Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?
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From the perspective of having some kind of general purpose platform--not just for testing but as a "go-to" for general use--it would be nice to have some kind of project box or enclosure of some kind for it. That would prevent things in the environment from pushing up against the electronics/PCB and possibly shorting it out. Anyone have any ideas on what form that should take? There's always the option of custom 3D printing something, but if there were a box of the right size already out there, that would be much easier. In that case one could customize the PCB to fit it precisely instead of 3D printing a box to precisely fit the PCB. Having a nice enclosure is one of the things that typically separates store-bought sensors from hobbyist projects.
By the way, the SHT45 TH sensor that I mentioned in the OP is now available on mouser. Unfortunately, it seems they nearly doubled their asking price over what they had earlier projected, so that's a bit of a disappointment. I guess these days a lot of chips are marked up due to the widespread shortages going on.... The chip itself is quite small, but it only has four landing pads, so I'm thinking that hand soldering it should be manageable. A simple adapter board, like this one for the SHT40, would allow it to easily fit the platform:
because the platform's pinout already anticipates adding up to two I2C devices without any fuss, like thus:
FYI, I updated the project page with a bunch of photos.@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Anyone have any ideas on what form that should take?
Second effort: This link shows a type of box with mounting points on the bottom. It would be nice if there were a PCB footprint for the holes, but I could find none. Using a paper rubbing and a set of calipers one can create their own footprint and build the PCB to that dimension. For any hard wires that must be passed through the box, I've been using cable glands like these for a waterproof enclosure. See the Cave Pearl Project for a different deep-sea approach,
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I posted the rest of the radio module adapters to openhardware.io.
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@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
According to AI-thinker, the Ra-01SH is an SX1262, not a 1276.
As I'm shoping around I found the Ra-01 Lora, but it was assocaited with the 1276 per this link you offered: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2255800961841511.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.20411802pmZPEx&gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt&aff_fcid=d9908c021fe34eeeb0ea05b879ca4432-1654498510220-06752-_uYd1nh&aff_fsk=_uYd1nh&aff_platform=api-new-link-generate&sk=_uYd1nh&aff_trace_key=d9908c021fe34eeeb0ea05b879ca4432-1654498510220-06752-_uYd1nh&terminal_id=afb1662bfbca4bd68d5ee03a630ea8c7&afSmartRedirect=y.
Given that I haven't studied the datasheets, I don't exactly know the shape-shifting ability of one chip to act as another. Not sure where to go with this one - but I'll know more when they arrive. I'll work on it in the AM when I'm fresher.
@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Not sure where to go with this one - but I'll know more when they arrive. I'll work on it in the AM when I'm fresher.
How confusing. On the EC-Buying Ali Store they show associations of the RA-01 with SX1262, SX1272, and SX1278 in titles on separate pages. Each of these pages show a variations on the RA-01 title (S, H, SH, SC...). I'll take your word for it. So it looks like all 6 radios I ordered last night are SX1262's then.
Found my GPS! It is really big & heavy too.
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I posted the rest of the radio module adapters to openhardware.io.
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
I posted the rest of the radio module adapters to openhardware.io.
Wow. Thanks. I'll be sure to report back on what I come-up with.
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I posted the rest of the radio module adapters to openhardware.io.
@NeverDie Been gone today so unable to play. Thanks again for generously sharing your work. I'm just now starting to look at the files: so cool! I like your broad power traces and skinny signal traces. And the pads on the radio chips are really tiny. I suspect these design choices are not accidental.
Look out OSH Park, here I come.
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@NeverDie Been gone today so unable to play. Thanks again for generously sharing your work. I'm just now starting to look at the files: so cool! I like your broad power traces and skinny signal traces. And the pads on the radio chips are really tiny. I suspect these design choices are not accidental.
Look out OSH Park, here I come.
