ESP8266 version 12E with NRF24L01 - SOLVED!

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

This is something that's been giving me difficulty for months now. I almost abandoned the project, but last night decided to give it another go, and thanks to the dutiful efforts and brilliance of others, I have found the solution!

The problem was that I wanted to connect an ESP 12-E to an NRF24L01 module to integrate it into an RF24 network. This would allow the 12-E to act as a bridge between my house RF24 network and the internet. But it seemed that no matter how I connected the NRF to the 12-E, they just wouldn't communicate.

But then I came across these two pages (below), where people had figured it out! It requires the use of the hardware SPI pins on the 12-E, which also require a pull-down resistor from pin D8 on the 12-E to activate HSPI mode.

Pin connections are as follows:

NRF ESP-12E
CSN ---------------- D8
MOSI --------------- D7
MISO --------------- D6
SCK ---------------- D5
CE ------------------ D4

Also remember, D8 must be tied to ground via a 3-5 KOhm. The page I referenced recommends a 4.75 kOhm resisitor, but I used a 3.3 kOhm successfully. Do not connect directly to ground, use a resistor!

Then in your code, initialize the radio normally, using "RF24 wirelessSPI(2, 15);".

While I was testing it last night, I had difficulty getting it to transmit properly at first. I had it set up to send an incrementing integer every 500 mS, but it wasn't being properly received by the other node. I increased the interval to once every second, then it began to work perfectly and ran for about 10 hours before I unhooked it. I don't know if it was coincidental that it started working once I changed the interval or not.

Also, I have not tested it full RF24 network functionality yet.

websites referenced:

http://d.av.id.au/blog/esp8266-hardware-spi-hspi-general-info-and-pinout/

2

Update:

RF24 Network implements successfully on the ESP8266. I now have a functioning system that retrieves Date and Time information from NIST through wi-fi and broadcasts that out to the RF24 network. Just remember to add a few delay()'s throughout the code to keep the ESP running stably.

3

Thank u very much!

Just what i was looking for.

My ESP-12 is now working with NRF24L01 module!

1 Like
4

erorr
ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:2, boot mode:(3,7)

load 0x4010f000, len 1384, room 16
tail 8
chksum 0x2d
csum 0x2d
v0c897c37
~ld

help me

5

turns out this error is encountered?

Soft WDT reset

ctx: cont
sp: 3ffef820 end: 3ffefb60 offset: 01b0

stack>>>
3ffef9d0: 401063bc 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 401064b5
3ffef9e0: 00000010 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 402029f8
3ffef9f0: 00000017 3ffee8f0 3ffee8f0 40202a40
3ffefa00: 00000017 00000000 3ffee8f0 40202a71
3ffefa10: 00000010 00000000 3ffee8f0 40202eeb
3ffefa20: 00002cee 000000cc 3ffee8f0 40202fe9
3ffefa30: cccc3ce3 000000cc 00000000 00000000
3ffefa40: 3ffee768 00000001 00000000 40202489
3ffefa50: 00000003 00000000 3ffee8f0 00000000
3ffefa60: 00000001 00000000 3ffee768 40202503
3ffefa70: 00050001 feefeffe feefeffe feefeffe
3ffefa80: 00000000 3ffee910 3ffee8f0 401064b5
3ffefa90: 401063bc 3ffee910 3ffee8f0 00000004
3ffefaa0: 00000038 3ffefb30 3ffee768 402027f7
3ffefab0: 3ffefb38 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 40202a00
3ffefac0: 401063bc 3ffee768 3ffefb30 00000018
3ffefad0: 00000004 3ffefb30 3ffee768 4020286a
3ffefae0: 00000000 3ffefb38 00000038 3ffeeb2c
3ffefaf0: 00000001 3ffee768 3ffeeb08 402039b1
3ffefb00: 3ffe88e0 3ffeeb2c 40203ba4 3ffeeb2c
3ffefb10: 00000001 3ffee768 3ffeeb08 402029b3
3ffefb20: 3fffdad0 3ffee768 3ffeeb25 40201fa0
3ffefb30: 00010000 00000072 00000000 40203bc5
3ffefb40: 3fffdad0 00000000 3ffeeb25 40203bf0
3ffefb50: feefeffe feefeffe 3ffeeb40 40100108
<<<stack<<<
!⸮
J⸮J!!⸮H⸮

6

derver:
turns out this error is encountered?

