Hardware

Thank you very much for suggestions. I will try to check that over the weekend, then I will let you know about my results. In the meantime if someone has any other ideas why it doesn't work or how to debug it somehow I would appreciate.

Thanks for all your comments :) I would like to start as small and cheap as possible but to be able to scale it up. It is on purpose to not have kickstarter in mind. I even don't want to calculate a big business case.. But I would need to if I have to pay for all the certifications and USB id. So, I am still not sure if it would work with this component/evaluation thing using a big disclaimer. If so, I could think about assembling and selling it on my own. But I only know the Chinese services - but have not tried them for assembling yet. I think any service in Germany would be too expensive.. And all the selling/shipping part.. is this easier on eBay? I think I have to look around much more.. Or let Seeed or Itead produce and sell it as ODM. Then they would be responsible for everything!?. But I don't know how flexible this works and how much I would get in the end. I think I try to go this way.. first for assembly.. I think the series on hackaday does not cover the real interesting things on selling a kit/electronic part - so far. But this is a good hint. I will ask some well known names out there :) Too bad, that I don't know any kind of incubator here in northern Germany. Yes, the board is powered by 5V like from the USB port which is directly connected to the MCU. So, I need to burn a bootloader otherwise someone could only program it with a 10 pin SWD Cortex programmer. But thanks for the pid.code - I have not known/found this before. This would be really great :) So, still a lot to think about and not enough time.. and I even still don't have a name :-D but things are going on.. My real dream would be to create such an "all in service" to realise all these nice hobby projects out there! Maybe hardware.io will be there one day :)

I have one built at home but for some reason it fails so often on FPAR No idea why.

@cimba007 Thanks for the details. Let me get you back some info. yes, my buttons are setup like the pullup example image i didn't think the multimeter would do it, but at this point i am willing to try anything :) I will pull my mini tonight and remove everything and do a test. my code only wakes up when button is pressed or every 24 hours. so it shouldn't come on while testing. Ill try with my code and with the sleep example you referenced. Thanks!!!!

Thank you , Ill try that. I missed that one I think my giving about 100 pulses / litre.

Hey Vidd, Thanks for your perfect answer and the diagram. Useful info for newbie like me :) I tried external power for the radio and it worked right away. I got mislead from the fact that the radio worked with a simple test code but not with mysensors code.

Found the problem myself :) There was another resistor on the other side of the PCB. If I connect the cable there instead it works

@Nca78 Many thanks for your constructive feedback :D I've added the additional feedback on Aliexpress and contacted the supplier that these NRF24L01 modules arent working so Ill inform anyone that buys/sells those items. Will now order good clones on Aliexpress :package: Kind Regards, Wodian

If you are open for some expriments: http://www.instructables.com/id/LEDs-as-light-sensors/ This might even be double usefull as different LED-Colors as "light sensor" would react different. e.g. for your red/green led .. if you pick a red led as "light sensor" you might get a much stronger reading then from the green led and hopefully a distinctive zero reading if none of them is on.

http://www.jeremyblum.com/2011/03/07/arduino-tutorial-10-interrupts-and-hardware-debouncing/ I followed this tutorial and it works flawlessly http://www.jeremyblum.com/2011/03/07/arduino-tutorial-10-interrupts-and-hardware-debouncing/

Also, when the seller writes "similar" you can expect the worst compatibility problems ;)

@Dwalt Hi, Im also looking for documentation on this :-) Regards, Jan

@scalz right I'm always thinking about the nrf24 because that's all I use at the moment, but for sure with rfm radios having hardware encryption that's much safer.

@Oitzu - From the information in the past replies and your original post i thought you was using the IRLZ44N.... If you did get this working, attempt to find the part you used please. I will order some genuine version from Farnell(Element 14) and compare the success to that of the Aliexpress version.

You can put 100uf on each ;) even 200uf would not be able to handle only one tx, so.. but you need them at least for coin cells. you would need more capa to handle tx..but the more capa the more time they take for recharging, and the recharging if big, increase internal res of the coin cell and that's not so good too; to prevent this that would need a current resistor limiter..etc a whole balance! On mine for instance, I have 100uF for coincell, 100uF for PIR and 86uf on radio. Fresh varta coincell 3.02V, after multiple presentation tx 2.85V if I remember, not so bad. but that's an homemade pcb. Another notes, it's better to use ceramic capacitor (because of leakage, if you want to optimize), and better smd, but that's not your case I think.

@leeoz yes, you can attach sensors to an ESP8266 and then communicate with the controller but you need to use the Gateway sketch and add the sensor code to that. Basically it will be another gateway with locally attached sensors. However, as far as I know you can not build a "MySensors" radio network by using WiFi.

Several years ago I built my Ethernet Gateway using this iBoard and the MySensors 1.2 firmware. I made the wiring changes on the board to use the "vanilla" Ethernet Gateway software and the NRF24L01 Radio. I am still using it but I'm ready to make the move to MySensors 2.0 so I'm pleased to see the board works with the new library. Did you make physical wiring changes on your hardware to suit the radio or just make the changes in changes in the Config. I have two of the iBoards, one with modified traces and one out of the box so I can go either way

@hensing just look at the data sheet. Features • Wide Single−Supply Range: 2.0 Vdc to 36 Vdc • Split−Supply Range: ± 1.0 Vdc to ± 18 Vdc • Very Low Current Drain Independent of Supply Voltage: 0.4 mA • Low Input Bias Current: 25 nA • Low Input Offset Current: 5.0 nA • Low Input Offset Voltage: 5.0 mV (max) LM293/393 I wouldn't worry about the LM393 destroying your Arduino.