💬 Sensebender Gateway

alexsh1

@scalz Thank you.

Does anyone have the PA transceiver version with Sensebender Gateway?
Any feedback please?

tbowmo

If you mean using a nrf24 with lna/pa, with the gateway. Then yes.. I have had it running for some months now.

Anything in particular that you want to know?

alexsh1

@tbowmo yes, that's what I meant
I am thinking about installing either a normal nrf24l01+ or lna/pa version. I have had some issues with power in the past with the lna/pa transceiver.
What's your experience? What kind of power supply do you use? How better is the coverage?

tbowmo

I haven't checked if the coverage is any better with the lna/pa version, compared to standard modules.

Currently the gateway is connected to a RPI2, which in turn is powered by a 2A powersupply from RS Components

I haven't had any issues with it yet, but then again.. I mainly receive data from sensor nodes, and not that much sending data to distant nodes from the gateway

alexsh1

@tbowmo It is probably not Sensebender topic, but more lna+pa range one.
I am not sure about my RPi3 as though it is powered by the 3A PSU, I have a USB z-wave stick, three transceivers, one UPS Plco (as HAT) and a 20x4 screen. I lot of power is consumed so not sure adding yet another one. (lna+pa is power hungry during peaks).

I'll get the nrf24l01+ lna+pa ordered and test the range. In my view rfm69 range is probably better, but I have the rfm69 gateway on moteino with a trace antenna (very small footprint and it is based on ATMega1284P so 128KB sketch flash memory - more than I need).

@hek - is it the intention to combine rfm69 and nrf24l01+ gateways in one in the future?
I understand Sensebender GW is ready for it, but it is more a software limitation???
I am really looking forward to combined GW.
I also have a separate one for rfm95 so that I can use some remote sensors.

hek

No, I haven't heard of any near plans in the core team about doing multi radio/sub-network support in 2.0.

This requires some extra thoughts and would probably only fit on SAMD/ESP nodes.

alexsh1

@hek Which is good as the Sensebender GW is based on SAMD! So it is ready to be the first 2-in-1 GW.
Anyway, keep on doing a great work! I'll patiently wait until the combined GW is there.

NiklasO

Ordered from ITEAD. Nice to get rid of this stuff:

Just nudging anything result in problems. ;-)
Time to fire up the 3D-printer.

NiklasO

Aaaand, it's up! Very good fit (the box).

The box on top is just me trying out different colors of the case. ;)
The one on top has better look. Different brands of PLA.

nick van alst

@NiklasO that looks very good!

Are you willing to share your design files with us?
i just ordered my gateway to get rid of cables and lose components :D a case would really make it complete!

scalz

@NiklasO
great :+1:
@nick-van-alst
you can get enclosure design files here https://www.mysensors.org/hardware/sensebender-gateway (on page bottom)
I designed different variants so pick which one you need.

alexsh1

@meddie said in 💬 Sensebender Gateway:

Ok i just connected the W5100 and NRF24 Module and uploaded the GatewayW5100 Sketch and when the upload is done after reset i dont get any output on serial monitor.
The orange, green and red led are lighting.

When i upload the SensebenderGatewaySerial then i get output on serial monitor. It think the problem must be the w5100. But what going wrong?

@meddie Did you figure out what the problem is? I have exactly the same issue

meddie

@alexsh1
hi, yes it was very simple :-D the gateway has worked fine in this time, i thought that when nothing shown in serial monitor that the gateway dont work, but it did it, after i connected the gateway to FHEM (my controller) i saw that FHEM connects t mys Gateway.
So it worked all the time

Greets Eddie

tbowmo

@alexsh1

Have you tried to enable the debug output in the GatewayW5100 example? I think it is disabled by default, due to the limited memory on the small atmega 328p

alexsh1

@tbowmo

Yes, I did

// Enable debug prints to serial monitor
#define MY_DEBUG
#define MY_DEBUG_VERBOSE_SIGNING

alexsh1

I am running Arduino IDE 1.8.1 on Windows 10
Arduino AVR 1.6.18
Arduino SAMD 1.6.12
MySensors SAMD 1.0.5

EDIT: I have tried to upload the default sketch on macbook with Arduino IDE 1.6.2
It is still the same - no debug info in the terminal

alexsh1

OK, I did manage to get debug working partially.
The gateway reads messages, but does not work as the gateway

0;255;3;0;9;MCO:BGN:STP
0;255;3;0;9;MCO:BGN:INIT OK,TSP=1
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,10-10-0,s=1,c=1,t=17,pt=5,l=4,sg=0:348
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,26-10-0,s=3,c=1,t=24,pt=5,l=4,sg=0:51219479
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,10-10-0,s=1,c=1,t=24,pt=5,l=4,sg=0:51219482
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,11-11-0,s=2,c=1,t=37,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:1717.62
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,11-11-0,s=0,c=1,t=37,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:5338.44
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,11-11-0,s=3,c=1,t=37,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:10.75
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,11-11-0,s=3,c=1,t=37,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:10.76
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,11-11-0,s=4,c=1,t=37,pt=4,l=4,sg=0:880
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,6-6-0,s=2,c=1,t=1,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:64.8
0;255;3;0;9;TSF:MSG:READ,6-6-0,s=0,c=1,t=4,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:1015

I never had a message:

Gateway startup complete.

EDIT: Self-test with SensebenderSerial sketch gives me this:

Sensebender GateWay test routine
Mysensors core version : 2.1.1
GateWay sketch version : 0.2
----------------------------------

- > SHA204 Failed to wakeup SHA204
- > SD CARD SD CARD did not initialize!
 -> EEPROM PASSED
-> analog : 38 Failed

tbowmo

@alexsh1

Could you check the soldering of the samd?

SD card fails, if you haven't inserted a card, when running the self test.

alexsh1

@tbowmo

I do not have the SD card so that's fine

The samd looks fine - no bridges etc
I can try to re-solder it with a hot fan
Do you think samd may be at fault even though the serial GW is working?

Unfortunately, I do not have another Ethernet w5100 to try it. Probably have to order a new one

tbowmo

@alexsh1

I know that @Anticimex had problems with one of the pre-production samples that we got from China, with various problems, that was solved with "reflowing" the samd with a hot air gun.. So it was just a thought, that it could be a bad solder joint..

The W5100 is using it's own dedicated SPI port, so even though that the radio works, doesn't mean that there couldn't be any solder problems around the samd pins for W5100.

We have 3 different SPI ports in use on the gateway, one for the MysX connector, one for radio / sdcard, and one for W5100..

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