Can I use MySensors without a Controller?

[Tubes110]

Hello Everyone. I am new to MySensors but not to home automation or even automation in general. I have been in the building automation and process control industry for 20+ years. I have experience with DDC and PLC controls. I have deployed "controllers" from Iconics, Delta, KMC, and Induosft. We call them HMI's or Human Machine Interface. Before I moved 9 months ago, I had a system in my house that included some fully programmable Modbus thermostats/controllers, wireless sensors from Nathan Chantrell - tinyTX, and an Indusoft HMI. The sensors talked to a Arduino Mega gateway that converted all their data to Modbus that the front end read over RS485.

OK, now to my question! I would like to use the MySensors stuff because it seems more robust and has lots of great options like acting like a repeater. Question is can I use this system without having to use a special controller software? Can I setup a router that also acts as a Modbus slave? Has anyone done this?

Thanks!

[tbowmo]

@Tubes110

Welcome aboard :) In theory you do not need a controller. You can manuallyt assign ID to individual nodes. And then make a translation of some sorts between modbus / mysensors protocol.

I don't know if anyone had made a router that can handle the translation between mysensors / modbus though, so you might need to make one from scratch yourself..

[Tubes110]

@tbowmo thanks for the info. So am I correct in saying I can manually set the address of each sensor node (and the "gateway" I suppose) and they will talk to each other? If this is the case, great! I can build out the Modbus part myself. Where can I find documents on what the sensor messages look like?

Also, has anyone successfully ran a gateway firmare on an Arduino Mega? (I like the extra UARTs)

[rejoe2]

@Tubes110
Using a Mega should not be a big issue.

Wrt. to using the MySensors framework without Controller you might look for "node to node communication" in the forum.
A good starting point imo (starting with this posting): https://forum.mysensors.org/post/84724

You have to configure all nodes with

#define MY_TRANSPORT_WAIT_READY_MS 100

as if the controller is not present, the nodes won't enter loop() (100 may be changed).

Would be keen to see your final code; I'd like to bridge ebus communication to MySensors :grinning: , so your code could help to some extend.

[tbowmo]

@Tubes110

The serial protocol is described here

@rejoe2
The timeout you mention is only if you do not have a gateway in your system, and has nothing to do with a controller..

[rejoe2]

@tbowmo Thx for clarification.
As I only use serial GW's, I didn't notice the difference until now.