Nordic or HopeRF radio

[NeverDie]

@scalz

I mainly should have emphasized the compactness rather than the footprint of the SMD (since it's small and includes a PCB antenna), as compared to the RFM69, which has a comparable footprint to the SMD but which still needs an antenna.

[cablesky]

@scalz

you can use listenmode (not in mysensors yet) which means waking up your deep sleep node by interrupt. And that's a very nice feature.

Do you know, when it works in mysensors?? Its very interesting!

[scalz]

@cablesky
yep I have it working in mysensors dev ;) locally, not released, i just need to look at an howto PR (pull request to mysensors lib). not done yet..
i will give news here https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/3483/rfm69-and-atc/23 when the PR will be ok.

[NeverDie]

ListenMode is one of the things that originally attracted me to the RFM69. However, it's not as big a deal as I had originally thought. With an atmega328p you can approximate it quite easily on almost any radio.

[joaoabs]

I see this topic is about 2 years old.

I'm wondering about improvements in the mentioned CONs of the RFM69.
Security is a concern for myself, so I'm testing the NRFs with signing (that don't allow encription).

Eventhough I'm a big fan of mysensors for over 3 years or so, I believe this is the year that I'm going to really implement it on my house!

Aspects that I care are security, reliability (ack's & retransmits), and range.
For instance, footprint isn't a concern for me.

So my question is: Should I re-use the good-old NRFs I have lying around, or should I invest now in the RFM69's and therefore have an improved future-proofness?

What would be the plan of mysensors initiative in the future? To focus on the RFM69's ?

The listenmode feature seems great... Have it been included in mysensors already?

Thanks,

[Anticimex]

@joaoabs encryption is available for all radios, in hardware and if not supported, in software.
But if you want something future proof, go for nrf52.

[dbemowsk]

Is the pin 2 interrupt working for nRF? That too would be nice in places.

[Yveaux]

@dbemowsk Yes, see e.g. here https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/7190/irq-pin-for-nrf24l01

[alexsh1]

@joaoabs I have both nrf24l01+ and rfm69w
My recommendation is rfm69w. Yes a bit more expensive but the amount of time I spent troubleshooting nrf clones could have been used elsewhere. Rfm69w just works out of the box in 98%. No clones and that means you won’t have strange NACKs and do not have to call for a shaman to make it work 🤣

[gohan]

@alexsh1 and don't forget signal RSSI values

[Anticimex]

I know this might be considered off topic, but if you want future proofing, make sure you run on a platform with more memory than atmega328p. As for what radio to use, there is nothing in the roadmap that hints at any existing radio being dropped from the supported list. That said, nrf24 does carry a bunch of issues with it with respect to counterfeit chips.

[JohnRob]

I recently started with MySensors. I chose the RFM69W radio over the nrf24 due to posts complaining about range issues with the nrf24. That said I can tell I can tell you the range of my RFM69W is excellent. From my basement (concrete foundation) to the other side of my neighbors house ~75 meters with no issues.

The only drawback I see is the voltage limit of 3.3Vdc. This precludes using some batteries without a regulator.

I also found the external antenna could be a + or -. Currently I'm using a coil / spring type antenna mounted on the board.

[gohan]

If you use LiFePO4 batteries you don't need any regulator

[JohnRob]

@gohan

Thank you for the comment. Somehow I was under the impression the NRF24 would accept a 5V for power. However now I see only the inputs are 5V tolerant.

[dbemowsk]

@johnrob Be careful. nRF24 radios are easy to blow if you feed them 5V for power.