Felix,
Got my Moteinos yesterday and they look great. Got them fired up but I seem to be having some reception issues.
These are a 433 MHz pair with the provided antenna wires soldered on.
This is the response with the units about 8" apart.
[25] [RX_RSSI:-17] - ACK sent.
[25] 1 [RX_RSSI:-22] - ACK sent.
[25] 1 [RX_RSSI:-28] - ACK sent.
[25] 1 [RX_RSSI:-18] - ACK sent.
[25] 12 [RX_RSSI:-27] - ACK sent.
[25] 12 [RX_RSSI:-27] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 [RX_RSSI:-28] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 [RX_RSSI:-22] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 [RX_RSSI:-17] - ACK sent.
Then I walked the transmitter into the other room about 15 feet away.
[25] 123 ABCD [RX_RSSI:-30] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 ABCDEFG [RX_RSSI:-32] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 ABCDEFGH [RX_RSSI:-44] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 ABCDEFGHI [RX_RSSI:-44] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 ABCDEFGHIJ [RX_RSSI:-47] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMN [RX_RSSI:-53] - ACK sent.
[25] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR [RX_RSSI:-38] - ACK sent.
At this point I have lost contact and not received any further transmissions.
I am fairly confident of my soldering skills so I do not believe that would the issue, but I am open to all possibilities.
I am wondering what the expected/realistic RSSI values I should be getting in these scenarios.
That's really weird. The greater the RSSI value the stronger the signal (so -20 is stronger than -30). So you're well within the signal strength boundary.
I assume this is the output from the receiver.
Looks like the transmitter is trying hard to send messages since there are duplicates. Your antennas should be around 16cm long, spread out (not coiled). As you walk back, do the packets start picking back again?
The examples I use to load them before they are shipped are the Gateway/Node from here:
https://github.com/LowPowerLab/RFM69/tree/master/Examples
I made some updates to the sketches, please use the latest sources for both the library and the Gateway/Node examples.
Ok, I think I know what it was, the ACK Timeout was set to 10ms in the node sketch so the longer packets took longer than 10ms to transmit and get an ACK back, hence any packet that was over a few bytes was getting not getting lost per se, but the node was not waiting long enough for the ACK.
I made some changes to the gateway/node sketches and very minor touches in the library, so the latest code should work fine.
I'm getting a number of dropped packed or lost packets or not recognized packets.
I've just connected two Moteinos: 1 Gateway, 1 Node. If they are ~8 inches apart messages are semi OK. That is maybe a loss in a hundred. But, if I move the devices approximately a foot or more then packets begin to be dropped readily.
Is there a link to picture of your antenna solder joint? Does the antenna connect to the hole on the RFM closest to the antenna connection point?
I've the RFM69HW [915MHz] and 'radio.setHighPower();' is un-commented in the sketches with the stock wire sent soldered in place. I've not trimmed the lengths nor altered the boards, yet.
RSSI fluctuates between 85-100.
I just noticed that a laptop lcd is between the two radios. If one goes in the lcd shadow packets/communication packets are lost. Hmmm. If one antenna is vertical and the other horizontal only a foot away from each other the 90ยบ polarization stops the communications.
This is not going to be so simple. ???
Responded to you in other thread, please make sure you got the settings matching your radio hardware. Frequency, and also get the latest github code for the RFM69 lib.
I haven't had the chance to play with these since the summer when I posted this thread until today.
Just updated both units with the newest code and everything seems to be fixed. I can reliably have communication about 50+ feet across the house through many walls as shown in the serial stream below.
[2] FLASH_MEM_ID:0xEF30 [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 1 [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 12 [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 A [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 AB [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABC [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCD [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDE [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEF [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFG [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGH [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHI [RX_RSSI:-63] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJ [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJK [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKL [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLM [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMN [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR [RX_RSSI:-61] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS [RX_RSSI:-60] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW [RX_RSSI:-62] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...ok!
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWX [RX_RSSI:-58] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY [RX_RSSI:-59] - ACK sent.
[2] 123 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ [RX_RSSI:-59] - ACK sent. Pinging node 2 - ACK...nothing
Pretty happy now! Thanks, Felix. ;D