Is it possible to operate multiple nRF24L01 using only one Arduino Mega board?

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Hi all, I'm doing a project which I need to transmit the same data using multiple nRF24L01 as transmitters and one nRF24L01 as receiver. Is it possible to connect all four nRF24L01 to only one Arduino Mega board as transmitters to transmit the exact same data? Or do I have to use independent Arduino board for every nRF24L01? Please help, thanks in advance!

2

It should be possible to connect multiple nRF24s to the SPI bus. Each will need a separate selector pin.

Sending from 4 nRF24s on one Arduino to one nRF24 (on another Arduino?) seems a strange requirement. Is this for testing something?

...R

3

Robin2:
It should be possible to connect multiple nRF24s to the SPI bus. Each will need a separate selector pin.

Sending from 4 nRF24s on one Arduino to one nRF24 (on another Arduino?) seems a strange requirement. Is this for testing something?

...R

Hi Robin2, thanks for the reply. Yes, I would like to simulate a MISO communication with these setup, to test the difference between the number of antenna used at the transmitter side (1 to 4 nRFs). Suppose I have multiple nRF24s connected to Arduino Mega could all the nRF24s transmit the data simultaneously at the same time?

4

jie1103:
Suppose I have multiple nRF24s connected to Arduino Mega could all the nRF24s transmit the data simultaneously at the same time?

I don't know, but I suspect it would be almost impossible to get multiple nRF24s to transmit in sync with each other. It does not take a big timing error for 2.4GHz signals to get out of sync.

I thought MISO is what happens between the Mega and an nRF24.

Thinking some more about it, I suspect it is not possible for the Mega to send data to multiple nRF24s at the same time. I think it must select each one in turn.

...R

5

I think it is possible to run more than one NRF24L01 on a Mega (the extra UARTS even have a special SPI master only mode).
It could even be possible to make them send at the same time (CEs wired together), which only would make sense on different channels, but these packets can not be received by a single NRF24L01 (because its limited to a single channel).

jie1103:
Or do I have to use independent Arduino board for every nRF24L01?

Maybe you do not have to, but you should use one Arduino per NRF24L01.