ESP8266 Community Forum

I'm trying to move a project from an UNO with ethernet shield over to the NodeMCU v3. The basic project is a 433MHz sensor to MQTT gateway. I have a working solution for UNO but the range is bad and requires specific placement in my home. I have hopes that the ESP8266 solution will allow for better range (either through better placement of the gateway or using an RFM69 module). I am slowly gaining understanding of how to use the Arduino IDE to program the ESP so it's possible I'm doing something wrong.

The attached sketch is slightly modified from one published for the Arduino. Basically, the RF module is hooked to a digital input (D4 in this case). The code uses an interrupt to trigger a write the pulse time to serial. When run, I see a flood of times and never see anything that looks like the 433MHz signals from any of my sensors. Also, after a few seconds the module seems to lock up. It eventually dumps gibberish to serial and then continues.

I do not know if the issue is with the code or if the RF module which worked fine at 5v on UNO is just unreliable at 3v3 on ESP. The spec sheet indicates it should work fine on either 3v3 or 5v with lower antenna gain from a lower supply voltage. I also confirmed via an Arduino oscilloscope that the logic level of the RF is 3v3 with 3v3 input.

Comments/suggestions?

After more research, it appears that resets are a common issue for new users though there are a variety of reasons for it. I have looked at the specs for the RF module and it indicates it draws 2.8mA@433MHz. I also tried the same code and RF module on a Wemos D1 which has a DS1117 3.3v regulator whose spec sheet indicates it can supply up to 1.5mA max. I don't know what the ESP-12E needs, but I would find it difficult to believe that without using WiFi transmission I'd be anywhere close to this limit. So, I assume this must be an issue with the code (even though it's derived from a working UNO code and is very simple).

Now that I am back at the hardware, I am able to post output of the code. I modified it slightly to dump the micros value at the time of the pulse just to see if it would help. Here is an example:

Id love to offer some assitnace but resets and locking up are driving me insane as well with my NodeMCU.

apparently radom WDT resets and from time to time it just hangs.