New Devo 10 owner :-) NRf24l01 slight hicup

Just recently recieved a devo 10.

Havnt posted much here over the years as i never too the plunge to move to more of a proper TX and have just been using my v977 tx.

well finally ordered a slightly bigger helli (copterx 250 FBL) so while im waiting thought i better get familiar with these transmitters and bought the devo10

I thought rather than getting the nrf24l01 PA module (my stock tx works just fine until i cant really see my tx) id transplant the TX module.

Well this turned out to be pretty difficult,, im not that great at desoldering things, the tx module is solded to the mainbouard using headpins, i did manage to get them off but i also lifted the pins slightly in the rx board.

I resolderd the pins to make sure they were still hopeflly contacting the tracks.

Made a bit of a mess of soldering wires to the headers, (wire guage a bit too heavy) but managed to do it by doing oposide sides of the boards.

Well, it didnt work, NRF24l0L not found on startup, tried both a14 and a13. Ive ordered a board which will come tomorrow as id rather just solder in a fresh board rather than trying to trouble shooot such a tiny board which i may have killed.

Have an NRF24L01 module coming tomorrow. i

Hopefully this one will be ok, i know it doesnt have an antenna with a PA so range will be limited, i dont fly very high are out very far, my eyesites not the greatest even with my glasses so i have to keep my v977 within probbaly less then 100m.

I was going to pull the modile out, remove all the wires, remove the headeres from the board and then solder directly to the board but since i have a module coming tomorrow ill just wait, as dont want to risk breaking a nice new TX. Once this module is installed and working it will be left

www.seeedstudio.com/document/pics/Interface.jpg

This is the schematic for the board i have coming.

This one has an IRQ pin? i guess i just ignore that. and connect it like other nrf24l01 modules. hope this works or im going to have to order another module :/

I thought i had got it working, replaced the hardware.ini with the original, and then enabled the moduile. tx did not complain about mising nrf24l01 on startup but the v977 protocol comes up as *KN so obviously my module isnt working.

Can you post a wiring diagram? It sometimes helps to have photos if possible (I don't plan to post mine, but I always do a couple before/after for my own review).

And did you update your Hardware.ini file? The WIKI page shows that IRQ isn't used. So it's probably something in the wiring. Give us more info and we may be able to help you.

Deal57 wrote: Can you post a wiring diagram? It sometimes helps to have photos if possible (I don't plan to post mine, but I always do a couple before/after for my own review).

And did you update your Hardware.ini file? The WIKI page shows that IRQ isn't used. So it's probably something in the wiring. Give us more info and we may be able to help you.

Thjat wiki page was supper helpfull thanks! every other photo i had seen didnt name that pin and just left it un named.

Exact same header as the board i have coming except mine is the non PA version which ive had a few people say could actually only have an effective range of 20m with the rc protocol.

Well see how it does, hopefully it will do ok until devo 4-1 board is more easily availible.

www.coolcomponents.co.uk/nrf24l01-module.html

They do a PA version aswell, though its a complelty different board and much more expensive. The board doesnt look aswell made either on the PA board.

'll do a range test

Module came today, its tiny

Made quick work of removing the header pins. Carefull soldered wires throughhole so as they are strong, and labeled as i went with tap and coloured in the tape with sharpe so everything was really easy to identify compared to diagram.

Had issue getting solder to go on the ground pad, which was annoying, but finally i got it installed and buttoned back up.

tx booted up like before, no complaints, but KN protol showing up as *KN :/

reflashed firmware, and copied over devation software, enabled the module in INI, module not found, changed the pin being used. Booted up fine. KN PROTOCOL Availible

Load the v977 module and its working perfect! Wow this tx feels so good to use.

congrats on the successful modification bud

Hopefully the range is OK, really do not want to have to do this again. heading out in a bit once batteries are charged to test range.

though things are going to be a bit sketchy, ive got a v977 config loaded up which is for devo 8 and devo 10 but test hovering it in the house it feels super tame, like its running on low rates.

dunno if theres some crazy expo being programmed in, i had a look at the mixers but really do not understand them.

