Completely lost about multiple door switches/lights/sensors
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Hi everyone, I'm at a complete loss here - I don't even know where to begin to search for what I'm looking for! LOL! If I am posting this in the wrong place too, please let me know and I'll delete it and repost it accordingly.
Here's what I'm up to... I bought an ambulance that I'm converting to a camper, and some of the ambulance functionality is very useful and I'd like to retain it. For example, when any of the 9 or 10 exterior compartment doors are opened, a magnetic switch would ground a circuit on a giant computer board, which in turn, powered LED light strips in the respective compartment! I removed all the circuitry (it was a giant wall sized PC board that did tons of stuff), and I need to build my own simple controller now. In addition to the respective individual compartment lights coming on, I also want to have 2 individual red LED's illuminate when ANY of the compartments open. One of the LED's would be on the dash (to warn me that a compartment is open somewhere before I drive away), and the other by the exterior side door (as a warning before locking up the truck and going for a hike or something). The idea seems really simple to me, but the execution completely eludes me! If anyone can get me moving in the right direction, I'd sure be grateful, and I'm not an electronics guy, so please keep the responses simple! : ) I can follow directions/hyperlinks pretty well, but can't read electrical schematics worth a crap - but I have a friend who can!!
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@itjobhunter where's mysensors in all of this?
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@Yveaux Looking for hardware/coding advice - IF my plan is even possible. There are a lot of door sensor posts and info on the site, but I can't find anything to get me to my end goal. And again, I'm assuming my goal is even possible, I'm pretty lost on what to do.
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Basically, you seem to search for a "multi-contact-multi-relay" solution. This for sure is possible with MySensors, but still the question remains: Why MySensors at all? For that kind of task, no controller is needed, to me this seems to be "just a simple arduino sketch" running on a single MCU.
Independend if you want to go the MySensors route, imo you will have to go through a fast learning curve. Good starting point may be https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4847/multi-button-relay-sketch/33 - but this is with monostable buttons and not bistable contacts. So first steps could be to understand, how this sketch works and can be extended to more buttons/relays (you may need port extenders or a different MCU to add more PINs), then to adopt it to bistable contacts, and last switch additional relays for the "indicator LEDs".
Additional remark: If you finally want to use additional controller software and "need" additional communication between multiple MCU's (for other tasks), have a look at RS485 transport layer (or PJON (in development?)).
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I wouldn't even bother with an Arduino/microcontroller at all for this. Just some diodes on each circuit and maybe some transistors for powering the large LED strips, or could also use tiny relays.
But I don't see where it has anything nearly complicated enough to have code running on a chip to run anything on it. @itjobhunter if this is not helpful and you need more specific details and/or a quick napkin sketch I can throw something together to show what I'm trying to say.
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@ejlane said in Completely lost about multiple door switches/lights/sensors:
I wouldn't even bother with an Arduino/microcontroller at all for this. Just some diodes on each circuit and maybe some transistors for powering the large LED strips, or could also use tiny relays.
But I don't see where it has anything nearly complicated enough to have code running on a chip to run anything on it. @itjobhunter if this is not helpful and you need more specific details and/or a quick napkin sketch I can throw something together to show what I'm trying to say.
I think you are right. I really was just lost on how/where to start on building my solution, and someone suggest Arduino. I googled it, since I had no idea what it was, and MySensors was one of the search results with the best information and most knowledgeable members. I'll take your advice and work on an electrical solution as opposed to something more complex. I appreciate EVERYONE'S comments, and steering me in the right direction!
