MySensors shield and RGBW Controller

[LastSamurai]

Thank you very much for testing!!
I did already fix some of these errors in the code above and my git... but I forgot to push that to github :sweat_smile:

@MikeF said:

Hi @LastSamurai, I've loaded your sketch onto my RGBW controller, and had a look.

I discovered a number of issues:

• in updateLights(), under '// for each color', the limit on the 'for' loop should be v < NUM_CHANNELS (not v<= ... - this was corrupting channels[0])

I already fixed that

• under '// set actual pin values', I had trouble with the exponential dimming, so I commented out this line, and uncommented the alternative analogWrite statement 2 lines above

Mhm ok it worked on another testsketch but I will test that again later

• dimming and target_dimming should be declared as type 'float', otherwise the calculation dimming / 100 * values[i] rounds down to zero (the LEDs were switching off)

Ok changed it

• on an Arduino Nano and Pro Mini (at least), PWM outputs are restricted to D3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 - you have defined WHITE_PIN as D4.

Yes thank you, I know that. I made a mistake there in my first testrun of pcbs so I have to use pin 4 for white here. I already fixed that in my next design.

With these changes, it seems to work OK - I didn't get any 'st=fail' errors; are you supplying the radio from a separate 3.3V supply (not from the Arduino), and have you added a capacitor (usually 4.7uF) across the supply pins?

On the gateway side I soldered a cap directly to the nrf. I was using the arduino unos power supply but using an external one didn't change anything ;( On the side of the controller I am using a stepdown converter from the 12V for the leds and 2 caps (4,7 and 47).

Strangely it's getting even worse. Only about 5% of my commands seem to reach the controller and in most of the cases I don't get any acknowledgment back even in these cases. I even tried to change the channel to 111 (not in the wlan spectrum any more afaik). It did not help at all. The distance between controller and gateway is only about 3m, no obstacles.

Does anyone have another idea? It's really sad to have the setup done and then being unable to really use it ;(

[LastSamurai]

Something seems to be off with the controller. I tried the same code on another arduino uno and it worked just fine. A little less distance perhaps but no errors at all. Strange thing is that the controller was working just fine earlier on.
I will do some measuring tomorrow perhaps something broke on the board :cry:

[LastSamurai]

So the problem seems to be the power supply. These buck converters have a high frequency ripple. A solution seems to be a LC filter which I found out in this thread.
Now I have the next strange problem though:
The controller doesn't seem to find his parent (gateway) somehow. I get logs like this:

find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
sensor started, id=123, parent=255, distance=255
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
RGBW is running...
Waiting for messages...
read: 0-0-123 s=1,c=1,t=2,pt=0,l=1,sg=0:0
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
Got a message - Messagetype is: 7
read: 0-0-123 s=1,c=1,t=41,pt=0,l=6,sg=0:FF0000
find parent
send: 123-123-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,st=bc:
read: 0-0-123 s=1,c=1,t=3,pt=0,l=2,sg=0:78
Got a message - Messagetype is: 3
Dimming to 
78

where the "got a message - ..." part is from my code. It also doesn't show up in my gateway and none of these broadcasts reach it either. The controller uses a set id (123) and I still have that configuration in my domoticz from some earlier test. The really strange thing is that any commands I send from the gateway reach the controller without problems (see last part of the log above for example.)
How can this be that sending in one direction seems to work but not in the other? Any idea how to fix this?
I'll try to build another testnode with linear regulator soon too so that I can hopefull fix the power issues once and for all ;(

PS Ok I assume it's still some kind of power problem because about 1 in 10 times I send a message from the controller I actually get one back. This means you really can't use these cheap buck converters, at least like this, for this kind of setup I guess. I will build the new node tomorrow if I can.

[jeti]

This post is deleted!

[LastSamurai]

I finally found the time to update my RGBW control pcb and circuit. I just ordered the new version if you want to try them out.
This time I used kiCad and will upload the new files later (and hopefully finally create the openHhardware.io project too).
I switched to smd parts for mosfets, voltage regulator, resistors and one cap. I also fixed the wrong pinout for the mosfets and switched the CE pin to pin 4 of the pro mini so that now four real pwm pins can be used to control the RGBW outputs.

