rboard - Cheap relay/radio/arduino board ~$10
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@gregl I've now my rboard, but I have no Foca, so I used my programmer I matched against the pins on the board.
I choose mini pro 3V3 in the arduino ide but impossible to sync .... is there something I am missing ?
Also, do you change something on initialization as for the 4 switch version ?
thanks,
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Hi @epierre - I do have a foca and i program as Nano with Atmega328.
What do you mean "change something on initialization as for the 4 switch version" ?? iirc i also just programmed that as a Nano. is this what you mean??
Cheers,
Greg -
@epierre - you dont need the foca programmer... any programmer should work as long as you wire correctly - you could even use another arduino.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Examples-2-Use-an-Arduino-as-a-FTDI-Progr/- make sure you only feed it 3.3v via the programming socket...!
For the 4 relay board the CE/CS pins are wired differently to the defaults used by MySensors sketches (9,10) , so you need to tell mysensors library to use (8,9) as this is how they are wired on the Rboard - see the doco ftp://imall.iteadstudio.com/IM120618001_RBoard/DS_IM120618001_RBoard.pdf
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@epierre - you dont need the foca programmer... any programmer should work as long as you wire correctly - you could even use another arduino.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Examples-2-Use-an-Arduino-as-a-FTDI-Progr/- make sure you only feed it 3.3v via the programming socket...!
For the 4 relay board the CE/CS pins are wired differently to the defaults used by MySensors sketches (9,10) , so you need to tell mysensors library to use (8,9) as this is how they are wired on the Rboard - see the doco ftp://imall.iteadstudio.com/IM120618001_RBoard/DS_IM120618001_RBoard.pdf
@gregl nope, I tried and it failed... this is why I asked. One pin is missing, another has another use... I've ordered the foca and I will see.
Regarding your PIR Wiring on the picture, you added a 1DS80 right ? I mistakenly thought it was the yellow one ...
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@epierre - ill see if i can get it to program with another arduino...i dont think there is anything special about the foca....
so the PIR is wired as such that the VCC provided by the rboard mini ( 3.3) connects to a jumper pin and supplies the PIR module there.... then the PIR quite happliy operates on 3.3!
The ds18b20 is connected to the "A0" pin headers hidden under the radio - i just bent them over. On the ds18b20 connect pin 1 and 3 to GND and pin 2 to the A0 ... easy!!
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@gregl nope, I tried and it failed... this is why I asked. One pin is missing, another has another use... I've ordered the foca and I will see.
Regarding your PIR Wiring on the picture, you added a 1DS80 right ? I mistakenly thought it was the yellow one ...
@epierre Hello,
I received the foca and ... RX and TX have to be inverted (RX to TX, and TX to RX), the answer is so simple...
@hek a suggestion, would there be a knowledge management section about wiring a special platform to use mysensors ? I think about the Mega or the iboard ? that would be very useful, rather than going through many forum pages ?
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I've decided to try and do a little more with this board. I initially programmed it to only operate the relay on and off to activate the garage door opener, but it's time for me to push myself lol and do more :-)
The problem with how I have it now, is that my Vera 3 doesn't know if the door is open or closed. I was going to add a tilt sensor to the board and have that mounted to the actual door, which I think would mean that it could send a message reporting if it is closed or not. But then I started thinking about the example above which included a switch.
So using the relay and the switch to operate the garage door, would that then work to keep Vera 3 in the loop as to whether or not the door is open or closed?
If I don't get a response soon, I'll just build it and see what happens :-)
Thanks in advance for everyones help! I have already learnt a lot from this site :-)
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Hi Dean,
Rather than use a tilt sensor and mount the mini rboard to the moving door, why not just use a reed switch? then you can mount the rboard next to your door controller and run cheap speaker wire to a reed switch and the magnet attached to the moving door..
Here is a sketch i use for my garage door using reed switch
https://codebender.cc/sketch:44296 -
Thanks for the tips @gregl!
I am trying to see if I can build this with the sensors that I have, so I can keep my wife happy. So far I am not doing a very good job lol
One of my problems is not knowing which pin is what on this board. I see that you stated above that A0 is D14; how do you find this out?
The other thing I was wondering about is this: If I set up this sensor and garage door to only ever open/close using either my controller sending the message or me pressing a button, then do I even need a reed switch to determine what state the door is in? Can the sketch keep count of the state?
I like your suggested sketch above; in fact I like both examples, and would like to merge the two. The one above with the motion sensor- I don't need that bit, but I like having a temp sensor. What I would like to do is have the temp sensor and instead of the motion sensor I have a switch. Does that sound possible?
My wife has given me the rest of the night off, so I'll see what I can come up with :-)
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Ok what I have done is uploaded the sketch that is exampled above which has the temp sensor. Instead of the motion sensor, I will use a switch, and I'll connect the two wires to the 433 module spot; one wire to GND, and the other to DATA. I am hoping that this will mean that when the switch is activated it will operate.
