#help-with-radio

1 messages · Page 18 of 1

young cove
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I also have some old 2000-ohm headphones too.

static snow
young cove
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I had one of these as a kid

f40b63c719b2b6f8e9ae51b630c4f5fc.png
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attached the alligator clip to the phone dial stop and could hear Atlanta 200 miles away

static snow
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Same here. Used my allowance to buy it from a 99-cent store during a family cross-country road trip. The alligator clip found dozens of antennas and non-antennas.

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Had a galena cats whisker unit at home with a coil wrapped around an oatmeal container.

young cove
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we are old

static snow
buoyant spindle
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i found my dads old 200 in 1 electronic lab and built a crystal radio, among other things. its why i am interested in tech

umbral oxide
#

ugh, Helium Miners are apparently one of the causes of LoRaWAN gear being scarce

lilac arrow
umbral oxide
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and waste energy

lilac arrow
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I treat the word "blockchain" as a red flag.

lilac arrow
granite spear
#

It's actually an interesting concept. They go by "proof of connectivity"... you earn coins by providing routing services to devices within the range of your hotspot.

quiet eagle
#

Hello all. I want to develop on a chip with BLE 5.2 using arduino. The nrf52832 says its BLE 5.3 on nordics website but I think the chip being used on the feather boards is 4.2. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

granite spear
quiet eagle
#

I see. Has the arduino library been upgraded to support latest SoftDevice firmware?

granite spear
#

That I don't know, I'm afraid, though I'd assume things have been kept relatively up to date, since it's a popular platform.

young cove
orchid portal
#

hey there friends, I'm looking for a NFC breakout board where the antenna is detached or that is small enough to fit in a 6cm x 6cm box. Does anyone have any suggestion?

primal warren
orchid portal
#

thanks I will take a look

primal warren
#

Here's another one that looks particularly compact https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-NFC.html

Grove - NFC

Built around PN532 module Contactless communication at 13.56MHz. Support ISO14443 Type A and Type B protocols Support I2C or UART communication protocols Grove connector compatible

orchid portal
#

yeah I just got that one tks

eager isle
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I'd like to continue work with the raspberry, but while following the guide I can't do anything, I got as far as the https://www.adafruit.com/product/2691, where testing with screen I see nothing while writing the command, and receive no response

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Serial console option in raspi-config is set to: SSH OFF, Serial ON

primal warren
eager isle
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Followed the guide on adafruit; TX and RX to the raspi pins, 3V to VIO, GND to GND

primal warren
#

I think it should answer serial commands if the speed is correct and the console is disabled

eager isle
#

Is it possible that i'm using the wrong serial interface on the OS? (ttyAMA0)

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That photo has what looks like an original Raspberry Pi, while i've got a Pi Zero W2

pearl tendon
#

Hi,
I want to receive the data from two Lora transmitters at one Arduino at the same time (and want to send data to one of the transmitters from the receiver-Arduino). Would I need two Lora Modules at the receiver Arduino for that? I don't want to loose bit rate. Answers are very appreciated!

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If my explanation was unclear, I tried to visualise it

unknown.png
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the dashed lines are the lora signals

normal drift
#

Just to start the conversation, I'm not convinced two receivers will help. If the transmitters are sending at the same time, I think they will interfere and you will have to deal with that anyway.

#

What kind of data rates are you expecting? How often are the transmitters sending data and how large are the packets?

shell lava
#

Also, unless you use something like FreeRTOS (which supports threading), I’m pretty sure the Arduino platform is single-threaded so how would you read from both data streams at the same time? It seems like having the transmitter devices buffer/store their data and then having the receiver interrogate them periodically for new data would avoid a LOT of technical complexity to me.

#

(I don’t know anything about LoRA, so there may be nuance here I’m not aware of, but that’s my initial off-the-cuff thought.)

normal drift
#

Something like the "reliable datagram" mode in the RadioHead library can help with occasional collisions but then you have to restransmit the packets, impacting your data rate.

pearl tendon
#

mmh s transmitter 1 should constantly send data to the receiver and the receiver should constantly send data to the transmitter 2. Transmitter 2 just sends data every few seconds

normal drift
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"constantly" is troublesome. Can you be more specific. How big is the packet and how often is it sent?

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It won't transmit and receive at the same time.

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What library are you using for the code? IS this with the Arduino IDE or CircuitPyhton?

pearl tendon
pearl tendon
normal drift
#

Which Library?

pearl tendon
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The standard Lora one I think

#

But I can switch to another library

normal drift
#

How much data are you really sending?

pearl tendon
#

Well the transmitter 1 sends little compressed images, the transmitter 2 sends strings (not long) and the receiver sends numbers

pearl tendon
normal drift
#

And how fast do they have to send them?

pearl tendon
#

As fast as possible 😅

#

Maybe I just take two Arduinos on the receiver side…

normal drift
#

Well, I still think a second receiver will not help much. Just my opinion.

pearl tendon
#

Yeah you are probably right about that

#

Thank you very much for helping me

normal drift
#

One issue you will have is that both receivers will receive all the data, they then have to decide if the packet was for them or not.

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You are very welcome -- It sounds like a great project. good luck and keep asking questions. I hope others will comment.

pearl tendon
pearl tendon
normal drift
#

I'll need to do some reading to comment on that but it still has to "receive" the signal to check the sync word.

cunning rapids
#

Will the 8 Channel LoRa Gateway HAT with LoRa and GPS Antenna - SX1301(without the pi) work with the Adafruit LoRa Radio FeatherWing - RFM95W 900 MHz?

cunning rapids
#

I should ask.. Are they able to communicate with each other since they are both 915 MHz?

granite spear
cunning rapids
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meaning the 8 chanel lora gateway hat that doesn't include the pi. I wasn't sure if there was a difference between the kit that includes the pi.

granite spear
#

It's just whether you already have a Pi to use or not.

cunning rapids
#

I figured. Thanks

normal drift
#

I just stumbled across this library for the RFM9x on a Raspberry Pi https://github.com/epeters13/pyLoraRFM9x So far it is working well for some simple tests. I was curious if anyone had had any experience with it. I was also able to exchange packets with a Pi using the CircuitPython RFM9x library.

cunning rapids
#

I'm attempting to make sense of lora technology. Can three Adafruit Feather M0 with RFM95 LoRa Radio - 900MHz communicate with each other? Or can only 2 communicate at a time? My goal is to have one RFM95 as a base station and two other RFM95 as sensor nodes. All three RFM95 should beadle to communicate back end forth

normal drift
#

For the Arduino Radiohead library or in CircuitPython, there is a "packet header" that contains optional addressing information. If the packet is not addressed to a particular receiver, it ignores the packet.

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It should be fine to have 2 sensor nodes and one base.

cunning rapids
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It doesnt matter if I use arduino or circuitpython.

normal drift
#

The feather M0 RFM9x is has very limited RAM and space for code when using CircuitPython. It depends on how many sensors and driver libraries you need. Arduino works well.

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The Radiohead library also has a mode called "reliable datagram" in which each packet has to be acknowledged. If not, the packet is resent. This may be very useful with multiple radios so you don't have issues with packet collisions.

cunning rapids
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Arduino it is than. The M0s will be handling only lora. They M0s will connect to rp2040s via UART. The 2040s will handle the sensor data than send over a JSON steing to the M0s to send out

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That is what I was thinking of doing.

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I dont have the M0 radios yet but will be here any day, so i'm in the brain storming stage of my project.

normal drift
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What kind of data rates do you need?

cunning rapids
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I dont exactly know. Each sensor has the ability to calculate the values within a second. Once the data is calculated they can be sent off. But I think sending data every 2 to 3 seconds might be too much and may cause issues

normal drift
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Yes, that can be an issue. If you can live with 5 to 10 seconds it’ll be a lot easier. Also depends on the range you need.

cunning rapids
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5 to 10 seconds can work

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The range is in close proximity. Probably at max 100ft

normal drift
#

Sounds like a great project.

cunning rapids
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Thank you for your help :-)

umbral oxide
#

Devices with radios often have instructions not to power the device unless an antenna is connected or it may get damaged. What's the mechanism for damage, as opposed to just a weak signal?

normal drift
umbral oxide
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ah, thanks @normal drift, more the transmit than the receive, that makes sense

normal drift
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Yes, I don’t think receive matters. Just no signal.

tiny plaza
#

Hello! I want to set up two of the 900 MHz RFM95 shielded LoRa modules in a way where one is transmitting and one is receiving and it isn't a two way link since I want to use it in a scenario where being able to accomplish stable 2 way transmission is far from a guarantee, one side doesn't need to transmit, and I would like to run multiple simultaneous receivers. What's the best way to make that happen?

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I was able to set them up to talk to each other but the link is only stable if the receiving module sends a packet back after it receives one.

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I'm pretty new to RF

normal drift
granite spear
tiny plaza
tiny plaza
normal drift
#

Are you using the reliable datagram mode? That automatically sends ack packets in response to a received message.

normal drift
#

Also examples only send a message in response to a packet.

tiny plaza
#

I was using https://github.com/adafruit/RadioHead/blob/master/examples/feather/Feather9x_RX/Feather9x_RX.ino and https://github.com/adafruit/RadioHead/tree/master/examples/feather/Feather9x_TX

GitHub
RadioHead/Feather9x_RX.ino at master · adafruit/RadioHead

A github'ified version of http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/RadioHead/ - RadioHead/Feather9x_RX.ino at master · adafruit/RadioHead

GitHub
RadioHead/examples/feather/Feather9x_TX at master · adafruit/RadioH...