The only expo i need is maybe 15% max

everything check outs ok.

but the range is dismall....

at around 15m infront of me the heli lost signal and dropped out of the air.

at about 10m to the side of me signal was intermitant frequently not responding.

www.amazon.co.uk/WINGONEER-NRF24L01-Wire...keywords=nrf24l01+pa

Got this one coming now. UK stock and its a shielded unit much like the original module.

I had read about shielding greatly improving the cheap modules, this one isnt really expensive, so will get me up and going.

Ill probanly remove the sma connector and solder on a short extension to reduce the bulk

Module arrived today but the extension didnt,

BUT

the module is small enough that there is just enough space by moving the an aux knob over to the outside holem and drilling them iout. then using the ariel to secure the module in place (recomend gluing this in)

Module has been wrapped in electrical tape so there is no risk of shorts.

I did run into a strange problem, after testing everything was working, i checked my aux knob and when you turned it on full the TX shutdown, not just the display but the TX turned off, thinking it had fried, switched the power off and backon, it turned on again.

Turns out having the aux knob casing connected to the ground of the airal is not good, the metal sticker was connecting the knob ground to the arial ground, so i just removed it and all fine again.

ive not tested range, byt at 1mw i could go upstairs and not loose signal.

ill go out in a bit to see how it goes but im confident this is a winner

I don't mean this in an argumentative way, I am meaning it as sincere advice but I'm not in a very good mood today so consider that if my wording seems to be instigating, that's not my intention...

If you're having range problems the solution is not to try to solder on an extension yourself. Radio frequency (rf) is a huge field in and of itself, people who go to school for years to become a high level electrical engineer still choose to outsource RF related activities to an RF-specific engineer because it's just that in-depth and detailed and over most people's heads.
For example look at the company TBS (team black sheep), they're a huge company, they probably have several high-paid electrical engineers on their payroll that know quite a bit yet even still, they hire IBcrazy as an independent contractor because they understand that RF is just so finicky and so exacting in its tolerances.


Do your range testing with the module as it came with the SMA connector right on the board, if you modify the RF side of it first and then do a range test and the range test is poor or totally fails you'll have no idea if it was a bad module to begin with or if it was your modifications.

Cereal_Killer wrote: I don't mean this in an argumentative way, I am meaning it as sincere advice but I'm not in a very good mood today so consider that if my wording seems to be instigating, that's not my intention...

If you're having range problems the solution is not to try to solder on an extension yourself. Radio frequency (rf) is a huge field in and of itself, people who go to school for years to become a high level electrical engineer still choose to outsource RF related activities to an RF-specific engineer because it's just that in-depth and detailed and over most people's heads.
For example look at the company TBS (team black sheep), they're a huge company, they probably have several high-paid electrical engineers on their payroll that know quite a bit yet even still, they hire IBcrazy as an independent contractor because they understand that RF is just so finicky and so exacting in its tolerances.


Do your range testing with the module as it came with the SMA connector right on the board, if you modify the RF side of it first and then do a range test and the range test is poor or totally fails you'll have no idea if it was a bad module to begin with or if it was your modifications.

Thanks for your input,

I think you may have misunderstoon my post, the extension was not to cure range problems, my range problems was due to the cheap board with no PA and built in antenna, which i recently found out that out in the open, bare circuit board with no case actually has a real world range of 80m at best. cover it up and put it in a case and it goes right downhill.

The extension was simply if i could not mount the module by just having its connector attached to the board through the hole in the case, which it turns out its small enough you can do that, and the extension i have coming is an SMA 30cm extension, it has ends on it to screw it it, so it could could have also been posible to just screw the extension on and leave the connector soldered to the boeard.

Removing the connector was worst case scenario, and it would have been with That cable, which has the shield connected to the board.

Anyway its working great

Just a quick update to say the module has been working perfectly.

Not even any signal glitches like i used to get with the stock t so i guess there was some k ind of issue with my stock ttx