@Larson One thing Diptrace had that KiCAD lacks is a built-in auto-router. As a result, I manually routed as fast as I could so that I could place the order without delay. I've heard there are auxillary auto-routers. If any of them are any good, it would be a nice tool to have. Drafting the schematics goes pretty fast; it's the routing that soaks up the bulk of the time.
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@Larson One thing Diptrace had that KiCAD lacks is a built-in auto-router. As a result, I manually routed as fast as I could so that I could place the order without delay. I've heard there are auxillary auto-routers. If any of them are any good, it would be a nice tool to have. Drafting the schematics goes pretty fast; it's the routing that soaks up the bulk of the time.
@NeverDie In Eagle, I found that the auto-router gives no joy. Seems to be that the art of the board is best done manually.
I'm just now looking at one board (DRF1262TG) in OSH Park that I've uploades. The view is much better than looking at the *.svg files. The radio pads look like even I can hit them with solder. Gave me a better feel. Golden age... thank you again.
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@NeverDie In Eagle, I found that the auto-router gives no joy. Seems to be that the art of the board is best done manually.
I'm just now looking at one board (DRF1262TG) in OSH Park that I've uploades. The view is much better than looking at the *.svg files. The radio pads look like even I can hit them with solder. Gave me a better feel. Golden age... thank you again.
@Larson This time using female headers, I built a new platform and Ebyte adapter, as discussed earlier.
I expect this version will be fully Dupont compatible with the PPK2 probe pins. Unfortunately, if you look carefully you'll see that the adapter PCB covers up the nearest header pin hole beneath it on either side of the board. Ooops! I'll have to fix that in the next revision of the adapter board. For now it's no biggy, though: it's PPK2 access to the pins on the adapter board that matter most, and those are now fully exposed for probing. -
@NeverDie In Eagle, I found that the auto-router gives no joy. Seems to be that the art of the board is best done manually.
I'm just now looking at one board (DRF1262TG) in OSH Park that I've uploades. The view is much better than looking at the *.svg files. The radio pads look like even I can hit them with solder. Gave me a better feel. Golden age... thank you again.
@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
@NeverDie The radio pads look like even I can hit them with solder.
When I'm designing module PCB landing pads, I almost always make them longer than what the datasheet recommends to make orienting the module and soldering it in place easier. In contrast, the datasheet always specifies the absolute minimum.
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@Larson This time using female headers, I built a new platform and Ebyte adapter, as discussed earlier.
I expect this version will be fully Dupont compatible with the PPK2 probe pins. Unfortunately, if you look carefully you'll see that the adapter PCB covers up the nearest header pin hole beneath it on either side of the board. Ooops! I'll have to fix that in the next revision of the adapter board. For now it's no biggy, though: it's PPK2 access to the pins on the adapter board that matter most, and those are now fully exposed for probing.@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
if you look carefully you'll see that the adapter PCB covers up the nearest header pin hole beneath it on either side of the board.
Yea, but a Dremmel snip job would have those two pins accessible in a flash! In my hackish world, there has to be three errors to warrant redsign... unless it is an unrecoverable error, of course!
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@Larson Are you able to get input to work on any of the 8 PPK2 sense pins? Mine isn't responding at all. They all read high, even if I connect one of them directly to PPK2 ground. Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin. If yours is working, then maybe mine is defective or something.
Where were you able to get yours from? The place I ordered from no longer has them in stock. I'm debating whether to backorder from mouser. Argh. I hope it doesn't come to that. Weird that the current portion of the PPK2 is working, but not the logic analyzer part.
I've submitted a ticket to Nordic and contacted the seller, but of course nothing happens very quickly and I probably won't hear from them anytime soon.
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@Larson Are you able to get input to work on any of the 8 PPK2 sense pins? Mine isn't responding at all. They all read high, even if I connect one of them directly to PPK2 ground. Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin. If yours is working, then maybe mine is defective or something.
Where were you able to get yours from? The place I ordered from no longer has them in stock. I'm debating whether to backorder from mouser. Argh. I hope it doesn't come to that. Weird that the current portion of the PPK2 is working, but not the logic analyzer part.
