[SOLVED] ADAFRUIT rfm69hcw breakout - doesnt respond

[abrasha]

@tboha
Maybe library issue.?
I checked the same sketch with nrf24 and it was fine

[tboha]

@abrasha
Sorry about the delay - I ran out of ideas, and your new measurements are confusing to me.
About Vin:
Could it be possible we talk at cross-purposes?
From the MySensors wiring advice I conclude to connect Arduino-5V to Adafruit-Vin (just the way NRF24L01 with power adapter board).

From your picture (which I misinterpreted firstly due to bad sight) you said

Well, no, the Vin on the adafruit (brown wire) is connected to the vin pin on the uno. I've tried also connecting it to the 5v pin with no success. Also tried switching gnd sockets on the uno.
Im close to sign this issue with recall to adafruit - i ordered 4 boards and they're all with the same behavior. Or maybe i shorted out the ground when i soldered the antenna?

Connecting Arduino-Vin to Adafruit-Vin would not exactly be according to the rules - but it might work - more likely it would result in unforced errors due to insufficient stabilisation of 5V.
From your measurement 4.99V on Adafruit-Vin I conclude you switched to a 5V Arduino socket - have you?

D13 at 0.2V (or 0.3V) shouldn't light up the LED at all unless its really continuous SCK with predominantly low phases.

To solve this you would need an oscilloscope - and this would be inappropriate in my opinion.

No, I don't think it is a library malfunction. I experienced MySensors library as stable and library malfunctions are mostly detected by community at once. For special cases there maybe a lack of functionality but I don't think your setup is very special (besides the breakout-board). And 5 defective boards in a row - not very likely (and Adafruit has a good reputation for engeneering as well as for production).

I am not familiar with RFM69 (altough I was thinking of adding some RFM69 to my setup, but level converters scared me, so I was interested in your type of setup). So far I read about RFM69 you did the approriate #defines. Maybe someone who is working often with RFM69 could check the above sketch?

None of the above explains why your sketch works without GND connection. It's still a miracle.

And as I said before - I ran out of practicable ideas. Next I would try to get a functional two Arduino system according to Adafruit instructions (as well hardware as software). Ok - it's a little like giving up (only a little) - but maybe a practical approach.

[tekka]

@abrasha I didn't read the whole conversation, but RST is not connected? Leaving RST floating could cause a problem.

[abrasha]

@tekka

Tried this on d9 inside the void setup:

pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
  delay(100);
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);
  delay(100);

The adafruit test sketch put this in order to reset the board in the setup phase.
Didn't work

[abrasha]

ok. case solved. my mistake from the beginning...

i ran the adafruit test sketch without the reset lines, and after the guy in their forum reminded me, i tried this inside void setup, and than i realized that the rfm69 initializes before void setup, so i inserted these lines inside MyTransport.cpp:

void stInitTransition(void)
{
	pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //adafruit rfm69hcw board fix
     digitalWrite(9, HIGH);
     delay(100);
     digitalWrite(9, LOW);
     delay(100);
     TRANSPORT_DEBUG(PSTR("TSM:INIT\n"));
	// initialise status variables
	_transportSM.pingActive = false;
	_transportSM.transportActive = false;
	_transportSM.lastUplinkCheck = 0ul;

and everything is fine.
now i have a running serial-gw and 3 nodes that one of them talks to the gateway directly from a distance which a similar nrf node needed 2 repeaters to do so. exciting! its about 117 meters of direct line, with one plastic transperant door between and only simple standing wire antenna without dipole.

thanks everyone,

and a letter to the honorable @Admin (s):
may i propose a sticky thread dedicated to all compatible hardwares which need special configuration in order to work with mysensors. some examples:
this thread :blush:
adafruit feather
w5100 with rfm69

i think many members will benefit from such thread for saving time sweat and unnecessary effort for something that should be written somewhere in some dust covered manual

[webzter30]

@abrasha ,
I know this is a old post. Glad to see someone else had this problem with these breakout boards. Thanks for the hard work hashing this out. I am new to mysensors. I have been pulling my hair out to get the RFM69HW radios to work with the ESP8266 mqtt gateway. I want to use this with openhab. I was able to back track and get the nRF modules to work, but really would like to get the RFM69HW radios to work. I had several RFM chips and hooked them up to pro min 3.3V 8mhz boards but could only sporadically get one to initialize, but then stop. I broke down and bought the adafruit breakout boards thinking that maybe I could get them to work, but ran into your problem.
I am glad I found your topic on the forum. To clarify, What did you attach to pin 9? Is this the only thing you did fix the problem?
Do the breakout boards have to be used with a 5v arduino?

Thanks.

[Sweeman]

Hi, I am also trying to get them to work and stumbled upon this. I will try that and let you know if it works.

@webzter30 I guess he connected it to RST on the Adafruit-board. He mentioned that before. And the breakout does work with 3-5V, so it should work with almost anything. But Adafruit stated that you should use the same power on VIN as on the logic circuits. So for a Nano that would be 5V

EDIT: Works for me! Thanks.