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RS485/RS232/Serial transport class for mysensors.org

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  • L LeoDesigner

    Hi everyone !

    I needed a wired solution for my several nodes.
    Here is the serial rs485/rs232 wired network transport for mysensors.
    https://github.com/leodesigner/mysensors-serial-transport
    It is based on the Majenko ICSC serial library.
    Can you please test it? It is a beta version - but it is working for me.
    (However, I am still waiting for my rs485 boards to arrive)
    You can find more technical information at
    http://sourceforge.net/p/arduino-icsc/wiki/RS-485/

    To use it, you have to:

    1. Put SerialTransport.cpp and SerialTransport.h to folder/directory/path SerialTransport in your library.
    2. Add #include <SerialTransport.h> to your .ino sketch
    3. Replace transport class with:
      MyTransportSerial transport(Serial,0,-1); // serial port, node, dePin (-1 disabled)

    Please let me know about bugs and how it is working for you.

    M Offline
    M Offline
    MarkV
    wrote on last edited by
    #32

    @LeoDesigner

    I'm searching for a usb transport class, could i use this??

    I'd like to connect my arduino (with sensors/actuators connected to it) to my rasberrypi through usb, without the wireless part, but still see them as mysensors sensors.

    Is this possible or could someone make a transport class for it???

    L 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • M MarkV

      @LeoDesigner

      I'm searching for a usb transport class, could i use this??

      I'd like to connect my arduino (with sensors/actuators connected to it) to my rasberrypi through usb, without the wireless part, but still see them as mysensors sensors.

      Is this possible or could someone make a transport class for it???

      L Offline
      L Offline
      LeoDesigner
      wrote on last edited by LeoDesigner
      #33

      @MarkV
      Regarding the USB to RS485 adapters:
      I think they are using a some kind of serial to USB chip like CH340/341. So your RPi will be able to see RS485 bus as the regular serial port. It may work. It worth trying, you can always build an Ethernet GW later in other case.

      @shabba
      I am using exactly the same MAX485 modules. It is much more reliable media comparing to radio communication.

      @hek
      Thanks for adding DE pin management code.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • scalzS Offline
        scalzS Offline
        scalz
        Hardware Contributor
        wrote on last edited by
        #34

        hi.

        I am not sure if it can be useful.. I have read this note recently, about rs485 powering chip (3.3v or 5v). And I found this interesting, for knowledge..
        https://e2e.ti.com/support/interface/industrial_interface/f/142/t/93260
        So what I understand here, and it makes sense, is that : even if some rs485 chips are able to be powered with 3.3v or 5v, if you want to power it with 3.3v, it can work of course with a 5v chip, but it is better to use a true 3.3v chip only. Because they are more sensitive to be rs485 compliant (better internal transistor).

        Always good to know :smiley:

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        • T TimO

          @LeoDesigner : yeah, you're right, that is needed.

          But there seems to be another problem, I can't get the current development code to work. I've simply interconnected two Nanos at D8/D9. The gateway and the motion example come up fine according to serial output and the motion sensor definiatly sends something via AltSerial but the gateway doesn't seem to recognize it.

          A simple test, where I pipe the input on hardware serial of one nano to AltSerial on the second nano and from there to hardware serial works just fine, so hardware and AltSerial is working.

          Sender:

          #include <AltSoftSerial.h>
          
          AltSoftSerial altSerial;
          
          void setup() {
            Serial.begin(115200);
            Serial.println("Demo begins");
          
            altSerial.begin(115200);
          
          }
          
          void loop() {
            char c;
          
            if (Serial.available()) {
              c = Serial.read();
              altSerial.print(c);
            }
          
          }
          

          Receiver:

          #include <AltSoftSerial.h>
          
          AltSoftSerial altSerial;
          
          void setup() {
            Serial.begin(115200);
            Serial.println("Demo begins");
          
            altSerial.begin(115200);
          
          }
          
          void loop() {
            char c;
          
            if (altSerial.available()) {
              c = altSerial.read();
              Serial.print(c);
            }
          
          }
          
          antiA Offline
          antiA Offline
          anti
          wrote on last edited by
          #35

          @TimO I cloned the current development branch, and tried to use a modified motion sketch, and a gateway sketch, simply interconnecting two mini-pros with TTL serial : the same problem appears.

