Any RFM95 user reports?

alexsh1

@mfalkvidd when it comes to a loraWAN GW the cost is different - the DIY GW is going to set you off by €200+.

Rfm95/96 are cheap, but there are cheap for a reason. RN2483 is more expensive but it is loraWAN compliant.

mfalkvidd

@alexsh1 yes, absolutely. But is a private lorawan gw really relevant in a home automation scenario?

alexsh1

@mfalkvidd That's a loaded question. The same as NB-IOT, I think Lora may be used under certain circumstances in home automation though it is not designed for it.

For example, a friend of mine has got a summer house in a remote location. No internet and very weak 3G/2G signal. However, there is a loraWAN signal (it is in Holland). Of course, a good GSM antenna may help here. Or loraWAN can be used to send a message "all is OK with your house" once an hour. Is this home automation? Yes it is.

Like like yourself, I'm using Wemos D1 mini + rfm95 as a single channel GW and a few sensors just to tinker with this new technology and try to find the right application

mihai.aldea

Well, I'm glad that the posting got some traction and some very interesting ideas were shared. While the bits and pieces of information were all out there, your argument helped drawing some conclusions.

LoRa is NOT an option for HA. alexsh1 explained one scenario and I'm actually using LoRa (not LoRaWAN) in my building, but both cases make use of LoRa only because it's a new cool technology. @alexsh1 your friend could properly cover his home with 2G/3G signal either for free, by asking the provider to improve the coverage in that area, or by buying a GSM repeater. And I could ask a neighbor to share his WiFi connection so an ESP8266 module could do the job.
The protocol addresses very specific segments where a great urban coverage is required and for that to happen no node should exceed a radio power of over 100mW.
There is another case where everything was traded off for the sake of range, the ham radio JT65 protocol. I was able to successfully transmit a signal from Romania to Brazil using 5W RF power and a 1m diameter magnetic loop antenna. It's great for long distance, narrow bandwidth (200Hz wide channel), low power but it sends data at a "whooping" speed of 13 characters per 50 sec, during which it draws about 1.8A from a 12V battery (21.6Wh).
My original idea of LoRa <-> RFM69/RF24 is not feasible unless, some serious downsampling is involved, as buffering the raw data before sending it out is really useless because LoRa doesn't have a serious overhead that would be addressed by concatenating larger chunks of data in a single packets.

So at the end of the day, it really leaves us with a couple of applicable scenarios when taking public LoRaWAN meshes into consideration. Smart meters and perhaps security devices which only have to send a daily keepalive ping and if ever needed, tripped sensor alerts, provided that they would be immune to jammers. I'm not taking into consideration the close range stations where a daily 30s air time would suffice, because this defeats the purpose of LongRange. Other than that I see no real use of LoRaWAN, but feel free to share your ideas, perhaps I'm missing something.

And after apparently trashing both LoRa and LoRaWAN I will only say that I can barely wait to get myself a LoRaWAN gateway and set it up in my area :grin: :grin: :grin:

MikeR

Does anyone here have any code examples of the defines etc to get an RFM95 module (sx1278) to work in mysensors? cant find it in the API page. Many thanks to someone who can help

gohan

Look into myconfig.h, there are some in there

mfalkvidd

https://www.mysensors.org/apidocs-beta/group__RFM95SettingGrpPub.html might be useful

MikeR

@gohan Thank you, the one place i didnt look that i should have looked first

MikeR

@mfalkvidd Thank you, looks like that will help me as well.

Have had a bit of a tinker and still not getting the transport to initialise.

#define MY_DEBUG
#define MY_DEBUG_VERBOSE_RFM95

#define MY_RADIO_RFM95
#define RFM95_434MHZ
#define MY_RFM95_MODEM_CONFIGRUATION RFM95_BW125CR48SF4096
#define MY_GATEWAY_SERIAL


// Enable inclusion mode
#define MY_INCLUSION_MODE_FEATURE
#define MY_INCLUSION_MODE_DURATION 60
#define MY_DEFAULT_LED_BLINK_PERIOD 300


#include <MySensors.h>

void setup()
{
	}

void presentation()
{
	}

void loop()
{
	}```

Thats what i have for the gateway and this is the response

0;255;3;0;9;MCO:BGN:INIT GW,CP=RLNGA--,VER=2.1.1
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:INIT
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:WUR:MS=0
0;255;3;0;9;RFM95:INIT
0;255;3;0;9;!TSM:INIT:TSP FAIL
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:FAIL:CNT=1
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:FAIL:PDT```

Anyone able to assist? is the code right and its a hardware issue or is there more that needs to be in the code?

