Started with MySensors and about to give up (some feedback)

[mhkid]

I think all the replies highlight the challenges / difficulties with what happens. You read the thread and there are at least 3 or 4 different thoughts on each element (GW HW configuration, PCB recommendations, node recommendations, controllers, mqtt vs not, etc.) If you're coming to this for the first time you just see a bunch of what people have done and so you have to blindly pick a direction. Which then can lead you down a rabbit hole.

All of that discussion is great and this is what should happen in a forum is to share experiences. The problem, again, is that there is no baseline to start from that gives you the initial nearly guaranteed path to success when you're starting out. It that existed then you could tweak and adjust, try more advanced configurations, and experiment from a working baseline. Right now when you ask a question like what GW hardware should I use, you get multiple answers back and there is no consensus or "standard" to refer to. This thread has gotten way OT IMO because it's evolved into "here's what worked for me."

For me personally if I had the working baseline then I could add features on as I had the need or wanted to experiment. The challenge is you are experimenting from the start and then you get frustrated because you run into barriers all the time. There is no baseline and there are so many variants that it's a little chaotic. My suggestion is to come up with the baseline (hardware for GW, type of transport, ONE suggested controller) The KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid) , publish it, and then clearly document other avenues as variants or advanced config. That at to me doesn't seem all that big of an update. The information is there as far as building and config just organize it and be more clear on the best path to success.

Again, MySensors is a great platform. I want to use it and promote it, just need to have that clear pathway.

[mhkid]

@pptacek Great, thank you.

[Psilin]

@mhkid perhaps make together a base line and help each other this way?

[mhkid]

@Psilin sounds good to me.

[franz-unix]

Interesting topic!
I agree, the amount of time required to learn how to do the things is quite high and after a lot of research you will find that other people have had the same issue... so in the end you have just reinvented the wheel!

In any case I think that MySensors is a very good project and probably underrated respect to how good and useful it is for a maker that wants to build its own domotic sensor and actuators.

For the reasons above (and others), some times ago I have started the d-diot project:

• The hub (Raspberry Pi + d-diot board) implements, among the other things, two MySensors gateway (RFM69 868 Mhz + NRF24L01). All the software configuration steps are well documented in the dedicated section of the wiki.

• In general the software part is easy because all is preconfigured in the d-diot image. Just burn the iso image to an SD card and you will have Home Assistant and MySensors working and ready to go.

• 3d printable sensors and actuators and the relative PCBs and firmware are part of the project. All parts (hardware, firmware, 3d printable case) are open source

• In the wiki you will find the detailed build instructions (with pictures) for each device, so @mhkid and @Psilin maybe here you can find some useful information or a at least a good starting point for your nodes. In particular the Mini-BT-Pcb-328P is a general purpose and flexible board that could be useful for a lot of small (battery or USB powered) RFM69 or NRF24L01 nodes.

Now I'm in contact with PCBway, a PCB manufacturer that offers also soldering service, so If there are enough people interested, I think that it is possible to start thinking about the possibility to start a small production of some boards, maybe already assembled. In my opinion this will be helpful for other people.

Let me know... maybe we can start something :+1:

[TRS-80]

@alex28,

Feedback from new people is valuable! New people have a different perspective than those who have been here a long time, and have grown with the platform (or watched it grow up around them). We should never forget that, all of us. Personally, when I am learning some new software or something for the first time, I always try to give my fresh perspective as a new user (assuming it is F/LOSS; I absolutely refuse to commit a single ounce of my time/energy/money otherwise), help to update docs, or whatever (as much as possible).

Having said that, this is a tinkering platform. On the bell curve of HA stuff, we are at the far right; the smallest number of people and most difficult, requiring the most knowledge (short of making things from absolute scratch). This is not off the shelf, ready to go stuff. This is building your own custom sensors from modules and components, nearly from scratch.

If there is one thing I think we (as a community) can do better, it would be to make this more clear up front.

I just looked at my profile page, it says I joined "23 Mar 2016." I'm pretty sure I started reading / studying even before that. But right from the beginning, I fell in deeply in love with what I saw, even if the vast majority of it was all way beyond me at that point.

Actually now that I think about it, I have had interest in HA stuff since our first X-10 modules I remember playing with as a child to turn on the outside Christmas lights, and the electric "candle" in the garage... I thought that was just the coolest thing ever! :smiley:

Every so many years during my 20s and 30s, I would check back in on the HA situation again but it was always the same story: very over priced devices that could not talk to one another. Until I came across MySensors! We are actually living in wonderful times right now if you are a fledgling hacker; boatloads of information available on the Internet, inexpensive parts, and an explosion in Free / Libre Open Source Software (and increasingly, Hardware!).

Eventually I bought some parts, made a couple attempts, got some stuff working, but it was unreliable. I was in over my head. No time to spend on the stuff for months, years at a clip. But I kept reading, and reading...

I finally had my first real success with nRF24L01+ just a few days ago (I like to think I give some good tips in that post about initial radio setup and testing, which IMHO should be linked from the Troubleshooting post / page; I would also be happy to adapt to a wiki / doc page or whatever). It has been a very long road for me, but I kept coming back... and the success was very sweet when it finally came! And now I know how to build and maintain my very own custom sensors, and the sky is the limit!

By the way, I disagree with those who say nRF24L01+ are not worth it. But maybe I have just had good luck (now that I know how to test, position, etc.). Great, inexpensive little radios. I bought mine right off AliExpress, 2 x 10 pack of them IIRC...

One thing that kept me going in the meantime was having some successes along the way. At one point I must confess to giving up and I ordered a bunch of cheap 433mhz stuff. It works great! I still use it. If I hadn't done that though, I may have given up completely. But it was enough to keep the flame of HA alive.

The Tasmota / ESPxxxx stuff is similarly much "easier" to get started with, tradeoff being it uses Wi-Fi of course. But MySensors is for when you outgrow those sort of "off the shelf" solutions. And then you use something like OpenHAB (or whatever you prefer) to tie it all together seamlessly.

Speaking of OpenHAB, that is another complicated and famously high learning curve thing. Difference is, over there, they are very up front (in forums anyway) about that. They will tell you outright that you are creating a bespoke HA system. It is going to be a lot of work, learning, trial and error, etc. Back to the case of MySensors here, we are talking about tying together many disciplines from radio propagation, to electronics, to programming, etc...

One other difference between OpenHAB and MySensors that I personally perceive is that they have a bigger and more active community perhaps. At least on the forums, which are very active and you almost immediately get questions answered (I have come across a number of unanswered questions here while searching around). They are relentless about updating docs (they also make it easier for everyone to do so, more on that below). The MySensors devs are great and have shared this wonderful platform they have made with the world. But by now I think the community, docs, whatever maybe have not kept pace with the growth of the platform and new users? Maybe that is where we should concentrate our collective effort?

@Yveaux said in Started with MySensors and about to give up (some feedback):

we are currently discussing behind the scenes if/how we can let users edit the documentation pages

I'm actually surprised this isn't the norm. Let's remove friction here; many hands make light work! As I alluded to above, they make this super easy at OpenHAB. Every page has a link to "Edit this page on GitHub" where you don't even need to submit a PR or anything. They make it very easy. It would be great if we could move more towards something like this.

I bet anyone who cared enough to reply to this thread (and has the time to do so) would probably even pitch in a bit to help out in that department, so the small handful of you devs don't get burnt out trying to keep up with everything yourselves...