So far betatests for two modules soldered manually two weeks ago are good. I was using two analog inputs and 5 digital outputs. Radio is rock stable also.

Found strange behavior of RFM69 OTA burning firmware after some research
OTA + RFM 69 (possible) glitches.
Used MYScontroller – works super flawless
Tried both MySensors Library 2.0 and MySensors Library v2.1.0
Various boards made by Koresh 8 Mghz Atmega with RFM69 radios

The issue: On larger sketches (like more than 20kbytes), OTA always gives CRC error. Smaller ones (4k or less) could be burned 1 out of 3 tries.

In the picture below the blues screen is comparing two files (right column is HEX and two lines actually is single 16 bit OTA payload)
Bin.txt file is parsed Arduino hex output to the way it is identical to JDEC flash content. TXT2 file is JDEC flash content.
Log indicates NACK error for the block B=0065 and LEN !=29 (assume it is 0 length payload). After that, somehow instead of re-requesting that corrupted or 0 sized payload, it duplicates previously received (marked in yellow) into new address. This can happen sometimes 2-3 or 10 times during OTA process

I spend many hours playing with MyOTAFirmwareUpdate , transport and RFM driver trying “fixing” logic there but failed. Solution found Koresh by increasing from 40ms to 100ms retryWaitTime in RFM69.h

virtual bool sendWithRetry(uint8_t toAddress, const void* buffer, uint8_t bufferSize,  uint8_t retries=2, uint8_t retryWaitTime=100); //!< sendWithRetry (40ms roundtrip req for 61byte packets) 

So may be something strange happens when rfm ack is received outside the circle in sendWithRetry function.

My and Koresh concern it is not “real” solution. Since this kind of re-requesting of 0 sized payloads should be dealt very well in protocol layer. Otherwise if there is lots of traffic going on
In the network, there will be lots of this kind of 0 payload situations.
The fix actually gives good results (10 out of 10 without CRC errors). It works now but… I think would be great to look into deeply.

@tekka

The break down cost of the board and components is less than USD $5 ( aliexpress component prices mostly) . Can someone share some PCBA service which can also do components sourcing ? with reasonable pricing of course. I would order some 20 - 30 units and may be others could join to make price cheaper.

@tekka

with your new PR updated all works good now. I could not replicate @ 40 ms in retryWaitTime the mentioned above. so I put 10 ms like a stress test. It has survived! with lots of WRONG FWB but with CRC OK!

the logs

serial
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B11zpaGZaUo5c3NMT1VuSGoxU3c

last OTA is correspoding to serial log
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B11zpaGZaUo5MVh2cUg2cWMxWER0aHEwWHhoY1VidEpuOURn

Once a week I was having NACK blackout. All nodes could not send nor receive anything. Initially I was resetting everything and after some 20 minutes I was “able to fix” things. However, it was reappearing. Looked very strange. I bought very very very useful device called RTL-SDR (R820T) software digital receiver. Just in case you do not have, it is worth to buy. Yes, it is around $7 dollars from aliexpress include delivery. The device is not good for NRF since range is 24 - 1766 MgHz but for RFM it is super good. Back to my problem though, I found the noise at 429 -437 Mghz and it lasts around 20 minutes, the time “I was fixing things” previously. Huh!
Video
https://youtu.be/BH_hDyWGr5I
You can see from the video, blackout was at the frequencies from 429 -437 Mghz
After that, I switched RFM 69 to 440 Mghz and see results. 5 transmissions!!!
https://youtu.be/jlE2p07-jOY
The device is super useful toy!!! You can listen FM radio and other air traffic control towers.
Found later is not legal to use 440 Mghz though…
The RTL-SDR (R820T):
With this tutorial you can turn RTL-SDR (R820T) into 24 - 1766 MgHz receiver and see what happens in the air.
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

Hope it is helpful.

Alfa testing:

Checking radios as various nodes. Currently working as 2 relay nodes, DHT 22 temperature node and gateway.
All is good . Range 1-2 meters less than NRF24 with big antenna in apartment surrounding.
Digital pins cheeked like in the video: https://youtu.be/00fy9amZnt4
Analog pins tested with generic arduino light sensor. So radios and pins are OK.

The bootloader and OTA update script + RFM69 work super nice with MYScontroller. I use it few times a week. Big Big Big ups to Tekka. Especially I like the sensebender micro bootloader boots instantly ))). Enjoy everybody!

Hi @fisher yes this is Koresh board. Hope to upload others soon... We did production and testing with him together.

make sense?

sketch is here
https://github.com/EasySensors/WallSocketInsertableNode/blob/master/WallSocketInsertableNode.ino

but no LED support there, but easy to add.
Yes, it will work if no gateway around.

Re: Button size radionode with sensors swarm extension

2 cr2032 winter upgrade - works nice

Keep working at -20 Celsius in a fridge. voltage dropped from 6 Volts to 5V and keeps pretty stable while sending temperature reading every 2 minutes for 2 days now.

@bjornhallberg

while measuring current draw , was there FDTI adapter connected also?

@alexsh1
I was trying the same code on bare RFM69 board without any external libs,
just mysesnsors2.0 and 2.2 and 2.3 old drivers. 2.0 need 30ms waits 2.2-2.3 - up to 100ms for stable ACK's and sends

@scalz
NRF24 works fine without waits.... may be you know some direction where to dig in RFM driver for gold?

@mickecarlsson said in Very strange bugs. 2.3. RFM69.:

Note that the begin() function needs a mode parameter, and that is used in configure

Should be this one lightMeter.begin(BH1750::ONE_TIME_LOW_RES_MODE); but Koresh was asking radio related question...

ESUN flex filament used.

@kenci

EUR 18 the board with SI7021 and BH1750. extra 1EUR for enclosure if someone need it.

@kenci

Yes, in a week or so. Even with plastic enclosure ))

@gohan said in Button size radionode with sensors swarm extension:

selected it will go out of range during node boot and cut the circuit making measurement impossible

my cheap one survives 20mA surge (RFM69 CW version) of initial communications and displays good reading afterwards. if you burned fuse inside, try replacing it temporarily with some thin wire for this uA tests.

@chbla said in Button size radionode with sensors swarm extension:

multimeter

You should be fine even with a cheap multi-meter as long as it has uA scale.

should be around 7-10 uA and if you do not send JDEC to sleep it is 17 -19 uA.

to send JDEC to sleep\wakeup I use
_flash.wakeup();
_flash.sleep();

light sensor should be sent to sleep explicitly also.

@neverdie said in Button size radionode with sensors swarm extension:

worth

uh... apparently, yes. dual dip cr2032 is hard to find item on ali.

Re: Button size radionode with sensors swarm extension

2 cr2032 winter upgrade - works nice

Keep working at -20 Celsius in a fridge. voltage dropped from 6 Volts to 5V and keeps pretty stable while sending temperature reading every 2 minutes for 2 days now.