Pro Micro Hookup and Code
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How are you powering arduino + radio? Usb into arduino (5V) and step-down or regulator 3.3V to radio?
Cheap mobile chargers don't provide good power conditions and usually radio fails. -
I purchased the 3.3v version of the pro micros so I have 3.3v coming out of VCC. I measured with a voltage meter to make sure. So I don't use any voltage regulator coming out of the VCC. I've tried with different pro micros from the same batch. Hmmm.
If you have a Pro Micro that is running at 16mHz the output from the VCC line to power the radio is 5 volts. You need to step down to 3.3v to the radio.
But I'm using batteries so don't want an extra regulatory taking up power in between.
Hmm.
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I purchased the 3.3v version of the pro micros so I have 3.3v coming out of VCC. I measured with a voltage meter to make sure. So I don't use any voltage regulator coming out of the VCC. I've tried with different pro micros from the same batch. Hmmm.
If you have a Pro Micro that is running at 16mHz the output from the VCC line to power the radio is 5 volts. You need to step down to 3.3v to the radio.
But I'm using batteries so don't want an extra regulatory taking up power in between.
Hmm.
@den2k said:
I purchased the 3.3v version of the pro micros so I have 3.3v coming out of VCC. I measured with a voltage meter to make sure. So I don't use any voltage regulator coming out of the VCC. I've tried with different pro micros from the same batch. Hmmm.
If you have a Pro Micro that is running at 16mHz the output from the VCC line to power the radio is 5 volts. You need to step down to 3.3v to the radio.
But I'm using batteries so don't want an extra regulatory taking up power in between.
Hmm.
So, assuming your battery voltage is less than or equal to 3.3v, you would connect it into Vcc, not RAW. Is that what you're doing? Otherwise, you'll be getting an unwanted voltage drop, and that may be the reason your radio isn't working.
Also, supplied battery voltage goes down as current drawn goes up, due to internal resistance of the battery. You could simulate by drawing worst case current from the battery and measure the voltage it supplies at that current.
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Thanks NeverDie. I feel like that now as I plug away...
I 've got the serial gateway plugged into the PC for now, so I have a stable 5V supply and a stable 3.3V supply to the nRF24 radio. So my issue shouldn't be the voltage yet.
Unfortunately I'm not ready for battery testing yet, given not even being able to do the very basic uploading of a Serial Gateway sketch.
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I spent a bunch of time testing different boards over the last few days. Official Uno. Sparkfun Pro Mini from Sparkfun. They all work.
But not the Pro Micro clones I bought on Ebay. I reinstalled Pro Micro drivers from the Sparkfun Learn site. I've even used the Board Manager function and added URLs to 3rd party URLs under preferences thinking this official way to add boards instead of manually coping the driver into the correct directly would work. Nope!
For now, my conclusion is the MySensors code does not work the Pro Micro clones. it sounds like these boards work for others. If so, please ping me. I've test a number of standard arduino sketches and also RF24 sketches, and they work on these Pro Micro clones, but for some reason the MySensors sketches do not work.
Looks like I'm going to be purchasing some more test boards...
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Just to give an update. I was never able to get the Pro Micro's that I bought on Ebay to work. I purchase some Pro Mini. Looks like I am able to get the Serial Gateway not only detected by the Pi, but also looks like I am about to received Node data. Not completely done yet but looks promising.
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I got also problems to upload the scetch to an arduino micro. After uploading the micro does not connect on any COM-Port. Only if I reset the bootloader, I can write other sample scetches to the micro. So it seams, that the gateway code does not working well with an arduino micro.
