Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors
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"Update - please use https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2740/easy-newbie-pcb-for-mysensors to discuss this PCB"
Hello!
I have created my own PCB.
This is a PCB that only contains the basic functions for MySensors but is somewhat dynamic.
The main goal was to eliminate the build time soldering wires between the Arduino Pro Mini and the Radio.
Its a PCB for all newbies that wants to do basic nodes like myself out there...
It is a PCB for all that only wants the basic part of MySensors documented in the website!
This cuts my work with one node from a couple of hours soldering wires to 20-30minAll info can be found @ https://www.openhardware.io/view/4
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Really nice, thanks for your contribution to the MySensors project @sundberg84 .
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Nice this keeps it simple and usable.
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More options! Nice!
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I have looked at all the other great PCBs in the forum, but this is the first time I've been tempted to actually order a few
Great work @sundberg84 !
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Really nice, just what I was looking for!
Bra jobbat
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Hello!
I have updated to rev 7.
Instead of a random assignments of the pinheads its now arranged into MysX 1.4.I dont think this will make it less newbie friendly and it will also add the possibility for others to create shields using the MysX connector.
I hope you like it and thank you @Anticimex for putting up with all the questions...
Also it has not been tested yet, so if you want 100% please use Rev 6 and let me try this one out first.
See the first post for the files.
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Hi!
Just wanted to comfirm that REV. 7 with the MysX connector works great so I have removed the Rev6 option from first post.
Offcourse i allready have some ideas for Rev 8... but ill do that later.
In the meantime please enjoy the rev. history (aka learning curve)
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This is what i have been looking for. Nice work @sundberg84 .
Where is the best site to order this from?
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Thank you.
There are many different, Im using Itead.
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Thanks, then i will look in to it.
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@sundberg84 Really nice work.
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I ordered the latest version...
What is the battery life?
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@Dylano Depending on what sensor you wish to run and how frequent you want to get data!
One example: DHT22, sleeping 15min and sending Temp/Hum with a china/ebay booster is about a year.
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Ok thanks for fast response..
I think i am going to build my whole house with your board, incl Domoticz, i got the best Home automation house of the world
Give it a try, i hope i have ordered the good stuff, and i hope i get the boards..Is there a latest or best working sketch, include the batterysave option from mysensors, you use?
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You use any sketch you want. The PCB is just a platform for the arduino and radio and sensor input.
Then you upload your code to the arduino as usual (see the getting started and build section for code examples.To save battery use the sleep function, you find all info in the battery page.
Good luck!
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Hi,
I also chose your PCB as "a base" for my mysensor network expansion. Ordered 10 boards via dirtypcb, now it's just the wait that kills me. 
Thanks for your effort sundberg84 on designing this PCB, appreciated. 
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@jlehtinen @Dylano - Thank you for the kind words. My reward is to see so many use it and it helps people out.
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as said, excellent design, should come as an option in the store, so that people can just get started.
Is there maybe a revision or version where radio is 180 degrees rotated, so that it "covers" the pins on the left (radio antena is looking down)? That way we can have radio on the stands, and after we solder pins then we just plug inn the radio, that would reduce overall footprint while still having all other benefits? I might try to modify the PCB when I find time, but just trowing ideas in the air
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Having metal close to the radio antenna will likely mess up the reception. That's why the pcb is designed to have the antenna sticking out.
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@dakipro - as @mfalkvidd said, i have learnt that the hard way.
Feel free to change and modify the design, it might work in some cases but as generic/general pcb having the radio sticking out some has worked best.
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ok, i was not considering that at all... I made few sensors in a "sandwich" of radio and pro mini and they worked fine (although they are pretty close to gateway now that I think about it), so it seamed like the logical choice to have radio in parallell with something else
But then I will not complicate my life and order package of the board, and ofcourse donate a few bucks to support hard work and your time!
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I bought a pile of these too. Thanks @sundberg84 - Now for the RFM69 version ?
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@shabba - I dont use RFM69 but if you order and debug i can build it.
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I ordered some. Just would need a pin layout and make sure only 3.3v to all pins.
