What radio to use? NRF24L01+, RFM69, RFM73 ?

[Cliff Karlsson]

One more question after reading a litte more on the RFM69. The RFM69HW offer great range but draws alot of power so I guess I would not be ideal to use in battery powered sensors witch transmits every 60 sec or so.

But If I use a RFM69HW just in the controller and then use the ordinary RFM69 in the sensors I guess that even large houses with alot of walls would be covered?

Or am I wrong thinking that if the controler is using a strong radio all the sensor nodes will connect fine even with a very weak radio?

[Cliff Karlsson]

A lot of questions now, but is there a ny description of how to connect the RFM69 to an arduino and also what has to be modified in the existing sketches here on mysensors.org to use the RFM69 ?

Also do I have to do anything special to the controller (rpi+nano) to have it use the RFM69?

[TD22057]

@Cliff-Karlsson I could be wrong but it's my understanding that those numbers are for transmit power so I don't think it hurts anything to have an HW in the gateway but I don't think it helps particularly. My guess is that most of these things have more to do with antenna design and orientation than anything. My plan is to have my gateway have the best antenna and orientation I can since it's stashed away in a closet. The sensors (which will be visible) will use smaller antennas and since their orientation is determined more by their location, they are at a disadvantage. So in that case a higher power gateway might allow them to receive information more easily while the better antenna in the gateway allows it to pick up weak sensors more reliably. That's my theory anyway...

[NeverDie]

Originally I purchased the HW version, because I thought I could just scale back to whatever power level I wanted. However, since then I've learned that the PA needs to be turned on for it to work at all, so now I'm not sure what the actual power range might be, but I'd guess it's higher than for the ordinary W version.

I should think it would make sense to have your gateway use the HW version, just in case in the future any of the sensors are distant and also require the HW version.

At the end of the day, it will always depend\ on what you want to do. Some people claim to be perfectly happy with the NRF24L01+, which can also be cheaper, depending on where you buy it. It may turn out to be the sort of thing you need to buy and try in order to really know whether it fits you or not.

[Cliff Karlsson]

@NeverDie said:

make sense to have your gateway use the HW version, just in case in the future any of the sensors are distant and also require the HW version.

At the end of the day, it will always depend\ on what you want to do. Some people claim to b

Ok, I am trying to find out what the different versions mean. Does the RFM69-RFM69HC-RFM69HW series just differ in range and possible power-consumption? Where RFM69 has the shortest range and the HW have the longest range?

Also I have not found any info of how to connect the RFM radio to the arduino, are there any more info on that part?

[fets]

@Cliff-Karlsson I think that :

• H version stands for High power.
• C version is pin compatible with RFM12.

RFM69 uses SPI so the connections are :

Arduino RFM69
10 <-------------------> NSS
11 <-------------------> MOSI
12 <-------------------> MISO
13 <-------------------> SCK
DI00 <-------------------> 2
GND <-------------------> GND
3.3V
ANA : antenna

NSS, MOSI and SCK are inputs so you need to adapt level if you use 5V arduino

[NeverDie]

That's right. There are really just two types of RFM69x: the regular kind like the RFM69W, and the high powered kind like the RFM69HW. The other variants are just variations in pinout so as to retrofit to the pinouts of older generation RF chips. If you're starting from a blank page, those won't matter to you.

[Cliff Karlsson]

@fets said:

s so you need to adapt level

I just got my rfm69hw´s and connected it to an arduino nano for a couple of seconds before i realized that I needed to adapt the level. Is it possible that it survived this mistake?

I have nov connected a IIC I2C Interface Level Conversion Module 5-3v
I connected NSS,Mosi,SCK and GND to the "B" side and connected the arduino nano to the "A" side. Is this correct?