[LastSamurai]

I also reworked my sensor board. My goal is a relatively small sensor running of a coin cell (small sensor is useless if the battery pack is double its size). I took some ideas from the excellent slim node but added/changed some parts.
The idea at the moment is to support DHT temp/hum sensors, Si7021 or similar I2C sensors, low power IR modules and moisture sensors. The moisture sensor pins should also be usable for (reed)switches.
Because some of these sensors require 3.3V (or even 5) I also added a boostconverter. If it's not needed there is a jumber to bridge it. I was worried about power consumption of the sensors when the IC sleeps so I also added a transistor to control the boost converter power.

I am planning to use these small cases.

Do you guys see any errors? Does the transistor part work like that? Or do you have any suggestions what else to add?
Thanks for your feedback!

PS I already added serial (RX/TX/GND/Battery) ouput pins and a pulldown resistor for the Gate of the transistor.

[LastSamurai]

I just realized that I forgot to actually forgot to add the schematics... hard for you guys to help like that^^. So here they are, I hope you guys find some errors that I overlooked ;)

[LastSamurai]

Any feedback? I will keep working on it for the next days. I am also thinking about adding some kind of light sensor. What is the cheapest one that works well with <=3.3V? What do you guys use?

[GertSanders]

I use an LDR

[LastSamurai]

@GertSanders Thanks, that seems to be the easiest solution.
I am still working on the board so any mistake you guys might find... tell me :)

I finally got around to post the RGBW controller part on openhardware.io. Here is the discussion thread.

[LastSamurai]

Does anyone have a link (ebay aliexpress) or name for a nice coincell holder that I can use for my pcb. I used to use some with 2 pins as a connection to the pcb and a plane and some kind of sping on the other side. These work well but its very hard to get the coin cells out again when testing. I saw some pictures of coin cell holders where you just push the cell in from the side but can't find them online.

Also do you guys know any other sensors that could be of use (so that I can integrate them here) or see any errors in my schematics? Otherwise I can hopefully do the pcb design later this week and finally order the boards.

[GertSanders]

@LastSamurai
Look for Keystone Technologies. They make the battery holder on the Adafruit RTC breakout.

[LastSamurai]

@GertSanders Thanks you very much but I just can't find any of them (at least at a reasonable price) on aliexpres or ebay(.de).
Should you (or someone else) know a link to one, please send it to me!

[LastSamurai]

So I got my pcbs yesterday and started to test them. After some problems with power supply (here) I got the pro mini + nrf to work and send/receive commands. Today I connected the led lights and nothing happened (although it should start with a little power on all channels). After some time of testing to figure out the error the AMS suddenly got very hot and I disconnected the power as fast as possible. Now the pro mini doesn't react anymore to programming (or even serial in/output). I think I somehow broke it. Before I destroy another one though:
do you guys have any idea if there might be an error in my schematics (especially concerning the mosfet part)?

The schematics are in the pdf:
link text

This is my current code:

/**
Based on the MySensors Project: http://www.mysensors.org

This sketch controls a (analog)RGBW strip by listening to new color values from a (domoticz) controller and then fading to the new color.

Version 1.0 - Changed pins and gw definition
Version 0.9 - First version

TODO
safe/request values after restart/loss of connection
*/


#define SN   "RGBW test"
#define SV   "v1.0 29042016"

// Load mysensors library	
#include <MySensor.h>	
// Load Serial Peripheral Interface library  
#include <SPI.h>

// Arduino pin attached to driver pins
#define RED_PIN 3 
#define WHITE_PIN 9	// this is not a pwm pin! change it if you want pwm
#define GREEN_PIN 5
#define BLUE_PIN 6
#define NUM_CHANNELS 4 // how many channels, RGBW=4 RGB=3...