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@sundberg84 I am ordering the PCB's of Ver.8 today. Again, really nice and helpful work for newbies like me. Just one newbie question, though. I understand that both Arduino and NRF are capable of operating down to about 2V. Why do we need the booster in battery operation. I plan to use only Dallas 18B20. Thanks.
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@nunver Some sensors are not able to work down below 3.3v, and the im really skeptical if you can operate the arduino 3.3v down to 2v... mine dies when it reaches like 2.8V. Also, with a booster you can operate down to 0.9v - so i highly recommend it.
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@sundberg84 to get the arduino to operate at lower voltages you need to reconfigure a few fuses. Brown out reset and such things. I've seen the settings somewhere in the forum and a google search also works. There are online tools to set up the fuses (to get the values to write that is).
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@sundberg84 thanks for clarification. From what @Anticimex wrote, I understand I have to tinker beyond my newbie hat
to get Arduino to operate without booster. Thanks again.
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@Anticimex Thank you for that input - i have not change the fuses.
But a small warning to new members - its not kind of newbie friendly.
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This post is deleted!
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I just received first order and made one sensor, and I must say that I was a bit skeptical if this is the right pcb for me, I was thinking on somehow reducing footprint a bit or having a better idea about positioning of elements etc, but after making one node I realized that I LOVE IT!
It brings back the title of the build section of this website (Build = Fun), wheres before I would spend a whole afternoon (and usually have a headache in the evening) for just connecting the radio on the prototype board. Now I made a node with 4 nodes in ~1 hour, and it looks much better then the wire mess from before (old node on the right)
However I did spent about 3 hours debugging why my "touch" capacitive sensor doesn't work when I plug inn the radio (it works fine without the radio, which was just headbanging to figure out).
I have found that pin 2 is connected to the radio, which could be a good thing if mysensors begins to use IRQ pin on the radio. This probably works in 99% of the cases as it is today, but for the capacitive touch sensor when resistor is connected between pins 2 and four, node never detects that you are touching it. Scalpel blade solved this pretty easily, but it took me 4 hours to figure out what was going on and why my touch sensor doesn't work.
I would suggest then to either make pin 2 reserved to the radio, thus removing it from the "available pins" area, or disconnect it from the radio for the time being (not sure when it is planned to use IRQ pin). Or at least marking it somehow on the board if possible, so that we get reminded that pin2 is connected to the radio as well and could interfere with some sensors.
While on the subject of suggestions, I see there is almost no connections bellow the radio, so maybe radio could go a bit lower in the board so that it doesn't stick (having no metal parts/lines bellow the radio should not obstruct the signal, it is just empty pcb?) Preserving space for antenna could be done something like this https://www.openhardware.io/uploads/56ecf010b2b0966107ebedfa/image/1458410585539-image.jpeg . I am not sure when I will have some time (and energy) to learn to modify pcb files my self, but maybe it is easy for someone to try it
Otherwise, as said before, excellent work, this should be featured in the 'build' section of the website as it is one of the most useful things, especially for novices.
Thank you for making it
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Hi @dakipro! Thank you for those kind words and thank you for the feedback.
About the IRQ pin, I will consider that, maybe a jumper, but what i know of the radio should not use this at all. Im not sure why its not working but good you found out. Do you use D3 for other things - if not i recommend to always use d3 instead of d2/irq.
Yes, in 99% if the cases you should be able to have the radio over the board... BUT I have had issue and since it should be a newbie frendly board i want it to work 100% of the times.
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I used d3 for dallas temp sensor but have already soldered d2 to touch sensor. Touch sensor is very unique as it is measuring resistance (actually i think it is measuring time) between to pins, and when you connect 1Mohm resistor between d4 and d2, then radio introduces some other resistance or something, and that messes up the readings for touch. We can use other pins, but pins 2 and 4 are set by default, and it never occurred to me that it is the radio-pin ting.
I have quite a few sleeping sensors where PIR is connected to d2 and door-magnet-sensor is connected to d3 for example, as those are (if I understood it right) pins that can wake up the node from sleeping. Maybe radio can interfere with some of those "common" sensors usually connected to the wake-up pins?
I would then vote for having d2 available in the "available pins" area because it is one of two wakeup pins, and maybe as you suggested have a jumper (or a disconnected line, that can be just shorted with a short wire) that goes to irq.
