Hello! I hope this is the correct forum since this seems to be a radio issue
I’m running into some kind of (interference? Grounding? Antenna?) problem when I try to use the Sparkfun EL sequencer, a nRF24L01+ transceiver, and the 12 volt EL inverter. These are all Sparkfun branded versions though originally I was using a non-Sparkfun version of the NRF24l01+ (Links to the product pages are provided at the bottom of this post)
I have an Arduino Uno with a NRF24l01+ attached and it’s running a very basic ping out program (one of the examples from the NRF24l01+ library)
The EL sequencer has the pong back code running.
Without the inverter, it’s functional pretty consistently, with expected range in both high and low power transmit modes.
When I hook up and power up the inverter I have very spotty success even when the Arduino Uno and the EL sequencer are in close proximity. This happens with both the Sparkfun NRF24l01+ breakout board and a 3rd party transceiver module.
If I set the inverter to its “flash mode” I get successful transmission during the “off” parts of the flash…sort of.
Here are the wrinkles (and please forgive my likely deep ignorance):
-I’ve checked my soldering job and re-soldered the connections between the breakout board and the sequencer, and I’m not seeing any lifted pads.
-If I put my finger on the CE pin (which is adjacent to the VCC pin) on the transceiver I get a much better success rate. This is consistent when the inverter is on or off, and when the transceiver is set to high or low broadcast modes. I guess my body (being a big bag of salt water) is either acting as a better ground or as a better antenna/(attenuation?) but I’m not sure.
–This is consistent between both sparkfun branded transceiver and the other brand
–The range of this finger based “fix” is consistent with performance when the sequencer is not connected to the inverter (That is, I get success at the same distances)
-When I power the transceiver from an OSEPP FTDI (that is, USB power) I get slightly improved performance but still touching that CE pin still has the greatest improvement
—I thought that since it functions better when on USB power that it might be a power supply issue. I tried using better batteries to power the sequencer (LiPo) and it only gave a marginal improvement
Thanks for reading all of this, and any help or advice is appreciated!
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10469 inverter
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12781 sequencer
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/691 breakout board