#define SENSOR_ID 1

// Smooth stepping between the values
#define STEP 1
#define INTERVAL 10
const int pwmIntervals = 255;
float R; // equation for dimming curve

// change the pins to free up the pwm pin for led control
#define RF24_CE_PIN   4 //<-- NOTE!!! changed, the default is 9
#define RF24_CS_PIN   10  // default is 10
#define RF24_PA_LEVEL RF24_PA_MAX

MyTransportNRF24 transport(RF24_CE_PIN, RF24_CS_PIN, RF24_PA_LEVEL);
MySensor gw(transport);	
   
// Stores the current color settings
byte channels[4] = {RED_PIN, GREEN_PIN, BLUE_PIN, WHITE_PIN};
byte values[4] = {100, 100, 100, 100};
byte target_values[4] = {100, 100, 100, 100}; 


// stores dimming level
byte dimming = 100;
byte target_dimming = 100;

// tracks if the strip should be on of off
boolean isOn = true;

// time tracking for updates
unsigned long lastupdate = millis();
     
void setup() 
{
  // Initializes the sensor node (with callback function for incoming messages)
  gw.begin(incomingMessage);	// 123 = node id for testing	
       
  // Present sketch (name, version)
  gw.sendSketchInfo(SN, SV);				
       
  // Register sensors (id, type, description, ack back)
  gw.present(SENSOR_ID, S_RGBW_LIGHT, "RGBW test light", true);

  // request current values from gateway/controller
  //gw.request(SENSOR_ID, S_RGBW_LIGHT);

  // Set all channels to output (pin number, type)
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_CHANNELS; i++) {
    pinMode(channels[i], OUTPUT);
  }

  // set up dimming
  R = (pwmIntervals * log10(2))/(log10(255));

  // init lights
  updateLights();
  
  // debug
  if (isOn) {
    Serial.println("RGBW is running...");
  }
 
  Serial.println("Waiting for messages...");  
}

void loop()
{
  // Process incoming messages (like config and light state from controller) - basically keep the mysensors protocol running
  gw.process();		

  // and set the new light colors
  if (millis() > lastupdate + INTERVAL) {
    updateLights();
    lastupdate = millis();
  } 
}

// callback function for incoming messages
void incomingMessage(const MyMessage &message) {

  Serial.print("Got a message - ");
  Serial.print("Messagetype is: ");
  Serial.println(message.type);

  // acknoledgment
  if (message.isAck())
  {
   	Serial.println("Got ack from gateway");
  }
  
  // new dim level
  else if (message.type == V_DIMMER) {
      Serial.println("Dimming to ");
      Serial.println(message.getString());
      target_dimming = message.getByte();
  }

  // on / off message
  else if (message.type == V_STATUS) {
    Serial.print("Turning light ");

    isOn = message.getInt();

    if (isOn) {
      Serial.println("on");
    } else {
      Serial.println("off");
    }
  }

  // new color value
  else if (message.type == V_RGBW) {    
    const char * rgbvalues = message.getString();
    inputToRGBW(rgbvalues);    
  }  
}

// this gets called every INTERVAL milliseconds and updates the current pwm levels for all colors
void updateLights() {  

  // update pin values -debug
  //Serial.println(greenval);
  //Serial.println(redval);
  //Serial.println(blueval);
  //Serial.println(whiteval);

  //Serial.println(target_greenval);
  //Serial.println(target_redval);
  //Serial.println(target_blueval);
  //Serial.println(target_whiteval);
  //Serial.println("+++++++++++++++");

  // for each color
  for (int v = 0; v < NUM_CHANNELS; v++) {

    if (values[v] < target_values[v]) {
      values[v] += STEP;
      if (values[v] > target_values[v]) {
        values[v] = target_values[v];
      }
    }

    if (values[v] > target_values[v]) {
      values[v] -= STEP;
      if (values[v] < target_values[v]) {
        values[v] = target_values[v];
      }
    }
  }

  // dimming
  if (dimming < target_dimming) {
    dimming += STEP;
    if (dimming > target_dimming) {
      dimming = target_dimming;
    }
  }
  if (dimming > target_dimming) {
    dimming -= STEP;
    if (dimming < target_dimming) {
      dimming = target_dimming;
    }
  }

  /*
  // debug - new values
  Serial.println(greenval);
  Serial.println(redval);
  Serial.println(blueval);
  Serial.println(whiteval);

  Serial.println(target_greenval);
  Serial.println(target_redval);
  Serial.println(target_blueval);
  Serial.println(target_whiteval);
  Serial.println("+++++++++++++++");
  */

  // set actual pin values
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_CHANNELS; i++) {
    if (isOn) {
      // normal fading
      // analogWrite(channels[i], dimming / 100 * values[i]);
      // non linear fading, idea from https://diarmuid.ie/blog/pwm-exponential-led-fading-on-arduino-or-other-platforms/
      analogWrite(channels[i], pow (2, (values[i] / R)) - 1);
    } else {
      analogWrite(channels[i], 0);
    }
  }
}