I've submitted a ticket to Nordic and contacted the seller, but of course nothing happens very quickly and I probably won't hear from them anytime soon.
@NeverDie The PPKII arrived yesterday! I've only cracked it out of the box and haven't tried. I'll do so next. Been spending my time in KiCAD tutorials, looking at your boards and taking care of family! I'm like an excited dog in a 3-D field of fire-hydrants! Never enough time for a slow-reader like me.
My PPKII source: DigiKey 5/24/22 order. Here is the scoop off the invoice (most importantly the part no): PART: 1490-NRF-PPK2-ND MFG : NORDIC SEMICONDUCTOR ASA / NRF-PPK2 DESC: POWER PROFILER KIT 92.50000 92.50 COO : POLAND ECCN: EAR99 HTSUS: 8543.70.9860 ROHS3 COMP REACH UNAFFECTED 25-JUN-2020
It sure came fast for being back-ordered.I also received a bunch of other solder stuff you recommended and a solder plate. Again, too excited, but life is getting in the way. Radio’s are on their way, mostly from AliExpress. Too bad they fractionalize one order; now I’ve got about a dozen different order-tracking email threads.
PPKII test: I’m planning on a vanilla ProMini with and without the conventional crystal – per your tutorial. I will throw in a signal cue on a pin to test the logic analyzer thing. Will that be sufficient to test? Hope to report by the end of the week if the distractions end.
Then I’d like to try the PPKII on the Darrah Trig Board; I know, I can’t read the deep sleep with a PPK, but it will be a good first-try for me with the Trig Board.
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@Larson Are you able to get input to work on any of the 8 PPK2 sense pins? Mine isn't responding at all. They all read high, even if I connect one of them directly to PPK2 ground. Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin. If yours is working, then maybe mine is defective or something.
Where were you able to get yours from? The place I ordered from no longer has them in stock. I'm debating whether to backorder from mouser. Argh. I hope it doesn't come to that. Weird that the current portion of the PPK2 is working, but not the logic analyzer part.
I've submitted a ticket to Nordic and contacted the seller, but of course nothing happens very quickly and I probably won't hear from them anytime soon.
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin.
Maybe a stupid question... but are you powering from the PPKII source, or the device-under-test battery? Does it matter? I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII. I have no idea if the LA is complicated by this.
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@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin.
Maybe a stupid question... but are you powering from the PPKII source, or the device-under-test battery? Does it matter? I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII. I have no idea if the LA is complicated by this.
@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin.
Maybe a stupid question... but are you powering from the PPKII source, or the device-under-test battery? Does it matter? I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII. I have no idea if the LA is complicated by this.
I've tried it both ways, and I'm just not getting anything out of the logic port.
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@NeverDie The PPKII arrived yesterday! I've only cracked it out of the box and haven't tried. I'll do so next. Been spending my time in KiCAD tutorials, looking at your boards and taking care of family! I'm like an excited dog in a 3-D field of fire-hydrants! Never enough time for a slow-reader like me.
My PPKII source: DigiKey 5/24/22 order. Here is the scoop off the invoice (most importantly the part no): PART: 1490-NRF-PPK2-ND MFG : NORDIC SEMICONDUCTOR ASA / NRF-PPK2 DESC: POWER PROFILER KIT 92.50000 92.50 COO : POLAND ECCN: EAR99 HTSUS: 8543.70.9860 ROHS3 COMP REACH UNAFFECTED 25-JUN-2020
It sure came fast for being back-ordered.I also received a bunch of other solder stuff you recommended and a solder plate. Again, too excited, but life is getting in the way. Radio’s are on their way, mostly from AliExpress. Too bad they fractionalize one order; now I’ve got about a dozen different order-tracking email threads.
PPKII test: I’m planning on a vanilla ProMini with and without the conventional crystal – per your tutorial. I will throw in a signal cue on a pin to test the logic analyzer thing. Will that be sufficient to test? Hope to report by the end of the week if the distractions end.
