I've been looking for an alternative for my NRF24 modules. I'm basically having issues when trying to communicate at longer distances and even some black spots inside my property. I already tried a few things like bigger antennas, fine tuning, etc without much success.
I'm only using RF to transmit small amount of data, like sensor readings, commands, etc. There's a image on that site showing some range test and I looks good. Does anyone confirms that range is "real" or just marketing?
I was about to buy a few from eBay but than I realized I would need to use level shifter etc for the 3.3V, so a ready to use board might be quicker. Does anyone has any bad experience with RFM69s?
My name is Mike and I'm the one running this project on KS. Funny you mentioned the NRF24 as this was the module I used on my first Arduino Wireless project.
I'm might not be the best person to talk about that (my opinion won't be impartial ), but once you start replacing your NRF24s with RFM69s you'll regret you didn't do it earlier. The only advantage of NRF24, is the transfer rate up to 2Mbps...
For the IoT you probably need better reliability than faster transfer rate. Sensors, actuators etc, they'll produce/consume very little data.
About the 3.3V, yes, that's annoying if you try to use it directly on an Arduino as the RFM69 logic doesn't like 5V. For that reason the project I'm running runs all on 3.3V, it also helps saving some energy from your battery to keep voltage down.
As the board is "Arduino Compatible" you should be able to run your same code/logic on the Whisper Node without need changing much... maybe the pinout will be slight different, but at the end the MCU is the same. Btw, the RFM69 can use the Radiohead Library (RadioHead: RadioHead Packet Radio library for embedded microprocessors)
I'm basically having issues when trying to communicate at longer distances and even some black spots inside my property.
Lower frequencies penetrate better and the antennas are larger, so you have better range. With properly designed antennas, ranges are much, much larger. I easily get 300 meters line of site range with the cheapest 434 MHz modules, transmitter running at 3 V, using the balanced dipole antennas shown below.
Balanced dipoles are connected to GND and ANT on the modules, and for 434 MHz should be 33 cm tip-to-tip.
), but once you start replacing your NRF24s with RFM69s you'll regret you didn't do it earlier. The only advantage of NRF24, is the transfer rate up to 2Mbps...