Anyway, I think it is not an issue-critical as a knife solves it quickly, but it could demoralize us newbies
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I just got notification from Paypal that my donation was returned due to non-acceptance. I never experienced someone not willing to take donations via donate button
I used the donations link on the right box here
https://www.openhardware.io/view/4/EasyNewbie-PCB-for-MySensorsIf it is due to technical reasons that is ok, but maybe you want to check the link or paypal notifications or something if you want to receive donations
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Hi dakipro! Aaah that was you
sorry.
I wasnt notified (or missed in spam?) I got a donation until i got an email this morning saying it was returned. During this time i had not visited paypal and I had not idea I had to accept.
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@sundberg84 Just received the boards and installed my first node with it. I wanted to test all voltages are correct before hooking up the Arduino and NRF. Noticed that I get battery voltage at NRF and booster voltage on Arduino. Checked the schematic. It the board I received is correct after all. Is this intentional that we do not use booster voltage for NRF?
THanks
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Hi @nunver - Yes that is correct, Search the forum - it has been proven much better.
Nrf can handle down to 0.9v so its not a problem.
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Hi folks,
I finally had some time to assemble a couple of boards and they work perfectly.
2 things I need to do though and I appreciate any feed back folks may have.
Connect the voltage divider in a more elegant way, perhaps directly from the raw, however I wanted to keep the options open just in case some of the boards end up using REG or BAT.
Find a way to protect the VIN input against accidental reverse polarity. I ended up frying the voltage regulator on the arduino when I accidental touched the 9v battery on its connector reversed. Its quite a show with glowing red and sparks flying (the arduino actually survived but no more raw power).
@sundberg84 once again thanks for this board!!!
Cheers
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@barduino - thank you for great feedback!
I will look into whats possible if i have any upcoming revs.
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@sundberg84 , I forgot to mention something.
I get my pro mini's from the local mega store and they have their own brand at a very good price.
In the model they sell the A6, A7 and Ground do not line up with the board.
Not a problem for my applications (I'm thinking of soldering some angled connectors) but I was wondering if they are supposed to be in that position from the original specs.
If you ever think of making the board a bit bigger, having 4 extra connectors for A6, A7, D8 (and an extra ground perhaps) would be nice.
Great job on these!!!
Cheers
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@barduino nice board. One question, why do you have the cable? Sorry for my newbie question
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@nunver, it's not my board, @sundberg84 design it and made it available for all of us.
The wire you see is to connect the RAW input to the voltage divider so I can measure the 9v battery.
Cheers
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@barduino yes I know the boards are designed by sundberg84. I got my boards manufactured as well. What I meant was nicely done.
As for the cable, you could have got raw voltage from the battery booster pin. I was wondering if for any specific reason you had the cable. I understand not.
Regarding protection against reverse polarity, can't you use a diode? You loose 0.6V but there is ample margin.
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@nunver your're right I need a more elegant solution for that wire, there was no particular reason to connect it on the other side.
For the protection i'm thinking a daughter board with the diode and the 9v connector and then join it with angle connectors on the main.
Cheers
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@barduino ok - strange with that footprint.
According to Arduino website those holes does not exist in that position at all (either as your board or my PCB are designed). I downloaded a popular pro mini footprint from somewhere and used that - first time i see they are not aligned.
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yes, indeed
source: https://www.arduino-board.com/boards/arduino-pro-mini
anyway, no worries, I was just curious
Cheers
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@sundberg84 Assembled my second node. This time 5V regulated. One remark and a quick question. You have LE33 in BOM as regulator. I did not have one readily available but an LM1117 which is a totally different package. I had to go through all datasheets to get correct pinout. Could you put labels near pins like 5 3 G?
And the question; dumb as it may sound, do we place a jumper at REG pins when using the regulator version?
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@nunver - great idea with the labels for voltage reg - that makes it more userfriendly! Will do.
Yes - REG should have a jumper connected.
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What is the purpose of the Raw connection under the radio connection? Designed for a jumper to supply RAW to MYSX connection?
Also any other caveats to be aware of when using RAW and a 3.3 mini and skipping the regulator?
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@shabba - Its a criteria of the MysX connector - to be able to switch RAW on/off from a daughter pcb. Nothing I have ever used and you dont have to think about it until you have a mother/daughter board.
