Issues with nRF24L01+ and nano

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

I ordered a few nRF24L01 transceivers and nanos from ebay for my project. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in getting them set up with either the mirf or the rf24 libraries. Using the rf24 library, I am initializing the radio with

RF24 radio(9, 10);

and my current wiring looks like:

D9 -> CE
D10 -> CSN
D11 -> MOSI
D12 -> MISO
D13 -> SCK
3.3 -> VCC
GND -> GND

I have also tried using the ICSP headers (4, 1, 3) for MOSI, MISO and SCK, but my results seem to be the same as my current setup.

When using the RF24 library, output on the serial port looks like:

STATUS = 0x00 RX_DR=0 TX_DS=0 MAX_RT=0 RX_P_NO=0 TX_FULL=0
RX_ADDR_P0-1 = 0x0000000000 0x0000000000
RX_ADDR_P2-5 = 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
TX_ADDR = 0x0000000000
RX_PW_P0-6 = 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
EN_AA = 0x00
EN_RXADDR = 0x00
RF_CH = 0x00
RF_SETUP = 0x00
CONFIG = 0x00
DYNPD/FEATURE = 0x00 0x00
Data Rate = 1MBPS
Model = nRF24L01
CRC Length = Disabled
PA Power = PA_MIN

Occasionally the 0 values are replaced by F instead.
Based on this, it appears that no information is being read from the nrf24 (or it is not being read properly). I've tried a couple different micros and transceivers with no luck.

Any suggestions?

2

I managed to get mines to work, an UNO is pinging a nano as we speak (we're on the same thing ATM it would seem) - what color are yours to check if we have the same hardware?

mines:

I'm using the ping examples included in the Mirf.zip package
http://playground.arduino.cc/InterfacingWithHardware/Nrf24L01

The pin loadout seems different - I'll edit this post in a bit with the ones I use

EDIT:
In the example sketch they specify:
MISO: 12
MOSI: 11
SCK: 13
CE: 8
CSN: 7

Using the same on both UNO and nano and it works.

3

How are you both powering yours?
Uno has onboard 3.3V regulator, can provide 150mA of 3.3V current.
Nano gets 3.3V from FT232R chip, can only provide 50mA of 3.3V current.
nrf24L01 needs >100mA when transmitting.

4

Mine are the black ones:

I changed the ce and csn pins in the mirf example to 9 and 10 (what I used for the rf24 library) so I didn't have rewire when changing libraries.

I'm powering mine off the 3.3 pin from the nano. The specs for the nrf24l01+ nRF24 Series - Nordic Semiconductor - nordicsemi.com only show a 13.3mA draw

5

mines are running on 5V (nano) and 3.3V (UNO) respectively - no problem so far.

6

Huh. I was sure I had read like 112mA, but it sure looks like 13mA for Tx.