Moteino more sensitive in OLEDMote than in setup with Raspberry Pi

[certeza]

I noticed something strange when using the Moteino R4 in combination with a Raspberry Pi.

I have 5 Moteinos R4 with 433MHz RFM69W radio and wire antenna.

One is used in an OLEDMote that prints every incoming message to the OLED display.
I use the Struct_receive example code for a Moteino connected to a Raspberry Pi thru 4 20cm jumper wires, Vcc connected to 5V on the rPi. I check the incoming messages with minicom.
I use an Apple Ipad power supply (5V, 2A) for the rPi.
The OLEDmote is less than 10 cm away from the rPi.

Both are in network 100 and have node id 1.
I am using the latest RFM69 library.

3 battery powered humidity sensors (Moteino R4 + DHT22) in the garden send their signals every 3 minutes to node 1, network 100.
The OLEDmote picks up all 3 signals, but the rPI looses some of them, not per se the sensor with the weakest signal.

Doesn't matter if I have OLEDMote and rPI on at the same time or not.

I tried changing the power supply of the rPI, makes no difference.

What could be the cause?

[TomWS]

I noticed something strange when using the Moteino R4 in combination with a Raspberry Pi.

I have 5 Moteinos R4 with 433MHz RFM69W radio and wire antenna.

One is used in an OLEDMote that prints every incoming message to the OLED display.
I use the Struct_receive example code for a Moteino connected to a Raspberry Pi thru 4 20cm jumper wires, Vcc connected to 5V on the rPi. I check the incoming messages with minicom.
I use an Apple Ipad power supply (5V, 2A) for the rPi.
The OLEDmote is less than 10 cm away from the rPi.

Both are in network 100 and have node id 1.
I am using the latest RFM69 library.

3 battery powered humidity sensors (Moteino R4 + DHT22) in the garden send their signals every 3 minutes to node 1, network 100.
The OLEDmote picks up all 3 signals, but the rPI looses some of them, not per se the sensor with the weakest signal.

Doesn't matter if I have OLEDMote and rPI on at the same time or not.

I tried changing the power supply of the rPI, makes no difference.

What could be the cause?

Do both OLEDmote and rPI mote Ack the message?  If so, then your OLEDmote is probably trampling on the rPI Ack.  One option, put the OLED mote at a different node id and use promiscuous mode, but don't Ack in any case.

Tom

[certeza]

Hi Tom,

I was aware of that.
I also tested with only one receiving node on, OLEDMote or rPi.
Makes no difference.


   

[Felix]

Sounds like your rPi Moteino is not getting messages?
Could you try swapping that one with another Moteino and see if the same is happening?
Make sure your OLEDMote does not ACK messages, it can then have the same ID as the rPi but it is just a passive listener to display the messages and not do anything else. That should allow the rPi do the ACKing and have more control.
Also ensure your nodes are all configured correctly with regards to the isHW setting.

[certeza]

Hi Felix,

Did all that.
There is something about the combination Moteino - rPi.
The one thing I haven't tried yet is connecting the Moteino to the rPi through a usb to serial connector.

I kinda solved it for the moment by lowering the bitrate and the frequency deviation.
RSSI is much better now and all messages are being received.

The only thing left to fix is duplicate messages.
It seems the retry function of the sensor doesn't get the ACK fast enough from the hub.

 

[Felix]

Allright so maybe the ACK timeout has to be increased a little..?
Although the default 30ms should be plenty.

[joelucid]

I've found that the new Pi 2 model causes a lot less interference with 433mhz moteinos than the old B model. With the old B model I needed to move the moteino quite a bit away from the Pi for things to sort of work. With the model 2 I've taped the moteino inside the Pi enclosure and rf performance is an order of magnitude better.

[certeza]

joelucid,

Thnx for sharing that.

I also wanted the moteino safely tucked away in a Pi enclosure.
I was thinking of making some kind of moteino shield for the Pi just like Ciseco has for their line of wireless modules.
And I was about to give up 

[joelucid]

Check out this thread for more details of the issues I had found (https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/index.php/topic,1008.msg6495.html#msg6495).

With the new Pi everything runs pretty well. Only issue is I don't get packets from the sewage pit moteino when it's raining. But I'll blame that on the wet ground (moteino about 40cm below surface). I might go down to 19200 baud to make sure this node works under all conditions.

[Felix]

With the new Pi everything runs pretty well. Only issue is I don't get packets from the sewage pit moteino when it's raining. But I'll blame that on the wet ground (moteino about 40cm below surface). I might go down to 19200 baud to make sure this node works under all conditions.

You could use a coax cable to extend your antenna above ground...or use an external antenna that already has a coax extension cable.

[joelucid]

Felix, I found a good solution to the sewage pit problem: Turns out a AC powered moteino that controls the bathroom fan has a better angle to the pit and can communicate with its moteino fairly consistently. So I've added some code to have the bathroom moteino act as relay for the pit - problem solved.