RF module woes

22 replies [Last post]
allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011

I'm having a real struggle with my RF which doesn't seem to be working at the moment in spite of working fine throughout last winter, it seemed to give up the ghost sometime during the summer. I've tried a new RF module and a new molex plug on the PCB but I still can't seem to get it working.

With the HAH PCB installed and the box open and powered up I get 12.03 volts between GND and VCC on the RF module and the Module works OK if I plug it into a prototyping board and use an arduino to drive it. I've tried different RF modules and nothing seems to work. I've had occasional success with the box open and flat on the bench but it's not at all reliable. I'ts entirely possible that it's my poor soldering that is at fault but I don't know how to test or what to test to make any difference.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

g7pkf
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United Kingdom
Joined: 11 Jan 2011
Oh Dear

Seems like you have tried everything.

 

if you have a scope you could look at the data line?

 

my only suggestion is perhaps the 12v voltage regulator has gone iffy-seems fine until put under load then voltage drops-seen this on these 3 pin things before.

I swapped mine for a 7812 which is larger (and has to be mounted off board) but handles 1amp-i did this as i am not using the stock psu system. for the cost i would try replacing the voltage regulator to start with.

 

Dean

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Mystery solved

Dean

Thanks for these suggestions.

It looks like the problem was my ham fisted soldering. Having removed the molex socket from the PCB (again) I think the data line solder pad is donald ducked and coming away from the board.

As the main purpose of getting the box was the RF capability, it's probably time to throw in the towel! But it was fun while it lasted and I learned quite a bit too.

Allan

 

 

g7pkf
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United Kingdom
Joined: 11 Jan 2011
No need

I havent looked but i am sure the schematic is avalible.

 

Just hard jumper with apiece of thin wire from where it goes to where it should go.

 

this is done even "professionally" and i have done it many times where a pad becomes detatched from the board :)

 

Dean

 

P.S please don't throw the towell in you have been a great resource on this board.

derek
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Glasgow, United Kingdom
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
If a new PCB would help ...

... I can send one out with the 'minimal component set' that you need to do RF. It really just needs the RJ11/vreg/diode and a socket or two.

Derek

g7pkf
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United Kingdom
Joined: 11 Jan 2011
or as a latch ditch attempt

post it too me and i willtry and repair it and test.

 

no cost

 

think you have my address if not PM me.

 

Dean

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Very kind

Derek

That's very generous of you, let me know how much it will cost including p&p and I'll paypal it to you.

Allan

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Thanks

Dean

Thanks for the offer. I'll see if I can get a "minimal"  board from Derek running first.

Allan

mark_baldwin
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Blackburn, United Kingdom
Joined: 19 May 2012
Don't leave us :(I'm having

Don't leave us :(

I'm having fun (not) trying to get a 20x4 LCD to work. The rest of the system is fine and all nicely mounted in a spare 19" rack that was gifted to me at work, along with 433 and 868 antenae.

I now have boiler control with pre-emptive heating i.e. I tell it what temp I want at what time and it starts heating based on inside and outside temp as I now know how quickly the house warms. I know the amount of gas I am using and I'm charting the relationships between sunshine and my happiness ;)

Keep at it...

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Pre-Emptive heating control

That sounds interesting, are you using the HAH to to control something similar to the Digistat RF2 or are you using the modified mains socket method?

I'm impressed that you have enough data to work out heating up times based on inside and outside temperatures. Does this method use gas more efficiently?

 

derek
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Glasgow, United Kingdom
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
Parts going out on Monday

Allan,

No need for any cash. I'm just keen to see you up & running again. You already have the 'expensive' parts like the RF module and the micro.

Derek.

mark_baldwin
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Blackburn, United Kingdom
Joined: 19 May 2012
I have installed one of the

I have installed one of the HE mains sockets in a box next to the existing roomstat RF receiver, that way they run in parallel, I have intermittent problems with the roomstat but also want a backup for the HAH so I don't loose heating control should either go down.

I had an idea of the heating times from last winter. The roomstat has a function to do the same and so I based it on last years experience. It's not an exact science and as for using the gas more economically...I don't know yet.

I also plan to run the system with low and high temps controlled via timer (standard system) and then try running at a fixed temp to see which is more effiecient. There was no easy to do this except go outside in the cold and read the meter daily but now I have all these monitors I can do it from the comfort of my living room (saves opening the doors and letting the heat out too)

 

:)

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Curioser and curioser

Had a frustrating but educational time today trying to get my RF working again. Received a "minimal board" setup today (thanks Derek) and set about building the board.
Put all the relevant bits together and tested the voltages before inserting the ATMega; all seemed fine, so I went ahead and fired the thing up. The box booted up OK and seemed to stabalise as expected. Had a go at switching the RF but no joy.