A github'ified version of http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/RadioHead/ - RadioHead/examples/feather/Feather9x_TX at master · adafruit/RadioHead

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I commented out the part in the send code that waits/listens for a response but that just causes it to only send one packet and then stop

granite spear
#

Can you pastebin your modified code? Probably it's just not fully commented out.

tiny plaza
granite spear
#

You might want to put the delay(1000) back in, since right now it's sending packets as fast as it can. Where in the loop does it stop?

tiny plaza
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Yeah re-adding the delay didn't fix it

granite spear
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Where exactly is it stopping, based on the print statements?

tiny plaza
#

It goes through the entire loop twice and stops at rf95.waitPacketSent();

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I removed that line and re-ran the code and it goes through the entire loop 3 times and stops in that scenario

granite spear
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Hmmm, that's puzzling. I'm not sure what's going on there, since there should in general nothing to block a send from completing.

tiny plaza
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That's why I'm so confused lol

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That's why I thought there must be some kinda of LoRa mechanism that requires two way transmission or something kinda like TCP but I'm pretty sure there should be an option to not do that

normal drift
#

Is there a second board running that is receiving the packets and responding to it?

tiny plaza
#

Yes

#

Same setup, just using the receiver code

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I had to change the LED pin to a different random one since it's shared with the SCK pin and I also commented out the serial wait loop but other than that it's the same as the example

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Also It's a t3.5 instead of a 3.6 but that shouldn't have any impact in this scenario

normal drift
#

Can you turn off the receiver board and try just the transmit. -- also post the reciever board code.

tiny plaza
#

In that case it doesn't even finish the first loop

normal drift
#

char radiopacket[20] = "Hello World # "; change this to char radiopacket[20] = "Hello World # ";

tiny plaza
#

That fixed a typo but otherwise had no impact

Screen_Shot_2022-02-12_at_12.21.20_PM.png
normal drift
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I was concerned that you were putting too many characters into the buffer. You have to leave a byte for the string "null terminator"

tiny plaza
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That makes sense

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It was working perfectly fine as long as I use the full two way code, I just can't get it to only work one way

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Commenting out the recieve part or turning off the reciever is what breaks it

normal drift
#

That is odd -- try commenting out the waitPacketSent line and put in a delay(1000)

tiny plaza
normal drift
#

Also , Is the interrupt pin connected?

tiny plaza
#

I'm pretty sure it is, I'll double check the wiring

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Yep, the G0 pin is connected to pin 4 of the Teensy

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I'm pretty sure the SPI pins are right or it wouldn't even be possible to connect

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Reset is connected to pin 9 which matches the code

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I'll run the send on the receiver just to see if that works

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Ok so it works from the reciever board for some reason but not from the send board

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I'm guessing my wiring is wrong

normal drift
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I just loaded you code (the pastes bin )into my feather m0 rfm9x board and it runs continuously

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I think it is hanging for you-- waiting for an interrupt...

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G0 should be on Pin 7 according to your code\

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nevermind -- I misread your code -- Pin 4 is correct

tiny plaza
#

I'll run a continuity test to see if maybe one of the breadboards I'm using just particularly sucks

normal drift
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Good luck, but Its good to know it works on one board!!

tiny plaza
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Yeah I think it's a hardware gremlin somewhere I'll have to sort out lol

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Thanks for all the help!

normal drift
tiny plaza
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I've been letting PlatformIO handle versions of things, I'll check to see if it's up to date sometime today

normal drift
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Oh -- OK -- you may have it --I thought you got it from the Adafruit guide page.

tiny plaza
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I mean I copied the code from the guide page lol but I use PlatformIO for everything I do. Thanks for the tip though!

normal drift
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The guide link is to an older fork

tiny plaza
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I'll keep that in mind

normal drift
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Good luck with your project!

tiny plaza
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Thank you!

simple anchor
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I have a long-running FeatherS2 circuitpython program that connects to WiFi and then does a time.sleep() for a minute, queries the internet, then repeats that cycle indefinitely. I want to check the internet connection before I do the query because it failed for some reason after a few hours in testing and it's just the right thing to do anyway. I'm looking at either doing a ping(4.4.4.4) or doing an ap_info() call. I think the former is the better idea. With ping() I have to wait, but if ap_info() is suitable maybe I don't have to wait? Any suggestions? https://circuitpython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/shared-bindings/wifi/index.html#wifi.Radio

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I'm just noticing this about re-connections. I guess I need to do more testing.

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I'm thinking now a ping() with a reasonable timeout, look for None which would represent no active connection. Strictly speaking this isn't perfect but this is not a mission-critical app anyway. Still open to advice, thanks.

umbral oxide
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@simple anchor curious why the sleep between connection and query? If you want to know if you are connected to wifi (it is possible to get disconnected and have the automatic retries run out), check for wifi.radio.ipv4_address. If you have an wifi.radio.ipv4_address, you are connected to wifi. ping is a reasonable check for WAN connection (though not 100% reliable), but you could also just try the query, and take some other actions if it fails... do some retries, wait and retry, handle any exceptions, etc.

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(wifi.radio.ap_info. calls won't tell you if the WAN is up)

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there can also be dns issues, WAN server issues, even routing issues, so the best way to know if you can hit a server is to hit the server

simple anchor
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I mis-spoke. I connect, I query, I sleep, rinse and repeat

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thanks will try your suggestions, this helps

thick pike
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I have a MagTag, and I'm trying to post some data to a web server using adafruit_requests. Unfortunately, I run into an odd error if the data is more than 2925 characters (I'd like to send a JSON payload of about 20k).

import wifi
import socketpool
import adafruit_requests

from config import config  # I store my passwords here instead of secrets.py

wifi.radio.connect(config["ssid_home"], config["wifi_password_home"])

pool = socketpool.SocketPool(wifi.radio)
requests = adafruit_requests.Session(pool)
response = requests.post(config['logging url (raw)'], data='a'*2925)  # works
response = requests.post(config['logging url (raw)'], data='a'*2926)  # fails

# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
#   File "adafruit_requests.py", line 756, in post
#   File "adafruit_requests.py", line 717, in request
# OutOfRetries: Repeated socket failures

On my web server I see I returned an HTTP status of 400. Any idea what's going on?

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I'm able to send the same (or much larger) payload to the same server URL w/ Postman, so it doesn't seem like the issue is on the server side.

umbral oxide
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@thick pike is the url http or https? what versions of CircuitPython and Requests? I can replicate this, but at a slightly lower data size. It's getting [Errno 11] EAGAIN.

thick pike
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@umbral oxide it's http, just to a Pi on my local Wifi (http://192.168.4.226:5000/postraw). Everything's pretty up to date, with the MagTag running CircuitPython 7.1.1 and adafruit_requests is 1.10.5.

umbral oxide
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I tried with a larger timeout and it still doesn't work. Not sure at this point what would introduce a limit.

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doesn't work on esp32-s3 either, leading me to think it's not a memory issue

thick pike
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Not a lot of Google hits for '[Errno 11] EAGAIN' unfortunately...

umbral oxide
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it needs to be a dict though

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but that doesn't make a difference in this case, even a large dict errors

thick pike
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What, the data argument? It works for me without being a dict. The json argument needs to be a dict, but I switched to just trying to send the raw data for now as an experiment for debugging this issue.

umbral oxide
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yeah, I didn't read far enough into the requests code

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there does seem to be a bug, if I try to send 3000 bytes, here's the output:DEBUG b'POST' DEBUG b' /' DEBUG b'post' DEBUG b' HTTP/1.1\r\n' DEBUG b'Host: ' DEBUG b'httpbin.org' DEBUG b'\r\n' DEBUG b'User-Agent: Adafruit CircuitPython\r\n' DEBUG b'Content-Length: 3000\r\n' DEBUG b'\r\n' DEBUG b'aa ...3000 of them...aa' DEBUG b'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' [Errno 11] EAGAINit sends an extra 120... doesn't match the content-length header, not sure if tht's why the failure

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Do you want to file on issue on the Requests library?

thick pike
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Yeah I can file it. Can you post your code that just generated that output?

grand breach
# tiny plaza Thank you!

I have Circuitpython programs for the RFM95 (70 cm version)...one that transmits only...and one that receives only. They use the Adafruit rfm9x libraries. They just send and receive exemplary data that I use for radio propagation testing. You wanna see them?

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@tiny plaza Here is the transmitter program:

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Here is the receiver:

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Be sure to change the frequency used. I use 426.1 mhz since I am a license ham.

urban iris
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hello! I am using a feather m0 lora board and my project is a radiosonde, if I want to transmit from min 3km with direct visibility what antenna can I use for 433MHz frequency?

grand breach
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if you want to buy a high quality antenna for 433 mhz, Try a Smiley 5/8 Slim Duck:

#

or maybe one of these incredible, super slim antennas from SignalStuff:

granite spear
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Although a whip antenna might not have the best emission pattern for an air-to-ground link, since it's mostly going to have the highest gain horizontally.

urban iris
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If I will use a yagi uda antenna with big gain for RX on the ground and a whip antenna in the air, it might work?

young cove
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a user did some range testing with the LoRa boards; I am trying to find it

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Some of these are at 900MHz instead of 433

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starting with a simple straight-piece-of-wire antenna will be simplest, but it sounds like you cannot control the polarization of the remote antenna - its orientation will change. You may want to use a circularly polarized higher gain antenna on the ground station.

normal drift
normal drift
#

If only they were available....

restive fjord
#

w00t

urban iris
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i have simulated this antenna for 433MHz and obtain a 5db gain, I thing might works

unknown.png
nova nebula
#

Does anyone know if there is a way to modify a RFM69CW from 433Mhz to 915Mhz? Hopefully it could be removal of a few parts on the board.

young cove
nova nebula
#

Gotcha, thanks @young cove for filling me in. I figured it was probably some sort of RC filter that would need to be adjust, but I was hoping it would be a simple pop off a capacitor somewhere. Are there any schematics of the values used, or is that something locked down by hoperf?

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I'm going to buy the different type boards, but I'm just interested in seeing what might be the things that are different between the two.

young cove
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It would be both L & C components, probably

pastel granite
#

Is there some way I could substring a BLE device address, as returned from the Address object of an Advertisement?

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I ask because I can get the proper address without issue, but it's formatting is overly long for my purposes.

Example:

for advertisement in ble.start_scan(ProvideServicesAdvertisement, timeout=10):
 (...)
 connection = ble.connect(advertisement)
 device_address = advertisement.address

The last line will make device_address an Address object with a string value of <Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx>

However, I want to substring this so I only get the actual address, not the leading <Address or trailing >. It doesn't seem to be possible to substring the value directly, since device_address = advertisement.address creates a copy by reference not value.

umbral oxide
#

can you use str() or repr() on the object and trim down the resulting string with .replace() or similar string function

pastel granite
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str() doesn't work. Let me try repr(). Thanks, Anec 🙂

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repr works - thanks again 😄

young cove
pastel granite
young cove
pastel granite
granite spear
young cove
pastel granite
#

I'll see what I can do to reproduce this when I have a moment.

pastel granite
#

Is there a way to explicitly end a BLE connection? For some reason my central isn't notifying the connected device that the conversation is over.

young cove
pastel granite
young cove
pastel granite
#

Unfortunately no. I've put a wait timer on it, and the state doesn't change.

#

Is there a way for the client to end the connection?

pastel granite
young cove
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maybe you reconnected right away by accident; anyway, glad it's fixed

pastel granite
#

Thanks again. I'm still confused about why BLE connections take so long to connect upon finding an advertisement. When/if you have a moment can you let me know what might be going wrong?


# Start BLE communications
try:
 while True:
  self.logger.info("= Looking for advertisements")
  for advertisement in self.ble.start_scan(ProvideServicesAdvertisement, timeout=5):
                    
   if BLE_Service not in advertisement.services:
    continue
   else:
    self.logger.info("= Found BLE advertisement")
    self.ble.stop_scan()
    sensor_connection = self.ble.connect(advertisement)
    self.logger.debug("= BLE connection established")
     break
                
   # If have an active connection
   if sensor_connection and sensor_connection.connected:
    self.logger.debug(" = Fetching Connection")
    BLE_Service_Instance = sensor_connection[BLE_Service]

It's the last line of this section of code that takes a long time to complete. This has made it necessary to insert some confirm before continuing heuristics that really muck-up the code.

