nRF24L01+ no Transmission

[TheNik]

Hello there.

Apologies for the somewhat uninformative headline, but that's exactly what I have - a bunch of nRF24L01+ radios that I cannot get to work - at all. Nothing.

I intend to use the radios to remotely control a drone. However, even without any additional circuitry and using the standard wiring (see below) I did not manage to get even a single ping through the radios. I tried multiple libraries and their Getting Started examples, following the instructions by the letter, all without success whatsoever. This led me to believe that my issues probably lie in the hardware.

I connected the radios to Arduinos as follows, with jumper wires:

VCC - 3.3v
GND - GND
Directly, no level shifting or similar:
CE - 9
CSN - 10
MOSI - 11
MISO - 12
SCK - 13
IRQ - none (floating)

Additionally, I soldered electrolytic capacitors of 47 uF on one radio and 100 uF on the other one, as well as 0.1 uF ceramic capacitors directly onto the RF modules' pins, between GND and VCC.

The wiring undoubtedly is equivalent to the following image, except for the additional decoupling capacitors. I checked it many times. I would provide an image of my physical setup, but getting a good shot of the jumper wires and where they are connected turned out to be incredibly difficult.

One of the Arduinos is an original UNO and should have no issues, the other one is an extremely cheap Chinese UNO clone with a CH340G chip on it, which was considered to be a "working combination" [with the nRF] on IRC. The radios were both purchased in one batch and should not be incompatible, as was too suggested once in #arduino.

Depending on which library I use, I keep getting no message at all, timeout errors or gibberish when wiggling the wires.

I realize this is little info, however, I mostly ask for some hints on what I can do to further troubleshoot the radios. In particular, I'd like to confirm that the modules themselves are not broken. I believe this is the case, as I've tried two pairs (all four from one batch), and none of the pairs could communicate. I've seen screenshots of a diagnostic output program for the radios which is supposed to read the registers, but I did not manage to find that program myself. I think it might be a first step.
Of course, if there are any other common problems, I'd gladly check my setup for them.

[Robin2]

Have a look at this Simple nRF24L01+ Tutorial.

The examples are as simple as I could make them and they have worked for other Forum members. If you get stuck it will be easier to help with code that I am familiar with. Start by getting the first example to work

...R

[BJHenry]

In addition to what Robin2 has said, I have three of these for troubleshooting. In two of them I have NRF24L01 modules which I have tested and am sure work properly, and then I use the third board when I have new modules which I think might not work.

[Robin2]

My trouble-shooting "tools" are a bit more primitive. But the purpose is identical.

...R

[TheNik]

Robin2:
Have a look at this Simple nRF24L01+ Tutorial.

Thank you for the suggestion. I went through the tutorial step by step. I'll post the result in the following paragraph. Let me label the radios L and R, similar to how they are physically located on my desk. Radio L is the one with an original Arduino, 47 uF electrolytic cap and 0.1 uF ceramic cap. Radio R is the one with a clone Arduino, 100 uF electrolytic cap and 0.1 uF ceramic cap.

I am sorry for posting this question. In trying to reproduce the test programs to copy the serial output text, I must have wiggled the jumper wires which finally brought them into a good position, and I managed to send and receive some "Message [0, 1, 2, ...]" pings. I've moved the jumper wires many times and never managed to get a firm contact, apparently. In fact, I have again lost the signal, but now I am sure that I can get the module to work once I solder it properly. Perhaps my jumper wires are trash.

Terribly sorry for your time.