Having trouble with Ethernet Gateway/Radio/SoftSPI

[billscheffer]

I'm having trouble getting my Ethernet gateway working. I've fought with this off and on for several months and decided it was time to ask for help. I've tried replacing radios, changing pins, and now using 1.5 instead of 1.4 with no success. I see sensors sending data, but my gateway doesn't pick it up. I was able to get a serial gateway to receive at one point, but I'm using a Vera Edge as my controller which unfortunately doesn't have a working USB port for this. I believe all my wiring is correct as I've checked it several times, but am open to any suggestions. I can ping the IP address, and start inclusion mode from the Vera. The radio is wired using A0-A2 as specified in the SoftSPI definition.

The gateway looks like it's starting up ok, I see inclusion mode start via serial debug. I see the sensor start up and look for its parent, however I don't see any communication on the gateway debug. I've copied/pasted the serial communications below. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I've got a pile of Arduino clones, radios, and sensors just waiting to serve some purpose.

What I'm working with:

Adruino IDE 1.6.5 on Windows 10
MySensors 1.5 Library
Gateway Adruino Uno Clone with Wiznet 5100 Shield
Sensor Adruino Pro Mini
Radios NRF24L01+
Currently powering everything with a USB hub so that I can get serial debug data.

Only modifications to Ethernet Gateway sketch is setting IP address, and SoftSPI defined MyConfig.h file
Motion Sensor sketch is completely unmodified from example code.

Serial Debugs:

Ethernet Gateway

0;0;3;0;9;gateway started, id=0, parent=0, distance=0
0;0;3;0;14;Gateway startup complete.
Finished <<< Started Inclusion from Vera
0;0;3;0;5;1
0;0;3;0;5;1
0;0;3;0;5;0 <<< Inclusion Ended

Motion Sensor

find parent
send: 255-255-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
sensor started, id=255, parent=255, distance=255
find parent
send: 255-255-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
find parent
send: 255-255-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
find parent
send: 255-255-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
0
find parent
send: 255-255-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
0
find parent
send: 255-255-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:

Thanks!
Bill

[stevebus]

I'm new to this as well, but i've got a similar setup working pseudo-reliably, so I will throw out a couple of stupid questions for you

• can we assume the sensor is close enough physically to expect the GW to be able to pick it up? (within the radio's range). I would assume you are working on them near each other, but I don't like to assume things
• someone else suggested to me when I was building mine that it might help to power my radio separately from the Uno and shield. I have a 4.5V power supply (what I had laying around) going through a 3.3V voltage regulator (with a 100uF capacitor across the leads) to power my radio separately from my GW. I wasn't having problems with the radio, instead my problems were on the Ethernet side, but it seemed to make the whole rig a little more stable. The belief is that the USB port may not be able to source enough current to power the Uno, the shield, and the radio.

[billscheffer]

Thank you for the suggestions. The sensor and the gateway are currently within 12 inches of each other sitting on my desk, so hopefully they can communicate further than that. I'll try your suggestion of powering the radio separately from the Uno. I tried the capacitor part on it's own once before, but don't think I tried a capacitor and separate power source at the same time. I'll give it a shot and post the results back.

Thanks!
Bill

[stevebus]

ok, cool.. let us know if the separate power helps.

I don't know if it's an issue with the NRF24L01+ radios, but I know some radios actually don't work well if they are too close together (related to the wavelength of the signal). I've never heard of that being an issue with mysensors stuff, but I know, for example, my weather station and the remote sensor won't work if they are within 5 ft. of each other. Maybe someone else can weigh in if that's ever been a problem with the NRF's. I know when I built my first sensor, they were about 2ft apart and worked fine, so that's probably not the issue.

I don't have much more to offer you unfortunately as I'm new as well. I can say that I've got pretty much the exact same setup (including Win 10) with the exception of a different Ethernet shield. Mine is working "mostly* reliably.

[billscheffer]

Splitting the radio off to another power supply definitely made a difference. My debug is now showing lots of ver mismatch messages scrolling faster than I can keep up. I'll do some searching to see if I can figure out what's causing these now. Thanks for your help so far!

0;0;3;0;9;gateway started, id=0, parent=0, distance=0
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch
0;0;3;0;9;read: 0-0-0 s=0,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;0;3;0;9;ver mismatch

[billscheffer]

OK, so I switched the UNO itself to another power source and the ver mismatch errors stopped. I was able to include start inclusion mode from Vera, and it picked up my motion sensor that I was testing with. It looks like it's actually working now! Now I guess I should figure out some way to permanently power the UNO and radio so I can get them off my breadboard. Thanks stevebus for your help!

[stevebus]

Awesome! Glad I could help. Now, if I could just get my own stable

[gregl]

Glad to hear you have it working. If you are now looking to make your gateway permanent and off your breadboard, I would definitely recommend the iBoard - very easy, cheap and stable.