebody knows if it exists and where to find it ?

I also tried to find an example of using raspberry as mqtt gateway without success, any ideabut was not able to find an example

hek

You could probably run the old one.

Ideally I would like to have the same code-base for RPi but someone needs to help implement the HW-implementation-class.

fets

Thanks hek, i'll try to use old code but I didn't find anything about raspberry as mqtt client gateway.
If I succeed, and if not too late, i'll try to implement the new library

hek

If you do want to help out, have a look at the gateway-refactoring-branch. Opening up for different protocols over there (where MQTT should be one of them).

https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/tree/gateway-refactoring

Fernando Arconada

hi everybody
@hek are you going to support Rpi + rf24 direct connection? I were playing with https://github.com/mysensors/Raspberry a bit and works (I opened a pair of tickets) but needs to be updated.
I also think that PiGateway should support MQTT I have created PiGatewayMQTT (It's just a prototype).
What will be the future of https://github.com/mysensors/Raspberry repo? abandoned in favor of any kind of gateway-refactoring-branch ?

thanks

jelluz

(solved)
Hi. Thanks a lot for this implentation and the helpful posts here!

I've got the gateway working with a tmp75 temperature sensor on an arduino. The nrf24 is sitting on the raspberry directly (CE pin 22), as a controller i'm using PiMatic. It works very nicely!

There is one small problem however. The PiGatewaySerial will only work if i have called PiGateway before (and closed it again). With working I mean picking up radio transmissions from my sensor node. Everything else seems normal (/dev/ttyPiGatewaySerial and radio details printout).

The details of both configurations might give a clue:

pi@raspberrypi ~/mysensors_rpi $ sudo ./PiGateway
Starting Gateway...
================ SPI Configuration ================
CSN Pin          = CE0 (PI Hardware Driven)
CE Pin           = Custom GPIO25
Clock Speed      = 8 Mhz
================ NRF Configuration ================
STATUS           = 0x0e RX_DR=0 TX_DS=0 MAX_RT=0 RX_P_NO=7 TX_FULL=0
RX_ADDR_P0-1     = 0xa8a8e1fc00 0xa8a8e1fc00
RX_ADDR_P2-5     = 0xff 0xc4 0xc5 0xc6
TX_ADDR          = 0xe7e7e7e7e7
RX_PW_P0-6       = 0x20 0x20 0x20 0x00 0x00 0x00
EN_AA            = 0x3b
EN_RXADDR        = 0x06
RF_CH            = 0x4c
RF_SETUP         = 0x23
CONFIG           = 0x0e
DYNPD/FEATURE    = 0x3f 0x06
Data Rate        = 250KBPS
Model            = nRF24L01+
CRC Length       = 16 bits
PA Power         = PA_LOW
[CALLBACK]0;0;3;0;14;Gateway startup complete.
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
[CALLBACK]4;0;1;0;0;22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9

after closing PiGateway and opening PiGatewaySerial i get this:

pi@raspberrypi ~/mysensors_rpi $ sudo ./PiGatewaySerial
Starting PiGatewaySerial...
Protocol version - 1.4
Created PTY '/dev/pts/3'
Gateway tty: /dev/ttyMySensorsGateway
================ SPI Configuration ================
CSN Pin          = CE0 (PI Hardware Driven)
CE Pin           = Custom GPIO22
Clock Speed      = 8 Mhz
================ NRF Configuration ================
STATUS           = 0x0e RX_DR=0 TX_DS=0 MAX_RT=0 RX_P_NO=7 TX_FULL=0
RX_ADDR_P0-1     = 0xa8a8e1fc00 0xa8a8e1fc00
RX_ADDR_P2-5     = 0xff 0xc4 0xc5 0xc6
TX_ADDR          = 0xe7e7e7e7e7
RX_PW_P0-6       = 0x20 0x20 0x20 0x00 0x00 0x00
EN_AA            = 0x3b
EN_RXADDR        = 0x06
RF_CH            = 0x4c
RF_SETUP         = 0x23
CONFIG           = 0x0e
DYNPD/FEATURE    = 0x3f 0x06
Data Rate        = 250KBPS
Model            = nRF24L01+
CRC Length       = 16 bits
PA Power         = PA_LOW
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.9
read: 4-4-0 s=0,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5:22.8

Notice how the CE pins of both SPI configurations are different!

I'm at the point that i want to daemonize the gateway. Which in fact i did, but the same problem persists. Before i hack the startup script to first run and close PiGateway before PiGatewaySerial, i was hoping that someone has an idea what i'm doing wrong.

Thanks in advance!

solved!
I have two RPIs (a Pi 2 B and a Pi B+), which both worked with the pyRF24 lib of TMRh20, so when i had a look in the source of the radio initialization of PiGatewaySerial and found this:

#ifdef __PI_BPLUS
	gw = new MyGateway(RPI_BPLUS_GPIO_J8_15, RPI_BPLUS_GPIO_J8_24, BCM2835_SPI_SPEED_8MHZ, 1);
#else
	gw = new MyGateway(RPI_V2_GPIO_P1_22, BCM2835_SPI_CS0, BCM2835_SPI_SPEED_8MHZ, 1);
#endif

When i changed it to:

#ifdef __PI_BPLUS
	gw = new MyGateway(RPI_V2_GPIO_P1_22, BCM2835_SPI_CS0, BCM2835_SPI_SPEED_8MHZ, 1);
#else
	gw = new MyGateway(RPI_V2_GPIO_P1_22, BCM2835_SPI_CS0, BCM2835_SPI_SPEED_8MHZ, 1);
#endif

and recompiled the gateways,it all started to work. After powerup everything runs :).

The Rpi that is connected now is the Pi 2 B. So i guess either i have my nrf25 wired differently then defined in this lib, or the precompiler was thinking i have a B+ connected. Or both.
I will find out when i get this also working on my B+.

[Tutorial] Raspberry Pi NRF24l01 direct connection

18

11.7k

11.2k

113.1k