gohan

Double check for wrong wiring or a loose connection

MikeR

Triple checked the wiring. .. through a level shifter,
DIO0 - D2
NSS - D10
MOSI - D11
MISO - D12
SCK - D13
GND - GND (only one on the radio, do they all need to be connected?)
VDD - 3V3

Does that code look fine?
Might change the hardware out if that is the case.

mfalkvidd

@MikeR see if defining these helps (matching the pins you have wired):

#define 	MY_RFM95_IRQ_PIN
#define 	MY_RFM95_IRQ_NUM
#define 	MY_RFM95_CS_PIN

mfalkvidd

This is what I used for a RFM69 gateway on an esp8266. Something similar should work for RFM95:

#define MY_RFM69_FREQUENCY RF69_433MHZ
#define MY_RF69_IRQ_PIN D1
#define MY_RF69_IRQ_NUM MY_RF69_IRQ_PIN
#define MY_RF69_SPI_CS D2 // NSS

Maybe MY_RF69_IRQ_NUM should be defined as digitalPinToInterrupt(MY_RF69_IRQ_PIN).

ricorico94

Hi,

I'm very interested in the LoRa thing : it' probably the only way to connect a node to a gateway through several floors of concrete in building.. (or do you think the NRF24 could do it ?)

Could you share your experience on how you wired your hardware ? (including how you power the RFM95 if the arduino pins can not supply enough power -I read somewhere that Lora require up to 200mA, more than the 20-40mA available on Arduino Pro Mini for instance).

br,

nelsonov

I'm also having trouble with RFM95's. I'm confused about MY_RFM95_IRQ_PIN and MY_RFM95_IRQ_NUM. Does PIN mean the GPIO pin number or the interrupt pin number? I've noticed that the same physical pin has different numbers depending on their use.

Also, what is the distinction between MY_RFM95_IRQ_PIN andMY_RFM95_IRQ_NUM?

Sweeman

Hi,
I don't know whether this helps, but I am also experiencing some trouble testing an RFM95 module.
I am using the Moteino with FTDI adapter.
I found that the connection is really instable (I should use some capacitors for a more stable connection I guess, even though there's no problem with the RFM69 433mHz version).
My configuration is the default one. Don't know if I even have to define it that way, just did it because I had to with the last ones:

#define MY_DEBUG                                  // used by MySensor (Print debug messages via serial)
#define MY_RADIO_RFM95                            // Select Radio-Module RFM95
#define MY_RFM95_FREQUENCY 868            // Define our Frequency of 868 MHz
#define MY_RFM95_MODEM_CONFIGRUATION RFM95_BW125CR45SF128 //Default for medium Range and medium speed: RFM95_BW125CR45SF128 ; For long range and slow speed: RFM95_BW125CR48SF4096
#define MY_RFM95_NETWORKID 100                  // leave out for gateway selection
#define   MY_RFM95_IRQ_PIN   DEFAULT_RFM95_IRQ_PIN
#define MY_RFM95_IRQ_NUM   DEFAULT_RFM95_IRQ_NUM
#define MY_RFM95_CS_PIN   DEFAULT_RFM95_CS_PIN
#define MY_NODE_ID 224                            // Node ID
#define MY_BAUD_RATE 38400

Also I am trying to use it with an RPi and FHEM. But this didn't work so far.
But I do get it to work over the PC-USB using the Arduino Serial-Monitor... Strange.

gohan

How are you powering the radio module?

Sweeman

@gohan
I am powering the sensor-sided Moteino with 3AA batteries.

When I unplug the 433MHz-Gateway from the RPi I at least get an autocreate and exactly one temperature reading.
Then it is dead again :expressionless:

gohan

I'm referring to the vcc of the Rfm95, where are you getting the power from?

Sweeman

@gohan
Ah sorry, I misunderstood.
The RFM95s VCC is factory-wired to a regulator on the moteino. It is an out of the box MCU+Radio-Unit.
See this link for clarification:
Moteino with RFM95

Sorry for the confusion.

EDIT: I just tried changing my normal 433MHz Gateway with Arduino Nano + RFM69HCW on the RPi for a Moteino-integrated-RFM69HCW one.
I have the same problem with that as with the LoRa Moteino GW... It works fine with the PC and even gets readings far away, I normally do not get.
Hooking it up to the RPi with FHEM it stops working...
I can't really explain that? :confused:

EDIT 2: I checked the debug of the sensor-sided unit. It says st=OK...
So I guess I'll have to check my hardware (FTDI etc.)

Any RFM95 user reports?

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