Thoughts?

young cove
pastel granite
young cove
#

if it's not true you will go around the for loop again, and there will be another 5 second timeout

pastel granite
#

I am logging things to console after this code - will the slow things down?

young cove
#

right, but you are waiting for another advertisement? Could you upload the whole program and the logging output?

#

The logging time should not be significant.

pastel granite
#

I don't think I can send the whole codebase - is that what you're asking?

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What I notice is that there's a significant pause once I get to self.logger.debug(" = Fetching Connection")

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i.e. it prints the debug statement and waits for at least 1 second (probably closer to 3) before continuing

#

this is consistent

young cove
pastel granite
#

Will take me a second to format, but thanks 🙂

slender current
#

Is your connection bonded? CircuitPython might be reconnecting on its own

young cove
fervent cloak
#

Hey everyone, I was just playing with a couple Feather M0 with RFM95 LoRa Radios - 900MHz
Using only slightly modified rfm9x_transmit.py examples to send from one to the other.
Everything is working fine, I can even "see" it with RTL-SDR
(Great tutorials and examples - thank you)

Anyway, I picked up a random bytearray using 915MHz and it can be successfully decoded with .hex() in Python
Hex length = 86
Just curious if anyone had any ideas what other devices might be sharing 915?
And maybe any ideas for filtering/ignoring?
Thanks for any suggestions.

granite spear
#

Those frequencies are used in LoRaWAN networks, I would expect, so you could be picking up that traffic. The packet structure would probably have some clues with the address header or something. Though you may want to think about including some sort of signature or checksum in your own packets to distinguish them from everyone else's.

umbral oxide
#

I get about a packet an hour on 868 and 915 on rfm9x from some distance away (-100 dB or so), varying packet lengths

fervent cloak
#

Thanks for the reply @granite spear
I was a bit hesitant to share the bytearray/hex data in case it contains personal info etc. After trying to decode in multiple character encodings I'm stumped.

I live in a fairly rural resort town in Canada. If that helps 😄

Here is the Received (raw bytes): bytearray(b'\x82\xc2\xe7i\x81T\x1c\x15-\xa5\x88\xee\xd1\x99J\x8dHY.}\x88\xb6K\xef\xd1f$x\x05\t\xc8\x8fu\xcd\xef\x023\x91{\xc7T\x01\xe2')

To hex .hex()
'82c2e76981541c152da588eed1994a8d48592e7d88b64befd16624780509c88f75cdef0233917bc75401e2'

Just a mystery - not a support case FYI

Thanks to all

umbral oxide
#

I can't make heads or tails of the packets I see, no consistency in content or structure, so I assume it's all encrypted. My LoRaWAN gateway rarely sees anything, so I'm guessing the packets are just LoRa.

normal drift
#

I pick up lots of “noise” packets on my rfm9x boards. I usually use addressing to filter them out.

#

I've tried to figure out where they are coming from, but have not found anything that makes sense.

normal drift
magic verge
#

Maybe we need a "radio direction finding" app.

umbral oxide
worn laurel
#

I'm successfully driving a single chain of 120 neopixels (5x24 pixel rings) from a qt-py-esp32-s2 under circuitpython 7, using a variant of wheel().

That is, until I turn on the wifi. At that point the neopixels regularly blink white for very short periods of time. It occurs in all five of the wheels, although the blip seems to last longer or perhaps is just brighter at the far end of neopixel chain.

I'm pretty sure it's not voltage drop due to undercurrent because the processor continues to run just fine. I assume it's either the wifi radiation interfering with the PWM signal directly, or maybe the ESP32 has some internal clock instability that is exacerbated in this configuration. I haven't had trouble driving a single 24 pixel wheel.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting suggestions?

granite spear
worn laurel
#

Aw heck I'm not even using a level shifter! The PWM signal worked so well from a 3.3v pin (under non-wifi conditions) that I completely forgot about it. Thank you for that suggestion.

plain bluff
#

I was range testing two LoRA 433 rfm96W modules tonight one with dipole antenna and the other with a yogi. The range was very short close to 200 ft. How do I increase power and range?
Slow down the baudrate to 1MHz and set power to 23?

granite spear
#

LoRa has a number of knobs to turn related to baud rate, like the "spreading factor" and error-correction options, so you've got a lot of potential tradeoffs between speed and distance.

plain bluff
#

What would you recommend?

normal drift
plain bluff
#

I was using a dipole antenna to transmit and yogi to receive

normal drift
# plain bluff I was using a dipole antenna to transmit and yogi to receive

My point was that if you are only getting 200 ft range, I think you have a problem with your antenna or connection to it. I would suggest solving that before adjusted the power or modem configurations. You could try just using a 1/4 wave piece of wire as described here https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-rfm69hcw-and-rfm96-rfm95-rfm98-lora-packet-padio-breakouts/assembly#wire-antenna-2433240-7 just to see if it works better than your dipole or yagi.

plain bluff
#

Yeah I double checked the wiring and believe it is good now. Moved to 5V

normal drift
#

Moved what to 5V?

severe furnace
#

I'm not sure if this is the particularly proper area to ask about what I am having problems with, but I am currently using an adafruit feather M0 with RF95 LoRa. I am using this in tandem with a sparkfun zed-f9p (GPS module) connected over RX/TX. The short of it the sparkfun is sending rtcm correction data over the RX/TX lines to the LoRa, and I am trying to then transmit that straight over the RF95 to another module to pick it up and use it. If any of this sounds wrong please correct me because I am a little new, but I am reading in the data from RX/TX over Serial using Serial.read()/Serial.readBytes() to read in my data which usually goes fine. But the second I try to send the data I have just read from there over the radio, my next reads may contain incorrect/corrupted data and for the life of me I have not been able to find out why it is doing that. Without sending over radio, it reads fine, but the moment it is turned on the read in data starts getting messed up. To note: this is essentially a loop of read in correction data through Serial over RX/TX, place it in a buffer, use that buffer with the RF95 Radio head library to then send that data over, then start the loop again

normal drift
severe furnace
#

Just to add context and RTCM message has a preamble byte D3, followed by two bytes denoting the length of the data, a field with length pertaining to what was previously said, and 3 parity bytes at the end

normal drift
severe furnace
normal drift
#

Good luck

plain bluff
normal drift
#

They should be powered by the same voltage as the MCU

plain bluff
#

Just curious, why is that

normal drift
#

The rfm9x will drive the gpio signals to match the input voltage. So you want to match the input voltage to what the MCU expects on its GPiO signals.

#

The breakout has a voltage regulator so the rfm9x module will only see 3.3v but it level shifts the gpio lines to match the input voltage.

pastel granite
#

Noob question: When getting a list of services from a connected BLE device, the UUIDs are backwards, in 2-character chunks. Any way I can easily reverse that, or read it out nicely in the first place?

#

Right now I'm manually reversing it - feel like I'm missing something.

magic verge
#

Sounds like you need to change the endian-ness when you unpack the UUID.

severe furnace
# normal drift Good luck

Sadly that does not seem to be the issue, yes it may be in the future, but currently all the messages coming in are of size 250 or less

normal drift
severe furnace
#

Wait let me check into that actually...

normal drift
severe furnace
#

A message would normally be something like
Message: D3 00 04 4C E0 00 80 Ed ED D6

#

But occasionally we may get something like
D3 ff 00 04 4C E0 00 80 ED ED ...

#

When without using the radio reading over the rx/tx through serial1 the normal message will come through

normal drift
#

Ugh -- That sounds like something completely different than I was imagining. I though you had bad data at the end.. Since it is embedded in the string it is really puzzling....

severe furnace
#

It's as if reading over the serial bus gets fumbled

normal drift
#

It's strange since you are not even transmitting while you are reading so its not like the radio is corrupting the serial line. Or is the message arriving while you are transmitting?

#

Just guessing now, but are the wires for the serial line near the transmitting antenna -- can you try moving or shielding them.

#

I have to go offline for awhile -- it does sound like some sort of interference to me. I wish I had better ideas!

severe furnace
#

correct me if I'm wrong Serial if it's receiving data it pushes it into a buffer would you can then check it has items by doing Serial.available() to check how many bytes are in it, and then when you call some sort of Serial.read() it takes from first of the buffer and returns that. With what I'm doing it is highly likely that the buffer does receive items while a transmission is going on.

lilac arrow
# severe furnace

I don't see how it would cause the behavior you're seeing, but it looks like the if-expression inside the loop should use == not =, and the copy to receivedChars[0] in the line right before it should instead be inside the loop.

severe furnace
lilac arrow
#

sorry, yeah, I meant in the if-block.

severe furnace
#

I mean I could, but if I don't find that preamble byte I just loop again until I find one and replace it constantly

lilac arrow
#

It looks to me like if you ever receive anything other than 0xD3 at the start of the loop, you'd reach the rf95.send call with that character at the start of the buffer and msgLength whatever it was previously.

normal drift
#

@severe furnace The other thing I am wondering is, how large is the HWSERIAL1 FIFO? Is it possible that when you are transmitting, you are taking too long to service the HWSERIAL1 and data is being lost. Nice catch on the "=="

severe furnace
#

So if the device sends more than one message quickly, right now I have it sending the minimum recommended of 6, and it takes too long to transmit those messages/ parse them as they come in, the buffer starts to overflow.

#

So that could explain why when I'm not sending them, I'm reading quick enough, but when i try to send it the transmitting takes just a little too long and the messages arrive quick enough to fill the buffer

severe furnace
#

After an adequate amount of testing, it was the receive buffer overflowing

normal drift
severe furnace
# normal drift Good to know. Good luck finding a workaround.

I already have found a couple it's also because the rf95 module was taking upwards of 40-225ms to send a message, you can change the receive buffer size(not that good), empty the read in buffer and essentially create my own serial buffer but on my side and not effecting their predefined driver code and send messages over the rf95 as little as possible

novel hinge
#

Hello. I am using the nRF52840 with Lora Wing RFM95 to send data to TTN and it is working fine.

#

However, I would like to receive also data from TTN to process on the feather. Is this feasible ? are there any available examples or documentations that would help me to do this ?

normal drift
novel hinge
#

Hi Jerry. Thank you for your suggestion !
I just noticed that in the arduino lmic library the feature of receiving downlink packets is implemented but apparently I was unable to find any examples for this online (so far at least).
Will read the library carefully and try to implement and test this.

normal drift
#

I'll be interested to know how it works.

novel hinge
#

Sure . I will let you know or post it here if I was able to come up with something that works !

fast isle
#

cant remember - searching for , 2.4Ghz 4 button transmiiter and receiver chip pair - cant remember the company -- they use them in cheap rc cars

crimson wing
#

Whats the cheapest board to get an FM signal through I2S or headphones? Im looking to use something with CircuitPython for testing an FM transmitter.

