Getting started

[Phil_S]

Hello
I've decided to try something different to Zigbee and Xbees. Just too unreliable.
The Xbees are used mainly for temperatures around the house and some utility meter information, electricity, gas and water meters.
I've got a couple of Arduino Nanos and a couple of RFM69HAC modules. I'll be using 915-MHz
What would be really helpful would be a simple example just to get me started.
A bit of wiring information and which library(s) to use would be great.

[Felix]

Hi Phil,
I assume you're looking to be sending wireless packets?
I can point you to RFM69 and the library I created and maintain at: https://github.com/LowPowerLab/rfM69/
The examples work out of the box on Moteino boards. I would not warmly recommend you trying to fit a RFM69 to an Arduino Nano, multiple reasons, and results might not be great. But if you must try, then hook up the 3.3V, GND, SPI pins, and the SPI CS pin to D10, and it should work.
There are also many other different boards that come with a RFM69 but your mileage may vary depending how compatible those boards are to the RFM69 Library, or you may be able to tweak the constructor to pass in different pins.
The initial learning curve can be a bit steep but once things get going it will be fun and easy.

[Phil_S]

Thanks Felix.
The RFM69 modules are Adafruit and have a 4050 logic chip on board to deal with the 3.3-volt/5.0-volt translation.
I'm quite happy to try the Moteino boards if it gets me started.
I'm in the UK so I order direct from you?
I've been doing Xbees for nearly 10-years now, but sadly I have to conclude that the 2.4-GHz region is just too crowded and I rarely get 100% transmission success despite having a large router network.
Also, Digi's technical support is not good.
I have Hall sensors on the water meter and gas meter and an optical sensor on the electricity meter, so one pulse per Watt-hr.
The water meter isn't great and I suspect there's a bit of jitter or backlash on the mechanism which causes multiple pulses to be recorded. Water hammer in the pipework can cause the the mechanical pointer to flutter. The water meter originally would have been designed to operate with a reed switch and maybe the Hall sensor is just too sensitive.

[Felix]

You could then try the RFM69 breakouts you have, and conclude from there if you want to move to dedicated dev boards with onboard RFM69.
There's Moteinos at WELECTRON but I reckon you will have to pay import taxes either way.