......Many hours of frustration later ......

This is what I've discovered. I had an old ATMega with the 2.3 firmware lying around and in desperation I installed it on the HAH PCB put it in the box and then fired off the RF and lo and behold it works, not reliably, it seems to need a couple of shots at each switching action and has to be rebooted frequently, nonetheless it's progress.

Is it possible that I have fried the Micro controller in such a way that the only thing that doesn't work is the pin controlling the RF?

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Sounds interesting

Mark

Sounds like your setup is a bit more flexible than mine, as I can only use either the wireless thermostat or the HAH box. SWMBO's not too keen on the HAH to be honest and I can't actually prove that it uses gas more economically so it's running on the thermostat at the moment (RF control is bust anyway so it's not an issue just now).

I'll have to do some more data collection to try and find out if I can guage more accurately how much gas each system uses.

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Aaaaaaaaaargh!

Now I really am confused. I've tried 2 different boxes, 2 different HAH PCB's, 2 different transmitter modules and 3 ATMega chips and I'm still getting the same result. With a chip with the v2.3 firmware on board the RF fires off the command and switches sockets on and off. With a chip with the v3.4 firmware on board the RF transmitter doesn't work.

It doesn't seem to matter which HAH PCB or which transmitter module I use, I get the same result. I managed to successfully flash the 3.4 firmware onto another 328 chip and again it didn't work with the RF. I'm not sure if having the arduino bootloader on the chip makes any difference but the box seemed to recognise the chip and boot up OK. When loaded it showed 306/3.4 on the GUI. I get 12v +/- .05 between GND and VCC on the transmitter module and everything else seems normal.

Is there some setting that I'm missing which enables/disables URF with the v3.4 firmware?

garrydwilms
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United Kingdom
Joined: 31 Mar 2011
Remember something about!!!

V2 is on bascom and v3 is in C. I seem to remember needing to modify the URF strings slightly for slight timing differences. Sure Derek will know more. 

 

What sockets are you using so we can check your strings. 

 

Sounds something minor only is wrong to me. 

 

Garry

g7pkf
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United Kingdom
Joined: 11 Jan 2011
I hope it is

something simple.

 

sorry i cannot help on your problem, BUT once you solve it please post resoloutioin.

 

Dean

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Sockets

Sockets are Lidl ones, the Mark 2 version. The on string I'm using is 0101020D03E803E8020D20011B5818D94874. Although the fact is that nothing is transmitted when the 3.4 chip is installed, I use a 433 rx to check if anything is being transmitted. The strings worked OK during last winter using a 3.4 chip. Go figure.

garrydwilms
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United Kingdom
Joined: 31 Mar 2011
???

Ok so your checking transmission?! In that case I'm stumped. 

Will keep pondering on it. I'm thinking you need to try a verified 3.4 chip but I ain't got any spare or I'd post it, sorry. 

G.

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
I've ordered

One from the shop to give it a try but it will take a couple of weeks to arrive. I'll just have to wait and see

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Good news and bad news.

Good news and bad news. The good news for everyone is that it is definitely a software issue rather than any hardware or firmware issue.

After checking everything I could possibly think of I was inspired today to restore a backup from February of this year, when I was pretty sure that the RF was working. Lo and behold the RF is working again! So whatever it is that is causing the problem is software ralated.

The bad news is that I'll have to try to rebuild my system incrementally and try to find out what the cause of all this heartache has been. It could be a long night but at least I can put the soldering iron away. :-(

g7pkf
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United Kingdom
Joined: 11 Jan 2011
you could find

It was a corrupted ini file, seen that once before causing me grief.

 

Glad you got it working :)

allanayr
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Ayr, United Kingdom
Joined: 25 Sep 2011
Up and running again

Box back up and running again with RF controlling central heating.

What I've learnt.

Xap-livebox.ini is vitally important but liable to corruption.

The backup and restore is a lifesaver but restore should be preceeded by /etc/init.d/update clean if you want to really go back to where the restore was done.

Flashing firmware on to an AVR chip can be achieved with an arduino connected to a PCand no other hardware. (Perhaps I was lucky, but it worked)

Perhaps most important of all, help and encouragement from this forum is extremely valuable. Thanks to all.


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