PiDome Domotica/Home Automation
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Recently i have build support for MySensors in home automation software i'm writing and in this thread i would like to provide the opportunity to answer questions and post some F.A.Q.
I know PiDome is very new and at least to say also unknown in the Automation scene. The base information about PiDome is already posted at the build section below the Controllers header. So here i will post some information how the support is integrated.
First off you will need to add the gateway device. Open the peripherals page, plugin the Arduino Nano or other used serial device with the Mysensors Gateway code. The device will be added to the list. Click on it and set the Serial information, 115200 Baud, 1 stop bit, no parity, 8 databits and the MySensors peripheral driver (Settings Arduino Nano specific, check your serial device of there are other requirements). If the connection is a one timer press "Set and start" If these settings need to be persistent between reboots and server restarts press "Set, save and start".
To use MySensors nodes within PiDome you will need Device skeletons. These skeletons are created with XML or a graphical editor which creates this xml. This skeleton is used to define a device structure which tells:
- Which groups a device has (At least one is mandatory),
- What kind of controls are used (Toggle, Button, Slider, etc..) in these groups,
- what kind of datatypes they hold (integer, float, string, boolean),
- What kind of options a device has (not used with MySensors) and
- device location type.
To explain the above mapped to MySensors devices with an example:
Let's say you have a sensor node which holds a type S_LIGHT, which is a light actuator (you can toggle this of or on). So you would probably use the variable type V_LIGHT which is light status On or Off (1 or 0). and you have about 5 of these exact same nodes.Let's translate:
You will need the device editor to create the above sensors node. This means a sensors node is a device in PiDome. To let this device know how your sensor node looks like you will need to define the S_LIGHT sensor type and V_LIGHT variable type.The sensor types are defined as groups in PiDome. So if you have the device editor opened and add a group you will need to supply a group id and a group name by drag and drop this to the device field. The name can just be like "My light", but the group id MUST be named after the sensor id thus must be the number you used in gw.present(). For example, if used gw.present(0,S_LIGHT); the group id must be 0.
Now it comes to defining a variable type. When you drag and drop the toggle control (which switches between two states) you will be prompted to fill in details. The most important ones are the control id which MUST be the name of the sensor variable type which in this example is V_LIGHT. The name of this control can be something like "Light Switch". The datatype of V_LIGHT explained on the protocol page is 1=On, 0=Off, so you would use the integer datatype. the On label would be "On" with value 1, and off the opposite.
When the device is saved, you have created a skeleton ready to be used. and you can start adding this single skeleton 5 times.
More information about adding devices is posted on the PiDome website at: http://pidome.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/added-partly-mysensors-org-wireless-devices-support-api-1-4-beta/.The title is a little bit misleading because there now is support for the final 1.4 version.
There is support for Battery level and Inclusion mode triggered by the hardware button.
A final todo:
- Fully test automatic nodes address assignments (i am not able to test this because lack of hardware, it is there though)
MySensors MQTT support: Available using the MQTT gateway
I will try to be here as much as possible but PiDome is quite a broad project.
[EDIT] We now have a forum available, so if you have questions which are not related to MySensors these can be posted over there[/EDIT]
@John I am new to all of this. I am an Arduino programmer. but this is a first to communicate with a controller. Is there a simple "ping/pong" example. where a device is created in PiDome that is a basic switch or trigger that then just sends a message to an Arduino. and then the Arduino sketch sends back a known value that we can then review in PiDome?
brian
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@John I am new to all of this. I am an Arduino programmer. but this is a first to communicate with a controller. Is there a simple "ping/pong" example. where a device is created in PiDome that is a basic switch or trigger that then just sends a message to an Arduino. and then the Arduino sketch sends back a known value that we can then review in PiDome?
brian
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@dafoink
Communication with a plain Arduino using USB it currently needs to be programmed in the server. Methods to do things like ping/pong will be eventually possible using the web interface.I have added colorpicker support to the serial version of MySensors, When it has proven itself it will be added to the MQTT version as wel.
I have tested this with one user and he has confirmed it working.
It works as follows:
Add a color picker to the controls as you would do with any other control (data/toggle button/etc..).There are three color modes, these are only used for how the color picker behaves in the interfaces. These are:
- RGB - Shows three sliders: red, green and blue, use these to choose a color.
- HSL - Shows three sliders: Hue, Saturation and lightness. Different with the RGB is that you can turn lightness to 0 ti simulate lights off.
- CIE (Lch)- Shows three sliders: Lightness, hue and chroma, use this with calibrated fixtures, it can be quite off.
Colors are send as RGB string to nodes without the number sign (#). I recommend using V_VAR(1-5) as the variable type as it is custom data.
You also need a minimum of one button added in the colorpicker settings window. This will add a button so the selected color in the color picker will actually be send. The value is not important but must be filled in.
