Where can I buy a real NRF24LO1+ from and not one of the cheap clones on eBay which are giving me headache...
Needs to be mounted just like the ones on eBay as I can't solder the SMD chip (my arc welder may be too powerful).
Cheers Alan
CrossRoads:
Terry King, www.yourduino.com
http://yourduino.com/sunshop2/index.php?l=product_list&c=12
Thank you for the link.
They also ship from Shenzhen,China. Do real chips come from China?
How can I tell if this is not a fake/clone?
What is wrong with the cheap clones? First I tried them as is, and they were awful. Then, as advised on http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Nrf24L01-2.4GHz-HowTo , I soldered a 4.7uf capacitor directly on gnd and vcc of both modules, powered them with 3.3v, and now they work just fine.
Bouba:
What is wrong with the cheap clones? First I tried them as is, and they were awful. Then, as advised on http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Nrf24L01-2.4GHz-HowTo , I soldered a 4.7uf capacitor directly on gnd and vcc of both modules, powered them with 3.3v, and now they work just fine.
I bought eight and 3 worked okay most of the time. The other 5 were visually less well put together (solder splatters for example) and more importantly they dropped significantly more transmissions and the range also was less.
Last night one of my 'good' ones stopped mid soak test. Plugged another one in and off we went again. This morning tried the fried one and it worked again!!
I have another batch coming but after reading so much bad press on the internet I've decided my time is more valuable than fighting with them.
I'll check out the capacitor issue though, so thanks for the link.
Here is a photo of one of my earlier test setups
Great setup! Do you know how far you can go with your 'good' ones? The capacitor really did the trick for me, at first the two modules were intermittent, even when only few inches away. Now it works well at several meters of distance.
You might be interested by this tutorial as well
Enhanced NRF24L01 radio with a DIY Dipole Antenna modification
Bouba:
You might be interested by this tutorial as wellEnhanced NRF24L01 radio with a DIY Dipole Antenna modification
http://www.instructables.com/id/Enhanced-NRF24L01/?ALLSTEPS
Interesting stuff. Thought I'd seen everything there was to see about the NRF but...