Hey!
I am currently building myself some lighting for my appartment using Arduinos and strips of WS2812b LEDs. My plan was to control them with an app from my smartphone and a Raspberry Pi. The phone sends data (like color, mode etc.) to the Pi and the Pi transmits that via a 433MHz transmitter to three Arduino Nanos I wanted to place across the room.
Sending data from my phone through the Pi to the Arduinos works without a problem, the data is received correctly and the LEDs light up, but as soon as I do this once no more data can be received. There is no issue when I just receive and don't do anything else. Here's my code:
#include <RCSwitch.h>
#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
#define LEDPIN 9
#define NUMPIXELS 75
#define STARTBIT 4194305
#define STOPBIT 8388609
#define SETBIT 2097153
RCSwitch rc = RCSwitch();
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(NUMPIXELS, LEDPIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);
uint32_t data[] = {0,0,0};
bool written[] = {false, false, false};
bool led_set = false;
uint32_t wait = 0;
uint16_t j = 0;
int index = 0;
bool recording = false;
int led = 0;
unsigned long time;
static unsigned long received = 0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
time = millis();
pinMode(LEDPIN, INPUT);
rc.enableReceive(0); // Receiver on interrupt 0 => that is pin #2
strip.begin();
for (int i = 0; i < 75; i++) {
strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(255,255,255));
}
strip.show();
}
void loop() {
if (millis()-time >= 1000) {
Serial.println(*((unsigned int*)rc.nReceivedValue));
Serial.println(rc.nReceivedValue);
Serial.println(millis());
time = millis();
}
if (rc.available()) {
received = rc.getReceivedValue();
rc.resetAvailable();
Serial.print("received: ");
Serial.print(received);
Serial.println();
}
if ((received == STOPBIT) && recording) {
Serial.println("stopped");
recording = false;
}
else if ((received == STARTBIT) && not recording) {
recording = true;
led_set = false;
Serial.println("started");
}
if (recording) {
if(received == SETBIT && written[index] && index < 3) {
index++;
Serial.println("setbit");
}
else if(received != STARTBIT && received != STOPBIT && received != SETBIT && received != 0 && not written[index] && index < 3) {
data[index] = received & 0xFFFFFFFF;
written[index] = true;
//Serial.println(received);
Serial.println(data[index]);
Serial.println("written");
}
}
else if (data[0] != 0 && data[1] != 0 && data[2] != 0 && not recording && not led_set) {
Serial.println("setting LED");
for (int i = 0; i < NUMPIXELS; i++) {
strip.setPixelColor(i, data[2]);
}
strip.show();
rc.resetAvailable();
}
if (not recording) {
for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++) {
written[k] = false;
}
index = 0;
}
}
(I pretty much ripped this code to pieces and this is whats left, so there might be some things missing or unclear)
I use these as receiver/transmitter and the following libraries:
RC-Switch:
Adafruit NeoPixel:
What I found out so far is that it works with less than 5 LEDs and sometimes with more if I set the colors to low values. Then it's more or less chance if I get another receive or not. If I do not set the LEDs here
else if (data[0] != 0 && data[1] != 0 && data[2] != 0 && not recording && not led_set) {
Serial.println("setting LED");
for (int i = 0; i < NUMPIXELS; i++) {
strip.setPixelColor(i, data[2]);
}
strip.show();
rc.resetAvailable();
}
I can receive more data, if I hardcode the values for the colors it works only for bright white (so every color to 255) or for color values below 14.
If I comment out the last four lines in setup() the problem can't even be solved by the restart button (unplugging helps though). Switching the receiver does not work either.
All three of the Arduinos I use have the same issue.
I use a 6A power supply (at least for the strip with 75 LEDs, the other two have 30 LEDs each with a 2.4A supply) so power should be no issue.
When I hooked up my Arduino Uno to the second data pin of the receiver it couldn't receive anything either, using the Uno with another receiver next to it was fine. Using the Uno as oscilloscope and displaying the voltage on the data pin I noticed a lot of noise after first transmitting. It looked like it increased with the color values. The noise was gone after I restarted the arduino with the LED-setting in setup() and it doesn't occur if I don't do anything with the LEDs at all. There is a 5 MOhm pull-down resistor between data and gnd on the receiver module. I don't actually know if this noise has anything to do with this, because receiving was sometimes fine even with noise.
I really would like to know if there's anything I could try to solve this, besides switching to WiFi-modules or actual wire.