Why I quit using MySensors for actuators
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I have the exact same problem with actuators. I tried my best to resolve the issue just like parachutesj but finally gave up mysensors for actuators and replaced them with wifi connected esp8266s. MySensors is still great for sensors, especially battery powered ones.
@erangaj that's the way I want to try... as the actuators are connected to the mains anyway the power consumption is not the major issue here. Thanks for your feedback
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Hello,
maybe a stupid question, but are they not too close to the gateway using a PA LNA ?
Did you try a second gateway on a different channel with a non amplified module to connect those failing roller shutters ?@Nca78 that could be an issue, I totally agree. However when I started I did not use the amplified radio and my first 3 nodes which are in fact the closer ones (4-8m from gateway) showed similar behaviour why I got the PA radio.
Not sure if this would explain that it works for a while and then stops.
So it might be an issue, but then again I tried so much already and if it is so sensitive in the end, it is not the right and failure proof thing I want. I am not out of MySensors, just for actuators. -
How are you connecting these actuators? What type of actuator is it? Maybe you need some kind of different coupling to your actuator circuit. Motor type actuators can create a lot of noise and if not properly filtered can cause issues.
@dbemowsk that could also be an issue. The relays are used to drive rollershutters. They are not connected directly to the I/O pins, always via transistors. Self-designed circuits and China-boards like below. (btw: Power does not seem to be an issue)
But why do some locations work and others don't? The relay boards, the arduinos, power supplies etc seem not to be the issue as I have exchanged them over time. Even one lamp with a relay which is connected directly and in fact was just a proof of concept works flawless since over a year.Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot and it is fun building things. I will continue with sensors, maybe return for actuators. But as I (with my limited skills and measure equipment) got to a point where I am not getting the reliable results I would had hoped, I look into another technology which might be better (simpler) for me (hopefully).
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@dbemowsk that could also be an issue. The relays are used to drive rollershutters. They are not connected directly to the I/O pins, always via transistors. Self-designed circuits and China-boards like below. (btw: Power does not seem to be an issue)
But why do some locations work and others don't? The relay boards, the arduinos, power supplies etc seem not to be the issue as I have exchanged them over time. Even one lamp with a relay which is connected directly and in fact was just a proof of concept works flawless since over a year.Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot and it is fun building things. I will continue with sensors, maybe return for actuators. But as I (with my limited skills and measure equipment) got to a point where I am not getting the reliable results I would had hoped, I look into another technology which might be better (simpler) for me (hopefully).
My communication problems vanished by exchanging the amplified version by a normal NRF24.
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I used relays. Most commands sent to actuators resulted in NACKs. But sensors were fine. I have tested different Arduinos, nrfs, circuits with an RPi gateway as well as a serial Arduino gateway with no luck. Problem temporary goes away when the gateway is restarted. This is true for both RPi and serial gateways.
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In the days of analog tv/radio dead spots and multipath were easy to detect. Digital isnt as susceptable to multipath, but isn't completely immune either. An rf field meter might help. Directional antennas probably will help. If these nrf devices can measure rssi it may be good to hook up and led as a signal quality indicator of some sort. It sounds like you have a strong signal near the problem, could be overloading the receiver, could be IM ( intermodulation, not instant messaging). It could be an rf shield on all but the antenna may help.
My sensors may have some of this already, if so ignore me, Im using rs485.
Note to self, check if "myactuators.org" is available.
Filter caps on the actuators? I think someone mentioned this, they can be a source of noise in the power, or rf hashing.
An rtl_sdr sort of device might be a cheap rf signal analyser.
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In the days of analog tv/radio dead spots and multipath were easy to detect. Digital isnt as susceptable to multipath, but isn't completely immune either. An rf field meter might help. Directional antennas probably will help. If these nrf devices can measure rssi it may be good to hook up and led as a signal quality indicator of some sort. It sounds like you have a strong signal near the problem, could be overloading the receiver, could be IM ( intermodulation, not instant messaging). It could be an rf shield on all but the antenna may help.
My sensors may have some of this already, if so ignore me, Im using rs485.
Note to self, check if "myactuators.org" is available.
Filter caps on the actuators? I think someone mentioned this, they can be a source of noise in the power, or rf hashing.
An rtl_sdr sort of device might be a cheap rf signal analyser.
@wallyllama I appreciate your help and also the help from the others on this thread, I really do.
And I also still hope to find the root cause some day. However as you mentioned it is no straight forward and there are so many components and variables I might never been able to have a stable environment even after so many tests I did (see above).
For the moment I stopped building new actuators based on MySensors, I switched to ESP. There are challenges but not so much on the radio side. I actually wanted to avoid having them in my WLAN why I started with MyS in first place but for the moment it looks like they just work. It is only a few days so need to wait to come to a result.For sensors, I am still building on MyS, have recently deployed a few more temp/hum sensors with coin cells. Still impressed with the low power consumption.
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@wallyllama I appreciate your help and also the help from the others on this thread, I really do.
And I also still hope to find the root cause some day. However as you mentioned it is no straight forward and there are so many components and variables I might never been able to have a stable environment even after so many tests I did (see above).