          I can only see garbage sent on the AltSerial pins, so the gateway don't see the message.

          Before I dig more and start debugging, did anybody made progress on that problem ?

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • T Offline
            T Offline
            TimO
            Hero Member
            wrote on last edited by
            #36

            @anti: I'm glad, I'm not the only one! :-)
            I've tried to find the problem, but had no luck.

            What is bugging me: it was working with a early version, before it was merged into development, but I don't see any changes.

            I've not tested the latest / current version though.

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • A Offline
              A Offline
              andriej
              wrote on last edited by andriej
              #37

              Hi!

              Glad to see 'wired' version of MySensor protocol coming.
              One question - how long wires and how many sensors on one pair/multiple pairs will be supported?

              I'm thinking about cabling for new home, which means many meters of cable to every sensor/door/actuator/ligth/meter etc.

              In best scenario - one cat5e - one termination (sensor/node/etc.)
              Currently I'm looking for a cabled version of protocol to support it and be 101% stable (no hiccups and freezes over the protocol), so I can rely on my home.

              MySensors seems to be great to implement, but I'm worried about the signal... I was thinking about letting something around 12-24-30V thru one pair of Cat5 to power all nodes from one power-source (with backup batteries).

              Or - are there any better alternatives for RS485, that doesn't need resistors, have no limitations of 32 devices etc?

              :-)

              L 1 Reply Last reply
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              • A andriej

                Hi!

                Glad to see 'wired' version of MySensor protocol coming.
                One question - how long wires and how many sensors on one pair/multiple pairs will be supported?

                I'm thinking about cabling for new home, which means many meters of cable to every sensor/door/actuator/ligth/meter etc.

                In best scenario - one cat5e - one termination (sensor/node/etc.)
                Currently I'm looking for a cabled version of protocol to support it and be 101% stable (no hiccups and freezes over the protocol), so I can rely on my home.

                MySensors seems to be great to implement, but I'm worried about the signal... I was thinking about letting something around 12-24-30V thru one pair of Cat5 to power all nodes from one power-source (with backup batteries).

                Or - are there any better alternatives for RS485, that doesn't need resistors, have no limitations of 32 devices etc?

                L Offline
                L Offline
                LeoDesigner
                wrote on last edited by LeoDesigner
                #38

                @andriej
                According to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-485
                "It offers data transmission speeds of 35 Mbit/s up to 10 m and 100 kbit/s at 1200 m. "
                also check this: https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/367
                You may design a bus with up to 256 nodes.
                CAT5 is the best choice anyway for any type of communication (I mean you can run regular Ethernet on them too).
                Check the video at the beginning of the post. It's a working example of two remote nodes connected only with one CAT5 cable over 50m. They are working at 115200 - however speed might be up to 1 Mbit/s.

                A 1 Reply Last reply
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                • L LeoDesigner

                  @andriej
                  According to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-485
                  "It offers data transmission speeds of 35 Mbit/s up to 10 m and 100 kbit/s at 1200 m. "
                  also check this: https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/367
                  You may design a bus with up to 256 nodes.
                  CAT5 is the best choice anyway for any type of communication (I mean you can run regular Ethernet on them too).
                  Check the video at the beginning of the post. It's a working example of two remote nodes connected only with one CAT5 cable over 50m. They are working at 115200 - however speed might be up to 1 Mbit/s.

                  A Offline
                  A Offline
                  andriej
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #39

                  @LeoDesigner but how would I connect all sensors in house and relays too?
                  SOme resistors needed? Star topology? Few gateways?

                  :-)

                  L 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • A andriej

                    @LeoDesigner but how would I connect all sensors in house and relays too?
                    SOme resistors needed? Star topology? Few gateways?

                    L Offline
                    L Offline
                    LeoDesigner
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #40

                    @andriej
                    The star topology could be a problem. However for low speed nodes this may work anyway.
                    You may need something like RS485 hub :) or a GW with many RS485 bus ports.
                    Or just a separate MAX485 board for each node. You need to test it.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • antiA Offline
                      antiA Offline
                      anti
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #41

                      @TimO Well... it turns out that the garbage seen on the wire was not garbage, just the binary serial protocol. And the node was desperately attempting to find a parent, with no success.

                      FYI this is how I workaround it. But I did not feel like I could fix it for 100% sure.