#

It doesnt have to "seek" radio stations or anything, I can specify the frequency

young cove
#

what do you want to do that a regular FM radio would not do?

primal warren
primal warren
#

This is the radio channel, this question may be more appropriate in the makecode channel

turbid sapphire
#

Hi y'all! I'm running an ItsyBitsy RNF board (running with a Clue (running Central). I found two examples, one of which I believe works (the peripheral), but the Central is giving me some grief.

The code is as such:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

"""
Demonstration of a Bluefruit BLE Central for Circuit Playground Bluefruit. Connects to the first BLE
UART peripheral it finds. Sends Bluefruit ColorPackets, read from three accelerometer axis, to the
peripheral.
"""

import time

import board
import busio```
📎 message.txt
#

Ok... what ever that was...

Anyway, I'm getting the following error:

Scanning...
found a UARTService advertisement
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "code.py", line 56, in <module>
NameError: name 'accelerometer' is not defined

I'm using this on the Clue

#

This is the example code in CircuitPython 7.x

#

Since the ItsyBitsy doesn't have an accelerometer, I'm assuming that's why I get the error. But how do I get rid of that and replace it with the sensor that's on there - currently, an MLX90640

#

And actually, there aren't any references to an accelerometer in the Peripheral code... 🤔

turbid sapphire
#

This is the code for the MLX:

    stamp = time.monotonic()
    try:
        mlx.getFrame(frame)
    except ValueError:
        # these happen, no biggie - retry
        continue
    print("Read 2 frames in %0.2f s" % (time.monotonic() - stamp))
    for h in range(24):
        for w in range(32):
            t = frame[h * 32 + w]
            if PRINT_TEMPERATURES:
                print("%0.1f, " % t, end="")
            if PRINT_ASCIIART:
                c = "&"
                # pylint: disable=multiple-statements
                if t < 20:
                    c = " "
                elif t < 23:
                    c = "."
                elif t < 25:
                    c = "-"
                elif t < 27:
                    c = "*"
                elif t < 29:
                    c = "+"
                elif t < 31:
                    c = "x"
                elif t < 33:
                    c = "%"
                elif t < 35:
                    c = "#"
                elif t < 37:
                    c = "X"
                # pylint: enable=multiple-statements
                print(c, end="")
        print()
    print()```
#

I don't need the ASXIIART and I can delete those lines with no issues.

turbid sapphire
#

I modified the peripheral to the following:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

import time
import board
import busio
import adafruit_mlx90640

# Only the packet classes that are imported will be known to Packet.
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.packet import Packet
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.color_packet import ColorPacket

from adafruit_ble import BLERadio
from adafruit_ble.advertising.standard import ProvideServicesAdvertisement
from adafruit_ble.services.nordic import UARTService

PRINT_TEMPERATURES = True

i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA, frequency=800000)

mlx = adafruit_mlx90640.MLX90640(i2c)
print("MLX addr detected on I2C")
print([hex(i) for i in mlx.serial_number])

mlx.refresh_rate = adafruit_mlx90640.RefreshRate.REFRESH_2_HZ
ble = BLERadio()
uart = UARTService()
advertisement = ProvideServicesAdvertisement(uart)

frame = [0] * 768
while True:
    stamp = time.monotonic()
    ble.start_advertising(advertisement)

    while not ble.connected:
        pass
    while ble.connected:
        packet = Packet.from_stream(uart)
        if isinstance(packet):
            print("Read 2 frames in %0.2f s" % (time.monotonic() - stamp))
    for h in range(24):
        for w in range(32):
            t = frame[h * 32 + w]
            if PRINT_TEMPERATURES:
                print("%0.1f, " % t, end="")
        print()
    print()
    try:
        mlx.getFrame(frame)
    except ValueError:
        # these happen, no biggie - retry
        continue ```

All it states is that it detects the I2C channel but says or does nothing else.
The Clue is just "scanning".
#

Another rendition...

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

import time
import board
import busio
import adafruit_mlx90640

# Only the packet classes that are imported will be known to Packet.
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.packet import Packet
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.color_packet import ColorPacket

from adafruit_ble import BLERadio
from adafruit_ble.advertising.standard import ProvideServicesAdvertisement
from adafruit_ble.services.nordic import UARTService

PRINT_TEMPERATURES = True

i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA, frequency=800000)

mlx = adafruit_mlx90640.MLX90640(i2c)
print("MLX addr detected on I2C")
print([hex(i) for i in mlx.serial_number])

mlx.refresh_rate = adafruit_mlx90640.RefreshRate.REFRESH_2_HZ
ble = BLERadio()
uart = UARTService()
advertisement = ProvideServicesAdvertisement(uart)

frame = [0] * 768

while True:
    stamp = time.monotonic()
    ble.start_advertising(advertisement)
    while not ble.connected:
        pass
    while ble.connected:
        packet = Packet.from_stream(uart)
        if isinstance(packet):
            print("Read 2 frames in %0.2f s" % (time.monotonic() - stamp))
    for h in range(24):
        for w in range(32):
            t = frame[h * 32 + w]
            if PRINT_TEMPERATURES:
                print("%0.1f, " % t, end="")
                uart.write("%0.1f, " % t, end="" % (mlx))
        print()
    print()
        
    try:
        mlx.getFrame(frame)
    except ValueError:
        # these happen, no biggie - retry
        continue ```

I just get this:
code.py output:
MLX addr detected on I2C
['0x925', '0xb6e9', '0x189']
young cove
#

I'm confused, it looks like the for h in range and the try-except should be inside the while ble.connected loop. Also you are printing frame values before you read them

turbid sapphire
#

I'll give that a look tomorrow. I appreciate you helping me!

turbid sapphire
#

This is what happens with brute force coding .. 😀

turbid sapphire
#

Ok... I think I got the sending - at least it's printing in the Serial Monitor:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

import time
import board
import busio
import adafruit_mlx90640

# Only the packet classes that are imported will be known to Packet.
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.packet import Packet
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.color_packet import ColorPacket

from adafruit_ble import BLERadio
from adafruit_ble.advertising.standard import ProvideServicesAdvertisement
from adafruit_ble.services.nordic import UARTService

PRINT_TEMPERATURES = True

i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA, frequency=800000)

mlx = adafruit_mlx90640.MLX90640(i2c)
print("MLX addr detected on I2C")
print([hex(i) for i in mlx.serial_number])

mlx.refresh_rate = adafruit_mlx90640.RefreshRate.REFRESH_2_HZ
ble = BLERadio()
uart = UARTService()
advertisement = ProvideServicesAdvertisement(uart)

frame = [0] * 768

while True:
    stamp = time.monotonic()
    try:
        mlx.getFrame(frame)
    except ValueError:
        # these happen, no biggie - retry
        continue
    print("Read 2 frames in %0.2f s" % (time.monotonic() - stamp))
    for h in range(24):
        for w in range(32):
            t = frame[h * 32 + w]
            if PRINT_TEMPERATURES:
                print("%0.1f, " % t, end="")
        print()
    print()
    ble.start_advertising(advertisement)
    while not ble.connected:
        pass
    while ble.connected:
        time.sleep(5)
        uart.write("%0.1f, " % t, end="" % (mlx))
        print("%0.1f, " % t, end="") ```
#

Unless you see some other mistake with the code above... I'll move on to the Central.

The code is as such:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

"""
Demonstration of a Bluefruit BLE Central for Circuit Playground Bluefruit. Connects to the first BLE
UART peripheral it finds. Sends Bluefruit ColorPackets, read from three accelerometer axis, to the
peripheral.
"""

import time

import board
import busio
import digitalio
import adafruit_lis3dh
import neopixel

from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.color_packet import ColorPacket

from adafruit_ble import BLERadio
from adafruit_ble.advertising.standard import ProvideServicesAdvertisement
from adafruit_ble.services.nordic import UARTService


def scale(value):
    """Scale an value from  (acceleration range) to 0-255 (RGB range)"""
    value = abs(value)
    value = max(min(19.6, value), 0)
    return int(value / 19.6 * 255)


neopixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.NEOPIXEL, 10, brightness=0.1)

ble = BLERadio()

uart_connection = None
# See if any existing connections are providing UARTService.
if ble.connected:
    for connection in ble.connections:
        if UARTService in connection:
            uart_connection = connection
        break

while True:
    if not uart_connection:
        print("Scanning...")
        for adv in ble.start_scan(ProvideServicesAdvertisement, timeout=5):
            if UARTService in adv.services:
                print("found a UARTService advertisement")
                uart_connection = ble.connect(adv)
                break
        # Stop scanning whether or not we are connected.
        ble.stop_scan()

    while uart_connection and uart_connection.connected:
        r, g, b = map(scale, accelerometer.acceleration) ```
📎 message.txt
#

It's not connecting to the peripheral... it just keeps "scanning"

#

Eh, scratch all that.... I found some issues in the peripheral code. 🙄 I forgot to add the serial line. but I'm getting errors when I do.

#

So the thing is... and I apologize for this scattered post... it seems to be working. But it stops sending data after 2 seconds.

#

OR is it just waiting for a connection in order to send the data stream?

#

Here is the latest code for the peripheral:

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

import time
import board
import busio
import adafruit_mlx90640

# Only the packet classes that are imported will be known to Packet.
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.packet import Packet
from adafruit_bluefruit_connect.color_packet import ColorPacket

from adafruit_ble import BLERadio
from adafruit_ble.advertising.standard import ProvideServicesAdvertisement
from adafruit_ble.services.nordic import UARTService

PRINT_TEMPERATURES = True

i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA, frequency=800000)

mlx = adafruit_mlx90640.MLX90640(i2c)
print("MLX addr detected on I2C")
print([hex(i) for i in mlx.serial_number])

mlx.refresh_rate = adafruit_mlx90640.RefreshRate.REFRESH_2_HZ
ble = BLERadio()
uart = UARTService()
advertisement = ProvideServicesAdvertisement(uart)
frame = [0] * 768

while True:
    ble.start_advertising(advertisement)
    stamp = time.monotonic()
    try:
        mlx.getFrame(frame)
    except ValueError:
        # these happen, no biggie - retry
        continue
    print("Read 2 frames in %0.2f s" % (time.monotonic() - stamp))
    for h in range(24):
        for w in range(32):
            t = frame[h * 32 + w]
            if PRINT_TEMPERATURES:
                print("%0.1f, " % t)
        print()
    print()
    while not ble.connected:
        pass
    while ble.connected:
        uart.write("%0.1f, " % t, end="" % (mlx))
        print("%0.1f, " % t, end="") ```
turbid sapphire
#

I found it! I'm good to go! I found a simpler, more generic script on the Adafruit site. It was meant for a computer or RasPi, but it works on the Clue.

turbid sapphire
#

Alrighty then - Got one more question for Bluetooth. In Arduino, what is the command line to print from a peripheral (like a gas sensor)? Would it be something like, "UARTPRINT"?

