NRF24L01+ (TMRH20 library): Receiver gets blank data

Question

I am working on sample Arduino project for communication over NRF24L01+ (TMRH20 library), everything is working fine with my example except one issue my Receiver gets message but that message is blank. Now i am not sure how do i debug as per serial monitor data is getting transmitted, as per receiver serial monitor it receives data but its blank.

Transmitter code -

// SimpleTx - the master or the transmitter

#include <SPI.h>
#include <nRF24L01.h>
#include <RF24.h>


#define CE_PIN   9
#define CSN_PIN 10

const byte slaveAddress[5] = {'R','x','A','A','A'};


RF24 radio(CE_PIN, CSN_PIN); // Create a Radio

char dataToSend[12] = "Msg AKSHAY";
//int dataToSend = 1;
char txNum = '0';


unsigned long currentMillis;
unsigned long prevMillis;
unsigned long txIntervalMillis = 1000; // send once per second


void setup() {

    Serial.begin(9600);

    Serial.println("SimpleTx Starting");

    radio.begin();
    radio.setDataRate( RF24_250KBPS );
    radio.setRetries(3,5); // delay, count
    radio.openWritingPipe(slaveAddress);
}

//====================

void loop() {
    currentMillis = millis();
    if (currentMillis - prevMillis >= txIntervalMillis) {
        send();
        prevMillis = millis();
    }
}

//====================

void send() {

    bool rslt;
    rslt = radio.write( &dataToSend, sizeof(dataToSend) );
        // Always use sizeof() as it gives the size as the number of bytes.
        // For example if dataToSend was an int sizeof() would correctly return 2

    Serial.print("Data Sent ");
    Serial.print(dataToSend);
    if (rslt) {
        Serial.println("  Acknowledge received");
        updateMessage();
    }
    else {
        Serial.println("  Tx failed");
    }
}

//================

void updateMessage() {
        // so you can see that new data is being sent
    txNum += 1;
    if (txNum > '9') {
        txNum = '0';
    }
    dataToSend[10] = txNum;
}

Receiver code -

// SimpleRx - the slave or the receiver

#include <SPI.h>
#include <nRF24L01.h>
#include <RF24.h>

#define CE_PIN   9
#define CSN_PIN 10

const byte thisSlaveAddress[5] = {'R','x','A','A','A'};

RF24 radio(CE_PIN, CSN_PIN);

char dataReceived[10]; // this must match dataToSend in the TX
bool newData = false;

//===========

void setup() {

    Serial.begin(9600);

    Serial.println("SimpleRx Starting");
    radio.begin();
    radio.setDataRate( RF24_250KBPS );
    radio.openReadingPipe(1, thisSlaveAddress);
    radio.startListening();
}

//=============

void loop() {
    getData();
    showData();
}

//==============

void getData() {
  if ( radio.available() ) {

       radio.read( &dataReceived, sizeof(dataReceived) );
      Serial.println(dataReceived);
       newData = true;
   } else {
       Serial.println("No radio available");
   }
   delay(100);
}

void showData() {
    if (newData == true) {
        Serial.print("Data received ");
        Serial.println(dataReceived);
        newData = false;
    }
}

Below is the output TX1 (Transmitter ) and RX1 is Receiver. You can see that Transmitter even gets acknowledgment also..

Both of my devices are arduino nano and below is wiring diagram between arduino and nrf24l01.

I also saw few post where people suggested using 100uf capacitor in NRF24L01 (GND & VCC), this helped me with accuracy in connection but data is still missing.

Answer 1

I have tested your code. There appears to be defective clones of the nRF24L01 around that exhibit an issue I show in post nRF24L01 continuously reading closed pipe You can work around this issue by changing your code as follows (although your process still has to read all those nulls):

void getData() {
  uint8_t pipeNum;
  if ( radio.available(&pipeNum) ) {

       radio.read( &dataReceived, sizeof(dataReceived) );
      //Serial.println(dataReceived);
      if (pipeNum < 2) {
       newData = true;
      }
   } else {
       Serial.println("No radio available");
   }
   // delay(100);
}

Answer 2

A couple of clarifications first

1. At the time instant 22:38, the receiver isn't detecting any available radio devices but at the transmitter side, an acknowledge is received. How is that possible? How is your tx getting an ack without the rx getting connected.

2. I have not seen slave adresses being set as -
   const byte slaveAddress[5] = {'R','x','A','A','A'};
   For the record, NRF24L01 adresses are 5 bytes long by default and not 1 byte long as you have defined. While defining the pipe addresses, the first 4 bytes of the adresses should be same among all the pipe addresses. Only the last byte should be unique.
   Pipe addresses can be 0xF0F0F0F0A1, 0XF0F0F0F0B1, 0XF0F0F0F0C1, 0XF0F0F0F0D1, 0XF0F0F0F0E1
   Try setting the pipe addresses as
   uint_64t address[5] = {0xF0F0F0F0A1LL, 0XF0F0F0F0B1LL, 0XF0F0F0F0C1LL, 0XF0F0F0F0D1LL, 0XF0F0F0F0E1LL};
   Do the same declaration at the receiver end too. And btw, you can specify any byte you want in the last byte of the address. Here I have defined the last bytes as A1, B1, C1, D1, E1.

3. To make sure that communication is successful, set some custom ack byte and compare it with the received ack. If both match, you can be sure that the rx did get the data. Sometimes, the NRF24L01 can pickup garbage values from stray signals present around and it can consider it as data sent by the receiver. So to avoid false triggering, its better to make a fool-proof ACK mechanism.