                      The gateway ignored the broadcasts from the node. The following code in MyTransportRS485 triggered for probably wrong reasons (sender=0; nodeid=0;station=broadcast) :

                                     if ((_recSender == _nodeId) ||
                                        (_recStation != _nodeId &&
                                         _recStation != BROADCAST_ADDRESS)) {
                                                _dev.print(" wrongid: ");
                      

                      Since the gateway was not responding correctly to the node broadcasts, I solved the serial communication problem between node and gateway by defining a fixed node Id :

                      #define MY_NODE_ID 10
                      

                      (ps: the MySensors version used was cloned from git today)

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • antiA Offline
                        antiA Offline
                        anti
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #42

                        Replying to myself... Of course the "Controller" MUST be properly connected
                        for dynamic nodes IDs to function properly, since it's the controller's job to affect the node ids.

                        This explains a part of my original problem.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • K Offline
                          K Offline
                          kimot
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #43

                          I think, that CAN transceiver chip is better then RS485 transceiver chip.
                          Then we dont need direction setting pin and bus state is better determined, becose CAn bus is prepered for bus collisions, RS485 not.
                          I mean only CAN bus transceiver, not CAN controller ! For example MCP2551 or MCP2562.
                          And we can use normal serial library.

                          A L 3 Replies Last reply
                          1
                          • K kimot

                            I think, that CAN transceiver chip is better then RS485 transceiver chip.
                            Then we dont need direction setting pin and bus state is better determined, becose CAn bus is prepered for bus collisions, RS485 not.
                            I mean only CAN bus transceiver, not CAN controller ! For example MCP2551 or MCP2562.
                            And we can use normal serial library.

                            A Offline
                            A Offline
                            andriej
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #44

                            @kimot what would be the CAN topology needed?
                            Does it support star topology? Im looking for a in-home bus over cat5e in walls...

                            Regards

                            :-)

                            K 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • K kimot

                              I think, that CAN transceiver chip is better then RS485 transceiver chip.
                              Then we dont need direction setting pin and bus state is better determined, becose CAn bus is prepered for bus collisions, RS485 not.
                              I mean only CAN bus transceiver, not CAN controller ! For example MCP2551 or MCP2562.
                              And we can use normal serial library.

                              L Offline
                              L Offline
                              LeoDesigner
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #45

                              @kimot
                              Just a quick look
                              http://www.aliexpress.com/item/MCP2551-High-Speed-CAN-Communicate-Protocol-Controller-Bus-Interface-Module/32472004400.html?spm=2114.031010208.3.27.bEv7Im&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_1,searchweb201644_3_79_78_77_82_80_62_81,searchweb201560_1,searchweb1451318400_6148
                              They are five times more expensive.
                              But it might be another option for wired network too.
                              @andrej it is still a line not a star topology.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              1
                              • A Offline
                                A Offline
                                andriej
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #46

                                Ok so if it's line-wire, then maybe I could wire all cat5e's to one patch-panel, terminate them there and from the patchpanel I could daisy-chain them on one magistral connection and also feed the 12/24V on one pair (i.e. orange/white orange) and data (i.e. blue/white blue).

                                How do you guys think it would work for cables in-home in-wall?
                                I guess the power feed would work ok (even including the voltage drop) but what about the RS485/CAN length?
                                I plan to run cat5 to every switch.

                                Still can't decide if I should connect on-wall switches straight to Arduino (to control relays further) or to use small arduinos inside every wall switch to better control sensors there (temperature on wall) and possibility to program every switch differently. The idea is to get every wire to basement anyway.

                                :-)

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • A andriej

                                  @kimot what would be the CAN topology needed?
                                  Does it support star topology? Im looking for a in-home bus over cat5e in walls...

