Devo 7E not powering up after nrf24l01 install

Hi,
I wonder someone could assist me with an issue I am experiencing with my Devo 7E.

After the installation of a nrf24l01 module my Devo 7E does not power up (no beeps, no nothing), if I unplug the nrf24l01 module the Devo 7E powers up properly.
I have measured with my multimeter that 3.3v is present on the CE & VCC cables, and checked continuity on each cable.
Attached to this post is a photo of my soldering points on the Devo 7E (excuse the soldering, im not the best when it comes to soldering), I have soldered the nrf24l01 as per hackmods guide ( www.hacksmods.com/2013/05/nrf24l01-devo7e-pinout/ ).

My nrf24l01 module is:-
[img ]https://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/file/view/nRF24L01-PA-LNA-ANT.jpg/572816939/375x504/nRF24L01-PA-LNA-ANT.jpg [attachment=7642]devo7e-mod.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=7642]devo7e-mod.jpg[/attachment]

Does anyone have any thoughts on where I am going wrong?

Thanks.

Post a picture of the other side, connections to the nrf module.

Thanks for helping ketsa, I shall post a photo of the wired nrf24l01 this evening.

Below is a photo of the nrf24l01 module I am using, it is different to the usual one other people use, it may help.

Hi,
Below are a few photos of the nrf24l01 wired up, hope someone can spot what I am doing wrong, it is extremely frustrating currently.
Thanks.

Wiring seems to look OK to me, assuming the pinout is the usual; do you have a link to the place you bought it from? Doubt that's the issue though.
Can you try powering up removing just one wire at a time, to see if that sheds any light? Start with the VCC one.

I would just bridge pins 2 and 3 directly on the NRF module to reduce wiring.

Bad module maybe ?

FDR wrote: I don't know if it helps, but I had no luck with using hot glue on fixing soldered wires.
I made that on my H8 mini to fix the programming connector, however I couldn't flash it while it has the hot glue on. When I removed the hot glue, I could flash it without fuzz.
It seems the hot glue conducts to some degree...

Hi,
The hot glue went on recently, after I checked all cabling with a multimeter so shouldnt be causing these issues, will keep it in mind if I still struggle.
Thanks thou.

ketsa wrote: I would just bridge pins 2 and 3 directly on the NRF module to reduce wiring.

Bad module maybe ?

Hi,

Do you mean the CE & VCC pins?

It could be a bad module, as it has no surface mounted LED's (not that I can see anyways) I have no way of confirming it is powering up or not, I am gonna try and connect a 1S battery to it so it takes no power from the Devo 7E to see if it helps.

Another thought I had was that I have not mentioned that the Devo is not running with the Deviation firmware, should I have flashed the Devo before wiring in the nrf24l01 module?

I have another nrf24l01 module coming from Banggood this time, its the version that most people use of the Devo 7E, fingers crossed this one works.

Below is the ebay listing information of the nrf24l01 module I purchased.

Yes you need to flash the deviation firmware and set up the hardware.ini in order to control the newly added module. Stock firmware will not recognize the new module.

manc wrote: Another thought I had was that I have not mentioned that the Devo is not running with the Deviation firmware, should I have flashed the Devo before wiring in the nrf24l01 module?

Erm, yeah that's your problem right there As ajtank said, stock firmware will not work, and will probably be wondering what the hell it is trying to talk to

Ah! Will update the Devo tonight and report back.

School boy error on my part, I hope.

Thanks.

Hi,

No joy! Devo still wont power up with the nrf24l01 module wired up, without the module no issues.

Firmware installed faultlessly, powers up now with the new logo and different sequence of beeps.

Holding out for a new nrf24l01 now.

Thanks.

I have a problem with Devo 7e and nrf24l01. I installed the module & loaded version 4.0.1. All worked perfectly., till I got ambitious & tried to load version 5.0. The Tx does not recognise the module, many of the protocols are still asterisked. Models using DSM2 etc work OK. Have now gone back & tried to reload v4.0.1 and get the same problem, i.e the nrf module is not detected.
What have I done wrong?

Version 5.0 has a more reliable check for module availability, doing a read from the nRF chip and checking it gets the expected value. A module check working in 4.0.1 and not in 5.0 is often due to a problem with the MISO signal.

However if you switched back to 4.0.1 and still have the issue something likely changed in the hardware. Less likely something was missed in the configuration change - while 4.0.1 had a single tx.ini file, with 5.0 there are separate tx.ini and hardware.ini files in the transmitter root directory.

Or maybe it never worked in 4.0.1 but the module check missed a problem the first time 'round. Did you fly any protocol using the nRF while on 4.0.1?

Thanks for the reply.Taking the last point first, I flew two Hisky helicopters using 4.0.1 with complete reliability. I have checked the installation of the nrf module as far as I can, no bvad soldering or broken wires, further than that I can't go as I haven't any test equipment & am electronically illiterate!
Any suggestions as to what to try? Is it possible the files were corrupted in some way? If so, how do I completely clear the tx in order to start again?

My thread has been hijacked , only joking.

Well for anyone else experiencing the same problem as me, a replacement nrf24l01 from ebay solved the issue, but there is a difference between the two modules (pictured below), to the untrained eye I believe the original module (left) was an earlier revision (nrf24l01 1452AB) where as the replacement (right) is a newer revision (nrf24l01 1534KC).
Both side by side, they are visually different!

Bad unit up close.

Now to tinker with the tx.ini and see if it pairs my quads.

Thanks to everyone who assisted, your input is valued!