Combined STC15L204EA and NRF24L01 wireless boards?

Jeremy Harris

Senior Member
Ebay seems infested with these cheap interface boards that use a STC15L204EA microcontroller (A 51 series, I believe) to do all the heavy lifting when driving the cheap and effective NRF24L01 transceivers, like this ad: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-4GHz-NRF24L01-Wireless-Transceiver-Module-Shield-SPI-to-UART-Interface-/400953959334?hash=item5d5ab7e3a6:g:IFoAAOSwBahVETo0

Date is spare to non existent, other than that they seem to operate at a fixed 115k baud, bidirectionally. They are cheap enough to buy some to play with, but I'm wondering if anyone here has already had a go with them.

On the face of it they seem very limited, and may only be usable as a pair, as there is no mention of any functionality to change the parameters on the NRF24L01. This seems a bit odd, as having gone to the trouble of making a working serial UART to SPI interface for the NRF24L01 it would seem relatively easy to incorporate the ability to send commands to change the channel, baud rate, qualifier etc.

My question is, has anyone used these modules, please?

I've done a search, and it seems some have spent many hours driving the rather complex NRF24L01 modules, but I can't see any reference to these add-on boards.
 

manuka

Senior Member
Jeremy: I recall having a play with these (?) Nordic modules a year or so back to frustrating effect, & beg to suggest that you park them...The wireless data field moves so blisteringly rapidly that such Nordic combos boards (ah- smorgasbords?) are arguably now near redundant for (at least!) PICAXE work.

The cheaper,versatile & far more user friendly ESP8266 now so admirably dominates 2.4 GHz wireless data that competition has understandably withered.

Some 13 ESP8266 board/pinout versions have been released in little more than a year, & the new ESP-12E development board (below) offers more MCU horsepower than an Arduino Nano,along with inbuilt WiFi & a cheaper all up price <US$10 (p&p included!). Setup tweaks are addressed by industry standard "AT" commands.

Extra: B.A.S.I.C. has already been written for the ESP8266 too - visions of Rev. Ed porting across their PICAXE B.A.S.I.C. naturally arise. Stan.
 

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Jeremy Harris

Senior Member
Thanks, I suspected this may be the case, with the predominance of these cheap modules all over ebay! They do seem very limited, with just the ability to transmit and receive data at 115k baud on a fixed channel and ID, which isn't that useful for Picaxe use.

I'm getting to the stage where I need to look seriously at all the wireless devices I have as I'm using a pair of ERFs to communicate critical data every couple of seconds, a house full of 433MHz remote lighting controls, Wifi plus an 868MHz garage door opener and a pair of 868MHz wireless thermostats. The spectrum is getting busy around the house, so switching to a 2.4GHz network for the next short range project (a net of PIR sensors, CCTV controls and outside lights) seems a good move.
 

techElder

Well-known member
Seems like it would be a natural progression for RevEd to offer an ERF-like module with the ESP8266, but don't look for that module to stay around much longer than the rest of them have. Sigh.
 
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