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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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  • 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

                E 1 Reply Last reply
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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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