esp now seems to have become intermittent (AEGHB-617)

[svdrummer]

I have a system that has been working for months. Suddenly today, the data being received has become intermittent. As these are esp8266 units. two broadcast two receive the broadcasts. As I have not changed the code, could it be possible that channel 1 has become so busy that the channel is swamped?
Different power supplies for each. Tried ne esp8266. When i look at the serial output which shows what is coming in vie esp now, there is nothing....then a bit of data... then nothing...later a few more strings of data.

Would appreciate any sugestions or if there is something broken.

I have tried Arduino old IDE and arduino new IDE. Both have the same issue. I am starting here, incase the espressif code has recent issue, the the arduino wrapper may be broken.

As i am using en esp8266 a channel change is not possible, only the esp32.

TIA

[svdrummer]

A few days later.. I have been trying to get this working, as it has always worked in the past for testing. The code below is the sender and the matching receiver . I am using esp8266. I have tested and working hundreds of these devices in commercial products. 8266 don't allow for channel change which only leaves two options. The wrapper has broken or I am being jammed on channel 1. People an commercial products programmers have become lazy, and i am seeing a large number of broadcast esp-now messages being sent on a regular basis. Whilst this may not be a library issue as such, I am trying to rule out there is a glitch or someone else has had an issue.
Currently, my test bed is two esp8266 about two metres apart. For every 12 fails i get one success message. This is not normal with my years of exposure to esp-now. Thanks in advance.
/*
Rui Santos
Complete project details at https://RandomNerdTutorials.com/esp-now-esp8266-nodemcu-arduino-ide/

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files.

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*/

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <espnow.h>

// Structure example to receive data
// Must match the sender structure
typedef struct struct_message {
char a[32];
int b;
float c;
bool d;
bool e;
} struct_message;

// Create a struct_message called myData
struct_message myData;

// Callback function that will be executed when data is received
void OnDataRecv(uint8_t * mac, uint8_t *incomingData, uint8_t len) {
memcpy(&myData, incomingData, sizeof(myData));
Serial.print("Bytes received: ");
Serial.println(len);
Serial.print("Char: ");
Serial.println(myData.a);
Serial.print("Int: ");
Serial.println(myData.b);
Serial.print("Float: ");
Serial.println(myData.c);
Serial.print("String: ");
Serial.println(myData.d);
Serial.print("Bool: ");
Serial.println(myData.e);
Serial.println();
}

void setup() {
// Initialize Serial Monitor
Serial.begin(115200);

// Set device as a Wi-Fi Station
WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
Serial.println();
Serial.println(WiFi.macAddress());
// Init ESP-NOW
if (esp_now_init() != 0) {
Serial.println("Error initializing ESP-NOW");
return;
}

// Once ESPNow is successfully Init, we will register for recv CB to
// get recv packer info
esp_now_set_self_role(ESP_NOW_ROLE_SLAVE);
esp_now_register_recv_cb(OnDataRecv);
}

void loop() {

}

[svdrummer]

Followup feedback. It seems a commercial home automation device which uses an esp8266 lighting control unit......has gone faulty. Seems it was sending a carrier wave on channel one, which was blocking the esp-now channel one in the R&D office. A timely reminder that not all issues are software. I did consider this in my opening comment.