#

Using the Clue as the Central so I can display the gas sensor readings on the screen.

granite spear
turbid sapphire
#

@granite spear Well, I have an ItsyBitsy with a gas sensor. It broadcasts the data via bluetooth. I want the Clue to read that data and display it on the screen. RIght now, the sketch only tells me it's connected to the ItsyBitsy... It doesn't have anything to display the data.

#

I'm using Arduino code for the Clue, btw.

#

This what the Arduino sketch displays

IMG_20220402_162809.jpg
#

And I want it to do this (this is coded in circuitpython):

yes.jpg
shy summit
#

Hello! I'm a graduate student working on a project related to proximity and synchronicity. Currently, I working with (3) Feather nrf52840 Express. The project experience includes (2) senders (advertiser) and (1) receiver (scanner). The senders have been hardcoded with a hex color, red and blue, and sends the respective color to the receiver via the AdafruitColor() class in the adafruit_ble library. The receiver currently parses the colors, red and blue, from each sender correctly, and oscillates between the two. However, I want the scanner only to use the color, either red or blue, from the closest sender. I believe that the rssi is the appropriate value to trigger off of, but I'm a little confused as to whether it is reliable enough to create an if statement around.

Here is a link to the library that I'm using: https://docs.circuitpython.org/projects/ble/en/latest/advertising.html#adafruit

primal warren
#

You can certainly use it with an if statement but you may or may not need additional logic such as hysteresis

granite spear
#

And even in the best case, "closest" according to RSSI may not be the physically nearest device, but just the one whose antenna is at a better angle, not behind a person's body, etc.

shy summit
#

Thank you for the replies. Basically the project is a functional prototype so there may be edge cases where it doesn't work, and I'm okay with that.

#

Is there a better approach than RSSI?

granite spear
# shy summit Is there a better approach than RSSI?

Better approaches would need different hardware, I think. For example, UWB radios can do real distance measurements, and there are some Bluetooth chipsets (from Dialog) which do something similar, but RSSI is the only thing which would be widely supported.

sly dust
#

I have an Adafruit Airlift ESP32, which is frequently timing out and my code has to reset it. I would like to update the firmware on the AirLift to the most recent NINA firmware to see if that helps. Now the context of this is a publication, and therefore if that approach doesn't resolve things, it would be useful to have a path to go back. The firmware version the AirLift board reports is 1.2.2. Is there anywhere I'd be able to download that firmware if I wanted to revert it?

umbral oxide
#

@sly dust the NINA firmware repo has 1.7.4 back to 1.4.0 as you may have discovered already https://github.com/adafruit/nina-fw/releases I'm not aware of any new issues that were introduced in the later versions. I don't find a 1.2.2 binary, but a number of people have it (including me) and Adafruit I believe still flashes 1.2.2 to devices so they have it... it isn't unobtainium

sly dust
shy summit
#

@granite spear Okay, thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I'm stuck with my hardware choice. Would you mind checking the specific part of my code that isn't working exactly as I had planned?

umbral oxide
#

@sly dust good! I have that dated version and was just looking at the binary to see if I could find the version number o_O

granite spear
shy summit
granite spear
# shy summit <@382380426628562955> Thank you!! The area of concern starts line 65. Here is a ...

Yeah, that's a little convoluted. I'd recommend trying to minimize the scan loop logic to just identify the maximum RSSI among the entries, and do all of the other stuff after the loop finishes, when you've decided which is the closest device. Right now you're mixing the scan/RSSI logic with the color logic, so you can end up executing that part multiple times with different devices during the course of the scan.

shy summit
#

@granite spear Thank you for the recommendation! I totally understand what you mean. So, take the color logic part out of the for loop, but still within the while loop?

young cove
# sly dust I have an Adafruit Airlift ESP32, which is frequently timing out and my code has...

We are trying to figure out why people are having more trouble than they seem to have had in the past. There's an issue here: https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues/6205. I don't think updating will help: I just tried that this evening and still got hangs. You might try rolling back to CircuitPython 6.3.0 and the library bundle for that version, which can be found here: https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython/frequently-asked-questions#faq-3105289. I would be very interested to know if things seem to work better with those versions. If you coudl report any interesting findings in https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues/6205, that would be great.

sly dust
hoary merlin
#

Would this be a good place to ask for help with IR sensors/decoders? I'm having an issue with my setup. I am pressing the same button on my remote several times, and after maybe 5 good reads, every read after that comes back as an unknown code (0). Looking at the data coming in, it appears to miss the beginning of the signal. I'm using IRLib2 and an Arduino Metro. This doesn't happen when I'm running a simple code that only reads and prints signals, but with my more complex code that also controls lights each frame it breaks seemingly randomly and once it breaks only restarting the program allows it to read codes successfully again. I'm wondering if the program is taking too much time to run each frame? But it's weird that it doesn't happen until several successes. I'm also using an interrupt based receiver class (IRrecvPCI)

young cove
pastel granite
#

Evening everyone 🙂 Long time no speak 🙂

#

Wondering if anyone has experience using multiple BLE Services from the same device.

obsidian isle
#

guys did you ever manage to get RSA cryptography working on ESP32 ?
I just want to be sure my LoRa radio comm is secured and autheticated
Im looking into wolfssl, mbedtls and ESP-DS stuff, but I couldnt find a simple working example for Arduino framework where I can escalate from

granite spear
obsidian isle
#

Hey, @granite spear I need asymmetric

#

It has to be RSA

#

but I dont know how to put it together

#

this is perfect, I wish there were some arduino example on how to use it

unknown.png
worn bridge
# obsidian isle this is perfect, I wish there were some arduino example on how to use it

https://forums.mbed.com/t/rsa-sha-256-encrypt-string-on-esp32/12483

Arm Mbed OS support forum
RSA SHA-256 Encrypt String on ESP32

Hey there! I’m trying to base64 encode an encrypted string of data on an ESP-32 using a private key for use a signature on an HTTP request to an API. I feel like I’m almost there, but, the encrypted output doesn’t look right to me (looks like binary?) and the base64 encoded output looks even worse. Can someone advise on what I’m missing here? H...

primal warren
obsidian isle
obsidian isle
meager fulcrum
#

Are there any secrets on how to update the firmware on the Airlift Wifi, I have the breakout board, another friend has the feather version and trying to update to latest version using Teensy 4.1. I have tried the instructions: https://learn.adafruit.com/upgrading-esp32-firmware
I have tried many of the suggestions on the PJRC Forum thread:
https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/70062-Teensy-4-1-Adafruit-Airlift-Featherwing-Co-Processor-FTP-Server-not-opening-Port-21?p=305229#post305229

Adafruit Learning System
Upgrading ESP32 Firmware

Keep the firmware on your ESP32 WiFi-BLE Co-Processor up-to-date!

Teensy 4.1 - Adafruit Airlift Featherwing Co-Processor FTP Server ...

Please excuse newbie to Arduinos and programming. I have been working on this project for over a year and have been stuck on the FTP portion for over 6 months. The overall project is an audio recorder that stores audio files in raw format on the SD Card and then opens an FTP server allowing my computer to connect on a schedule and download the...

umbral oxide
#

@meager fulcrum The easiest thing with the standalone breakout board is to use a USB-to-serial converter and flash it directly from your host computer. Sorry, not sure the intricacies of using an intermediary Teensy as a passthrough.

worn bridge
meager fulcrum
#

Thanks, been there... tried it, tried the FirmwareUpdater sketch that is part of WifiNina_generic project, tried rolling my own... So far not talking.

#

I am not sure if this would help, but running their check firmware version sketch


Start WiFiNINA CheckFirmwareVersion on TEENSY 4.1/4.0
WiFiNINA_Generic v1.8.14-4
Firmware version installed: 1.2.2
Latest firmware version available : 1.4.8
charred vector
#

Just catching up but I also tried it with the Adafruit Featherwing Coprocessor and having the same issue with getting the tool to flash and been through the same as @meager fulcrum

Start WiFiNINA CheckFirmwareVersion on TEENSY 4.1/4.0
WiFiNINA_Generic v1.8.14-4
Firmware version installed: 1.2.2
Latest firmware version available : 1.4.8

Check result: NOT PASSED
 - The firmware version on the module do not match the
   version required by the library, you may experience
   issues or failures.
meager fulcrum
#

Quick update, looks like FTDI cable worked. Hooked up power, RX, TX, GPI0 to gnd, and then RST to GND and then released... And it worked

charred vector
#

Ok I just tried the same with the featherwing coprocessor and no luck - unfortunately ..... Anyone have any suggestions

tranquil narwhal
#

i thought of making the Adafruit RFM69HCW Transceiver Radio Breakout go on very extreme high frequency like 20000 MHz. is it possible

#

at 20k MHz it could connect to brains

#

ideal is 1 million MHZ

primal warren
#

You could build an upconverter, but it's probably easier just to build a higher frequency transmitter than use an existing one and upconvert it.

#

Also, I'm not aware of any 20MHz brain interfaces.

#

Nor 1THz brain interfaces.

tranquil narwhal
#

the 20k MHz can connect to brains directly like a radio station on a radio

granite spear
#

You're getting bad information about how brains work, I'm afraid.

primal warren
#

Note that 1THz is a wavelength of 300µm or so (if I got my math right), which is in the far IR band, not really the sort of thing that's thought of as a radio wave

tranquil narwhal
#

at 20000 FM it connect to a brain that's what i know about it

#

when the radio wave is powerful it can detect the brain wave and connect to the brain

#

otherwise we're playing with crumbs (weak frequencies)

primal warren
#

It sounds like you've read a confusing (and inaccurate) report that conflates TCM, MRI, and NMR.

#

There's a lot of writing like that out there that (mis)uses scientific terminology to sound authoritative, but in reality is just nonsense.

tranquil narwhal
#

ok cool

#

but what's the maximum MHz electronics you know about what what is the frequency number

granite spear
#

Generally the highest usable frequencies these days are around 70GHz, for milimeter-wave radar and communications.

tranquil narwhal
#

cool

#

it's going to take hundred of years

#

-_-'

#

i saw the future already

primal warren
#

Depends on how elastic your definition of "electronics" is. For example, I've worked with ultraviolet LEDs that emit at 365nm, which would be a frequency (again, if my math is correct) of 822THz

tranquil narwhal
#

what is that used for

#

didn't know that

primal warren
#

In my case, to stimulate fluorescence

tranquil narwhal
#

how much does it cost

#

where can i buy it

primal warren
#

Those LEDs are pretty cheap these days.

granite spear
#

(Note that regular visible light is about 500THz to start with.)

primal warren
#

For example, you can buy an ultraviolet flashlight from a surplus outfit for US$4

tranquil narwhal
#

but what about radio, not light what's the highest freq

#

is it 300 GHz

primal warren
tranquil narwhal
#

thanks a lot

primal warren
#

I used to work in a millimeter wave lab that would transition from stuff like waveguides and feedhorns associated with microwaves to things like lenses and prisms that are associated with light. It's a bit of a fuzzy boundary.

brave orbit
restive fjord
#

Sound isn't .. sound is pressure waves in the air (or in a rock/solid).