Gonna go test :-)
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lol I ended up with a board that now malfunctions sometimes :-) For some reason the relay began to turn on and off repeatedly, then it stopped working altogether, and now it seems to be working as it should... when my son was running past me the other day which lead to the board falling on the ground, it must have fixed whatever the problem is! In any case, I won't be using that relay for anything too important. I have it in my garage now; it opens and closes the garage door, has a motion sensor and tells me if someone goes into the garage, and it is also sending me the temperature outside. I am happy :-)
So now I want to use another one of these boards to turn a light on, but I want to also have a separate switch which will operate through the board. So basically I am going to use the Garagedoor sketch mentioned above, which is the same as the "Relay with button actuator". I understand what pins I need to assign, but I am a little confused as to how I need to wire up the switch. Am I just completing a circuit, or am I supplying power as the trigger?
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What voltage are you giving the board?
I think i recall having an issue when i was giving it just 5v... i think at 6/7v the issue went away.... -
lol I ended up with a board that now malfunctions sometimes :-) For some reason the relay began to turn on and off repeatedly, then it stopped working altogether, and now it seems to be working as it should... when my son was running past me the other day which lead to the board falling on the ground, it must have fixed whatever the problem is! In any case, I won't be using that relay for anything too important. I have it in my garage now; it opens and closes the garage door, has a motion sensor and tells me if someone goes into the garage, and it is also sending me the temperature outside. I am happy :-)
So now I want to use another one of these boards to turn a light on, but I want to also have a separate switch which will operate through the board. So basically I am going to use the Garagedoor sketch mentioned above, which is the same as the "Relay with button actuator". I understand what pins I need to assign, but I am a little confused as to how I need to wire up the switch. Am I just completing a circuit, or am I supplying power as the trigger?
@Dean So let me get this straight,, You are using that board to "opens and closes the garage door, has a motion sensor and tells me if someone goes into the garage, and it is also sending me the temperature outside . I am happy ...." and you don't consider that contrary to "I won't be using that relay for anything too important." ?
Did I understand you correctly?
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@gregl thanks for your suggestion, that thought actually did come to mind when I was trying to troubleshoot what was going on. I had been using 4 AA batteries to power it, and they had been used for quite some time, so I ended up locating an old mobile phone charger and used that to power it. The board has been working reliably every since, but I am reluctant to use the board for anything important.
@ServiceXp yes you heard me right :-) the board is currently doing all those things, but I'm not depending on it. My wife is home all the time, so if for some reason the relay decides to open the garage, she will hear it and close out back up. It is my first sensor, and even though it hasn't come together as well as all of you, in still proud of myself for building it, and even though it's reliability is debatable, I like the idea of keeping it running at this stage because it gives me a smile every time I open the Vera dashboard :-)
So can anyone give me a little hand with how the actual switch part is supposed to work? Thanks in advance :-)
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@gregl thanks for your suggestion, that thought actually did come to mind when I was trying to troubleshoot what was going on. I had been using 4 AA batteries to power it, and they had been used for quite some time, so I ended up locating an old mobile phone charger and used that to power it. The board has been working reliably every since, but I am reluctant to use the board for anything important.
@ServiceXp yes you heard me right :-) the board is currently doing all those things, but I'm not depending on it. My wife is home all the time, so if for some reason the relay decides to open the garage, she will hear it and close out back up. It is my first sensor, and even though it hasn't come together as well as all of you, in still proud of myself for building it, and even though it's reliability is debatable, I like the idea of keeping it running at this stage because it gives me a smile every time I open the Vera dashboard :-)
So can anyone give me a little hand with how the actual switch part is supposed to work? Thanks in advance :-)
@Dean Does the build make it difficult to swap out the rboard, and demote that temperamental rboard to say controlling a light? For me, I consider the garage door to be one of those more important functions.. :-)
You will wire one side of the switch to the pin you want to use on the rboard and the other side to GND. When you initialize the pin, you need to use INPUT_PULLUP eg: pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT_PULLUP)
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/pinMode
Hope that helps...
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@Dean Does the build make it difficult to swap out the rboard, and demote that temperamental rboard to say controlling a light? For me, I consider the garage door to be one of those more important functions.. :-)
You will wire one side of the switch to the pin you want to use on the rboard and the other side to GND. When you initialize the pin, you need to use INPUT_PULLUP eg: pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT_PULLUP)
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/pinMode
Hope that helps...
@ServiceXp said:
@Dean Does the build make it difficult to swap out the rboard, and demote that temperamental rboard to say controlling a light? For me, I consider the garage door to be one of those more important functions.. :-)
You will wire one side of the switch to the pin you want to use on the rboard and the other switch to GND. When you initialize the pin, you need to use INPUT_PULLUP eg: pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT_PULLUP)
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/pinMode
Hope that helps...
Hi @ServiceXp , that is the exact info I was after! Thank you very much :-)
At present the build is just the board, radio and motion sensor all just wired up and sitting above the lightswitch in the garage. For me it was kind of a test to see if I could do this. Like I said, my wife is home all the time so there is no way the garage door will open without someone knowing. If the board keeps working as it is presently, then I'll feel more confident in using the board again somewhere else. But so far it is working very well, which I am very pleased about :-) But you're right, keeping a garage secure is something that is usually pretty important, the other thing is that there is no internal access into our home, so between that and my wife being home, personally I am ok with the present arrangement.
Thanks again for your help!
