Porting MySensors to work with the RadioHead library

BenjaminK87

Hi everyone,
i am new to MySensors. I already made sime Arduino pro mini running with a NRF24L01.
But i also bought some Anarduino with the RF69 installed. Can anybody tell me how i can tell the library to use the RF69 instead of the NRF24L01?
I used the Developement version of the MySensor library. I tried to find the point in MyConfig.h but i could only find the NRF24L01 Driver Defaults part.

Maybe someone could help me.

Thanks in advance.
Benjamin

lafleur

I'm interested in the progress of getting RadioHead working with MySensor....

what the current status??

where is the current code for this effort?

Thanks

hek

@lafleur

In the development branch on github we have support for RF69. We have not incorporated the full RadioHead library.

lafleur

Is there support for the MoteinoMega? with the rfm69? can you point me to a code base to start with??

I have used the MoteinoMega in other project, so I know a bit on how they work

Thanks

lafleur

@ToSa do you have a sample project (serial Gateway or ?) that I could start from that uses the RF69W radio?? Want to develop with Moteino-Mega

thanks

hek

You only need to initiate the MySensor class with the rfm69 class like this in the gateway (and sensors):

https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/blob/development/libraries/MySensors/examples/SerialGateway/SerialGateway.ino#L44

MyTransportRF69 radio;

lafleur

I had done that, getting error...

Some questions:

I notice that the MyTransportNRF24 had definition for the pins in the function, RM69, has none...
I take it, its defaulted to the Moteino standards pinout?

The file MyHwATMega328.cpp is for the 328, i assume that I would need to make one for the ATmega1284P chip? if there are any changes needed.

Thanks I will work on these error, if you have any insight on cause, please let me know...

(sure wish the IDE was better.....)

Arduino: 1.6.1 (Mac OS X), Board: "MoteinoMEGA"

SerialGateway.ino:56:26: error: no matching function for call to 'MySensor::MySensor(MyTransportRF69 (&)(), MySigningNone&)'
SerialGateway.ino:56:26: note: candidates are:
In file included from SerialGateway.ino:34:0:
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:78:2: note: MySensor::MySensor(MyTransport&, MyHw&, MySigning&)
MySensor(MyTransport &radio =*new MyTransportNRF24(), MyHw &hw=*new MyHwDriver()
^
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:78:2: note: no known conversion for argument 1 from 'MyTransportRF69()' to 'MyTransport&'
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:69:7: note: MySensor::MySensor(const MySensor&)
class MySensor
^
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:69:7: note: candidate expects 1 argument, 2 provided
Error compiling.

hek

@lafleur

Yeah, the work on the TransportRF69 need some polishing. It defaults to monteino pins right now. If you have the time add configuration to the driver, please help out.

I don't have any MonteinoMega so I really don't know how it differs regarding hw. Hopefully not too much.

lafleur

I get the same error's if I select the standard Moteino and the RF24 radio???

so, I must have a version skew or IDE issue...

I'm using the source code form the development branch....

Arduino: 1.6.1 (Mac OS X), Board: "Moteino"

SerialGateway.ino:57:26: error: no matching function for call to 'MySensor::MySensor(MyTransportNRF24&, MySigningNone&)'
SerialGateway.ino:57:26: note: candidates are:
In file included from SerialGateway.ino:34:0:
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:78:2: note: MySensor::MySensor(MyTransport&, MyHw&, MySigning&)
MySensor(MyTransport &radio =*new MyTransportNRF24(), MyHw &hw=*new MyHwDriver()
^
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:78:2: note: no known conversion for argument 2 from 'MySigningNone' to 'MyHw&'
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:69:7: note: MySensor::MySensor(const MySensor&)
class MySensor
^
/Users/lafleur/Desktop/MySensor-Arduino-development/libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h:69:7: note: candidate expects 1 argument, 2 provided
Error compiling.

This report would have more information with
"Show verbose output during compilation"
enabled in File > Preferences.

? Offline

@lafleur:
I got the same error, also 1.6.1 (Mac OSX) board Uno, and Nano. My solution was to remove the signing object in the initialization:

// Construct MySensors library
MySensor gw(radio);

Then it compiles without issues. I have other issues though, but they might be related to the radios.

lafleur

removing the Construct object, will cause other error, as the gw is not defined at this point...

SerialGateway.ino: In function 'void setup()':
SerialGateway.ino:67:3: error: 'gw' was not declared in this scope
SerialGateway.ino: In function 'void loop()':
SerialGateway.ino:85:3: error: 'gw' was not declared in this scope

I'm new to Arduino and this IDE, so it painful trying to work my way into this code...

kolaf

Hi guys,

I lost some of my inspiration when I couldn't get the RF69 implementation to be stable for more than a few days and TOSA said he could before he disappeared without telling me how :-(. However, Easter is upon us and I thought I would give it another try.

I updated to the latest version of the development branch, and things seem to have changed a bit since I was here last time. Is there anything that needs to be updated on the RF69 side? At the very least it seems to be missing a definition for IS_RF69HW, as well as probably some useful defaults.

kolaf

I also note that there now is an include for a specific radio in the serial Gateway example. This is different from the way it was earlier where the radio type was defined in MyConfig. Wasn't this a better solution?

Anyway, is it sufficient simply to change the included radio and then expect the serial Gateway code to work correctly on a moteino?

hek

@kolaf

The defines in MyConfig started to become a big mess. Especially if we would want to have a Moteino variant of the gateways downloadable using codebender.

