💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors

[ileneken3]

@Samuel235
The key question here (at least for this forum subject), is "should you a LIPO with a Easy/Newbie PCB board"? My answer is "in some cases". For sure, the gold standard of sleeping nodes is 2 AA batteries that last over a year. It's best both in terms of price and longevity. But there are scenarios for using LIPO's:

• The AA batteries are too big. LIPO's come in all sizes, and the one from my old cell phone was nice and compact for a particular enclosure I wanted to use.

• You have LIPO's lying around (like from an old laptop) and you just want to use them.

• The sensors you are using are "power hungry" and you just can't find a way around it (and you can't plug it into the wall). Using a LIPO will avoid having to throw away a lot of AA's.

As far as discharge rate, from what I read it's not too bad (just not as good as AA's). With sensors that are not power hungry, and with the right voltage regulator (like a MCP1700), I am anticipating it lasting for months. At that point, it's not that big of a deal to recharge with that frequency.

For use with power hungry sensors (which may mean using just 2 ma), I am hoping for weeks.

I will continue with the experiment unless someone says I am way off in my estimations.

[jens persson]

As requested a few images of the version 9 board, mounted for battery with some extra pin sockets while experimenting.

[sundberg84]

@jens-persson - Tnx, but hmmm.. I cant see them. Just a stop sign. Maybe my web-browser?

[gohan]

@sundberg84 same here

[jens persson]

:-(
Thought the settings on the album should apply to the images also.
Here is a link to the album: https://goo.gl/photos/bX9HZSXdbMCvuyAv9
Does it work?

[sundberg84]

@jens-persson - It does! Nice images! Well done :+1:
I like you have added headers so you can add and remove quickly,.

[gohan]

is it me or that pro mini looks a little different than what I usually see?

[dbemowsk]

@gohan It's not just you. I had some 5v pro minis that were from china that looked different than the standard ones. The outer pin config was the same, but the guts of the board weere a bit different. A4 and A5 were towards the back of the board.

[jens persson]

These were bought here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-pro-mini-atmega168-Pro-Mini-168-Mini-ATMEGA168-3-3V-8MHz-for-Arduino/32413050538.html

[gohan]

@jens-persson they are atmega 168, that's why 😀

[maghac]

Any comments on delivery times from itead, pcbway or seeed? Which one is fastest/easiest to deal with (I'm located in Sweden)?

[sundberg84]

@maghac - tried itead and pcbway and they use same shipping so shipping times has been pretty much the same.

I have some old revisions I can sell you cheap in Sweden if you need fast delivery. Rev 6 and 7 I think.

[maghac]

@sundberg84 Would be great, I'll send you a PM!

[johmei]

Got a couple of 5V DC running as "test boards". Very convenient and quick to get started. A+
Will have a few battery nodes running soon as the step ups come in.

[sundberg84]

@johmei - thank you for your feedback! :)

[maghac]

Agree, very easy to start using. Upgraded one of my old "cable spaghetti" temperature sensor nodes to this board, looks much neater now, and actually fits a lot better in the box too.

I soldered the arduino and the radio directly on the board, but then I realized that maybe it would be better to use female headers so I can replace them if I wanted. How are people generally using the boards?

[sundberg84]

@maghac - I do both and it depends on cases and where i put it.
Sometimes there just isnt enough room for headers but I try to make it as modular as possible... most important is the radio for me so I can easy swap and test if something goes wrong.

I have a couple of test nodes (running time sketch for example) which is ONLY modular where I try out my hardware before soldering them as well.

[maghac]

@sundberg84 Makes sense. I spent a few hours troubleshooting my node and the problem turned out to be the DS18B20 sensor (actually, I had 3 bad ones, so I guess I had a bad batch), having a test board would have saved me some headache :)

I'm using the 100x65x35 mm plastic boxes linked in the store, I'll check if there is enough room for headers too.

[Nca78]

I made one with headers everywhere, I use it to test the parts (pro mini, radio, sensors), upload the sketch etc.
Then when everything looks fine I solder the components on a new board to save space.

I had a case once with a pro mini that had a pin from the atmega chip not connected to the pro mini header hole (faulty or broken track I suppose), and realized it only after the pro mini was soldered to the PCB. Now I'm more careful :)

[sundberg84]

@Nca78 - I had the exact same experience with a analog pin broken on the atmega chip. I tried to desolder it but it was broken inside the chip i think.