Which are the *best* NRF24L01+ modules?

[Samuel235]

But @scalz is saying that only in sleep mode the frequency does not matter, it has no effect on the power consumption. However, it will effect your power consumption while the MCU is awake, but there're discussions regarding the length of time its awake some times means that it uses less power if using a higher frequency due to it performing its tasks quicker and then returning to sleep.

[NeverDie]

So, I guess the question is whether waking up at 8mhz on 1.8v will be a problem or not. It's out of spec according to the datasheet. I'd certainly much prefer to wake-up the atmega328p at 8mhz than 4mhz or 1mhz, because then the wake-up time can be very, very short (<4us). No other setting that I know of comes anywhere close to 4us.

[alexsh1]

@rollercontainer I have 8Mhz working below 1.8V. The problem is that below 1.9V, it is unstable as the radio may be working intermittently. I think @GertSanders reported his node running down to 1.6V at 8Mhz. In any case, I do not think one has to run 1Mhz as power saving compare to 8Mhz is not massive and clock is not working - the latter is by far important for my needs.

[doug]

@rollercontainer

I have found that the NRF24L01+ PA LNA radios I have, have 100% packet loss and will not sleep if driven with voltages over 3.0v I have dropped the supply to 2.7v and now have minimal packet loss and the radios will sleep at all power level settings.

Current draw is 4.7uA including 328P + RTC when asleep as measured with a uCurrent Gold.

[AWI]

@doug That is an interesting observation. Was there a specific reason to test this? Have you tried other voltages also?

[doug]

@AWI

I was building a boost converter with one of these Texas TPS61097A-33DBVT the NRF I was using on battery didn't work with the boost CCT. I tried with 4-5 of these modules all from the same supplier and none of them worked. My scope showed they were transmitting and the uGold was showing sleep mode was not happening. When connected to an adjustable converter I notice that if I wound down the voltage under 3.0v they would spark into life. Its the same with all the NRF PA LNA modules I tried.

[mortommy]

I bought my first NRF24L01+ modules from cg market and I created some simple nodes (temp/hum and binary switch) using 3V coin battery, and they are up since last January. Than, I'm wondering why :unamused:, I bought other modules from another seller and I got a lot of problem: the binary switch (same of the other one in software and hardware) fails many times in sending communications to the gateway and after just 1 month I had to replace the battery; another node cannot even communicate at all if I move it in another room different from the gateway (of course I tried different values of decoupling-capacitors) :disappointed:
I have to get new modules :cry:

[NeverDie]

@doug said:

@rollercontainer

I have found that the NRF24L01+ PA LNA radios I have, have 100% packet loss and will not sleep if driven with voltages over 3.0v I have dropped the supply to 2.7v and now have minimal packet loss and the radios will sleep at all power level settings.

Current draw is 4.7uA including 328P + RTC when asleep as measured with a uCurrent Gold.

Would you please post a photo of what the module looks like? It might offer up some clues.

[doug]

Here is a photo of the module

[parachutesj]

@doug I do have the same ones bought at alice from the shop link. I also have issues and basically not functioning. I will try your "fix" and see how it goes. Did you do some shielding?

Cheers,
SJ

[parachutesj]

@doug I did some quick tests and I can confim that the modules work better with less voltage. I made best experience with 2.5-2.6V. However they are still much much worse than all others I have and not worth the hassle IMHO.

[NeverDie]

@parachutesj said:

. However they are still much much worse than all others I have and not worth the hassle IMHO.

Which other ones do you have that perform better? It would be very useful to know.

[Sparkman]

@parachutesj said:

@doug I do have the same ones bought at alice from the shop link. I also have issues and basically not functioning. I will try your "fix" and see how it goes. Did you do some shielding?

Cheers,
SJ

FWIW, I use these exact ones and I get very good range with them, without additional shielding.

Cheers
Al

[parachutesj]

@NeverDie
I have the shielded ones from IC-Station:
http://www.icstation.com/22dbm-100mw-nrf24l01ppalna-wireless-transmission-module-p-4677.html

Back to the ones discussed here:
When doing the basic test from earlier in this thread I am getting massive packet loss even if the modules are very close together. Ok, maybe it needs to be shielded, power too high etc and tried having them separated with no luck, still massive packet losses. Of course this is no scientific research.

Without tweaking, modifications, special antenna orientation the shielded IC-Station ones just worked for me. I am not saying the others don't work, they just perform not in my setup very well.

Also as a comparison, I have some cheep modules from Aliexpress they outperform the ampliefied ones (at least within the house):
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10PCS-LOT-NRF24L01-wireless-data-transmission-module-2-4G-the-NRF24L01-upgrade-version/1593276910.html

Those modules look very poor build to be honest but seem to be ok. They came in one single back, some pins bent but nothing which couldn't be fixed. Minor packet losses and antenna orientation seems to be key.

In comparison, I also bought some more expensive ones, which claim to be original:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Original-Genuine-NRF24L01-Wireless-Module-2-4G-wireless-communication-module-2-54mm-Interface-2/1781618813.html

Those came in a nice protected box and look very well made.
They work, I even think better than the others - but I already blew two of them. Not sure what went wrong :-(

Just received some SMD ones which haven't been tested yet.

[loralg]

Does anyone know if the NRF24L01 and the +PA+LNA modules can be mixed and matched? Will the regular modules and the longer range versions talk to each other? I would like to use one of the long range modules on my gateway in the house and on some sensors around my yard that are a fair distance from my house. But then to save some money I was wondering if I could use the regular modules around the rest of my house. My concern is if I use regular modules on the sensors in my house if they will still be able to communicate with the longer range version module I have on my gateway?

[arraWX]

@loralg I successfully use a nRF24L01+PA+LNA on the gateway and regular nRF24L01+ on the sensors.

There is a lot of information and hints available in the forum regarding the nRF24L01+PA+LNA . See e.g. here:
https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/3719/nrf24l01-vs-nrf24l01-pa-lna/2

In my case, however, the nRF24L01+PA+LNA works fine without any fix or special attention.

[afeno]

Hello,

What is the best way to measure the performance of one module at a given distance? I mean, how can I measure the number of packets lost?
Does anybody already created a "performace test sketch" to perofrm a better test?

[NeverDie]

@afeno said:

Hello,

What is the best way to measure the performance of one module at a given distance? I mean, how can I measure the number of packets lost?
Does anybody already created a "performace test sketch" to perofrm a better test?

I posted a sketch earlier in this thread.

[alexsh1]

@parachutesj said:

@doug I did some quick tests and I can confim that the modules work better with less voltage. I made best experience with 2.5-2.6V. However they are still much much worse than all others I have and not worth the hassle IMHO.

How did you decrease the voltage on nrf24l01+ PA? I have a voltage regulator providing 3.3V.

[doug]

I have also found that the higher the voltage the more capacitance you need. Guess that makes sense. Still can't get them to work reliably at 3.3v though.

I am realising the important thing is a good power supply you need to choose the right regulator to ensure the voltage doesn't tank too far when the current spikes (~180mA). caps help to some degree and I have found ceramic are better than the aluminium ones.

I am now using a single cell lipo and 2 regulators one at 3.3 and one at 2.7 for the radio. Also easier to get a low IQ with 2 regulators rather than one big one.

I am still learning and need to start doing some playing with a greater range of modules. Especially as your experience of these is that they are pretty poor.