#

But you can have super low radio frequencies in the 'audio' range iirc.

#

I think the lowest frequencies on my radio are around 150 kHz though.

#

No, it's 100 kHz thu 519 kHz (Long Wave band)

#

I'm guessing in principle you could have a 5 kHz radio signal.

#

Typical I.F. 455 kHz

#

There's another one around 10.5 MHz as well.

tranquil narwhal
#

at 200k+ MHz it can connect to brain waves

#

like with radios

restive fjord
#

I think someone already suggested something about that, here, to you, quite recently.

tranquil narwhal
#

ya there is light and radio

#

but i want to study hundreds of thousands of MHz

#

but dont know where to look

#

Adafruit RFM69HCW Transceiver Radio Breakout is good but very low MHz for what i need

#

i thought we need another 50 years to see the highest frequency connect to brains

#

eventually all waves evolve to higher capacity and can connect to brains, even Wi-Fi

#

connecting to brains through advanced frequencies is unavoidable in the future

#

all futures become the same future, with waves and brains that connect to them

#

instead of waiting many years we could advance sooner

#

i tried to find if it's possible with Adafruit RFM69HCW Transceiver Radio Breakout - 433 MHz - RadioFruit to reach the 200K MHz

#

200k MHz should work

young cove
#

It is not at all possible

worn bridge
#

@tranquil narwhal It might be possible to read EEG data with electrodes attached to one's head, but you can't "connect" to a brain with wireless radio. If some paper out there is claiming wireless two-way communication between brain and radio is possible, I would be VERY skeptical.

#

And if a wireless transmission was powerful enough to actually reach whatever neurons are sending electrical signals in your brain, that would basically be a potentially dangerous weapon.

restive fjord
#

The people who built our known science started with their known science - no gaps in knowledge whatsoever.

#

Also the brain's got no particularly close relationship to 'radio'.

tranquil narwhal
#

It's waves, when it's waves we need to only know which frequency it connects to. All wave types can connect together. We could connect Wi-Fi to radio just to demonstrate the theory

chilly tendon
#

But wifi and radio are the same kind of wave?

tranquil narwhal
#

Cellular phone waves can connect to radio in theory need extreme frequency

#

All waves are the same based on which frequency they're equal

#

Super weak need super strong to connect

#

The very high frequency detects the brain with decimal 0.000087

#

In the future everything is wave frequency

#

Wi-Fi 200

#

Super ultra

#

Very cool

restive fjord
#

so if I can drive an r/c car at 27/49mhz why can't I drive an hydrogen atom on their 1420.41mhz frequency?

tranquil narwhal
#

I saw the future already 2 billion years

#

I don't know why

#

Hehe

#

Ever saw iphone 330

#

Coolest thing to advance is waves

#

Covid could take 30 more years

#

Google will dominate the planet with satellite and ML detection

#

Streets will stay deserted

#

No one outside

#

It's a brain technology future

#

We can also create brain waves with a super satellite brain wave antenna

#

Brain wave to brain wave

#

It can write a full brain

primal warren
#

On the one hand, there are some theories that everything is vibrations of 26-dimensional superstrings. On the other hand, you cannot talk to human brains with 200GHz signals. We can make signals of that frequency today. I could probably whomp up something in my basement.

tranquil narwhal
#

First it's going to detect noise, as you tweak the wave you need a laptop with brain software and something like phpinfo

#

The software can connect the brain

primal warren
#

Unfortunately brain software will not be available for laptops for about 40 years

restive fjord
#

are these brain reading controllers even for real ?

primal warren
#

There are some brainwave monitors available that basically work, but they're hardly capable of reading anything complex, just general intensities of overall waves

tranquil narwhal
#

It's all just satellite antennas and waves with software that controls them. The software connects the brain after detecting it with a wave frequency that's ultra tweaked

#

The software is very important

#

It's a satellite as a world brain network server

#

It's a sever room

#

It registers 7 billion brains live feed

#

I've been a server brain for 15 years

#

The software is like a pc software but for a brain like a router

#

Brain network exist already, like when you could try to remotely connect to your pc to your brain in a bus or from the mall

#

Try to see your desktop in your brain

#

Remote desktop

#

Control the cursor

#

I play call of duty sometimes in my brain

#

Try to see a desktop like in your memory

#

The technology is here but later we can experience it. Need to advance the wave frequency

tranquil narwhal
#

Most popular thing are simulators in the future and electronics, also TVs can be hacked to work as simulator screens

dark nymph
#

Hey @tranquil narwhal this is for discussing and getting help with projects. If you could please limit your discussion to that, it would be appreciated.

tranquil narwhal
#

Cool, sorry about that

#

BTW, where can I post new adafruit product ideas, I can create 500 ideas

dark nymph
#

You can find a contact form on the website I'm sure.

tranquil narwhal
#

Will they read the message

dark nymph
#

I don't work for Adafruit. I'm stepping away from my keyboard for awhile. Let's stay on topic. ty!

tranquil narwhal
#

K thanks

vagrant ingot
#

I’m making a modular, enclosed, adjustable spark gap for some other projects, I want to include a faraday cage in the design to reduce interference. How should I measure the amount of leakage from the device?

brave orbit
restive fjord
#

any follow canadians here? Not sure what I'm allowed to do and if I can even import SDR if I don't even have a basic ham radio license

#

I'd like to experiment with them one day but I'm reading that customs can seize it and I'm out whatever I paid for it so seems risky without knowing more

young cove
#

where do you see that it might be seized?

restive fjord
young cove
#

well, that radio is available from Canadian distributors

#

how much do you want to spend?

restive fjord
#

Here: "IC certification, aka ISED certification, is a mandatory certification for wireless products to enter Canada. IC standards for Industry Canada which is the Canadian Authority regulating and approving wireless products certification.".

young cove
#

does "wireless" imply transmission? If so, then not a problem

restive fjord
#

Yeah it's the transmission they mind

young cove
#

sdr RECEIVERS don't transmit

restive fjord
#

for the unregulated band you can't import without the label but individuals have much less issues than commercial operators

young cove
#

or look for "rtl-sdr" (cheap SDR) on amazon.ca

restive fjord
#

ie: couldn't import a DYI doppler radar for instance but I can build one and use it (unregular band as an individual) but not use it commercially

#

Also a bit OT but I had a similar chat about lithium batteries with adafruit before and it's not possible because cross-border transport of batteries (even inoffensive alkaline AA ones) require special hazmat handling which cost a minimum of 50$ per item

#

If I try to buy 2 AA batteries on amazon US from canada for instance the shipping is 100$ + the normal one. Really crazy

#

Only exception is if it's part of a normal product. But of their own, no

young cove
#

yeah, let a canadian distributor handle that stuff for you

restive fjord
#

Going to bookmark the link you sent me

#

my source for the radio stuff is my friend who has recently passed his advanced ham radio license 🙂

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and who is now allowed to build his own radio transmitter instead of having to buy one with a label for the extended ham bands

young cove
#

A friend of mine was a computer salesperson in the 1970's. He went to Canada on a sales trip. This was just after Canada had passed a "data importation" law of some kind, so they could charge duty on data or something like that. He had a carousel of slides and the Canadian custom person asked suspiciously, "Is there any data on these slides?". My friend said, "what?? no, they're just for a sales presentation". He also had a deck of punch cards. The customs official asked, "Any data on these cards??". My friend said, "Nah, they're used."

restive fjord
#

yeah our laws about radio are weird

young cove
#

that was supposed to be a funny story

restive fjord
#

before the 1990s it was fine to listen to private conversation on radio even if they were secret army stuff (but today it's covered by privacy laws in the criminal code) as long as you didn't use the information or share it with another country

#

I put a toy bug at the local canadian CIA office when I was young for the giggles and they couldn't do anything because since I didn't tell another country it wasn't spying 🤣

restive fjord
#

especially the punch card. Also good punch

#

They still have no idea what duty they will impose ahead of time

#

it's still the canadian roulette when you try to determine how much duty you'll pay

#

It's drawn when whey have the item in hand like a lottery

young cove
#

if you declare it and write it down, maybe it would fall in a category? I brought back some radio eqpt from Japanto the US in 1983 and wrote it down to declare the category

restive fjord
#

I mean online orders

#

Also every once in a while canada has issues with China and they take 2-3 months to clear chinese items from the customs because doing that to the end-user somehow pressure the chinese govt(????)

arctic crypt
#

I'm wondering if anyone can help me with the RFM69 bonnet for raspi. When I run the demo code from the adafruit guide the first packet sends correctly and my other receiver decodes it fine, but when a second packet is sent the code fails and gives the following error: TimeoutError: Operation Mode failed to set.

plush moon
#

I had some early issues with RFM96s and packets being cut off mid-send/rec.

arctic crypt
#

Hm, yeah that was something I considered, I added a 10 second timer and its still failing. I'm wondering if its a bad board..

plush moon
#

It basically snaps the checksum in half

#

What are you writing the code in?

arctic crypt
#

I have the same code running on the rfm69 feather with no issue

#

Circuitpython

plush moon
#

On what kind of Pi?

#

(Pi might not be fast enough)

arctic crypt
#

RPi model 4 with 4gb of ram, I don't think thats it..

plush moon
#

no, def not

arctic crypt
#

Yeah, I’m gonna buy a new bonnet and see if that’s the trick.

#

Thanks for the help!

sand siren
#

This Adafruit Bluetooth Module (NRF51822) has >80M open space range, which I assume is at +4dBm? What is its range at 0dbm?