For the moment I stopped building new actuators based on MySensors, I switched to ESP. There are challenges but not so much on the radio side. I actually wanted to avoid having them in my WLAN why I started with MyS in first place but for the moment it looks like they just work. It is only a few days so need to wait to come to a result.For sensors, I am still building on MyS, have recently deployed a few more temp/hum sensors with coin cells. Still impressed with the low power consumption.
@parachutesj
Hi,
nrf24 radios share the same frequencies of wifi spot.
Did you check the presence of any WiFi spot, repeater or any other source of signal that could interfer with nrf24 modules?
You could check the Wifi spectrum with your smartphone. There are a lot of apps that analyze the frequencies.
Just an example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.webprovider.wifianalyzer -
@wallyllama I appreciate your help and also the help from the others on this thread, I really do.
And I also still hope to find the root cause some day. However as you mentioned it is no straight forward and there are so many components and variables I might never been able to have a stable environment even after so many tests I did (see above).
For the moment I stopped building new actuators based on MySensors, I switched to ESP. There are challenges but not so much on the radio side. I actually wanted to avoid having them in my WLAN why I started with MyS in first place but for the moment it looks like they just work. It is only a few days so need to wait to come to a result.For sensors, I am still building on MyS, have recently deployed a few more temp/hum sensors with coin cells. Still impressed with the low power consumption.
@parachutesj so I mostly just spewed random thoughts, And looking at them again I came up with some more focused, probably not original, ideas.
Some kind of watchdog/debug output is needed on actuator type nodes(may already exist)
Rtl_sdr dongles are cheap and some signal analysis tools exist. Someone that knows what they are doing (not me, I just have a big mouth) could probably cook up some useful tutorial that would shed light on what looks to me like the biggest issue in mysensors, signal reliability.
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@parachutesj
Hi,
nrf24 radios share the same frequencies of wifi spot.
Did you check the presence of any WiFi spot, repeater or any other source of signal that could interfer with nrf24 modules?
You could check the Wifi spectrum with your smartphone. There are a lot of apps that analyze the frequencies.
Just an example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.webprovider.wifianalyzer@msmacs did that, changed channels a few times, even the ones which are not so legal here to test but haven't seen any positive effects.
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@parachutesj I can see why you chose to move away. RF will always be in the "black magic" realm. Unable to see, hear or feel it's presence. Of course with the proper tools, and knowledge of the correct use of aforementioned tools a lot can be unveiled, but those are out of reach for the average hobbyist.
I have stopped working on actuators as a safety precaution. Most lights I want to operate are fixed lights, and the in-wall-boxes where I'd have to put the actuators are just too small to be able to fit both my own design MySensors actuator and a momentary switch. One must in my system is the ability to switch the light locally for whenever the controller or network fails.
The final push for me to walk away was a fire at a family members house caused by a cheap china power supply. No one was hurt, but it took 4 weeks before the family could move back in. I just felt I was not capable of designing a safe power supply to power the node, that would fit inside the wall box.
So Z-wave it is. With a lot of compatibility issues. But I use it just for communications, not the think-work.So I will also stay here for the input part. Sensors galore.... And there will be an actuator later. A low voltage dimmer. Max 30V DC input. Let other people worry about the mains side of things. I just cant bear the thought of putting my family in jeopardy because I wanted a hobby so hard.
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I wonder if there might be some source of interference that's affecting the actuators? Have you tried a quieter channel to see if it makes any difference?
@NeverDie I do not have the tools to analyze this. I checked the information from the router and there was a sketch scanning the frequencies which I tried and picked a channel which seems to be ok. After a while I changed is to 2 or 3 different values with similar results. Changing it again will be painful.
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I realize this thread is getting old but I'm behind in my reading... :)
I just wanted to say that I have been using actuators (irrigation, lighting, motors, etc) for years and I have had nearly flawless results (at least as good as my z-wave stuff, if not better). I don't want to start any arguments but just wanted to let everyone know that it is possible to use MySensors for actuators in case you haven't tried it. I'm actually pretty surprised that people seem to be having issues with actuators as mine have been working well.
I did find that modifying the NRF antennas as well as using repeaters has helped in some of the devices that are far away from my gateway.
Hopefully this doesn't come across the wrong way, just wanted to give some encouragement to not give up :) -
The real question is: why would there be any difference in reliability between a sensor and an actuator? In both cases, it's just a radio link, right? Unless maybe the actuator might do something (voltage spike from a motor maybe?) to put the radio/mcu into some undefined state. In that case, would doing a hard reset on the radio after each actuation keep it in line?
Or is it more the case that we're more likely to notice an actuator fault than a sensor fault? e.g. If you miss a particular temperature measurement, odds are there will be another one coming along shortly--and you have the measurement you took a few minutes earlier to fall back on. But if you want to roll up the shades, and it doesn't happen when you command it, then that's admittedly more irritating.
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The real question is: why would there be any difference in reliability between a sensor and an actuator? In both cases, it's just a radio link, right? Unless maybe the actuator might do something (voltage spike from a motor maybe?) to put the radio/mcu into some undefined state. In that case, would doing a hard reset on the radio after each actuation keep it in line?
