Hardware

Just to re-iterate my original question - does any of the forum heroes knows if the same nrf chip can be used for rfid detection of commercial active tags and for mysensors?

Yes, I'm aware of the issues, the Humidity sensor version is mounted inside a well ventilated irrigation box... One board for many sensor devices in my project... Some inside a sealed box, others in the open air... Thanks

I've had great luck with capacitive sensing and water levels.. In my case I was using the Teensy 3 which has built-in support for cap sensing that seems more reliable than when using the arduino cap sense library. For the sensor, I got a sheet of copper foil with non-conductive adhesive on one side (digikey sells this). Using scissors I cut a 1" wide strip several inches long, with a couple small sections where I removed a piece 3/4 as wide as the strip (sorry.. hard to describe) The end result is sort of "F" shaped (where the horizontal bars are thick and the spaces between are thin). For shielding against outside interference, I put another rectagular piece over the whole thing, attached to a ground lead. Stick the whole thing to your oil tank, and you should see large changes in the cap sense value as soon as the liquid level crosses a gap. here's a web page with something similar http://soulysolar.mudventions.com/?p=681 hope this helps David

Ok, as it seems I did not look good enough. There is an diode (smd M7) between the input jack and the vin pin. This diode is rated 1A. So this will be the maximum current available to the whole arduino + shield. I will put a jack on my shield and feed the arduino from the shield and not vice versa.

today i burned a second regulator on a 5V pro mini. I use a car 5V adapter now, but its quite large :P. Any1 experience with good 5V regulators that can handle 12V?

@doblanch said: if (state != laststate) { delay(30); if (state != laststate) { delay(30); if (state != laststate) why do you have these blocking delay()s? I would focus on non-blocking code for such a device... Are you using an interrupt? I think you need to post your entire sketch to get good comments

See http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1194/tutorial-openhab-with-serial-gateway/23

No I decide that price is to high. in this price I can buy 2 pro and 2 nrf smd version.

Thanks for the hints :-) Yes, RS485 would be a very interesting option, but is not implemented yet - and I am modifying my house right now. I think I will add some pins to the power wires for future use...

it also amplifies received signals, which works very well. I cover my whole flat (100m²)with this version for the gateway (and only the gateway, rest ist normal nrf24l01 modules) The non PA/LNA was not able to get into all corners of the flat. AFAIK PA stands for Power Amplifier (meant for TX) and LNA for Low Noise Amplifier ( meant for RX).

@Mickey Thanks. will give it a try!

Hi ruslan, sorry for delay. I am not sure but I think I did not change anything in RF_Config.h but found out that the radio needs to be connected to those pins 50, 51, 52. Have a look at the mega pinout sheet. It tells you that 50=miso, 51=mosi, 52=sck. So I connected the radio to those pins and it worked. That configuration runs on a sensor without ethernet shield. I believe that it has nothing to do with the shield but more with that special mega pinout. Could you simply remove the shield, attach the radio and download a sensor sketch to make sure that the mega and the radio work together. After that step attach the shield and try again with a gateway sketch.

@Sparkman ended up ordering http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Passive-Bistable-Latching-DPDT-8-Amp-Power-Relay-Module-5V-Version-RT424F05/2003476647.html as form factor is not really an issue where these relays will be but convenience is. I think it includes the diodes but not the transistor. Thanks!!!!

@gregl I know its been a year+ from your post, but I figured out a way around 'the waiting' ....I order stuff every few days from China that I might/probably will need for another upcoming project & that way have a series of things coming in over a couple of months. Sometimes they screw me up & deliver too fast, but I can live with that!!!!! Now I have a good inventory of 'cheap' items to draw from for projects and of course I continue to order.

@fc31 According to this site, se8r01 uses another onair format, and is NOT compatible with nrf24l01(+). So I don't think that you'll get any success including it in your existing network with nrf24 modules. If you used an se8r01 as gateway, together with sensors that uses the same transciever, you might have some luck.

I've only tried this module so far for prototyping. Worked as intended using the default code. Haven't made any measurements on it. But it ran fine in a 3,3V circuit. Certainly loud enough. Some current limiting would probably not be a bad idea. Edit: The module I have is of course passive. Not sure if that is what you want or not. Active vs Passive.

@Mickey Any progress to share? Do you experience any issues with short battery life due to CR2032s high internal resistance, like reported here ?