Soft WDT reset

ctx: cont
sp: 3ffef820 end: 3ffefb60 offset: 01b0

stack>>>
3ffef9d0: 401063bc 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 401064b5
<<<stack<<<
!⸮
J⸮J!!⸮H⸮

Your issues have possibly 2 causes:

1 - bad code, like heap/stack collision, or some other bad referencing type of code bug

2 - bad sketch upload configuration; make sure the settings selected are correct for your device. For example the Flash (SPIFFS) size, speed, mode (DIO/QIO), all of these play crucial role.

Good luck.

7

hello silly_cone can you please post your sample code which was successfully working with nrf24l01, which would help me a lot in modifying mine.

8

This Simple nRF24L01+ Tutorial may help. I have not tried it with an ESP8266 but as the TMRh20 RF24 library seems to work the examples should.

Wireless problems can be very difficult to debug so get the wireless part working on its own before you start adding any other features.

...R

9

Hello Robin thanks for the reply. I don't have much knowledge in programming and sorry if there are any technical or grammatical errors.

I have successfully programmed and compiled NRF24L01 modules with arduino uno, but i need both LORA and RF communication because my project involves around 12 number of master slave communication. So i want to compile the same program with NODEMCU and NRF24L01. So i made the pin configuration like this

NRF ESP-12E
CSN ---------------- D8
MOSI --------------- D7
MISO --------------- D6
SCK ---------------- D5
CE ------------------ D4

and D8 pin grounded through 4.7K ohm resistor.

my code which was successfully working arduino is:

10

code attached below. When I upload the code it gives me the following error in serial monitor.

Soft WDT reset

ctx: cont
sp: 3ffef820 end: 3ffefb60 offset: 01b0

stack>>>
3ffef9d0: 401063bc 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 401064b5
3ffef9e0: 00000010 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 402029f8
3ffef9f0: 00000017 3ffee8f0 3ffee8f0 40202a40
3ffefa00: 00000017 00000000 3ffee8f0 40202a71
3ffefa10: 00000010 00000000 3ffee8f0 40202eeb
3ffefa20: 00002cee 000000cc 3ffee8f0 40202fe9
3ffefa30: cccc3ce3 000000cc 00000000 00000000
3ffefa40: 3ffee768 00000001 00000000 40202489
3ffefa50: 00000003 00000000 3ffee8f0 00000000
3ffefa60: 00000001 00000000 3ffee768 40202503
3ffefa70: 00050001 feefeffe feefeffe feefeffe
3ffefa80: 00000000 3ffee910 3ffee8f0 401064b5
3ffefa90: 401063bc 3ffee910 3ffee8f0 00000004
3ffefaa0: 00000038 3ffefb30 3ffee768 402027f7
3ffefab0: 3ffefb38 3ffee8f0 3ffee910 40202a00
3ffefac0: 401063bc 3ffee768 3ffefb30 00000018
3ffefad0: 00000004 3ffefb30 3ffee768 4020286a
3ffefae0: 00000000 3ffefb38 00000038 3ffeeb2c
3ffefaf0: 00000001 3ffee768 3ffeeb08 402039b1
3ffefb00: 3ffe88e0 3ffeeb2c 40203ba4 3ffeeb2c
3ffefb10: 00000001 3ffee768 3ffeeb08 402029b3
3ffefb20: 3fffdad0 3ffee768 3ffeeb25 40201fa0
3ffefb30: 00010000 00000072 00000000 40203bc5
3ffefb40: 3fffdad0 00000000 3ffeeb25 40203bf0
3ffefb50: feefeffe feefeffe 3ffeeb40 40100108
<<<stack<<<

I tested the NODEMCU module with wifisacn and ap examples and found working fine. Please suggest me hardware or software modifications if any to get it done.

MASTER RECEIVER.txt (8.21 KB)

11

Hello everyone, sorry if there is anything wrong in my question. Basically I need an SPI communication example which involves NODEMCU and NRF24L01, wherein it searches radio in all the six pipes (tmrh20 library) and displays received information on the serial monitor. Thanks in advance

12

I have no experience of using an nRF24 with an ESP8266 so I can't help with the error messages.

