I think the comments you make are good. I do have a question about the removing the regulator. I assume you mean the 5V to 3.3V regulator. I connect to the 5V and I see lot of variation in moisture readings due to the variation in the output of the power supply (solar panel/stepdown). I have a calibration routine for that. The voltage can go as high as 4.2V, which I believe may be bad if I connect the power supply to 3.3V. Of course, this is not a concern if using two 1.5V batteries. With batteries, the moisture reading would be more consistent over a day. Lot of advantages there. I just don't like changing batteries and I really hate it when they leak. I have every reason to believe that my power supply will last 10 years and I am fortunate to live in a place with consistent sunshine :) . Someone replicating my project will have to take this into consideration. My design easily accommodates a different power supply. And my power supply could be used in other projects. Resistive vs Capacitive sensor. I'm glad you report good results. This gives people options. Water moisture: I've had good experience with "spraying" the Arduino with clear electronic coating and sealing the enclosure with liquid tape. -OSD

@mvader Turn the time delay adjustment preset on your PIR module to the minimum.. Now try it.. You will not get a continuous output..Also, prepare the circuit using a long wire from the back to the sensor of your module.

Gawd bless ya @OldSurferDude , that just about answered every question I have to date, I especially thank you for indicating whether the item named is a software or hardware product. On reading into the Cerbo GX capabilities I was very impressed with its sophistication and, just as you said, I will have to break the complicated parts down into bite-sized pieces and build from there. It started with an idea for a project, essentially to take data on battery state of charge (SoC) from the Cerbo GX and use an Arduino Nano or ESP8266 to build a strategy so that I would have sufficient hot water in the morning, consistent with having enough battery power left in the evening. Only on further inspection did it occur that the Node Red software built into the Cerbo GX could do this for me...and thus the possibility that a wireless hot water temperature sensor (transducer) could be fabricated to feed that data into the Cerbo GX; hence my path to here. I've dabbled in programming in C, mainly through the Arduino IDE, and in a previous life part of my work involved programming PLCs for industrial automation, so I am somewhat familiar with 'tech', but I lost interest once most systems seemed to go Windows based. In the intervening years the 'tech' has moved on apace and has left me behind, which is why I've struggled to follow the jargon, akin to trying to fit the second piece in a large jigsaw puzzle. Once the fundamentals are there I'll catch on. So please, kind contributors, be tolerant of the silly questions we newbies ask, we won't always be newbies, and I'll be back for sensors stuff once I've tamed the red-hot node and sorted out my LBQTTs Best wishes....MM

@nagelc said in New Setup for Home Environment Monitoring – Using NRF24L01+, Arduino Pro Mini, and BME280: bme280 I read somewhere that the temperature sensor on the BME280 is sort of an afterthought. I did a few experiments comparing them to the DHT11/12/22 and found them only a little better. (Take this with a grain of salt, maybe you'll want to do you're own experiments.) I did do a lot of experiments with the DHT's and they really suck. +/-2°C Which turns out to mean +/-2°C offset (component variation) and +/-2°C measurement: +/-4°C from what the temperature actually is. My experience, yours may be better. Please post your experience with OTA. I haven't tried it on Arduino's but it's awesome on ESP8266. I hesitate with Arduino's because I had some erratic behaviour running Arduino's when pushing the memory limit. I, too, use the MQTT data transport to Home Assistant (HA) and I find that excellent. Getting data from HA is a bit tricky, but do-able. I have a flow meter and use HA to store the last read; meaning, if there is a power failure, HA sends the last read on Arduino boot. I don't use the EEPROM because that has a spec of 100,000 writes which the meter would do in about a year, thus, necessitating a new Arduino. I truly appreciate you sharing. Thanks! -OSD

Great project! With some guidance, KiCad and AVR will click again!

@ZenBlizzard , yes thanks, thats the point. How to deal with smartSleep() and battery lifetime.

@OldSurferDude I use this. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-Solenoid-for-Battery-Operated-Timer-57861/203151515 Instead of having to hold the valve open, i can just pulse it. I use a simple motor controller to pulse it and when i need to close it, pulse it in "reverse". That way I could use a battery and if it only opens once or twice a day it's only a half a second or so of draw off the battery.

@skywatch I don't like ESPs to be honest. Seems like a waste using a Wifi MCU for mysensors.

The author has done some good work ensuring good design practices; trace separation, fuses, etc. but I don't see any extra I/O brought out on this particularl switch. You would have to carefully solder to the chip itself, and modify the code a bit. You could use magnetic switches. Put a magnet on the blinds and the switch in window sill. The author notes that this is not an Arduino, but uses the same chip that the Arduino uses. The author doesn't explain how the chip is programmed. This method could have been used. It may be just as easy to use an RF Nano with a little power supply. This suggestion is not nearly as robust as the author's. For example, these power supplies have gotten bad reviews mainly because the mains power traces are too close together. I justify using them because in all likelihood a failure will pop the power supply and probably the Nano, too, noting that these are cheaper than the fuses you would put in to protect them. I am fully aware of the risks involved in doing this, and you should be, too (eg. burning down your house). -OSD

: ) That looks right. I have not written a receiveTime function for years and have just been copying the one in MockMySensors over and over.

That is a well documented project. Much appreciated

@fsgraz Did some testing Today and my RFM range is over 80 meters node to node, with no long range antenna. That will be my next test, just waiting for a shipment from China to arrive. I did how ever notice an extreme improvement when I connected the gateway through a USB hub and then started to dig through the forum. @AWI once wrote about using an external PSU to power the long range NRF PA/LAN. I'll try that this weekend as connecting it to they USB port of my PI extended the range to 20 meters Node to Node.

Oh, I never even thought of that as a possibility. I really like KiCad, and it's my preference. For a while I had Eagle for work, but even then I still preferred KiCad whenever I was given a choice. :)

@JanJaap-Jagtenberg according to https://www.reddit.com/r/tradfri/s/gvFcOmHe8h the ”best” solution is to replace the led driver (but keep the lights). An alternative might be to buy a used remote on ebay or a local equivalent. Do you know what is wrong with your current remote? Maybe it can be fixed?

I'm glad that worked!

Hey! If you're using ESP32 with LoRa (RFM95) and a Raspberry Pi gateway, here are some quick tips: Hardware: Heltec ESP32 + LoRa boards work great with MySensors. Power: ESP32 (~600mA) + LoRa (~120mA) can drain batteries fast—Arduino might be better. Software: Use Arduino IDE for ESP32 (try EnergyMeterPulseSensor), and set up an MQTT gateway on the RPi. Home Assistant works well for data visualization. Real-World Tips: MySensors + LoRa is great for farm/weather monitoring—checking similar projects can help.

It seems you can access the child ID from the sent message by looking at the destination property. If you have the message object, you can extract the ID directly from there.