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  1. Home
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  3. battery powered sensor / watchdog?

battery powered sensor / watchdog?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Troubleshooting
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  • electrikE Offline
    electrikE Offline
    electrik
    wrote on last edited by
    #17

    IMHO, a watchdog reset is something that shouldn't occur normally. If it does, something is wrong in your code and that should be fixed...
    Or are there maybe packets that get lost?

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    • CrankyCoderC Offline
      CrankyCoderC Offline
      CrankyCoder
      wrote on last edited by
      #18

      i fully agree. But my sensor bombs out after a week or so of running. It's just a temp sensor used from the examples. Only thing I did was change the sleep timeout. So i am thinking either there is something with the cheap pro mini clones. Or something with the radio not sending. Which could be it, for all I know it's waking up and the arduino is saying everything is good but the radio isn't working. The only thing I know for certain is a reset brings it all back online.

      Quite possible the packets are lost in the RF transmission. Just difficult to leave a serial monitor hooked up to it outside for a week till it dies lol.

      :joy:

      Home Automation Tinkerer
      www.CrankyCoder.net

      Controller: HomeAssistant in Kubernetes
      Gateway: MQTTClientGateway
      MySensors: 2.3

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      • electrikE Offline
        electrikE Offline
        electrik
        wrote on last edited by electrik
        #19

        Yes I understand. It is hard to find the cause in these cases. Do you have the possibility to move the node closer to the gateway or add a repeater to see if the problem persists?
        Edit: or hookup the serial monitor, but place the node inside somewhere :-)

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        • CrankyCoderC Offline
          CrankyCoderC Offline
          CrankyCoder
          wrote on last edited by
          #20

          I have definitely thought of throwing a repeater in the room closest to where it is outside. That could definitely help. Can't move it closer since it's a temp sensor in my pool lol.

          Wonder if i made a connector out of rj45 if it would work over that length to something inside :)

          Home Automation Tinkerer
          www.CrankyCoder.net

          Controller: HomeAssistant in Kubernetes
          Gateway: MQTTClientGateway
          MySensors: 2.3

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          • electrikE Offline
            electrikE Offline
            electrik
            wrote on last edited by
            #21

            so just to make sure I understand. Is the node also in the pool? Or just the sensor?

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            • CrankyCoderC Offline
              CrankyCoderC Offline
              CrankyCoder
              wrote on last edited by
              #22

              just the sensor. Node is in box outside of the pool.

              Home Automation Tinkerer
              www.CrankyCoder.net

              Controller: HomeAssistant in Kubernetes
              Gateway: MQTTClientGateway
              MySensors: 2.3

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              • E Offline
                E Offline
                executivul
                wrote on last edited by
                #23

                Put an esp wifi node in the box with a beefier battery, or another box next to the first one if it isn't large enough. There is an "esp bridge" app that can easily do serial monitoring over wifi. That way you should have console output from the node when ot craps out. I've used it to debug some app that controls some contactors via a 5v relay board, turning contactors off sent the w5500 to Valhalla, the debug output via the esp saved the day since the device is located in a cielling a few meters up.

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                • CrankyCoderC Offline
                  CrankyCoderC Offline
                  CrankyCoder
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #24

                  This is a cool idea. Definitely worth throwing some bigger batteries at it for debugging. I am looking for this bridge stuff now :)

                  Home Automation Tinkerer
                  www.CrankyCoder.net

                  Controller: HomeAssistant in Kubernetes
                  Gateway: MQTTClientGateway
                  MySensors: 2.3

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                  • CrankyCoderC CrankyCoder

                    This is a cool idea. Definitely worth throwing some bigger batteries at it for debugging. I am looking for this bridge stuff now :)

                    E Offline
                    E Offline
                    executivul
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #25

                    @crankycoder https://github.com/jeelabs/esp-link

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                    • gohanG Offline
                      gohanG Offline
                      gohan
                      Mod
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #26

                      I eneble wdt on pretty much all my nodes. Just remember to disable it before entering sleep. How did you setup the node? Do you have any booster running?

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                      • CrankyCoderC Offline
                        CrankyCoderC Offline
                        CrankyCoder
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #27

                        Where do you put your enable/disable watchdog? My node sleeps for 90 minutes at a time. Do you mean like a voltage booster? no, but i am monitoring the battery voltage so i know when it gets close to the 3.3 that the radio needs.

                        Home Automation Tinkerer
                        www.CrankyCoder.net

                        Controller: HomeAssistant in Kubernetes
                        Gateway: MQTTClientGateway
                        MySensors: 2.3

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                        • gohanG Offline
                          gohanG Offline
                          gohan
                          Mod
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #28

                          I enable it at beginning of loop and disable it before the sleep. What battery do you use? Btw the nrf24 radio can go down to 1.8V

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                          • CrankyCoderC Offline
                            CrankyCoderC Offline
                            CrankyCoder
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #29

                            Im using an 18650. currently it's sitting around 3.9v.

                            Do you have a link to the proper "mysensors" way of handling watch dog? Im not opposed to trying it. Especially if it gets hung up trying to do something then maybe the WDT while it's awake may help.

                            Home Automation Tinkerer
                            www.CrankyCoder.net

                            Controller: HomeAssistant in Kubernetes
                            Gateway: MQTTClientGateway
                            MySensors: 2.3

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