Basically I need an SPI communication example which involves NODEMCU and NRF24L01, wherein it searches radio in all the six pipes (tmrh20 library) and displays received information on the serial monitor.

It will be much easier to help if you describe the project you want to implement so we understand the context for the solution you have in mind.

For example I have never found any need to use more than 1 pipe (even with lots of nRF24 slaves) so I can't imagine why you need 6.

...R

13

I have 12 slaves placed at a stretch of 1 km distance. I have allotted 1 pipe for two slaves to avoid packet loss and ease of identification. 12 slaves are used to control some 50 induction motors like switching on and getting on feedback and local alarm in case of fail to start etc.. All these I/O s are handled by arduino uno and NRF24L01 module combination. Whereas feedback part for remote viewing of alarm and running status will be uploaded to thingspeak channel using NODEMCU and NRF24L01 modules.

14

Interesting. A bit more detail will be useful.

What Arduino is at each slave location?

How do the distant slaves communicate with the master unit? Is each of the 12 slave communicating directly with the master? Or is (say) slave A communicating with slave B and is slave B passing on the data to slave C so that it gets to the master as a series of "hops"?

If the slaves communicate directly with the master I don't see any advantage in using multiple pipes on the master. As it only has one radio receiver if two or more slaves transmit at the same time all the messages will be garbled.

How often do messages need to be exchanged between the master and the slaves?

Is there two-way communication between the master and the slaves.

...R

15

1: Arduino uno is used throughout.
2: For certain commands like On command and alarm feedback , power failure will be passed to distant slaves by nearby slaves.

  1. All of them may communicate at the same time not often but it depends alarm trigger.

  2. All modules have two way communication.

16

Thanks.

It sounds as if most of the time all the slaves communicate directly with the master but occasionally some of them communicate via other slaves. How is that managed?

For certain commands like On command and alarm feedback , power failure

Is "power failure" a message just like ON or ALARM or is it the reason why the commands are not sent directly to the slave?

What do you use the ESP8266 for?
Which node is it connected to?

...R

17

  1. Occasional communication will be triggered by received integer. It will be compared to a predefined value and then communication starts which are managed by different pipe allocation.

  2. Power failure is just a message like ON /ALARM.

  3. This project is being developed for an aquaculture farmer who are facing problems with frequent power cuts during rainy season during night time. It is a difficult situation for them switching on the motors many times which are placed at 1km stretch walking on road full of mud.

  4. ESP 8266 is used only for running status of all motors and power failure and alarms etc. data will be uploaded to a thingspeak channel which can be monitored remotely.

18

srinivasa_rao_pedada:

  1. Occasional communication will be triggered by received integer. It will be compared to a predefined value and then communication starts which are managed by different pipe allocation.

Perhaps I did not explain my question clearly. What I want to know is how the decision is sometimes made for the farthest Arduino to talk directly to the master and at other times the decision is made to talk to the master through other nodes.

  1. ESP 8266 is used only for running status of all motors and power failure and alarms etc. data will be uploaded to a thingspeak channel which can be monitored remotely.

Does that mean the ESP8266 is just being used as a WiFi module connected to the master Uno?

Do all the slave Arduinos have the same program? If so please post the program and the program that is running on the master.

...R

19

I recognise this was a while ago but I'm having the same trouble to make an NRF24L01 receive data to an ESP8266 (NODEMCU development board). I've had data TX and RX perfectly with NRF using Arduino Nano and Pro Minis.

However, as soon as I replace with an ESP8266 it seems to receive different data size (I sent 7 but claims it received 16) and the data reads zero. The RX program on the ESP8266 loops through OK.

I've tried adding a pull down resister to pin D8 but no change.

Would it be possible for you to advise further? perhaps share your code and PIN out for the ESP8266 to the NRF. Many thanks.

20

I hadn't seen these new posts until just now. Its been a long time since I've thought about this, but as luck has it I'll be working on this same kind of problem tomorrow, so I should have some insight to share as I re-familiarize myself with it.