Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with test setup

[AWI]

@linus72982 what does the serial monitor on your node show when you strart the node now. Any radio failures?
Your sketch looks fine.

[linus72982]

The monitor only shows Gateway Startup Complete or whatever the initial message is. I don't have two of the cables needed so I can't check the pro mini at the same time. If I check the pro mini, then I can't get power to gateway.

I checked power to the pro mini, the pro mini's radio, and the nano's radio -- all good, even after I "time it out".

I noticed one thing, though -- after a reset, I can go for many minutes without triggering the sensor but once I do, I only get one sensor trigger before it stops reporting. If I start triggering the sensor immediately after a reset, I can get about 5 seconds of triggering before it stops reporting. If I do REALLY fast triggering of the sensor on and off I can go indefinitely. Weird?

[linus72982]

Also, keep in mind, I can only start getting data again after a timeout by resetting the nano. Even if I reset it manually with the same serial monitor left open, I can get data back by triggering the sensors -- but again, only for a few seconds. If I reset the pro-mini, I don't get data back, just the nano.

[linus72982]

Just a thought -- does the nano require I respond that I'm receiving the messages? As I'm only monitoring and not sending anything, could it just time out sending it if I don't tell it I'm still listening? Being that I'm not yet using a controller, if it does require some sort of response, could that be the problem?

[AWI]

@linus72982 it sounds a little confusing..
Let's start again.

The nano is your serial gateway node. The pro mini is your sensor node.
The MySensors protocol needs a communication between two nodes to work. So both the nodes must be switched on.
As far as I can see your gateway seems to function. So connect that to a powered usb port (or charger). Then connect the pro mini to a serial monitor (with ftdi) and tell us what it is doing.

[linus72982]

Yes, both nodes were switched on -- what I was saying was that I don't have two of the mini-USB cables, just one that came with the FTDI. So, if I have it plugged into the nano to power everything, I can't see the pro mini's output. If I have it plugged into the pro mini, I can't power the nano unless I move around some cables. I will head to the store in a bit and grab another usb cable in a bit and let you know the output of both.

[linus72982]

Okay, I got another cable and now have the pro-mini's output:

It starts up and does this automatically:

send: 3-3-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=15,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0
send: 3-3-0-0 s=255,c=0,t=17,pt=0,l=5,sg=0,st=fail:1.5.4
send: 3-3-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=6,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,st=fail:0
sensor started, id=3, parent=0, distance=1
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=fail:
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0

Then, when I trigger the sensor open:

send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:1
find parent
send: 3-3-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:

Then closed:

send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0

And opened again:

send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:1

After a few opens/closes, I get the find parent again:

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

[AWI]

@linus72982 as expected, there is no radio contact between the node and gateway. If the node can't find a parent node (gateway) it will keep on searching. Make sure the radio is working by following the flowchart mentioned by @mfalkvidd.

[linus72982]

Will do and I'll get back to you.

Curious though, there does seem to be some comm between the two because I get triggers for about 5 seconds. If it doesn't find a parent, it stops sending? Maybe hardcoding a parent id would work? I'll try a few things.

[linus72982]

@AWI

Okay, I followed the chart and couldn't find anything specific. I switched out the pro mini for a new one, I switched out the radio attached to the pro mini, and I added a hard-coded parent to the pro mini. After I hard-coded the parent, I stopped getting the find parent messages, but the nano still stops reporting the sensor triggers after 5 seconds or so. But, again, I can keep the nano reporting the triggers indefinitely if I trigger if very fast on and off. It almost seems like an acknowledge problem or something. So, here's the output of the nano with me tripping the sensor a few times:

0;0;3;0;9;gateway started, id=0, parent=0, distance=0
0;0;3;0;14;Gateway startup complete.
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:1
3;3;1;0;16;1
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:0
3;3;1;0;16;0
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:1
3;3;1;0;16;1
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:0
3;3;1;0;16;0
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:1
3;3;1;0;16;1
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:0
3;3;1;0;16;0
0;0;3;0;9;read: 3-3-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0:1
3;3;1;0;16;1

Here's the output of the pro mini to start (no sensor tripping):

send: 3-3-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=15,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0
send: 3-3-0-0 s=255,c=0,t=17,pt=0,l=5,sg=0,st=fail:1.5.4
send: 3-3-0-0 s=255,c=3,t=6,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,st=fail:0
sensor started, id=3, parent=0, distance=1
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=0,t=0,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=fail:
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0

And then a few sensor trips does this on the pro mini:

send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:1
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:1
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:1
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:1
send: 3-3-0-0 s=3,c=1,t=16,pt=2,l=2,sg=0,st=fail:0

I'm not sure how to read the send messages as there doesn't seem to be documentation on the API page for these, just the receive messages. I'm not sure what st=fail means.

For reference, I hard-coded the pro mini ID as 3 and the parent to talk to on the pro mini as 0 with this line:

gw.begin(NULL, CHILD_ID, false, 0);

because the SerialGateway sketch has this line:

gw.begin(incomingMessage, 0, true, 0);

and from what I read, that means that the gateway is set to ID 0, but then the second zero should be setting the parent to 0 also. So it's its own parent? I'm not sure. Either way, I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. I really do appreciate all your help, I just want to get one up and working so I can make some more.

[AWI]

@linus72982 You are getting there.. :smile:
The st:fail part of the message indicates a failure to send. This is based on a low level acknowledgement between the radio's. In most cases these fails result from power/hardware problems.
You mentioned an amplified radio for the gateway. The specifically are prone to unpredictable behavior. (search for 'the ugly fix' or nrf24l01+pa+lna) or replace it with a standard radio for testing.

[linus72982]

So, it works now. Weird.

I swapped out for a radio without the antenna and replaced the capacitor just in case (the leads were getting wavy). The little antenna worked, but very intermittently, there were many misses. So, I put the radio with the antenna back to try some of the "fixes" for them like the ugly fix and powering externally. Well, I put it back and it works now. I moved the antenna back where it was sitting and still worked. Restarted a few times, still works. Not sure what was going on but I'm guessing it was either a bad capacitor or I had it mis-wired somehow as I completely redid the wiring when I swapped them.

Thanks very much for your time. I know I was annoying as hell, I appreciate you sticking with me :)

[AWI]

@linus72982 thanks. Now let the fun begin and share your idea's