Or is it more the case that we're more likely to notice an actuator fault than a sensor fault? e.g. If you miss a particular temperature measurement, odds are there will be another one coming along shortly--and you have the measurement you took a few minutes earlier to fall back on. But if you want to roll up the shades, and it doesn't happen when you command it, then that's admittedly more irritating.
@NeverDie said in Why I quit using MySensors for actuators:
we're more likely to notice an actuator fault than a sensor fault?
Judging from recent measurements I'm quite sure this is the cause. Especially a wireless actuator switched by a wireless sensor requires 2 succesful message transmissions. If one of them fails you will notice immediately.
To make things worse, sensors often only transmit a new value if it changed w.r.t. the previous one. If an isochronal sensor skips a sensor value at the gateway, we'll never know if it just didn't send the value because it was identical to the previous one, or if a new value wasn't received.
http://yveaux.blogspot.nl
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I had 3 switches for window lights(pro mini 5v, arduino relay) and they worked flawless! (Anything else and my wife would unplug them). I moved away because of security (240 to 5v before HLK discussion.) but never had any issues with reception/radio or missed commands.
It is possible to do with MySensors and with my small experience in the forum many posts seems to be about power issues/interference actuator vs radio/power.
There are one situation I'm not sure about which I have not been able to test and that is using actuator with a repeater in between... but I will soon have the logging possibilities for gw/repeater and actuator at the same time.
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I realize this thread is getting old but I'm behind in my reading... :)
I just wanted to say that I have been using actuators (irrigation, lighting, motors, etc) for years and I have had nearly flawless results (at least as good as my z-wave stuff, if not better). I don't want to start any arguments but just wanted to let everyone know that it is possible to use MySensors for actuators in case you haven't tried it. I'm actually pretty surprised that people seem to be having issues with actuators as mine have been working well.
I did find that modifying the NRF antennas as well as using repeaters has helped in some of the devices that are far away from my gateway.
Hopefully this doesn't come across the wrong way, just wanted to give some encouragement to not give up :)@petewill don't get me wrong, I love this project and impressed by all the positive things. It is just that I - with my limited skills and resources - not able to get a decent stable state. I wan't it to be perfect.
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@NeverDie said in Why I quit using MySensors for actuators:
we're more likely to notice an actuator fault than a sensor fault?
Judging from recent measurements I'm quite sure this is the cause. Especially a wireless actuator switched by a wireless sensor requires 2 succesful message transmissions. If one of them fails you will notice immediately.
To make things worse, sensors often only transmit a new value if it changed w.r.t. the previous one. If an isochronal sensor skips a sensor value at the gateway, we'll never know if it just didn't send the value because it was identical to the previous one, or if a new value wasn't received.
@Yveaux I wan't to believe this. However the sensors recover. IF it fails once, and then send again 5 mins later and it is successful - I guess most of us can live with this. E.g. I do have a rain sensor which sends via interrupt changed state. So as soon as it starts raining I get the update and close my roof windows. This NEVER failed. So I would say even if I do not know if some measurements are getting lost - I never noticed it. Also the other sensors seem quite stable.
But as @NeverDie said, when an actuator fails, the light is not on etc. and you notice it immediately. The strange thing is, when they fail, they hardly recover themselves. Sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't.
So for my rollershutters, in my rules from home automation (openHAB), I always send a "STOP" before reducing the chance that the next comand fails. This helped a lot but is just a workaround and not helping always. And then there are the situations, when they seem to "lock" and nothing helps and as soon as I press a physical button, it is working again (or do a arduino reset).
I also debugged it and had the serial connected while that happend but it looked like no signal arrived at the node. So it failed somewhere in between.I think it could be the whole setup of the gateway. Either power supply, arduino, antenna, powermode or the alignment... but why happens it only on some nodes and not on others? And I have changed basically everything in the meantime.
I just don't have the energy at the moment to further research on the topic. Appreciate your comments and suggestions
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@NeverDie said in Why I quit using MySensors for actuators:
we're more likely to notice an actuator fault than a sensor fault?
Judging from recent measurements I'm quite sure this is the cause. Especially a wireless actuator switched by a wireless sensor requires 2 succesful message transmissions. If one of them fails you will notice immediately.
To make things worse, sensors often only transmit a new value if it changed w.r.t. the previous one. If an isochronal sensor skips a sensor value at the gateway, we'll never know if it just didn't send the value because it was identical to the previous one, or if a new value wasn't received.
@Yveaux said in Why I quit using MySensors for actuators:
To make things worse, sensors often only transmit a new value if it changed w.r.t. the previous one. If an isochronal sensor skips a sensor value at the gateway, we'll never know if it just didn't send the value because it was identical to the previous one, or if a new value wasn't received.
That's where there's value in numbering your packets and having the gateway keep track of how many aren't received. Your statement is still true, but at least over time you develop statistics about how (un)reliable the connection is, so you can be as pro-active as you want to be in fixing it.