#

I need a 10 meter range at max

#

And does having a lipo underneath the RF keepout area of a module affect anything

primal warren
restive fjord
#

can this be reused in any way? (asus brand)

IMG_20220508_151727.jpg
#

or it's likely to use a proprietary protocol ?

primal warren
#

The antenna has no real effect on protocol, as long as the frequencies are compatible, it should work

restive fjord
#

How would I find that out? THis was a wifi booster antenna that connected to motherboard wifi connector

#

so I assume its wifi range, does it matter the middle pin is missing ? Didn't seem to for my old computer

primal warren
#

Most WiFi is 2.4GHz, there's some 5GHz too. The middle pin does matter, you'd probably have to cut the cable and attach either a new connector or just connect the wires to a suitable point

restive fjord
#

I see. thanks 🙂

sand siren
#

Pretty much depending on the power draw of the NRF51822 (which would be due to whatever dBm ends up working) would change the shape of the pcb drastically

primal warren
#

We're not talking a lot of power here: 0dBm is a milliwatt. It's not like you need thick traces to move that.

sand siren
#

According to the datasheet, the range of 0dBm to +4dBm is 10-16mA draw which (supposedly) is what would be used? And I am trying to not go near +4dBm under any circumstance since I am using a 110mA lipo

#

The thing that changes based on the battery it ends up needing is the size of the pcb

#

Since from what I've been told, it's a no no to have a lipo go underneath a keepout zone and that is gonna end up happening if I use a lipo that is a vastly different size than the pcb

primal warren
#

Ah, now I understand. Yes, LiPos are full of copper and other conductive materials, so they'd distort an RF field. Depending on your parameters and skills, you can stack prismatic LiPos to get more capacity with thickness instead of length/width.

sand siren
#

aren't those what most of what is available on adafruit

#

and how close can a lipo be to the keepout area of a rf module

granite spear
# sand siren and how close can a lipo be to the keepout area of a rf module

Like a lot of antenna stuff, "it depends". There's not a sharp cutoff where it works perfectly in one position and then dies completely 1mm inside the keepout area. You just get a gradual degradation of signal strength the more interfering objects are in the vicinity of the antenna. The keepout area is sort of the "yeah, you'll probably notice if you put something here" line.

cosmic ivy
primal warren
restive fjord
#

I can try to take a better one when my cellphone is charged

young hazel
#

Is there a simple way to dump data from a BLE device? I feel like im in the dark searching for how to do this but I just want to see all data the BLE device sends out at this point

#

Here is a bit of details that I can see the device is sending out if that helps

IMG_2503.png
young cove
young hazel
#

What you're seeing there is the nRFConnect app that I was hoping to use to find UUIDs of the device + UUID of Service/Char

primal warren
#

You could try some other Bluetooth apps, but presumably some of the information isn't broadcast continuously, and you'd have to somehow ask the device for the data.

young hazel
young cove
#

If you look in https://github.com/adafruit and search for "CircuitPython_BLE", you'll find examples of talking to many devices, though many use some variant of the Nordic BLE "UART" (NUS) service.

young hazel
#

Thanks for the info. Ultimately my goal is to use some of the data that the JS code collects on my AdafruitFeather so display it on the OLED and I suppose the challenging part is figuring out how to translate that over but I'll take a look at these resources and see what I can gather

restive fjord
#

I'm new to radio, is there a typical protocol for simple data transfer between radios (HackRF and Yardstick and eventually another HackRF)

restive fjord
#

I'm trying to understand the fundamentals of PSK, so I was looking for a simple encoding method/communication protocol.

primal warren
#

I usually use the Radiohead library for that sort of thing, but I think it's aimed at simpler chips. You could use it as a source of ideas, I suppose.

restive fjord
#

I just found SoapySDR and Porthosware. They look promising (I have a background in software, not hardware).

#

I usually use the Radiohead library for

random helm
restive fjord
#

so without the pin it's useless then ?

primal warren
#

The RP ("reverse polarity") version of that connector isn't supposed to have a pin, so it's entirely possible the connector you have is intact. Even if it weren't, you could cut it off and connect something else to the cable.

random helm
young cove
primal warren
#

Or from RP-SMA to whatever you want to connect to, like AdaFruit product number 852, which adapts from RP-SMA to U.FL.

restive fjord
#

how can I tell if it's of any quality? Remove the housing, check chips? Or it's just a piece of metal ?<

#

Could be useful for mobile project to catch wifi from open free ones from the wifi non-profit in the city

random helm
fringe crow
#

Does anybody know how to use the ESP32-S2 ToF feature?

worn bridge
proud shoal
#

Hey all, I wanted to get into radio and LoRa and had a question; what is the difference between the RFM69 and RFM95 modules? I was looking at both and couldn’t tell if there was a functional difference between them

granite spear
proud shoal
urban iris
#

Hello

#

Today I measured the spectrumm of rfm9x and I obtained this results

#

Why ar 2 spectrum, is my tx frequency in 433MHz

primal warren
pastel granite
#

Afternoon everyone 🙂

#

Long time no speak.

#

Have a question about converting bytes to string - something is funky in CPy's decode() method.

Anyone around?

primal warren
pastel granite
#

Fair enough 🙂

#

Thanks, mad 🙂

atomic patio
#

Hi everyone! I’m trying to figure out if anybody has had any luck with getting the lora featherwing working with the radiohead library on the rp2040?

primal warren
normal drift
#

and this from the Radiohead Library main page Raspberry Pi Pico, on Arduino, using either the Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040 core by Earle F. Philhower, version 1.93, installed per https://arduino-pico.readthedocs.io/_/downloads/en/latest/pdf/ or the alternative Arduino MBED OS RP2040 core version 2.4.1. At this stage support is partial: RH_ASK works but radio drivers that use interrupts do not (yet) work in either core. https://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/RadioHead/

sly dust
#

Hello, I've spent a few weeks to go from pico plus airlift issues to https://github.com/adafruit/nina-fw/issues/46 - where I've got a reproducible crash in the NINA-FW. Slightly overwhelmed as that was quite a run around to get this far - but it looks like it's now in the ESP32 IDF which I'm not familiar with.

GitHub
Crashing when operating as a server · Issue #46 · adafruit/nina-fw

When the ESP32 is used as a server (by CircuitPython, tested on RP2040), it will consistently crash after a few hundred requests. I have narrowed this to being in the NINA-FW and not CircuitPython ...

tame nymph
#

Hey there. Can anyone help me understand this data type..how it works?

(char*)buf

It's the data format into which received messages are stored as part of this Lora RFM9X Test example code here:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-rfm69hcw-and-rfm96-rfm95-rfm98-lora-packet-padio-breakouts/rfm9x-test

I have 2 identical setups and the example code executes fine sending and receiving between the two radios. Specifically, I want to be able to evaluate (char*)buf in a conditional statement and drive subsequent code to trigger. It didn't work directly, i.e*. if (char*)buf == "TurnOnRelay"), so I dumped it into a String like this:

String verify = (char*)buf; if (verify == "TurnOnRelay") digitalWrite(RELAY, HIGH);

It works like this.

I can Serial.print (verify) and the text is correctly received between radios, plus turns on the relay). But as soon as I add additional lines in IF statement, for some reason, it seems to not get the right data in my String variable "Verify". It Serial.prints as either a blank line, or a backwards question mark. Simultaneously I can print directly Serial.print((char*)buf); and get the proper sent text, so the radio communication is happening fine/accurately.

This makes no sense to me, and I've checked and rechecked my code for errors.

I know, in theory, that the asterisk can be used in front of a pointer variable to get the value of the object that is pointed to by the pointer. But this usage doesn't seem the same animal as I have seen in examples elsewhere.

Is there a better/another way to evaluate this received message in code?

Adafruit Learning System
Adafruit RFM69HCW and RFM9X LoRa Packet Radio Breakouts

Radio transceiver modules for long distance data communication

primal warren
#

Char just is a single character. You probably want char * which is a pointer to characters (or, more usefully, a pointer to an array of characters, which is a C string).

tame nymph
primal warren
#

I generally don't use the String class, so to compare strings, I use a function like ```arduino
if (strcmp(buf, "TurnOnRelay") == 0) {
digitalWrite(RELAY, HIGH);
}

tame nymph
edgy breach
#

Is it OK to connect the MIC- pin of a FONA 800 to GND?

#

or is it what has killed the FONA?

edgy breach
#

I think this has killed 2 FONAs so far,

bronze lichen
#

What are you using as input to the MIC+ pin?

primal warren
noble tusk
#

hello! does anyone know where should I find more about raspberry pi zero 2w antenna ?

primal warren
# noble tusk hello! does anyone know where should I find more about raspberry pi zero 2w ante...

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there. It's a Niche PCB antenna licensed from ProAnt (like the Zero W antenna was) but an improved design with 2.5dBi gain. FCC ID is 2ABCB-RPIZ2, but the documents available don't add much information. It appears that ProAnt is a division of Abracon: https://abracon.com/niche-antennas

Abracon
Niche Antennas

Abracon is a leading global manufacturer of passive and electromechanical timing, synchronization, power, connectivity and RF solutions.

coarse crypt
granite spear
coarse crypt
coarse crypt
#

Ok all, I have another issue. I have the rmf95 feather wing connected to esp32 thing plus. I have mosi -> mosi, miso -> miso , sck-> sck. CS -> 22, irq ->14, reset->23 , at the top of the arduino sketch i have #define RFM95_CS 22, #define RFM_RST 23, and #define RFM95_INT 14. My code hangs at rf95.waitpacketsent() , are the arduino pins the same as the eps33 pins? Or is there another way to specify the IRQ , CS, RST pins? I must be missing something? 🤔

coarse crypt
#

I have probed every pad and every pin next to each other and I can find the reason why ground is connected to 3v creating a short. Can someone help explain this? Is the board bad?

primal warren
#

Does the board not power up?

restive fjord
#

Hi. I'd like to make 2 gadgets sending (directly or indirectly) bme680's readings over some radio to an android tablet 5-10m away, around twice per second each. A LoRa gateway is not out of the question and some long-term storage for readings would be nice too. The main functionality is to display on the tablet a real-time reading+2-hour graph with ideally no more than let's say 1-2s delay, from both sensors at the same time.

Any radio recommendations? It needs to be as small as possible and low power, so as not to skew the temperature reading (might add a bme390 for better precision) but will be USB-powered (5V).

granite spear
restive fjord
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Ok that's a really sweet looking module actually

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at this point I've switched my alignment to prefer a solution with central logging, but wow, one sweet looking tiny module

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Ok, so on one hand, with a direct bluetooth connection there's the nRF52832. Any recommendations for a lora-based approach with a gateway?

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or is nRF52 the way to go also with a gateway saving to homeassistant, grafana, etc.?

restive fjord
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can I have the sensors with nRF52 broadcast readings, so they'll be seen by both, tablet and homeassistant/grafana gateway?

granite spear
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You might also consider the ESP32, which has WiFi (and optionally Bluetooth), since it sounds like you are really wanting to just put these sensors on the network with other stuff.

restive fjord
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oh right, I kinda want to do the exact thing ESP32 is for... but with less heat dissipation

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though really, the most important parameter for me is pressure and accurate temperature is just an extra nice-to-have

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ESP8684 has an ESP32-C2 silicon die packaged together with (some amount of) flash in a 4x4 mm QFN-28 package.

heady scarab
lost gorge
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Hey!
i hope i ended up in the right place, im super new to building bluetooth chips,
i have some past experience with NRF24 chips
anyways, cant get my hands on any NRF24 chips, so i got NRF52, which are the latest version of those chips,
so i assumed it should be similar, only problem. unlike nrf24, they hate being flashed with Bin files, and uh, all my files are in bin files,
can someone please help me and instruct me on how im supposed to get these bin files
and turn them into hex files?

primal warren
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On my computer, these are part of the AdaFruit nRF package and are specifically ~/Library/Arduino15/packages/adafruit/tools/gcc-arm-none-eabi/5_2-2015q4/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc for the compiler, and arm-none-eabi-objcopy (in the same directory) to convert it to hex.