Then I’d like to try the PPKII on the Darrah Trig Board; I know, I can’t read the deep sleep with a PPK, but it will be a good first-try for me with the Trig Board.
@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Will that be sufficient to test? Hope to report by the end of the week if the distractions end.
I imagine so.
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@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
Matter of fact, I'm not even getting any voltage out of the logic analyzer's VCC pin.
Maybe a stupid question... but are you powering from the PPKII source, or the device-under-test battery? Does it matter? I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII. I have no idea if the LA is complicated by this.
I've tried it both ways, and I'm just not getting anything out of the logic port.
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII.
And, I think I learned about the PPKII burden voltage from you!
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@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII.
And, I think I learned about the PPKII burden voltage from you!
@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII.
And, I think I learned about the PPKII burden voltage from you!
The PPK2 seems to work fine when powering the circuit whose current it is measuring, but if externally powered then, yes, for some reason it seems to choke the DUT.
Because the PPK2 is out-of-stock everywhere, I decided that rather than be held prisoner by whatever lengthy return/warranty cycle for my PPK2 is likely to be, I would upgrade my o-scope to one that can do integrations and sell my old scope, which can't do integrations. New scope should arrive on Thursday.
If you're wondering how that works, this explains it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh0xYu8YvaEAs you can see, the UI is nowhere near as nice as the PPK2 for measuring current consumption. Perhaps offsetting that somewhat is that the o-scopes resolution should be better: the PPK2 has 100,000 samples per second, whereas these days a decent entry-level o-scope will commonly have 1 giga-samples/second.
I still like the PPK2, and I look forward to exchanging the one I have for one that works.
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@Larson said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
@NeverDie said in Anyone using/tried the E28-2G4M27S 2.4Ghz LoRa SX1280 27dB module?:
I know nothing about the PPKII, yet. But I have read that the burden voltage is an issue even on the PPKII.
And, I think I learned about the PPKII burden voltage from you!
The PPK2 seems to work fine when powering the circuit whose current it is measuring, but if externally powered then, yes, for some reason it seems to choke the DUT.
Because the PPK2 is out-of-stock everywhere, I decided that rather than be held prisoner by whatever lengthy return/warranty cycle for my PPK2 is likely to be, I would upgrade my o-scope to one that can do integrations and sell my old scope, which can't do integrations. New scope should arrive on Thursday.
If you're wondering how that works, this explains it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh0xYu8YvaEAs you can see, the UI is nowhere near as nice as the PPK2 for measuring current consumption. Perhaps offsetting that somewhat is that the o-scopes resolution should be better: the PPK2 has 100,000 samples per second, whereas these days a decent entry-level o-scope will commonly have 1 giga-samples/second.
I still like the PPK2, and I look forward to exchanging the one I have for one that works.
@NeverDie I have no experience with an O. Scope, or a PPKII. I presumed the OS gives one much more dimension of analysis. But as indicated my Harbor Freights DMM delivers nearly everything I need. Sure is fun to listen to Dave Jones. The man is a source of knowledge and excitement spiced with humor.
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Good news! My PPK2 works after all. After experimenting, I determined that '"VCC" on the logic port is not a voltage source, as its name would imply. Instead, it is a voltage sense pin. So.... the way to make the logic port work is to wire the logic port VCC to the VOUT (or to whatever VCC that's powering your project). After doing so, D0 through D7 work as you would expect.
Also worthy of note: there evidently are no internal pull-up or pull-down resistors on any of the D0-D7 logic port sense pins. So, if, for example, you give D0 a high pulse and then disconnect from it, D0 will tend to stay high until it receive a low pulse.
Happy I don't need to return/exchange the PPK2 after all. :-)
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@Larson Something I only just recently started using in the last couple of days that you may like: 0.4mm diameter Kester Rosin solder. It's ridiculously thin, but for soldering radio modules onto boards, I'm finding that I can more precisely put just enough solder exactly where I want it without having to apply solder flux to the module afterward.
