I finally got it!! Staring me in the face the whole time! Forgetting the arrays portion, because I still can't figure that out with multiple servos and messages.
My problem was that in the void receive 'if' conditions, I needed to specify from which child ID - right, we knew that part - but I ALSO needed to add the child ID conditional statement to ALL the 'else if' statements!
Thanks to everyone for their help!!
@mfalkvidd Thanks for your help! I wasn't utilizing the debug feature on the node (I had to uncomment it), but once I had that at my disposal, it was helpful to know the gateway radio was either not receiving, not acknowledging, or both. The radios I bought were the cheapest ones on amazon from a Chinese seller under the "brand" of "SongHe". The chip might be a valid (yet cloned) nrf24l01+ chip, but everything else about these boards screams fake-clone - not even any markings to identify the pins. Once I pulled one of my other radios out of another project and plugged it all in, voila - it works!! I was so happy! Thanks again!
Hi @mfalkvidd - thanks! That definitely makes it more fun! I set it up without resistors as the voltages produced on the servo pins are millivolts (hopefully not enough to burn an led). I'm re-working the code again with some arrays and will hopefully be able to report back with success
@bsmtdweller Update to this mystery:
I added a 1micro farad tantalum cap right at the RX radio, which initially did not start working, but after a few minutes, did start working. Observing the radios communicate for about an hour, the RX radio would work normally for a period, then fail - not ack sending radio, then go back to working. These observations lend real credibility that these radios are RIDICULOUSLY sensitive to their power supply - at least in this use case. (my RX radio is the nrf24l01+ PA + LNA with added 470 micro farad electrolytic cap after the regulator and now the tantalum cap at the board)
I dont know if it is factoring into these symptoms, but it may -- I'm not using the IRQ pin, which seems to play a vital role in the radio's sleep behavior and therefor power consumption (at least as it relates to the charging of the caps) which might explain the intermittent successes. Later I will add the IRQ wire into the mix.
Being honest - I have been banging my head against the wall with this and wanted to give up on it many times! But perseverance does pay off -- so any of you newcomers (like me) reading this -- dont give up!!
@mfalkvidd Thank you very much! So, this whole thing is a bit wonky! But when I stopped the gw and started it again, the new sensor was picked up! What the hell. They are both being recognized by the controller now, although there are still some strange behaviors happening. But now that I have the gateway log at my disposal, I have the ability to utilize the log parser and get a better understanding of what is going on.
Thanks again @mfalkvidd, you the man! I'm sure you will hear more from me soon!