What are these modules?
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I got some just to try. They definitely are not nRF24L01: if treated as such, they don't appear talk even to each other. What are they?
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The infamous blob clones
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I have some different blob modules which work quite well. Maybe the pinout on these are different.... Or maybe they're just complete junk. Is anyone here using them for anything?
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I always believed they are just a bunch of junk soldered on a pcb
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I had those blobs modules in the past and returned them because they were fake (sold as nrf24L01). In fact, they worked quite well between them with the proper library; however they were unable to connect to genuine nrf24L01's.
Those modules tend to contain chip Si24R1, which seems to be a copy of the legit nrf24L01's but they forgot (maybe intentionally?) a small detail which makes them incompatible. This is documented in many internet sites. I actually used those sites to support my claim to get my money returned. I remember I was able to find some library around which had been hacked to make them work, and some workarounds were even mentioned in this forum - see this.
If they are not even able to connect with each other, the ones you received may just be 100% junk so you should just claim the seller for reimbursement.
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Sigrok lists some of the known clones: https://sigrok.org/wiki/Protocol_decoder:Nrf24l01 Only two of them are COB though. Of course, Sigrok may not have a complete list.
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Looks as though they are very likely SE8R01's. This link contains a datasheet for the SE8R01 and a pinout for the SMD module: http://community.atmel.com/forum/help-identifying-nrf24l01-compatible-modules It does not appear that it can interoperate with an nRF24L01.
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There's a library specifically designed to work with them: https://github.com/Sofcom/NRF24Lmodule-SE8R01
Also found another interesting library for working with other, different, "clones" of the nRF24L01: https://github.com/jnk0le/RFM7x-lib