// converts incoming color string to actual (int) values
// ATTENTION this currently does nearly no checks, so the format needs to be exactly like domoticz sends the strings
void inputToRGBW(const char * input) {
  Serial.print("Got color value of length: "); 
  Serial.println(strlen(input));
  
  if (strlen(input) == 6) {
    Serial.println("new rgb value");
    target_values[0] = fromhex (& input [0]);
    target_values[1] = fromhex (& input [2]);
    target_values[2] = fromhex (& input [4]);
    target_values[3] = 0;
  } else if (strlen(input) == 9) {
    Serial.println("new rgbw value");
    target_values[0] = fromhex (& input [1]); // ignore # as first sign
    target_values[1] = fromhex (& input [3]);
    target_values[2] = fromhex (& input [5]);
    target_values[3] = fromhex (& input [7]);
  } else {
    Serial.println("Wrong length of input");
  }  


  Serial.print("New color values: ");
  Serial.println(input);
  
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_CHANNELS; i++) {
    Serial.print(target_values[i]);
    Serial.print(", ");
  }
 
  Serial.println("");
  Serial.print("Dimming: ");
  Serial.println(dimming);
}

// converts hex char to byte
byte fromhex (const char * str)
{
  char c = str [0] - '0';
  if (c > 9)
    c -= 7;
  int result = c;
  c = str [1] - '0';
  if (c > 9)
    c -= 7;
  return (result << 4) | c;
}

[LastSamurai]

I finally found the mistake (with some help). The pins for the mosfets were switched. I rotatet them and now its working perfectly. Smooth dimming and switching between colors is really cool. New pictures are on my openhardware.io project page.
Now I need to get some more features for the code (linear fading, remembering the values after restarts...) and then perhaps sometime in the future a better (and fixed) version of the pcb.

[activemind]

@LastSamurai This is a very nice and useful board you have here. But I was more interested in the first PCB you made with heftier FETs. Would it be okay if I took that first rev as a base and modified it for my needs. I need a VERY simple 3 channel (RGB) controller with hefty (> 5A) FETs.

How do I access the board files of that first rev to use them as base?

-AM

[LastSamurai]

@activemind said:

@LastSamurai This is a very nice and useful board you have here. But I was more interested in the first PCB you made with heftier FETs. Would it be okay if I took that first rev as a base and modified it for my needs. I need a VERY simple 3 channel (RGB) controller with hefty (> 5A) FETs.

How do I access the board files of that first rev to use them as base?

-AM

Thanks you! The old files are here I think. It has been done with Target3001 and kicad. You could just take my newest board and replace the FETs. Or just order my boards and solder the FETs onto the smd pads (not perfect but should work too).
I did some updates in the newer versions so be carefull to catch that (e.g. use pwm pins for all 4 colors).

Once I find the time I'll upload some pictures here too. At the moment I am using 3 of my boards to light up a room. Looks very nice imho.

[activemind]

Thanks @LastSamurai . I went ahead and ordered v1.3 of the board just to try them out. If I can solder heftier FETs then your board is EXACTLY what I am looking for. I dont care much about 4th channel since all of my applications will be high power RGB floods.

I didnt look too closely but is there provision for current limiting ressistors in each of the channels.

I will go ahead and load your files in KiCad and see if I can find my way around. Never done any PCB dev but want to give it a try :-)

-AM

[LastSamurai]

@activemind Cool, I guess you are the first one (beside me^^) using these boards. It's nice to see that my work can help others. Some feedback later on would be great :+1:

Current limiting resistors are not part of the board atm. Did not really need them. I only added pulldowns to the control lines.
But just have a look with kicad; the program (while having some strange menues/shortcuts) isn't that hard to learn and if you continue to work with electronics its a nice skill to have. I am 100% selft taught and my designs (mostly :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: ) work.

[activemind]

@LastSamurai Thats a bummer that there are no current limiting ressistor. They are a must with any kind of RGB flood. Hmmm!

I understand why you did not need them because you are primarily driving strips and not RGB floods!

Maybe you can add them to your TODO list for the next rev as optional components.

Yeah, I installed KiCad and now need to load your files to see if I can stumble my way around :-)

-AM