RFM69 on ESP32

[carlkesselman]

Hi,

I have found two issues with the RFM69 library when running on an ESP32 using the Arduino framework. They are:

1. The initialization for the SPI interface is not correct, at least for the feather. Just using _spi->begin(); works fine. Using the currently configured: _spi->begin(18,19,23,5); does not.
2. You need to set the pinMode on the interrupt for it to function properly. Adding the line: pinMode(_interruptPin, INPUT); seems to solve the problem.

Thanks,

Carl

[LowPowerLab]

Hi @carlkesselman I don't use ESP32 with RFM69. I merged some changes suggested by various people. Probably not a great thing since I can't properly test. Then there's a gazillion variants of ESP32 boards each with various pinouts. Here's an issue that calls for the specific pins, to make things work: https://github.com/LowPowerLab/RFM69/issues/136

So how will this change affect that and other ESP32 variants?

[klerone]

Hi @carlkesselman

I am currently trying to make a gateway with the ESP32 but I cannot get it to work.

I have the wiring like this: ESP32 RFM69 GPIO5 SS GPIO18 SCK GPIO19 MISO GPIO23 MOSI GPIO2 DIO0

RFM69 is powered correctly with an AMS1117 3.3V, the ESP32 is powered from the USB, both connected by the GND, the sender is working correctly (I have an atmega328 to test it is sending correctly)

I already tried both of your suggestions but still don't work, hope you can point me to a solution.

thanks.

Fran Calero.

[mrSilkie]

Hi, I have also had trouble getting this to work on esp32. I am using a lora pi board and trying to make it work. I also doubt that the RFM69 requires 5v as its a 3v3 board

I turn the onboard LED on at the start of setup and off at the end of setup() and the light never turns off. Running the TxRxBlinky example.

It seems that when it get to the radio.send it hangs. Im not sure if this is normal behaviour but I am rather stuck. I've spent some time looking for another library but I think this one is by far the best and has sucked away a lot of the development time from other projects. I also understand that this was made before the esp32 was even a thing so much respect.

I suggest a simple

radio.set_pins(MISO_PIN, MOSI_PIN . . . );

could be used to help people with non standard setups to use this library. I'm still stuck trying to pinpoint where the issue is, is it hardware, is it software, is the wiring incorrect. I'm not sure. I really want to try the most simple library I can as I also had issues running the SPIFlash.h library used in many of the examples.

[LowPowerLab]

@carlkesselman, @mrSilkie: The library should not have to so anything like this (currently in initialize for ESP boards, added at some point because it worked for someone but it's a total code smell): _spi->begin(18,19,23,5);

Instead, the _spi instance (if different than the default) can be setup and passed into the constructor, this is more proper. For instance for a SAMD board that would be something like this: SPIClass mySPI(&sercom1, 12, 13, 11, SPI_PAD_0_SCK_1, SERCOM_RX_PAD_3);

Perhaps the _interruptPin needs to be passed as well if it's not the default. There is a section in the header file where the default is set to 4/2 respectively for ESP8266/ESP32. Anyway there is also the option to pass the irqPin to the constructor and then maybe what is missing is the library to call pinMode(irqPin, INPUT). Someone needs to test this properly and submit a PR.

[DerLang1975]

Hello,

I do not get it to work with ESP32 DEVKITC as well. I've debugged it to the point in sendFrame(..)

while ((readReg(REG_IRQFLAGS1) & RF_IRQFLAGS1_MODEREADY) == 0x00); // wait for ModeReady

Here it hangs forever. I've checked the setMode(RF69_MODE_STANDBY); Having Serial.println(readReg(REG_OPMODE), HEX); Serial.println(readReg(REG_IRQFLAGS1), HEX); before the while loop prints: 4 0 => hence correct mode set, but irq flags not updated...

ReadReg in Setup:

Address - HEX - BIN 1 - 4 - 100 2 - 0 - 0 3 - 1A - 11010 4 - 40 - 1000000 5 - 3 - 11 6 - 52 - 1010010 7 - D9 - 11011001 8 - 0 - 0 9 - 0 - 0 A - 1 - 1 B - 0 - 0 C - 2 - 10 D - 92 - 10010010 E - F5 - 11110101 F - 20 - 100000 10 - 24 - 100100 11 - 7F - 1111111 12 - 9 - 1001 13 - F - 1111 14 - 40 - 1000000 15 - B0 - 10110000 16 - 7B - 1111011 17 - 9B - 10011011 18 - 8 - 1000 19 - 86 - 10000110 1A - 8A - 10001010 1B - 40 - 1000000 1C - 80 - 10000000 1D - 6 - 110 1E - 10 - 10000 1F - 0 - 0 20 - 0 - 0 21 - 0 - 0 22 - 0 - 0 23 - 2 - 10 24 - FF - 11111111 25 - 40 - 1000000 26 - 7 - 111 27 - 0 - 0 28 - 0 - 0 29 - FF - 11111111 2A - 0 - 0 2B - 0 - 0 2C - 0 - 0 2D - 3 - 11 2E - 98 - 10011000 2F - 55 - 1010101 30 - 64 - 1100100 31 - 0 - 0 32 - 0 - 0 33 - 0 - 0 34 - 0 - 0 35 - 0 - 0 36 - 0 - 0 37 - 10 - 10000 38 - 40 - 1000000 39 - 0 - 0 3A - 0 - 0 3B - 0 - 0 3C - 8F - 10001111 3D - 11 - 10001 3E - 73 - 1110011 3F - 61 - 1100001 40 - 6D - 1101101 41 - 70 - 1110000 42 - 6C - 1101100 43 - 65 - 1100101 44 - 45 - 1000101 45 - 6E - 1101110 46 - 63 - 1100011 47 - 72 - 1110010 48 - 79 - 1111001 49 - 70 - 1110000 4A - 74 - 1110100 4B - 4B - 1001011 4C - 65 - 1100101 4D - 79 - 1111001 4E - 1 - 1 4F - 0 - 0

[DerLang1975]

I've checked further more. Registers are nearly all what I expected, so SPI seems to work as well as setting the values. (i.e. Network ID was correctly set).

But still, the IRQ Registers are not set, or they are cleared before they could have been read by the code.

Any idea why IRQ registers are not set or what could cause this strange behaviour?

[haschler]

Do you by chance use a RFM69(H)CW? If so, try connecting RST of the radio module to GND...

[haschler]

Btw I think this issue can be closed. Perhaps it would be useful to have an example for the ESP with wiring instructions.

[LowPowerLab]

Should be fixed by https://github.com/LowPowerLab/RFM69/pull/185