Development

For anyone finding this: I got that 'smart' LCD screen that can be controlled with serial commands. It's awesome! The screen now displays a bar graph for all 6 moisture sensors (irrigation controller).

@pihome I have a sketch at https://github.com/mfalkvidd/Arduino-Datormagazin-Pomodoro/blob/datormagazin/Arduino-Datormagazin-Pomodoro.ino but I think it is easier to just follow the instructions in the wifimanager readme.

@alowhum MySensors allows customization, which unfortunately makes it very hard to describe the order. An attempt has been made in https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/927 but we have not found a clear way to document it.

@mfalkvidd hmm, that’s a nice suggestion... I don’t have motion sensors where they are but maybe I can integrate it on the actual node... Will give it some thought. Thanks! :D

@rmh yes millis is frozen during sleep. On the atmega328 (which pro mini is based on), sleep uses the watchdog to keep time. No interrupt is involved.

thanks a lot

Why sleep? Switch it completely off. Use button with two pairs of contacts. One pair on each button connect battery + pole with processor power pin. Second pairs to different inputs pins. You push button, processor will start execute program, immediately read inputs status, then send command and when you release button, it will be switched off. If you need longer processing time and do not want hold button all this time, then processor can hold power itself by logical output with connected transistor. When work will be done, then switch itself off. Your car remote key works the same way.

@ruric For usage of interrupts see the Pulse-Meter (Water/Engergy) examples in Mysensors. As your sensor is not sleeping and has no longer blocking phases, usage of interrupt functionality for door or motion is not necessary. Combined Temp/Humidity: BME280 or SI7021, Temp alone: DS18B20.

@tsjoender Thanks for the advice! I'll try to implement the second option.

@alowhum yes that is correct

@tonbor And where is the sketch? :) It's a simple analog sensor. Examples: http://arduinolearning.com/code/arduino-guva-s12sd-uv-sensor.php or: https://github.com/ma2shita/GUVA-S12SD

After a long troubleshooting (and thanks to the DEBUG activation) I think I have found at least one problem: the DHCP lease renewal was interfering with correct ESP8266 operation. Every time the router renewed the lease the board was unable to report/reconnect correctly to the MQTT Broker. I have also discovered that in some occasions even though the connection between Gateway and Broker was re-established correctly, the Controller was not acknowledging data received from Broker. In that case a simple “reboot” of the controller was sufficient to establish a new connection. (with Domoticz it was a simple matter of disabling and then enabling the MySensors Hardware). With a DHCP Lease Time set to “Infinity” this specific problem has disappeared, but I still feel the project is quite unstable: I will continue working on it with “debug mode” and hopefully I will write an update on my findings. Thank you once again for the precious support!

You could distribute not compiled and use a script that changes the password and then compiles the gateway

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you, been a busy week. The MY_TRANSPORT_MAX_TX_FAILURES seems to do the job perfectly, I adjusted it down to 1 for the node, and resend the message a couple of times if it fails. Thank you for your support :) Also thanks to berkseo, your code also works for me, but I do prefer the built in way now that I know of it. Less code for me to write and maintain :)