Battery powering

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk what arduino ide are you using? 1.6.10 seems to have issues in combination with MySensors.

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
I don't use 2.0, yet, but I have a lot 1.5.1 running on battery without problem.

Try to run your node with power from e.g. FTDI or other source, then you can see if it works and also if it sleeps.

What I notice for some of my nodes is that it needs a new battery to work, when my CR2032 battery comes down to ~2,5 volt it stop working maybe because of the mA is to low from battery to power up NRF or ATmega.

[CrankyCoder]

@Yveaux I am using 1.6.9

[CrankyCoder]

@flopp Just put a fresh battery in. Checked it before hand, 3.07v

Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR

What capacitor size are you using on the radio? any use to put a cap on the main power/gnd between the battery and the rest of the circuit?

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
I am using 4,7 uF SMD mounted on the NRF.

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
You can try with a cap on main pwr/gnd.

Maybe you can measure the voltage on main pwr/gnd and see what happens when it starts?

[CrankyCoder]

@flopp i changed batteries and made sure i don't go below 2.6v and still the furthest i get is

TSP▒Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP▒Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK

Looks like it is locking up as soon as the radio is initialized.

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
Do you have an other NRF, if you have try with that

[CrankyCoder]

yeah, this one works if i give it a 3.3v power source. But i can try my other one.

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk Do you know/did you change the brown-out level of your atmega? See BODLEVEL at e.g. http://cryoarchive.net/tutorials/avr-tutorials/avr-fuses-explained/
What Arduino hardware are we talking about?

[flopp]

This post is deleted!

[CrankyCoder]

Im using a 3.3v pro mini.

From what I gathered BOD level only affected the power down. Would it affect the power up and radio initialization?

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk said:

yeah, this one works if i give it a 3.3v power source. But i can try my other one.

Do you mean NRF?
NRF should work down to 1,9 volt

[CrankyCoder]

@flopp That is correct, everything registers ok and debug shows the connections when i give it 3.3v from my usb power supply

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk said:

@flopp That is correct, everything registers ok and debug shows the connections when i give it 3.3v from my usb power supply

Then it can be bad battery.

Measure battery, should be about 3.1.

Connect something to the battery, like an LED, battery shall now show maybe 2.9, not lower. If it shows lower I guess the battery is almost empty.

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk said:

Im using a 3.3v pro mini.

How are you pwering it? Through RAW or VCC? Did you remove/disable the regulator?

[CrankyCoder]

@Yveaux VCC. Yeah i pulled the regulator off

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk Does it run stable without the nRF? E.g. disconnect nRF and simply print something to serial.

[CrankyCoder]

tried to do the BOD fuse update. bricked a pro mini. grabbed another one. it took the updated boot loader.

if i disconnect the radio it just loops

TSM:PDT
TSM:INIT
!TSM:RADIO:FAIL
!TSM:FAILURE
TSM:PDT
TSM:INIT
!TSM:RADIO:FAIL
!TSM:FAILURE
TSM:PDT
TSM:INIT
!TSM:RADIO:FAIL
!TSM:FAILURE
TSM:PDT

as you would expect.

If i hook the radio up i get this.

Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:Á

I do still need to remove the regulator and led on this one. Not sure if that's the issue. I have also tried a brand new cr2032 battery

[CrankyCoder]

So here is my latest. I modified the arduino pro mini. Changed the BOD fuse value and reburned the bootloader. I wired it all back up. Got it to register. I got 6 button presses where it sent the data. Now I am right back where it was.

Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
TSP:MSG:SEND 1-1-255-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,ft=0,st=bc:
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASS▒Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK

I am just not having much luck getting this to work via battery. I have a 100u capacitor on the radio.

If anyone has any thoughts I am all ears. I kind of at a loss now. I am using the 2.0.0 release.