[fets]

@Cliff-Karlsson seems correct.
Personnaly I use 3 * 2 resistors (10k and 4.7k) for NS, MOSI and SCK rfm69hw inputs.
Don't forget to change MyTransportRF69 contructor to use high power RFM69 ;)

[Cliff Karlsson]

@fets said:

H version stands for High power.
C version is pin compatible with RFM12.
RFM69 uses SPI so the connections are :

Arduino RFM69
10 <-------------------> NSS
11 <-------------------> MOSI
12 <-------------------> MISO
13 <-------------------> SCK
DI00 <-------------------> 2
GND <-------------------> GND
3.3V
ANA : antenna

NSS, MOSI and SCK are inputs so you need to adapt level if you use 5V arduino

I have connected a RFM69HW to my arduino nano+rpi gateway and have connected a RFM69W+Mini Pro 3.3V to a soil sensor but nothing shows up in Domoticz. Do I have to do anything else? Do I need a external antenna? The two RFM's is only like 1m apart.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Do I need to alter the code for the gateway or the sensor-sketches?

[fets]

@Cliff-Karlsson said:
Do I need a external antenna? The two RFM's is only like 1m apart.

I never tested without antenna. I used simple wire the length dependinf of your frequency?
Did you look at your arduino serial outpout ?
If there is nothing, it may that because RFM69 init failed

[NeverDie]

Yes you should put an antenna on. It doesn't have a PCB trace antenna. A simple piece of wire, typically cut to 1/4 wavelength, will work fine.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Ok, I have some thin insulated copper wire, will that work? And how long wire will I need for the 868mhz frequency?

But just to be clear, do I need to alter the gateway or the sensor sketches in some way to have it use the rfm radio?

[fets]

1/4 wavelength = (3 10^8 / (868 10^6)) / 4 =>about 8.64 cm

[Cliff Karlsson]

Thanks, sorry for repeating the question but do I need to alter the code on gateway or sensors?

[fets]

You only need to create a MyTransportRFM69 instead of MyTransportNRF24. This is the constructor : MyTransportRFM69 (RFM69_FREQUENCY, RFM69_NETWORKID, RF69_SPI_CS, RF69_IRQ_PIN, isRFM69HW, RF69_IRQ_NUM);
if you use a RFM99H, you have to set the 5th parameter (isRFMHW) to true.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Sorry for being semi-retarded, but is this done in the gateway sketch? Sensor
-sketch or both? Is there any documentation on this part as I am a complete beginner.

[fets]

both, here is the documentation

[Francois]

@Cliff-Karlsson You have to change the following setting in Myconfig.h for you radio

/**********************************
*  RFM69 Driver Defaults
***********************************/
// Default network id. Use the same for all nodes that will talk to each other
#define RFM69_NETWORKID     100

// Default frequency to use. This must match the hardware version of the RFM69 radio (uncomment one):
 #define RFM69_FREQUENCY   RF69_433MHZ
//#define RFM69_FREQUENCY   RF69_868MHZ
//#define FREQUENCY     RF69_915MHZ

// Enable this for encryption of packets
//#define RFM69_ENABLE_ENCRYPTION
#define RFM69_ENCRYPTKEY  "sampleEncryptKey"

Then in MySensor.h you change the following:

ifndef MySensor_h
#define MySensor_h
#include "Version.h"   // Auto generated by bot
#include "MyConfig.h"
#include "MyHw.h"
#include "MyTransport.h"
//#include "MyTransportNRF24.h"
#include "MyTransportRFM69.h" 
#include "MyParser.h"
#ifdef MY_SIGNING_FEATURE
#include "MySigning.h"
#include "MySigningNone.h"
#endif
#include "MyMessage.h"
#ifdef MY_OTA_FIRMWARE_FEATURE
#include "utility/SPIFlash.h"
#endif
#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdarg.h>```


// look for this lines and changes this

class MySensor
{
  public:
	/**
	* Constructor
	*
	* Creates a new instance of Sensor class.
	*
	*/
	//MySensor(MyTransport &radio =*new MyTransportNRF24(), MyHw &hw=*new MyHwDriver()
	MySensor(MyTransport &radio =*new MyTransportRFM69(), MyHw &hw=*new MyHwDriver()