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  1. Home
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  3. Noob : Cant get Sensor talking to gateway

Noob : Cant get Sensor talking to gateway

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Troubleshooting
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  • gohanG Offline
    gohanG Offline
    gohan
    Mod
    wrote on last edited by
    #11

    If there is no controller assigning an ID, the gw can't make up one out of nothing. 😀

    1 Reply Last reply
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    • M Offline
      M Offline
      manutremo
      wrote on last edited by
      #12

      That's certainly the most probable cause, Angelo didn't mention any controller so I assumed there is one... which controller are you using (if any) Angelo?

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      0
      • gohanG Offline
        gohanG Offline
        gohan
        Mod
        wrote on last edited by
        #13

        There could be a controller but if it is not assigning any ID is it just as it wasn't any 😁

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        • M Offline
          M Offline
          manutremo
          wrote on last edited by
          #14

          Yes, the fact that it works with a static node id seems to point in that direction - should that not be the case, i sincerely wouldn't have a clue on where to look at.

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          • A Offline
            A Offline
            angeloS
            wrote on last edited by
            #15

            Hi all,

            ok this is the embarrassing bit, no the controller wasnt attached.. Im using home assistant and what I didnt realise that was that a) the controller sends the IDs and b) the controller couldnt talk to the Gateway..

            BTW Why do we need a controller to assign the unique sensor IDs? I thought the Gateway would do this?

            mfalkviddM 1 Reply Last reply
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            • A angeloS

              Hi all,

              ok this is the embarrassing bit, no the controller wasnt attached.. Im using home assistant and what I didnt realise that was that a) the controller sends the IDs and b) the controller couldnt talk to the Gateway..

              BTW Why do we need a controller to assign the unique sensor IDs? I thought the Gateway would do this?

              mfalkviddM Offline
              mfalkviddM Offline
              mfalkvidd
              Mod
              wrote on last edited by
              #16

              @Angelo-Santagata the gateways are designed to be stateless. The stateless design makes it easy to implement a gateway on low-power hardware. It also makes it easier to correctly implement and verify the gateway functionality, and to troubleshoot if there are problems. If gateways had to remember which ids had been assigned, they would no longer be stateless.

              A 1 Reply Last reply
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              • mfalkviddM mfalkvidd

                @Angelo-Santagata the gateways are designed to be stateless. The stateless design makes it easy to implement a gateway on low-power hardware. It also makes it easier to correctly implement and verify the gateway functionality, and to troubleshoot if there are problems. If gateways had to remember which ids had been assigned, they would no longer be stateless.

                A Offline
                A Offline
                angeloS
                wrote on last edited by angeloS
                #17

                @mfalkvidd thanks, very impressive this mySensors stuff BTW

                mfalkviddM 1 Reply Last reply
                1
                • A angeloS

                  @mfalkvidd thanks, very impressive this mySensors stuff BTW

                  mfalkviddM Offline
                  mfalkviddM Offline
                  mfalkvidd
                  Mod
                  wrote on last edited by mfalkvidd
                  #18

                  @angeloS thanks. I agree. I can't take credit for it though, most of the stuff was designed before I found the project :)

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                  • M Offline
                    M Offline
                    manutremo
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #19

                    Mistery solved :satisfied:

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                    • mfalkviddM Offline
                      mfalkviddM Offline
                      mfalkvidd
                      Mod
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #20

                      Does anyone have suggestions on a clearer log message? One that would make it easy to understand what is happening? If we could make the log clearer, other people could understand the reason quicker, saving time and frustration.

                      A 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • mfalkviddM mfalkvidd

                        Does anyone have suggestions on a clearer log message? One that would make it easy to understand what is happening? If we could make the log clearer, other people could understand the reason quicker, saving time and frustration.

                        A Offline
                        A Offline
                        angeloS
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #21

                        @mfalkvidd In my case I think if the log had said, No Controller provided SensorID, that would have been my first clue

                        M 1 Reply Last reply
                        1
                        • A angeloS

                          @mfalkvidd In my case I think if the log had said, No Controller provided SensorID, that would have been my first clue

                          M Offline
                          M Offline
                          manutremo
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #22

                          @angeloS Fully agree - a warning instead of just sending a message with an empty payload would have been easier to spot. Maybe something to propose in Github?

