First steps, How RFM69?

Montloker

New Member
Hello,

I am new to Picaxe and this is my first post (sorry my poor English),

I want to make an alarm for home and I have seen RFM69HW modules that are very powerful for great distances and respond well to obstacles like walls floors (Indoor) and I think I will not have problems.

The bad thing is that there is little information on how to program these modules or how to load a series of registers for their operation, the first thing to load and if this is to be loaded every time the module is turned on or once it is programmed etc ....

They are not like the XBee that have their program "XCTU" to make a node.

My idea of ​​the alarm is that there will be a alarm switchboard with an RFM69HW module, then all the sensors will have an RFM69HW module with a Pic, all the sensors with their RFM69HW modules will be connected to the same alarm witchboard as a node (view picture).

I would like to help me with the code both the sender/receiver and programming, I have read the post and are not very clear on the topic of code and programming.

NODE RFM69HW.jpg

Thank you very much.
 
Last edited:

Goeytex

Senior Member
Welcome to the Picaxe Forum,

The Hope RFM69HW module is based upon the Semtech 1231H RFIC. This is a front end module that requires you to configure quite a number of registers and to implement a "protocol" of some sort. This can be a rather daunting task if you are not experienced at this sort of thing. If you are new to Picaxe programming, this is probably not a good first project as it will require some rather advanced programming skills. If you are wanting someone to do it for you, I doubt that will happen. But maybe someone here has written some code for this module and is willing to share.

My suggestion would be to consider more "user friendly" RF modules that incorporate an MCU to do the heavy lifting and eliminate the need to program the individual registers.

Perhaps tell us a little about yourself, your programming experience, what tools you have ... Meter, scope , logic analyzer, etc. What Picaxe chips do you have?

With a bit of background information folks will be better able to guide you in the right direction.
 

srnet

Senior Member
I have not tried the RFM69HW (Semtech 1231H RFIC) but looking at the datasheet it has the same sensitivity as the RFM22B (Silicon Labs Si4432), which is a device I am familiar with and have range tested quite a bit. So I would expect the range of the RFM69HW to be similar to the RFM22B.

Whilst the RFM69W might be sufficient for you needs, if its range you want and penetration through buildings, go for LoRa devices, they will go between 10 and 30 times the distance. In other words they will work where other modules may not.

There are LoRa devices as simple SPI based modules and there are front end serial type "user friendly" modules.
 
Top