Rfm9xLoRaDevice NetMF Payload CRCs

To ensure I was only handling messages with valid contents I added code to appended a cyclic redundancy check(CRC) onto outbound messages and validate the CRC on inbound messages.

First step was to update the initialise method parameter list (the parameter list is huge but for most scenarios the defaults are fine)

public void Initialise(RegOpModeMode regOpModeAfterInitialise, // RegOpMode
         double frequency = FrequencyDefault, // RegFrMsb, RegFrMid, RegFrLsb
         bool rxDoneignoreIfCrcMissing = true, bool rxDoneignoreIfCrcInvalid = true,
         bool paBoost = false, byte maxPower = RegPAConfigMaxPowerDefault, byte outputPower = RegPAConfigOutputPowerDefault, // RegPaConfig
         bool ocpOn = true, byte ocpTrim = RegOcpOcpTrimDefault, // RegOcp
         RegLnaLnaGain lnaGain = LnaGainDefault, bool lnaBoost = false, // RegLna
         RegModemConfigBandwidth bandwidth = RegModemConfigBandwidthDefault, RegModemConfigCodingRate codingRate = RegModemConfigCodingRateDefault, RegModemConfigImplicitHeaderModeOn implicitHeaderModeOn = RegModemConfigImplicitHeaderModeOnDefault, //RegModemConfig1
         RegModemConfig2SpreadingFactor spreadingFactor = RegModemConfig2SpreadingFactorDefault, bool txContinuousMode = false, bool rxPayloadCrcOn = false,
         ushort symbolTimeout = SymbolTimeoutDefault,
         ushort preambleLength = PreambleLengthDefault,
         byte payloadLength = PayloadLengthDefault,
         byte payloadMaxLength = PayloadMaxLengthDefault,
         byte freqHoppingPeriod = FreqHoppingPeriodDefault,
         bool lowDataRateOptimize = false, bool agcAutoOn = false,
         byte ppmCorrection = ppmCorrectionDefault,
         RegDetectOptimizeDectionOptimize detectionOptimize = RegDetectOptimizeDectionOptimizeDefault,
         bool invertIQ = false,
         RegisterDetectionThreshold detectionThreshold = RegisterDetectionThresholdDefault,
         byte syncWord = RegSyncWordDefault)

The rxPayloadCrcOn needs to be set to True for outbound messages to have a CRC.

Then in the RxDone interrupt handler the CRC is checked (regHopChannel & regIrqFlagsMask) if this feature is enabled. Any messages with missing\invalid CRCs will currently be silently discarded and I’m not certain this is a good idea.

 // Check to see if payload has CRC
         if (RxDoneIgnoreIfCrcMissing)
         {
            byte regHopChannel = this.Rfm9XLoraModem.ReadByte((byte)Registers.RegHopChannel);
            if ((regHopChannel & (byte)RegHopChannelFlags.CrcOnPayload) != (byte)RegHopChannelFlags.CrcOnPayload)
            {
               return;
            }
         }

         // Check to see if payload CRC is valid
         if (RxDoneIgnoreIfCrcInvalid)
         {
            if (((byte)IrqFlags & (byte)RegIrqFlagsMask.PayLoadCrcErrorMask) == (byte)RegIrqFlagsMask.PayLoadCrcErrorMask)
            {
               return;
            }
         }

The conversion of the payload from an array of bytes to a string for display stopped failing with an exception. When I had a number of clients running up to 10% of the messages were getting corrupted.

Rfm9xLoRaDevice NetMF LNA

While fixing up the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) and Received Signal Strength Indication(RSSI) in a previous posts. I noted the Low Noise Amplifier(LNA) had High Frequency(LF) and Low Frequency settings.

First step was to update the initialise method parameter list (the parameter list is huge but for most scenarios the defaults are fine)

 public void Initialise(RegOpModeMode regOpModeAfterInitialise, // RegOpMode
       double frequency = FrequencyDefault, // RegFrMsb, RegFrMid, RegFrLsb
         bool paBoost = false, byte maxPower = RegPAConfigMaxPowerDefault, byte outputPower = RegPAConfigOutputPowerDefault, // RegPaConfig
         bool ocpOn = true, byte ocpTrim = RegOcpOcpTrimDefault, // RegOcp
         RegLnaLnaGain lnaGain = LnaGainDefault, bool lnaBoost = false, // RegLna
         RegModemConfigBandwidth bandwidth = RegModemConfigBandwidthDefault, RegModemConfigCodingRate codingRate = RegModemConfigCodingRateDefault, RegModemConfigImplicitHeaderModeOn implicitHeaderModeOn = RegModemConfigImplicitHeaderModeOnDefault, //RegModemConfig1
         RegModemConfig2SpreadingFactor spreadingFactor = RegModemConfig2SpreadingFactorDefault, bool txContinuousMode = false, bool rxPayloadCrcOn = false,
         ushort symbolTimeout = SymbolTimeoutDefault,
         ushort preambleLength = PreambleLengthDefault,
         byte payloadLength = PayloadLengthDefault,
         byte payloadMaxLength = PayloadMaxLengthDefault,
         byte freqHoppingPeriod = FreqHoppingPeriodDefault,
         bool lowDataRateOptimize = false, bool agcAutoOn = false,
         byte ppmCorrection = ppmCorrectionDefault,
         RegDetectOptimizeDectionOptimize detectionOptimize = RegDetectOptimizeDectionOptimizeDefault,
         bool invertIQ = false,
         RegisterDetectionThreshold detectionThreshold = RegisterDetectionThresholdDefault,
         byte syncWord = RegSyncWordDefault)
      {

