Troubleshooting

#Firstly Some Gotcha's

• Make sure you wiring is in sync with your software. There is no standard pin assignments to radio(X,X), just common ones.
• Make sure your node assignment is unique, each node should have a unique IP address.
• Make sure the master node and all sensor nodes have an IP address in the same subnet.
• Use of external power can sometimes be a source of communication problems. If your devices use less than 100mA, then use the on board power. If you must use external power, then try tying the ground of the external power supply to the boards ground pin. You can also make use of a capacitor for filtering. A search on the internet should provide you with the necessary details.
• Try to keep the nRF24 in line of sight and within range whilst testing. You may effectively be working in a Faraday cage (like my steel shed).

#Problems Problems with the Arduino and the RPi are mostly due to the on-board power which can restrict the number of external devices attached.

#Note on the NRF24 connection Check the radio pins in the source code and general connections -RPi - radio(22,0) -Arduino - radio(7,8) or radio(9,10)

Check that the RPI is set to master address 0 and the adruino is set to >0 (they must be unique)

#Debugging

To debug the node.js application uncomment the console.log lines.

The master_node will print to the console if it is unable to POST request to the node.js application

You can run a example gateway program provided by the developer of the RF24 libraries. The example program displays all connected nodes and has statistics on the packets transmitted.

1. Ensure the master_node program is not running.
2. Run the gateway example from:

rf24libs/RF24Gateway/examples/ncurses/RF24Gateway_ncurses

Debugging the Arduino involves using the serial monitor ensuring that the correct data is generated and posted. Care should be taken not to exceed memory resources.