Using RAW input and the internal regulator on the arduino you need to bypass the "REG" jumper and also the external voltage regulator if i remember right.
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@sundberg84
Hey, I've been having a bit of trouble lately.
I've been trying to setup a node with your board which supports a PIR and a temp sensor (ds18b20).
Since there is a spot for a resistor on D3 on your board, I attached the temp sensor to that pin.
The PIR needs a pin that supports interrupts, so I connected that to D2.
Here is where the confusion starts.
If I read this page correctly, D2 is already in use for the radio.
I only checked it after I soldered everything together and found out my PIR doesn't work (it always sends a 1-signal).Any thoughts on this?
Is D2 really free for use on the board?Thanks!
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@BastienVH - D2 is connected, but at this point not used by the radio (unless its been changed very recently). On the PCB its connected though - so if you want to use this I suggest you do not solder that pin (ie disconnect it) from the PCB and try.
If your PIR doesnt work you should start there... the cheap PIRS are very power sensitive (feed 5v not 3.3!! (you can modify this but standard is 5v!)) so check the connection with a multimeter. Try to connect only PIR and run a basic sketch to get that one to work. As you said you need to connect them to 2 or 3 if you want to use interrupt.
Add some serial.println to get info out whats happeing with the PIR.
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@sundberg84
About D2: you mean I shouldn't solder the IRQ of the radio to the board?
I will try that next time.I've been testing the PIR with a nano and the 3.3V it supplies and that works fine.
If I take VCC or ground (or both) from the board with booster, the PIR starts acting up.
I guess I'll have to try some more if I want to get to the bottom of things.
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@BastienVH I have tried the normal china-pir (HC-SR501) on 3.3v and it does not work very well. I got random on/off or just strange behaivour. See specs! Voltage is 5V – 20V if you dont modify it (there are some threads on the forum).
The easiest way is to remove the pin for D2 on the arduino pinhead.
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@sundberg84 Any idea why I've received a "2nd version" of your Rev.8 from PCBWay for free? By free I mean that I bought 10x your Rev.8 about 2 months ago (Black in the photo), but today I've got a package from China and when I opened I got that other PCB that I haven't ordered
I don't see any changes regarding the radio capacitor. Any clue?
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@danivalencia - sorry for late reply, I think @hek can help you. Give him a chat about this.
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@sundberg84 No worry, I talked with hek and he finded that was a pcbway mistake. BTW...very good job with the PCB, I'm using it with a lot of my sensors
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Hi there !
@sundberg84 very nice job !
is there any plan to fit the board for the Arduino Nano (5V) ?
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@Lior-Rubin - Not at this point.
What would be the benefits compared to Pro Mini?
Nano can only handle 5v input and not 3.3.
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@sundberg84 Nothing special behalf of the face that it easier to program it (it has mini USB onboard).
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@Lior-Rubin Yes - you are right, the Nano is easier.
But I want to stick with the pro mini and the advantages with both a 3.3 and a 5v version for both battery operations and regulated power. You are free if you like to modify my design to your wish and add a Nano instead. If you need any help just ask!
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@sundberg84 Thanks, I'll try to play with the Pro Mini
BTW - can you recommend for good supplier from eBay\AliExpress\Etc. ?
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@Lior-Rubin - For components i pretty much use the links from www.mysensors.com/store
Dont forget to order a fdti programmer
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@sundberg84 I have all these ... I meant for the Pro Mini 3.3V that you used in your design.
I ordered some from Chinese supplier but the board was damaged ( cannot upload sketches to them).where did you get yours ?
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@Lior-Rubin - 3 batches from china, link in mysensor store - worked great for me.
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Hi, I have received the PCBs, it is good help.
(3.3v mini with battery powering)
I have wiring problem. How could I connect radio's power input to boosted powering source to get stable 3.3v?
thanks
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@Barna see the instructions for "Regulated 5V" and "6-12v to RAW pin" on https://goo.gl/1ZMlUf https://www.openhardware.io/view/4/EasyNewbie-PCB-for-MySensors
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@Barna Exaclty as @mfalkvidd said - use regulated power instructions instead.