Ok, just updated gateway classes to include the available options like this:

// NRFRF24L01 radio driver (set low transmit power by default) 
MyTransportNRF24 transport(RF24_CE_PIN, RF24_CS_PIN, RF24_PA_LEVEL_GW);  
//MyTransportRF69 transport;

// Message signing driver (signer needed if MY_SIGNING_FEATURE is turned on in MyConfig.h)
//MySigningNone signer;
//MySigningAtsha204Soft signer;
//MySigningAtsha204 signer;

// Hardware profile 
MyHwATMega328 hw;

// Construct MySensors library (signer needed if MY_SIGNING_FEATURE is turned on in MyConfig.h)
MySensor gw(transport, hw /*, signer*/);

So you should only have to enable the one you want to use. Do the same in the sensor/actuator sketch (haven't updated all of them yet).

dzairo

.. and hardware distance test? rfm69hw have +20dB .. pls make test in building .. or make compare test with nRF24L01+ ..
we waiting for this ..
best regards..

hek

@dzairo said:

we waiting for this

I'm waiting also. Please do the test @dzairo!

dzairo

sorry .. is possible make test with this module if you have it ?
I can compare only nrf24l01+ with cc1101 868mhz ..
in free area is possible with standard nrf24l01+ with good antenna from wifi get 200m .. pcb antenna give less then 30m . rfm69hw is good because is possible set lowe transfer speed less then in nrf24l01+ ..
if make test with CC1101 868mhz version with +14dB output power then no problem get distance in my house 3 floor ..

best regards

? Offline

@lafleur:
I only removed the "signer" out of the initialization and changed the line to the code above. I did not comment the whole line.

@kolaf:
To make the library work for the RFM69HW for me, I needed to change the radio pointer to an object amongst other things.., which combination did eventually do the trick, I do not know for sure.
I will summarize the changes I did to get connection between two nodes using the RFM69HWs.

The problem I had was that the radio would not start up for me. It was stuck at the RFM69.cpp initialization at:

do writeReg(REG_SYNCVALUE1, 0xAA); while (readReg(REG_SYNCVALUE1) != 0xAA);
do writeReg(REG_SYNCVALUE1, 0x55); while (readReg(REG_SYNCVALUE1) != 0x55);

So the changes I did were:

In MyTransportRF69.h:

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ public:
        uint8_t receive(void* data);
        void powerDown();
 private:
-       RFM69 *radio;
+       RFM69 radio;
        uint8_t _address;
 };

and in MyTransportRF69.cpp:

 MyTransportRF69::MyTransportRF69()
        :
        MyTransport(),
-       radio()
+       radio(10,2,true,0)  //I set the Pins manually (SPI SS 10, InterruptPin 2, IsHW = true, and InternalInterrupt 0)
 {
 }
 void MyTransportRF69::init() {
        // Start up the radio library
-    radio->initialize(FREQUENCY,_address,NETWORKID);
+    radio.initialize(FREQUENCY,2,NETWORKID); //I changed the node_ids manually for each node, see below for comment
+    radio.rcCalibration();
+    Serial.println("Radio init done");
 #ifdef IS_RFM69HW
-    radio->setHighPower(); //uncomment only for RFM69HW!
+    radio.setHighPower(); //uncomment only for RFM69HW!
 #endif
-    // radio->encrypt(ENCRYPTKEY);
+    radio.setPowerLevel(20); //I decreased the powerlevel a bit, since I had some troubles transmitting between two nodes on my desk before when using the full power.

of course change all the following "radio->" to "radio." with string replace.

Also I realized that the NODEID is not set properly using the _address argument, I had a serial println there and it always returned "0 (zero)", which should not be correct. So I set them manually for each node.
I also copied the latest version of Felix LowPowerRFM library into utils from here:
https://github.com/LowPowerLab/RFM69
(I do not know if they differ much, the diff is not very conclusive due to different formatting)

I am using an Arduino Buono UNO clone set with a switch to run at 3.3V with the RFM69HW connected via breadboard. With the changes above, all was compiled and started up.

But I had a major problem with the Dev branch that in general that no ACKs at all were send or at least received, even when using the NRF2401+. So that is why I did not continue with the RFM69HW at the moment. The master branch on the very same setup (using the standard radio) did work without any troubles.

I managed to get connection between the nodes (e.g. in the serial output of the gateway the request for parent was received, but all messages had a "failed" status). I last checked the dev-branch last week.
I am away over Easter, but am willing to try a bit more afterwards, if I get the Dev branch running in general with ACKs...

I got inspired by this project:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Uber-Home-Automation-w-Arduino-Pi/?ALLSTEPS
There is also a forum here:
http://homeautomation.proboards.com/board/2/openhab-rfm69-based-arduino
but eventually I turned here, since mysensors seems to have more active support and a already a bigger community and codebase. However there they have a RFM69 gateway running with nodes. So it might be worth to check it out how they did it (that is also how I got the RFM69 running in the first place).

Sorry for the long post..

Cheers!

hek

@daenny

Thanks for the analysis. The RFM69 code really need a loving hand after being almost untouched for months since ToSa disappeared. There shouldn't be any changes done to the LowPowerLab code (but it hasn't been updated either).

The question is if hardware acks i coming in but is just picked up wrongly from LowPowerLab-library?

I should really setup a test rig with those radios... But my time is limited.. If you're interested in helping out finding the root cause for the RFM69 ack-problems I would be super grateful.

The ack-problems you're seeing on NRF24L01 will investigate by me.

kolaf

@daenny I've started playing with it now, and the first fix for your pointer problem is to initialise the radio pointer correctly which is not done in the current implementation. I simply added the following line to the beginning of init:

radio=new RFM69();

No further changes were then necessary to the pointers.

Porting MySensors to work with the RadioHead library

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