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The quickest way to find the locations of the executables and their arguments is to check the "Show verbose output during compilation" option in Arduino preferences, compile something for the desired board, and examine the output to watch the commands used.

past solar
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Is there a significant difference in range between 433 MHz and 900 MHz RFM69HCW devices? I'm a licensed US ham working on a ham radio project. I would like for non-hams to be able to use my device with minimal changes, so I'm considering going with 900 MHz devices, but if 433 range is significantly better, I would use those.

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The signals will frequently have to go through walls. The network is similar in use to a cellular network (more like APRS if you're familiar with that), except most base stations will be indoors.

bronze lichen
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(I’m not a radio guy so i might be wrong) i don’t think the range would change much because the power of the different modules is almost the same

past solar
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I was expecting that the range should be better at 433 (basically, a lower frequency has a longer wavelength, and a longer wave can go around obstructions more easily), but the product pages give the same ranges for both bands.

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I'm familiar with VHF and low UHF propagation, and VHF (2 m, ~146 MHz) does travel farther than UHF (70 cm, ~446 MHz; in the same band as 433)

granite spear
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You may not have a choice anyway. My understanding is that 433MHz is for Europe and 900MHz is for the US. The former band isn't open for general use under FCC regulations, AFAIK.

past solar
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I'm a licensed ham, so I can transmit on 433 under amateur regulations. I can transmit on 915 under amateur or unlicensed regulations, which is why I would prefer 915 (that way I can use it with non-hams), but if using 433 will get longer range, that's okay.

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In Europe, it would be okay for non hams to use it on 433.

granite spear
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Ah, sorry, I misunderstood, I thought you wanted to build something for non-hams to also use.

past solar
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That would be nice, but range is more important. If getting longer range requires users to have ham licenses, I'm okay with that.

granite spear
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Are you wedded to the RFM69? If you want more range, the LoRa variant modules in the same family would be an option.

past solar
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I might think about LoRa. I know it's a proprietary protocol. Is the RFM protocol proprietary? I would prefer an open protocol, but proprietary is okay if necessary. If the RFM protocol is proprietary as well, I would have no reason not to use LoRa.

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Oh, the LoRa modules are too expensive.

granite spear
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Not sure about the protocol. I think they have a few different options, including basic OOK or FSK.

past solar
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It looks like the RFM chips use FSK, but I'm talking about the packet protocol as well as the modulation.

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I guess I could implement my own packet system and use them in raw bit mode. It would be more work, but it would be worth it as a way to avoid a proprietary protocol.

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Oh yeah, RFMs can use multiple modulations

remote pond
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oh right, a proprietary protocol might be considered illegal under US amateur radio regulations, possibly?

past solar
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I'm pretty sure they're legal (people use proprietary modes a lot, e.g. VARA, PACTOR, D-STAR, DMR, C4FM); I'd just rather avoid a proprietary mode. @remote pond

past solar
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(IANAL; that's not legal advice)

primal warren
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IAANAL, but my understanding is if the protocol is documented and unencrypted, you don't monopolize or interfere, and you follow the rules for periodic station ID, you'd be in compliance

past solar
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@primal warren yeah I think that's right

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I would prefer to avoid a proprietary mode, but that's just a personal opinion, I'm pretty sure there's no legal issue

remote pond
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ah, ok. i keep forgetting proprietary isn't necessarily undocumented (though do some of them require IP licensing from the vendor?)

past solar
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IIUC a reverse engineered spec counts

past solar
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It looks like using two separate microcontrollers will be better for my project, with the RFM69HCW in "raw rx/tx" mode, but that mode isn't documented on learn.adafruit.com. I know I would have to implement error correction. Is there some kind of documentation for raw mode?

primal warren
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Maybe look at the RadioHead library, which offers a bunch of different operational modes.

past solar
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Okay, I'll look. It looks like I could just use a normal serial connection to send and receive bits once it was set up, but I still need to figure out how to set it up.

past solar
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Specifically, I want to use it as an APRS transceiver. I know that it won't be RF-compatible with normal APRS radios, but I do want the protocol to be the same so packets from my devices can be relayed to the APRS network and vice versa.

coarse crypt
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Hi All, I'm trying to connect to the helium network, I can't seem to find where to put the server information i..e. iPad dress like the ttn network has

past solar
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Is it possible to solder a wire directly to an RFM69HCW breakout for the antenna?

primal warren
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Yeah, should be. I've done similar things with other boards, with good results.

lora-boards-antenna.jpg
bronze lichen
random helm
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AFAIK all the common Ham radio digital modes are proprietary anyway, so I don't see how this would be different. That said I'm just a Technician and not super active; I see you got your Extra, congrats!

sick carbon
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I think that's the major reason for the M17 project's existence

past solar
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Most non-voice modes other than PACTOR and VARA are open source

native sparrow
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how would i do radio control for say an RC car. what tutorials could you point me to or boards that do it for me

bronze lichen
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what are you using as the controller and what range do you want?

native sparrow
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the controller for the vehicle is an arduino mini and the range doesnt have to be huge but not only like 1m

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the controller that controls the vehicle is custom

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like the one you hold is custom

remote pond
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do you already have experience with operating conventional (non-microcontroller) RC models?

native sparrow
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yes i can operate an RC model

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its a hexacopter btw

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like a quadcopter but with more props

primal warren
native sparrow
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I understood half of that so I’m just gonna go with lemon board

primal warren
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In short, you can talk to the 24L01 ones with SPI and send whatever protocol you want digitally. The Lemon RX ones are more traditional R/C units, I got one that accepts a PPM stream and transmits it, and a receiver that includes what they call a "HUART" output, that's an asychronous serial data stream.

raw mural
past solar
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@raw mural that looks good; I have a similar one from a different brand and it works well

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(same chip)

brisk grove
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Has anyone ever used Picos (or other RP2040s) in a LoRa situation of any capacity?

normal drift
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There were some issues with the Arduino RadioHead library.

brisk grove
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@normal drift There are rumors that circuitpython cannot be used to communicate with a LoRa gateway device.

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since circuitpython is actively developed, I don't know if this is still true today

normal drift
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The CircuitPython TinyLora library does not work with TTN V3 so the rumor is confirmed.

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Circuitpython supports LoRa -- not Lorawan

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the rfm9x library works for sending LoRa packets.

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I have been using the Arduino MCCI LMIC library for TTN V3

brisk grove
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Imagine I go ahead and deplloy my own homebrewed LoraWAN network server. Can I end-around this non-support of TTNv3?

normal drift
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I have no idea...sorry -- I upgraded my Gateways to V3

brisk grove
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hmmm

normal drift
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Do you need LoraWan? -- can you just send LoRa packets between your nodes. I use a Raspberry Pi with an RFM9x as my "gateway" -- not using LoRWAn

brisk grove
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I need some manner of front-end client app for telemetry (eventually control as well)

normal drift
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Does this happen to be for a project at UNH? Sounds like something I talked to folks there about earlier today?

brisk grove
normal drift
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sure

normal drift
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Just curious if anyone has found a way to use a feather RP2040 (or any RP2040) with LoRaWAN (TTN V3). I have a working example using an rfm9x featherwing with a Feather M4 express, but when I swap it over to the feather RP2040 (same pinouts) my gateway sees an initial packet from the RP2040, but the RP2040 does not appear to receive the response and fails to connect. If I recall correctly there were also some issues with receiving packets on the RP2040 with the Arduino RadioHead library. Has anyone had any success with RP2040s using LoRaWAN or RadioHead? It works fine with CircuitPython.

normal drift
normal drift
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Hooray! The issue with the MCCI LMIC library has been resolved. I'm still not sure why it was not working with the original pin selections, but I changed to using the same pins as in Sandeep Mistry's example and it now works fine. That is a great relief!

bold moat
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do higher frequency waves hold their energy better? say 5ghz vs 2.4ghz. Would 5ghz be less vulnerable to constructive/destructive interference?

normal drift
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Mystery solved regarding the pinouts for the RP2040 -- just had to read the docs There is no pin remapping for Arduino on the RP2040. Therefore, the pin names on the top of the board are not the pin names used for Arduino. The Arduino pin names are the RP2040 GPIO pin names.

normal drift
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With the correct pin definitions, the RadioHead Library also works with the Feather RP2040....life is good!

granite spear
remote pond
worn bridge
bold moat
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hmm since its dealing with photons (with no mass), maybe the non-classical way to think about it is as a wave-particle and the atoms on the wall with their own surrounding electric fields. So if its too low energy, more of it passes through common materials like brick, timber & steel. But when you increase to 5-6GHz, more photons are 'captured' by the electric fields, causing deflection or absorption. Or maybe Im dunno what im talking about

remote pond
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materials interactions with electromagnetic radiation are partially due to quantum resonances at the atomic and molecular levels (sharp absorption/emission lines for atoms, wide bands for molecules, etc)

woeful vector
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hi all, I am looking to work on a persona project with LORA radio,
is there a possibility/option to assign ID per main/secondary Lora so I can couple tthrm?

I will need to make approx 170 couples

thanks in advance !!

granite spear
normal drift
crisp rampart
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Hi! I have an ESP32-S3 feather and I'm trying to connect it to my phone. But when I do a Bluetooth scan, it doesn't find my phone's Bluetooth address, nor does it find any devices that have a py complete_name . I put the feather right next to the phone, so they would be close enough to make a connection. What is happening?

granite spear
woeful vector
crisp rampart
primal warren
woeful vector
primal warren
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About 1100m, over open but not flat terrain.

crisp rampart
granite spear
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Is the Feather running software that makes it discoverable and handles the pairing?

crisp rampart
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I don't think so. It's iterating through ble.start_scan() and storing the advertisements in the variable ad. I could do connection=ble.connect(ad) but for that to work the feather would need to see the phone over Bluetooth and have the phone's advertisement in the variable, which is the problem.

bronze lichen
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Is your phone ios or android?

woeful vector
primal warren
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It might be worth looking at the FONA library source code to see what AT commands it uses.

woeful vector
primal warren
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That's the one I cribbed info from, but there could be a Python variant that might need less translation

limber vigil
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I have a Feather M0 Wifi (ATWINC1500) board here, but running the firmware check example sketch, it says there's no wifi shield present. Does that mean my wifi chip is dead? I vaguely recall bricking one a few years back, this might be that one. Is there any way to force a firmware update to it?

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Ah! I ran the updater anyway, that seemed to work, and now the version check passes.