Set the jumper on "reg" and bypass the voltage converter with a wire.Whats good to know is that this has been tested over and over in this forum and the conclusion has been so far that if you run with 2xAA the best sollution is to bypass the radio in the booster (i.e. use battery instructions - hence the difference). The radio can handle down to 1.9v so it wont die for a long time if you have some power savings in use.
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@sundberg84 yes, I would like to use 2xAA. I have measured it, 2xAA's out is 2.6V, after booster it is 3.3 .
My first tying was battery jumper, but I had was radio problems.
After bypassed the volt reg part to give 3.3v.
When you have mentioned this : "Set the jumper on "reg" and bypass the voltage converter with a wire." do you talk about the jumper which next to battery jumper or the 2nd? I have tried which is next to radio.
I have a filling, it will be soldering or hw issue, because both has worked, and has not sometimes.
thanks
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@barna - what was the radio problem? If it was range issues i have figured out that some boosters are bad quality but it helps to have a 0,1uF capacitor between out and gnd on the booster.
Note that you can not use both REG and BAT function at the same time.
I mean this:
but if you only have 2.6v im not sure the arduino is going to function properly. With this setup the booster is not active and 2.6v is fed into all components. this is meant for 5v.As i said - i recommend using the bat and booster setup and instead try to figure out the radio problem.
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@sundberg84 I'm using battery with booster
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Then connect it like battery and booster (BAT jumper) and try to figure out why you have the radio problems. Thats my advice. The above is possible (REG) but as i said, i dont think it will work when the battery goes below 2.6v.
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@sundberg84
1.
with battery jumper the radio will get direct 2.6v and work until 1.9v
arduino will get 3.3v via booster
2.
If I bypass the REG all of them will get 2.6v
Is my thinking right ?
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@Barna - Exactly!
So again - go with 1. if you are using 2xAA since the arduino needs 2.6-2.8v to funciton.
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@sundberg84
why is it problem technically, if I give boosted 3.3 to radio ?
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@Barna - the Radio is very sensitive to spikes and disturbance in power. The booster generates more disturbance than the batteries. Thats why we came to the conclution that Bat -> radio is the best choise. If not, you can remove some disturbance with a capacitor as I wrote above with 0.1uF from out to ground on the booster.
The PCB is designed in either Bat or Reg and its not optimal using battery power, booster and a jumper on reg. You will get two voltages (bat + 3.3booster to radio):
You can try different setups - report back
but i can only recommend the modes described in the openhardware.io
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Hi sundberg84,
Is it possible to use 5v mini + 9v battery with measurement ?
I put an voltage regulator to booster place and power the radio from mini with 5-3.3 regulator ?
What do you think ?I think I could use the 9V as source as raw, but it could be problematic because it is an battery, so I would like to measue it.
thanks
Barna
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@Barna - Powering it through RAW is possible but if you want to use the booster and battery measuring this is not an option , you need to power it through PWR and BAT jumper. I think what you describe is possible but untested. First you need to find/create a booster that can handle the battery. Also you need to make corrections on the voltage divider(47k and 67k?) for the battery measuring and also code changes.
Please share your results - this is good if this works!
I was about to create one of these myself the other day - but other projects came by so i just skipped it and running a 3.3v (removed led) on 9v trough raw and it works... no measuring though so no clue how long it will last.
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I'm not profi, is my logic correct?
general, not PBC related
I could power the mini 5V with 9V and mini's regulator converts it to 5V.
Mini could give power to radio by 5->3.3 regulator.
I could measure the voltage without booster, but the booster is good to use the battery until it is possible ?
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@Barna Your logic is correct - you can power a mini through raw and the minis regulator will convert it to 5v but then you can not use the booster. You will have power as long as the battery is between aprox. 6 and 9 v (minis voltage converter specs), below that it will die.
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I have ordered some boards and i am looking forward to play with them.
I tried soldering some part and a nano on a soldering board but apparently my soldering skills and patience isn't what it used to be in the past.
@sundberg84 it looks good.
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@tlpeter thank you and good luck. Just give a shout if you have questions.
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I do have some questions
I think i got it a bit. When i use a 3,3V mini then i do not need the 3,3V regulator and it is powered with a battery. If i use a 5V mini then i need the regulator. Is this correct?
Do i need the booster if batteries are used?
