Freezes on send

[Lokki7]

Just started with test.js and stuck. I'm trying to use Arduino as sender and RPi as receiver.
RPi receive the first message and hangs. Here is debug log:
https://gist.github.com/Lokki7/0d566493fbd49dc09501

Tried C++ RF24 library - works
Tried reloading spi_bcm2708 - no effect

What I am doing wrong? Sorry for my english and thanks for advice!

[natevw]

Did not get a chance to look at this over the weekend as I intended. Thanks for posting the debug log. I cannot see anything you are doing wrong.

The sendPayload code is stuck waiting for an interrupt to happen here, but it seems the IRQ pin does not fall again:

node-nrf/index.js

Line 340 in 9836235

nrf.once('interrupt', function (d) {

I think the problem starts (here)[https://gist.github.com/Lokki7/0d566493fbd49dc09501#file-gistfile1-txt-L96] — but I am not sure what causes it yet. Maybe the response packet is getting sent too soon and the radio does not get a chance to reset IRQ?

Until I can try reproduce this on my own hardware, you can try to wrap the tx.write response at line 43 of test.js in a little setTimeout to see if that works around the real problem?

[Lokki7]

Right, there is no IRQ because no data actually sending. I happened to notice that the data is sent once if swap lines 182-183 in index.js. But the second attempt is still unsuccessful. So I think that there is something wrong with timeouts. Now I'm waiting for the delivery a few additional rf24 devices. When I get it I will try once again.

[Lokki7]

Bad news - exactly the same behavior on another hardware. Wrapping in setTimeout also does not change anything.
I can provide you with SSH access to my RPi if that can help. If appropriate feel free to write to me on skype:pavelrumin for faster response.

[natevw]

Sorry to hear that :-( Also interesting to hear that nothing actually sends to the Arduino. And even weirder that swapping the CE pulse logic changes things — just in case please double-check your CE pin connections and configuration. I know it works with RF24 though, so probably not it unless you tell it the wrong pin in your JS code.

May take you up on the offer if I can't reproduce this locally; I do finally have some hardware on order specifically for developing/testing this library — otherwise every time I find I've connected my Arduino and/or RasPi differently for some other project and that interrupts debugging.

(I hesitate to mention since I don't think it's worth your time yet, but FYI there's the "upcoming" branch at #32 — right now I'm still just fixing new bugs from moving code around, and if you can even get as far as this bug it will probably still be there for now.)

[Lokki7]

Seems it was a software problem. After completely clean installation of Raspbian surprisingly it started to work. I will continue to install packages and if any of them will break nRF I will write about it. Thank you for your assistance!

[natevw]

Interesting, thanks for reporting back! I'll close this for now then.

[shycherry]

Hello, I was running into the same freezes as @Lokki7 .
It was working before, I believe it stopped working after an apt-get (dist-??)upgrade ...
I've tried many node's versions, and even tried iojs 1.5... nothing changed: freeze after the first nrf reply.

I think the problem is somehow related to that :
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=97314

So I managed to make it working again, without having to do a clean installation... here is what I've done :
sudo raspi-config
Advanced Options -> Update
Advanced Options -> SPI -> DISABLE
reboot
sudo raspi-config
Advanced Options -> SPI -> ENABLE
reboot
rebuild node-nrf

@natevw thank you for this cool library :)

[natevw]

Ah, yes! Surprised there isn't a file I/O error when those devices aren't setup, but those recent driver changes might do it. Thanks @shycherry for sharing a simpler fix here!