Building an Arduino Shield and Proto Board for the nRF24L01 Transceiver

The nRF24L01+ Transceiver is a great low cost way to add wireless capability to any project. But the down side of the nRF24L01+ is it can be a hassle to prototype with. In this video we look at how to build an Arduino shield and a mini proto board for the nRF24L01+. You can also purchase the shield and mini proto board covered in the video at forcetronics.com.

To Access the Eagle PCB files:

• Shield: https://github.com/ForceTronics/nRF24L01-Shield
• Mini Proto Board:https://github.com/ForceTronics/nRF24L01-Proto-Board

//*****************************Arduino Code for Transmitter***********************

//This sketch is from a tutorial video on the ForceTronics YouTube Channel. The tutorial discusses how to build a 

//shield and a prototyping board for the nRF24L01 Transceiver Module.

//the code was leverage from Ping pair example at http://tmrh20.github.io/RF24/pingpair_ack_8ino-example.html

//This sketch is free to the public to use and modify at your own risk

#include <SPI.h> //Call SPI library so you can communicate with the nRF24L01+

#include <nRF24L01.h> //nRF2401 libarary found at https://github.com/tmrh20/RF24/

#include <RF24.h> //nRF2401 libarary found at https://github.com/tmrh20/RF24/

const int pinCE = 9; //This pin is used to set the nRF24 to standby (0) or active mode (1)

const int pinCSN = 10; //This pin is used to tell the nRF24 whether the SPI communication is a command or message to send out

RF24 wirelessSPI(pinCE, pinCSN); // Create your nRF24 object or wireless SPI connection

const uint64_t pAddress = 0xB00B1E5000LL;   // Radio pipe addresses for the 2 nodes to communicate.

void setup()  

{

  Serial.begin(57600);   //start serial to communicate process

  wirelessSPI.begin();            //Start the nRF24 module

  wirelessSPI.setAutoAck(1);                    // Ensure autoACK is enabled so rec sends ack packet to let you know it got the transmit packet payload

  wirelessSPI.setRetries(5,15);                 // Sets up retries and timing for packets that were not ack'd, current settings: smallest time between retries, max no. of retries

  wirelessSPI.openWritingPipe(pAddress);        // pipe address that we will communicate over, must be the same for each nRF24 module

  wirelessSPI.stopListening();

}

void loop()  

{

   byte t = analogRead(0);//note that we can cast the ADC value to a byte because we know the temp sensor is not going to return a value higher than 255

   if (!wirelessSPI.write(&t, 1 )){  //if the send fails let the user know over serial monitor

       Serial.println("packet delivery failed");      

   }

    delay(1000);

}

//*****************************Arduino Code for Receiver***********************

//This sketch is from a tutorial video on the ForceTronics YouTube Channel. The tutorial discusses how to build a 

//shield and a prototyping board for the nRF24L01 Transceiver Module.

//the code was leverage from Ping pair example at http://tmrh20.github.io/RF24/pingpair_ack_8ino-example.html

//This sketch is free to the public to use and modify at your own risk

#include <SPI.h> //Call SPI library so you can communicate with the nRF24L01+

#include <nRF24L01.h> //nRF2401 libarary found at https://github.com/tmrh20/RF24/

#include <RF24.h> //nRF2401 libarary found at https://github.com/tmrh20/RF24/

const int pinCE = 9; //This pin is used to set the nRF24 to standby (0) or active mode (1)

const int pinCSN = 10; //This pin is used to tell the nRF24 whether the SPI communication is a command or message to send out

byte bVal; //used to store ADC value payload from transmit module, the ADC value will be < 256 so it will fit in a byte

RF24 wirelessSPI(pinCE, pinCSN); // Declare object from nRF24 library (Create your wireless SPI) 

const uint64_t pAddress = 0xB00B1E5000LL;  //Create a pipe addresses for the 2 nodes to communicate over, the "LL" is for LongLong type

void setup()   

{

  Serial.begin(57600);  //start serial to communicate process

  wirelessSPI.begin();  //Start the nRF24 module

  wirelessSPI.setAutoAck(1);                    // Ensure autoACK is enabled, this means rec send acknowledge packet to tell xmit that it got the packet with no problems

  wirelessSPI.openReadingPipe(1,pAddress);      //open pipe o for recieving meassages with pipe address

  wirelessSPI.startListening();                 // Start listening for messages

}

void loop()  

{   

   //loop until all of the payload data is recieved, for this example loop should only run once

    while(wirelessSPI.available()){ 

     wirelessSPI.read( &bVal, 1 ); //read one byte of data and store it in bVal variable

     Serial.print("Temperature at transmitter is "); 

     Serial.print(calculateTempF(calculateArduinoVolt(bVal))); //convert the ADC value to a voltage value and than to a temperature value in F

     Serial.println(" F");

    }

 

  delay(200);    

}

//this function calculates temp in F from TMP36 temp sensor

float calculateTempF(float v1) { 

 float temp = 0;

 //calculate temp in C, .75 volts is 25 C. 10mV per degree

 if (v1 < .75) { temp = 25 - ((.75-v1)/.01); } //if below 25 C

 else if (v1 == .75) {temp = 25; }

 else { temp = 25 + ((v1 -.75)/.01); } //if above 25

 //convert to F

 temp =((temp*9)/5) + 32;

 return temp;

}

//This function takes an Arduino analog pin reading and converts it to a voltage value

float calculateArduinoVolt(int val) {

 float volt = (float)val * (5.0 / 1023.0); //convert ADC value to voltage

 return volt;

}