How about the RAW option? How does it go to 5V? i need the regulator to go to 3,3V so how do i loose the 6-12V
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@tlpeter said:
When i use a 3,3V mini then i do not need the 3,3V regulator and it is powered with a battery. If i use a 5V mini then i need the regulator. Is this correct?
Correct!! You need to add the jumper to BAT if you go with 3.3 and battery or REG if you go with 5v and voltage regulator.
Do i need the booster if batteries are used?
No, you can bypass it with a jumper/wire - but it will give you alot of extra. Without the booster the arduino 3.3v will die somewhere between 2.8 and 3 volts, with booster you can go down to 1.9v.
How about the RAW option? How does it go to 5V? i need the regulator to go to 3,3V so how do i loose the 6-12V
There is a voltage regulater on board the pro mini that handels from 6-12v (be cautious using 12 v, 9v is max i recommend on clones). This will convert your RAW to 5v and provide the board with this. Then the external regulator will go from 5 to radio 3.3v.
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Ok, very clear.
So now i have a new question, i want to use a solar panel and a battery but this will go above the 3.7V when there is light and the battery pack is 3.7V so i must use the raw connection.
I also want to measure the battery and i think this needs PWRCan i do this?
I want to build the solar powered mini weather station:
https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/841/solar-powered-mini-weather-station
Thanks already.
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@tlpeter You can use raw for 3.7V and make it down to 3.3 with the internal voltage regulator onboard the arduino, but you can not connect anything to PWR then because this will allready be 3.3V! The internal voltage regulator vill output 3.3v to the PCB from the arduino.
However, I think you can connect the battery directly to the battery measurment on the board as long as you use the same ground for both. You will need to make some new calculations (most are based on 2xAA = 3.0V) for your battery.
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I didn't use your board in this case (the weather station) but i will do in the future.
I did connect the battery to the raw pin and it is working fine.
Funny, a solar panel with a battery powering the pro mini with DHT22 and BMP180.
For now i will keep it simple but later on i want a rain gauge and windmeter too.
Rain sensor is on a different Nano as this needs to be powered all the time.
It will control my sunscreen later on.
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This board looks great! Definitely going to order some.
Just getting started with MySensors. Waiting for over 20 orders from eBay with stuff. Should be fun!
Already running Domoticz (Pi 2) with RFXtrx433, 1-wire and z-wave. Going to build a serial gateway for direct connection to the Pi.My last name before I married (now divorced) was Sundberg btw. Could have had Sundberg82 as nickname.
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@NiklasO - Thanks! I hope it will suite you well!
The wait is a pain, but well worth it in the end. Sounds like got alof going already!Hehe, we can create a forum group - "sundberg dreamteam!"
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Recived my boards today and I love them, I ordered the white ones and they are looking really great
Thanks @sundberg84 !
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@Martin-Tellblom - good luck with your projects!
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@sundberg84 said:
@NiklasO - Thanks! I hope it will suite you well!
The wait is a pain, but well worth it in the end. Sounds like got alof going already!Hehe, we can create a forum group - "sundberg dreamteam!"
hehe yeah, just need to change my last name back to my original one but I don't know if my kids likes that idea.
Where do you get your x to 3.3v boost converter? Found some on eBay but they are quite expensive if comparing to x to 5v versions.
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@NiklasO - they are quite expencive yes, but i order the ones in the mysensors store
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Has anyone tried one of these boosters:
- They are sometimes much cheaper than the 3.3v ones
- Since they are adjustable, I would think you could optimize the output voltage for maximum battery.
I'm not sure, is there a problem using them with the PCB boards? I imagine the input and output ground would have to be connected together.
Thanks!
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@ileneken3 - sorry never tried them.
The footprint looks different from the PCB so you need to connect this with wires to the PCB.
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I took a chance and tried these boosters. After adjusting the pot to boost to 3.3V, and using wires to connect, they seem to work the same as the "recommended" ones. I am hoping they produce less noise for the radio - I seem to have trouble with that, even with adding the capacitors. (Maybe my radios are not good).
Another experiment - boosting them to just over the 2.8V fuse limit. I would think that would be more energy efficient.
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@ileneken3 in my experienxe the 3.3v booster gives a lot of problem with radio
