💬 MySRaspiGW PA+LNA - MySensors Raspberry Pi GPIO Gateway

[openhardware.io]

https://www.openhardware.io/view/116/MySRaspiGW-PALNA-MySensors-Raspberry-Pi-GPIO-Gateway

[emc2]

Been working flawlessly for almost a week now. Range untested.
Still, be careful as it's not supposed to be. Power usage of the module should have caused some resets, or worse frying the Pi GPIO.
Overall SMD modules tested (standard and PA+LNA) seems of better quality than non-SMD nRF24L01, almost no failed transmissions.

[alexsh1]

How are you feeding it? Directly from pin17?

Talking about the power consumption - http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/43536/maximum-current-on-each-gpio-pin-for-raspberry-pi-3-model-b

[emc2]

Yes directly from pin 17. Only tested on the old A and B Pi models.

[Oitzu]

I like the magic blue smoke hole directly above the cap on your RPi case. XD

[EddyG]

Works perfect, but a pitty that I had to solder a connection between the IRQ and pin 18. Maybe in a next version?
I use it with "--my-rf24-pa-level=RF24_PA_LOW" and works fine.

[emc2]

True quite a shame. I was planning to create a cleaner PCB with eventually LEDs and RFM69 when supported and forgot it in a corner.

I actually already have a IRQ design ready (only IRQ added, no LEDs, not sure how often LEDs are used), I will try to order it this week and test it soon after.

If you want to try it on your side before any official release just PM me.

On recent Raspi3 it should work without --my-rf24-pa-level=RF24_PA_LOW give it a try if you have the opportunity to do so.

[EddyG]

Hi, I just wait until you release the PCB with IRQ on pin 18. I am using the LED's only for testing.
The LED's are configured on pins 16,15 and 13 and are working fine.
For testing I simply connect a header with resistor and led temporary.
I will try without --my-rf24-pa-level=RF24_PA_LOW , but I am having could result with low power.
It seams that this antenna is much better than the 'default' NRF24L01+

[emc2]

I ordered some PCBs (IRQ on pin 18 only) yesterday night, should be there in ~2weeks to test.

I tend to hide the Pi in a corner so I don't really care for additional LEDs personally.

Without --my-rf24-pa-level=RF24_PA_LOW you should still be able to receive any signal, on an old version 1 model B you can't send anything, not enough power, but it seems that for most people it works on a Pi 3B and 2B+.

[emc2]

@EddyG PCB received and tested, new version (v1.1) available here and on github.