Below an screenshot as an example of how to set up:
http://s9.postimg.org/k1qvy23f3/Capture1.jpg
Code for retrieving the r,g and b from the send string is available in this post: http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/816/send-color-data-to-sensors/14
I personally have not tested the code (currently occupied hardware). -
This is an important message for all MySensors PiDome users.
Oracle has released an update for Java on ARM. This update is numbered: Java 8 Update 33. But this release has features removed which the alpha builds are utilizing. I was busy with a feature to supply a graphical user interface embedded in the server so the Raspberry Pi could be used as server and client at the same time (slimmed down version).
Because Oracle decided to remove JavaFX from this update, and i have JavaFX test code within the server, this update will completely $#%$ PiDome so it won't run correctly, or wont run at all.
I have to remove all JavaFX related code from the server before you guys can upgrade to the new Java Release. I'm sorry for any inconvenience if you really need to upgrade Java.
I will place a message in this thread when i have fixed it.
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Have been quite busy the last two days to remove any possibility to run the server with an embedded client. So you are save to update again. The latest version with the "fixes" is available on http://builder.pidome.org/job/PiDome Server platform snapshot build/lastSuccessfulBuild/ .
All though all dependencies have been removed it could show a quirk here and there, but will not influence server inner workings.
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Hi John!
Can You tell, is it possible to show battery level and sketch name and version in PiDome? How to describe this information under custom device?
Thanks in advance
Vj
Hi @bomber
Battery status can be done this way:
- Drag an drop a group to the device declaration field. You can give it any name you want, but the group id must be named "INTERNAL"(capital letters without the " (quotes)).
- Drag and drop a data field control to this group. You can give it any name. but the id must be "I_BATTERY_LEVEL" (also without the quotes).
Set the datatype to "FLOAT". All battery levels in the server are handled this way. - If you want, you can select "Battery (0-100%)" as a visual type. This is for future references when the server is able to report low battery levels to users and visualize this in clients.
Sketch name and version is not available, let me see how quick this can be added (if it is a quick add will do it immediately, otherwise it get's a position on my to do list, recent (unfortunate) developments are requiring a lot of my time).
Cheers,
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I_SKETCH_NAME and I_SKETCH_VERSION have been added, only currently they only appear after a device has been added and is restart (during presentation and the device is known in the server).
I currently do not have the time to have a persistent solution where the values are remembered during discovery (inclusion). Group id for both is also "INTERNAL" and the control id's must be I_SKETCH_NAME or I_SKETCH_VERSION. The data type is String.
P.S. it is currently builing on the build server, give it a couple of minutes.
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Hi John,
I'm pretty new to PiDome and MySensors but I've been gradually figuring things out. However I can't get the battery information to display in PiDome. I followed your instructions you gave above but it never receives the information even though I can see it being sent via the com port on my pc. Has the method of receiving the battery information changed in the last 7 months since you posted this?
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Hi @AndrewB
As far as i'm concerned the methods for displaying battery status have not been changed. it could have been changed between some days seven months ago.
Are you using group id "INTERNAL" and control id "I_BATTERY_LEVEL" ?
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It currently is quite late i will test this tomorrow as i also have some resource available then. I have to get some hardware together, if i find everything quick will test it in a moment for you. I need some info from you though:
What is your current build number being used (see server settings page)?
What is the mysensors library version you are using, 1.4 or 1.5?Cheers!
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Oh dear, we are already at build 540 for the server with full platform build at: 0.1-snapshot-2015-09-05.746. The next server build version will probably stay at 540 but the platform number will become 747. I will notify here when there is an update.
Build 747 will require you to update the android, desktop or raspberry pi client if in use, so be prepared ;)
Cheers.
[EDIT]
I can confirm the battery level is not handled correctly. I'm on it now. The issue is that the data type is not handled correctly. If you would have used something else then float it would not work. I'm doing an explicit cast to float and did not respect the set type as set in the device editor. Currently testing and updating.
[/EDIT] -
There currently is a new version of the server being built on the build server. The location is: http://builder.pidome.org/view/Snapshot builds/
When it's done you can click 0.1-snapshot-2015-09-06.747 and download the server. On the pi stop the server, overwrite files, and start it again. Don't worry, important data will not be overwritten (as with any update)
You can see it is done when on the left side there are no active jobs being displayed.
Let me know if it has been solved for you.
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Could you make a screenshot of your created device it's
- Group control details
- Control details
And check in the file logs/system/appLog.txt if you got messages mentioning mysensors? (quite at the end, you can do a "tail-f log/system/appLog.txt -n 200" in putty "ctrl+c" to stop it, select lines, click (copy) and paste them)
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Well that would give a big amount of data, and it definitely will help... If you do not mind i will send my email address using chat so i can send you files if needed what could help in solving this quicker.
