@BearWithBeard I found my problem. It turns out my arduino had a false contact on one of the ground pins I was using to power my radio. When I noticed, I resoldered the header pin on the nano and it magically started working. It works with both the normal and the long range antenna and I do see a big difference in range. Thanks for all the help again. Guess I will have some spare radios now...
@skywatch after many nights of tshooting I found that my power brick was the one causing the issues. Not sure why it worked with old radio and not this one. It didn't cross my mind because it was a Samsung brand name 2000ma power brick and it was working properly, but last night it completely failed even with the old radio. I had no lights on my arduino or my ethernet module. I figured it was a good time to retest and the second I put it online with the new adapter it worked. Just wishing I would have tried that earlier...
Hi folks, I am having some issues with my gateway that I can't figure out. I have had my gateway setup for some time now but having issues with some nodes that are a little further away. To resolve the issue, I decided to use a long range antenna. I opted for this antenna link text. When operating from the regular NRF antenna I have no issues but when I swap it to this one, I lose communication to all my nodes, and my error led starts flashing. It flashes twice and stops. After researching a little I came across these error codes for the flashes. Each row indicates the error number so 2 flashes means Failed to Transmit messages which seems correct since I cant get it to communicate with anything.
INDICATION_ERR_HW_INIT, //!< HW initialization error
my err->INDICATION_ERR_TX, //!< Failed to transmit message.
INDICATION_ERR_TRANSPORT_FAILURE, //!< Transport failure.
INDICATION_ERR_INIT_TRANSPORT, //!< MySensors transport hardware (radio) init failure.
INDICATION_ERR_FIND_PARENT, //!< Failed to find parent node.
INDICATION_ERR_GET_NODEID, //!< Failed to receive node ID.
INDICATION_ERR_CHECK_UPLINK, //!< Failed to check uplink
INDICATION_ERR_SIGN, //!< Error signing.
INDICATION_ERR_LENGTH, //!< Invalid message length.
INDICATION_ERR_VERSION, //!< Protocol version mismatch.
INDICATION_ERR_NET_FULL, //!< Network full. All node ID's are taken.
INDICATION_ERR_INIT_GWTRANSPORT, //!< Gateway transport hardware init failure.
INDICATION_ERR_LOCKED, //!< Node is locked.
INDICATION_ERR_FW_FLASH_INIT, //!< Firmware update flash initialisation failure.
INDICATION_ERR_FW_TIMEOUT, //!< Firmware update timeout.
INDICATION_ERR_FW_CHECKSUM, //!< Firmware update checksum mismatch.
I have tried different power supplies as I am feeding my Arduino nano with a regular USB 5V adapter you would use to charge your phone. I have the NRF power VCC pin being fed from the 3.3V pin on the arduino nano.
The Serial Monitor Log doesn't show me much of anything that gives me any clue as to what is going on.
Here are a few lines on the tail of that log.
1575208 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=6
1575212 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
1575215 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
1577435 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-6-6,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
1585840 TSF:MSG:READ,5-5-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
1585845 TSF:MSG:BC
1585847 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=5
1585850 TSF:PNG:SEND,TO=0
1585852 TSF:CKU:OK
1585854 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
1588473 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-5-5,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
1589928 TSF:MSG:READ,5-5-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
1589934 TSF:MSG:BC
1589936 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=5
1589939 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
1589941 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
1592551 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-5-5,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
1592772 TSF:MSG:READ,3-3-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
1592777 TSF:MSG:BC
1592779 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=3
1592782 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
1592784 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
1595167 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-3-3,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
1595585 TSF:MSG:READ,4-4-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
1595590 TSF:MSG:BC
1595592 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=4
1595595 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
1595597 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
1597721 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-4-4,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
It seems I am getting NACK. Any clue as to what I could try?
@skywatch after many nights of tshooting I found that my power brick was the one causing the issues. Not sure why it worked with old radio and not this one. It didn't cross my mind because it was a Samsung brand name 2000ma power brick and it was working properly, but last night it completely failed even with the old radio. I had no lights on my arduino or my ethernet module. I figured it was a good time to retest and the second I put it online with the new adapter it worked. Just wishing I would have tried that earlier...
yes I have a 47uf Cap across the power. Ill try again soon and see what happens. Ill check to make sure the cap is soldered on correctly as well.
@Yveaux said in Troubleshooting MQTT Gateway with Amplified NRF24L01+PA+LNA Long Range Antenna:
heck the pinout?
I got these, https://amzn.to/380eBob "nRF24L01 SPI PA LNA 2.4GHz rf Module E01-ML01DP5 2.5km iot 2.4 ghz rf Transmitter Receiver with Shield for arduino nRF24L01P". The pinout does look identical. I haven't had a chance to plug the gateway into monitor to see what the logs are saying just yet.
Just got the modules but neither of them worked as a drop-in. Did you by any chance have to do anything different with these CD-Byte modules? I like that they are smaller and do look like the craftsmanship is a bit better. Was waiting for it to print out a case for it but I guess I am back to the drawing board. In the meantime, the older amplified modules are working great.
@BearWithBeard I found my problem. It turns out my arduino had a false contact on one of the ground pins I was using to power my radio. When I noticed, I resoldered the header pin on the nano and it magically started working. It works with both the normal and the long range antenna and I do see a big difference in range. Thanks for all the help again. Guess I will have some spare radios now...
@BearWithBeard awesome thanks again for your help!
@BearWithBeard ok sounds good, I assume with this I would be able to talk to all my other nodes that are on the pcb antenna type NRF modules. I purchased two of the CDEByte modules so I can add a repeater if needed later. I'll swing back in a month once I set it all up.
One other question, if I wanted to power this new module and a nano off of a good quality USB plug, could I get one of these https://amzn.to/38h3DfW and power it from the 5v pin on the nano to get my 3v3? If not any suggestions on what the best way to do that would be? Want to make sure I get whatever I need before the new modules get here.
Thanks again!
@BearWithBeard hello again, I went ahead and checked it and I did have the grounds bonded together so nothing. I tried a second antenna ( same brand) and get similar results. I tried adding another cap just in case the one I have is faulty but no difference. Unfortunately, I do not have a ceramic cap but I'll see if I can get one of those to test. I have gone ahead and ordered the CDEByte radios but they will take over a month to get here 
. I also made sure to reduce the PA level to min and still has the same effect. Guess I am going back to the normal pcb transceiver. Bummed out that I can't get this to work. I thought it would be a simple swap of modules although I did realize the power requirements were different. The aluminum foil thing didn't do a thing for me either. If you can think of anything else I can try let me know.
@BearWithBeard thanks for the response. Few things I might have failed to tie in both grounds so I will check on that today to see if that helps. I did try shielding with foil as well as lowering the PA but neither worked. I'll swing by in a bit and let you know if that floating ground may have been my issue. If it isn't I might consider the other radio you mentioned. What kind of range are you getting with those?