nRF24l01+ Outputting Garbage Values

Question

I just purchased a set of 10 nRF24l01+ modules with a breakout board that looks like this:

Note: This is the nRF24l01+ chip, not a clone Si24Ri. Also, I'm using an Arduino Mega.

I'm following the Sparkfun tutorial here:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/nrf24l01-transceiver-hookup-guide

The wires are hooked up like so:

• 3.3V → VCC
• GND → GND
• PWM 8 → IRQ
• PWM 9 → CE
• PWM 10 → CSN
• PWM 11 → MOSI
• PWM 12 → MISO
• PWM 13 → SCK

I've verified the two modules are hooked up as they should be. I'm using the GettingStarted example program for both units. Whenever I go into the serial monitor when connected to the transmitter, I get garbage values like <¯�SžRÖ being output. Whenever I try to transmit a message by entering t, nothing gets returned. The same problem is happening on the receiver end.

As for troubleshooting:

• I've wiggled all of the jumper cables to verify a stable connection.
• I've swapped out the modules I was using with others from the package (twice) so the modules probably aren't bad.
• After reading that a capacitor is sometimes needed to provide a smoother voltage to the module, I upped the voltage from the 3.3V the Arduino was providing to a stable 3.5V from an external variable power supply to account for any small voltage dips. I don't have any capacitors available to me at the moment, so I figured this would be the next best option.

Unfortunately, my RF modules are still not correctly transmitting any data, and I don't know where to go from here.

Answer 1

Check these things first:

• Is your power supply give a constant 3.3V and a minimum of 0.5A(500mA)?
• Does your code work for others?
• Are you on the right serial baud rate?
• Is the path from the radio to the Arduino as short as possible?
• Are your MISO and MOSI wires twined into each other?

If none of these things help then, please tell me what library you are using. I had a lot of issues with the RF24 library so maybe try using the NRFLite library.