The SX127X RegLNA configuration code and the SetMode method required modification

if ((lnaGain != LnaGainDefault) || (lnaBoost != false))
         {
            byte regLnaValue = (byte)lnaGain;
            if (lnaBoost)
            {
               if (Frequency > RFMidBandThreshold)
               {
                  regLnaValue |= RegLnaLnaBoostHfOn;
               }
               else
               {
                  regLnaValue |= RegLnaLnaBoostLfOn;
               }
            }
            Rfm9XLoraModem.WriteByte((byte)Registers.RegLna, regLnaValue);
         }
public void SetMode(RegOpModeMode mode)
      {
         byte regOpModeValue;

         regOpModeValue = RegOpModeLongRangeModeLoRa;
         regOpModeValue |= RegOpModeAcessSharedRegLoRa;
         if (Frequency > RFMidBandThreshold)
         {
            regOpModeValue |= RegOpModeLowFrequencyModeOnHighFrequency;
         }
         else
         {
            regOpModeValue |= RegOpModeLowFrequencyModeOnLowFrequency;
         }
         regOpModeValue |= (byte)mode;
         Rfm9XLoraModem.WriteByte((byte)Registers.RegOpMode, regOpModeValue);
      }

Having to convert all the Flags & masks from binary to hexadecimal values was a bit painful

// RegDioMapping1
[Flags]
public enum RegDioMapping1
{
Dio0RxDone = 0x00,
Dio0TxDone = 0x40,
Dio0CadDone = 0x80,
}

The HF & LF differences where not obviously handled in Arduino-LoRa library and the Semtech LoRaMac node GitHub repository wasn’t so helpful.

When I stress tested this code the UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetChars kept on throwing exceptions as the messages were corrupt. Need to add CRC presence and validity checking to next version.

 static void rfm9XDevice_OnDataReceived(float packetSnr, int packetRssi, int rssi,  byte[] data)
{
   try
   {
      string messageText = new string(UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(data));

      Debug.Print(DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("HH:MM:ss") + "-Rfm9X PacketSnr " + packetSnr.ToString("F1") + " Packet RSSI " + packetRssi + "dBm RSSI " + rssi + "dBm = " + data.Length + " byte message " + @"""" + messageText + @"""") ;
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
      Debug.Print(ex.Message);
   }
}

Rfm9xLoRaDevice NetMF SNR and RSSI

The signal to noise Ratio (SNR) and Received Signal Strength Indication(RSSI) for inbound messages required reading values from three registers
•RegPktSnrValue
•RegPktRssiValue
•RegRssiValue

I had to modify the OnDataRecievedHandler method signature so the values could be returned

 public delegate void OnDataRecievedHandler(float packetSnr, int packetRssi, int rssi, byte[] data);

I was inspired by the RSSI adjustment approach used in the Arduino-LoRa library

// Get the RSSI HF vs. LF port adjustment section 5.5.5 RSSI and SNR in LoRa Mode
float packetSnr = this.Rfm9XLoraModem.ReadByte((byte)Registers.RegPktSnrValue) * 0.25f;

int rssi = this.Rfm9XLoraModem.ReadByte((byte)Registers.RegRssiValue);
if (Frequency > RFMidBandThreshold)
{
  rssi = RssiAdjustmentHF + rssi;
}
else
{
  rssi = RssiAdjustmentLF + rssi;
}

int packetRssi = this.Rfm9XLoraModem.ReadByte((byte)Registers.RegPktRssiValue);
if (Frequency > RFMidBandThreshold)
{
  packetRssi = RssiAdjustmentHF + packetRssi;
}
else
{
  packetRssi = RssiAdjustmentLF + packetRssi;
}

OnDataReceived?.Invoke( packetSnr, packetRssi, rssi, messageBytes);

The values displayed in the Rfm9xLoRaDeviceClient application looked reasonable, but will need further checking

00:06:14-Rfm9X PacketSnr 9.8 Packet RSSI -47dBm RSSI -111dBm = 28 byte message "Hello W10 IoT Core LoRa! 182"
Sending 20 bytes message Hello NetMF LoRa! 38
Transmit-Done
00:06:24-Rfm9X PacketSnr 9.8 Packet RSSI -48dBm RSSI -111dBm = 28 byte message "Hello W10 IoT Core LoRa! 181"
Sending 20 bytes message Hello NetMF LoRa! 39
Transmit-Done
00:06:34-Rfm9X PacketSnr 9.8 Packet RSSI -47dBm RSSI -112dBm = 28 byte message "Hello W10 IoT Core LoRa! 180"
Sending 20 bytes message Hello NetMF LoRa! 40
Transmit-Done
00:06:44-Rfm9X PacketSnr 10.0 Packet RSSI -48dBm RSSI -111dBm = 28 byte message "Hello W10 IoT Core LoRa! 179"