                          mfalkviddM 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • M manutremo

                            @angeloS Fully agree - a warning instead of just sending a message with an empty payload would have been easier to spot. Maybe something to propose in Github?

                            mfalkviddM Offline
                            mfalkviddM Offline
                            mfalkvidd
                            Mod
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #23

                            @manutremo which message are you referring to?

                            M 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • gohanG Offline
                              gohanG Offline
                              gohan
                              Mod
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #24

                              We could add a sample message, in the troubleshooting guide, when the node has no Node ID and the gateway is responding an empty message, so a Node ID must be defined in the sketch

                              mfalkviddM 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • mfalkviddM mfalkvidd

                                @manutremo which message are you referring to?

                                M Offline
                                M Offline
                                manutremo
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #25

                                @mfalkvidd Without being an specialist in the MySensors protocol, it could be something like

                                • a debug message at some point in the gateway log when a node ID is requested and there is no ID to provide (no controller available),

                                • something similar in the node log when an empty ID is provided form the gw

                                • additionally, a warning in the log parser to check the controller when the payload is empty.

                                mfalkviddM 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • gohanG gohan

                                  We could add a sample message, in the troubleshooting guide, when the node has no Node ID and the gateway is responding an empty message, so a Node ID must be defined in the sketch

                                  mfalkviddM Offline
                                  mfalkviddM Offline
                                  mfalkvidd
                                  Mod
                                  wrote on last edited by mfalkvidd
                                  #26

                                  @gohan and @manutremo when does the gateway respond with an empty message? I am not able to find that in the logs posted earlier in this thread.

                                  M 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • mfalkviddM mfalkvidd

                                    @gohan and @manutremo when does the gateway respond with an empty message? I am not able to find that in the logs posted earlier in this thread.

                                    M Offline
                                    M Offline
                                    manutremo
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #27

                                    @mfalkvidd Just reviewed the gw log and you're right, the gw just doesn't answer... I guess in this case it's just not possible to separate the cases when the gateway doesn't have a controller, or is off, or communication didn't arrive, or... in all cases, the node seems to end up with a ID=255.

                                    As I said, not familiar with the protocol...

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                                    • M manutremo

                                      @mfalkvidd Without being an specialist in the MySensors protocol, it could be something like

                                      • a debug message at some point in the gateway log when a node ID is requested and there is no ID to provide (no controller available),

                                      • something similar in the node log when an empty ID is provided form the gw

                                      • additionally, a warning in the log parser to check the controller when the payload is empty.

                                      mfalkviddM Offline
                                      mfalkviddM Offline
                                      mfalkvidd
                                      Mod
                                      wrote on last edited by mfalkvidd
                                      #28

                                      @manutremo the gateway is just a dumb forwarder. When the ID request is received from the sensor node, the gateway forwards that message to it's configured interface (mqtt, ethernet, serial, ...). If the controller responds, the gateway will forward the response.

                                      To do your suggested no 1, the gateway would have to keep track of all ID requests and set some time to know when the response from the controller is deemed too slow. That could probably be done, but would require quite a lot of work to get right and to keep compact enough to still fit the gateway in popular constrained devices like the atmega328.

                                      The message in no 2 doesn't exist, as we have agreed on, so this is unfortunately not viable either.

                                      Your suggestion no 3 sounds promising I think. Whenever the node prints !TSM:ID:FAIL, the log parser should spell out that the most likely cause is that no controller is present. I'm not sure how to update the log parser, but maybe @hek can chip in here? At the moment, the log parser seems unable to parse that message at all.

                                      https://www.mysensors.org/apidocs/group__MyTransportgrp.html#details should be updated to mention the controller on the line where TSM ID FAIL is mentioned.

                                      It would also be nice if the !TSM:ID:FAIL message was more verbose (for people who don't immediately use the log parser), but the log messages need to be kept very short to keep the binary size small.

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                                      • mfalkviddM Offline
                                        mfalkviddM Offline
                                        mfalkvidd
                                        Mod
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #29

                                        A suggestion for updating the documentation is available at https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/984
                                        Feedback is welcome.

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                                        • mfalkviddM Offline
                                          mfalkviddM Offline
                                          mfalkvidd
                                          Mod
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #30

                                          Updated documentation is available here: https://ci.mysensors.org/job/MySensors/job/MySensors/job/PR-984/2/Doxygen_HTML/group__MyTransportgrp.html

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