                                  Regards

                                  K Offline
                                  K Offline
                                  kimot
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #47

                                  @andriej
                                  RS485 was not designet for multimaster communication, where 2 devices can communicate on the bus at same time. RS485 bus state at this time is not defined. For example if node on RS485 on one end of bus sends message end perform "control" lisening on bus if recieve the same message( what is with correct circuit of RS485 transsiever immposible ), then this received message can be the same. But if in the same time another node on oposite end of bus sends different message, then node on the middle of bus recieves something random.
                                  But CAN bus has allways defined state. It has dominate state and recesive state, so node witch send dominate bit cannot be pushed yb node witch at the same time sends recesive bit. I now, thet this feature we cannot use with normal serial communication, but still we can controll correct sending of datagram by lisening bus by sender. If we recieve the same message what we send, there is 100% shure, that the same message lisens every node on CAN bus. On RS485 this is not garanted. Bus topology is the same end we dont need "dePin". So we can use normal serial library. And CAN transciever is not so expensive as wrote LeoDesigner. Look here:

                                  http://www.ebay.com/itm/10PCS-MCP2551-I-SN-IC-TRANSCEIVER-CAN-HI-SPD-8-SOIC-NEW-/171541737564?hash=item27f0af305c:g:nbQAAOSwIBBUZU~k

                                  And sorry for my english

                                  A 1 Reply Last reply
                                  1
                                  • K kimot

                                    @andriej
                                    RS485 was not designet for multimaster communication, where 2 devices can communicate on the bus at same time. RS485 bus state at this time is not defined. For example if node on RS485 on one end of bus sends message end perform "control" lisening on bus if recieve the same message( what is with correct circuit of RS485 transsiever immposible ), then this received message can be the same. But if in the same time another node on oposite end of bus sends different message, then node on the middle of bus recieves something random.
                                    But CAN bus has allways defined state. It has dominate state and recesive state, so node witch send dominate bit cannot be pushed yb node witch at the same time sends recesive bit. I now, thet this feature we cannot use with normal serial communication, but still we can controll correct sending of datagram by lisening bus by sender. If we recieve the same message what we send, there is 100% shure, that the same message lisens every node on CAN bus. On RS485 this is not garanted. Bus topology is the same end we dont need "dePin". So we can use normal serial library. And CAN transciever is not so expensive as wrote LeoDesigner. Look here:

                                    http://www.ebay.com/itm/10PCS-MCP2551-I-SN-IC-TRANSCEIVER-CAN-HI-SPD-8-SOIC-NEW-/171541737564?hash=item27f0af305c:g:nbQAAOSwIBBUZU~k

                                    And sorry for my english

                                    A Offline
                                    A Offline
                                    andriej
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #48

                                    @kimot Thank you for the information - your english is good enough to understand. :-)

                                    I'm just looking for more simple protocol than ethernet to send data from various places - wired.
                                    And it seems that, for longer distance and cat5e cable in-wall, ethernet is the only choice :-(

                                    :-)

                                    L 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • A andriej

                                      @kimot Thank you for the information - your english is good enough to understand. :-)

                                      I'm just looking for more simple protocol than ethernet to send data from various places - wired.
                                      And it seems that, for longer distance and cat5e cable in-wall, ethernet is the only choice :-(

                                      L Offline
                                      L Offline
                                      LeoDesigner
                                      wrote on last edited by LeoDesigner
                                      #49

                                      @andriej
                                      Just put CAT5e to every place (or even two CAT5e to each TV, room - as I done myself). Later you will decide what kind of signals will travel over CAT5e wire. It can be Ethernet or RS485, CANbus, or something else. Regular twisted pair Ethernet is also has a star topology with central hub/switch. (You may also remember an old Ethernet system with one base cable and terminating resistors on the both ends). For a really long distance - RS485 is the winner anyway - up to 1200m on slow speed.

                                      A 1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • L LeoDesigner

                                        @andriej
                                        Just put CAT5e to every place (or even two CAT5e to each TV, room - as I done myself). Later you will decide what kind of signals will travel over CAT5e wire. It can be Ethernet or RS485, CANbus, or something else. Regular twisted pair Ethernet is also has a star topology with central hub/switch. (You may also remember an old Ethernet system with one base cable and terminating resistors on the both ends). For a really long distance - RS485 is the winner anyway - up to 1200m on slow speed.

                                        A Offline
                                        A Offline
                                        andriej
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #50

                                        @LeoDesigner I will put cat5e for 'LAN' purposes to proper socket, but I also want to control my lights not via connecting/disconnecting 230V in-wall, but in central control panel.
                                        I was planning to use doorbell push buttons on walls just to give signal to automation and then MCU will set proper relays/dimmers on/off etc.

                                        That's why I was thinking about putting cat5e also to on-wall switches, then on 1 pair make the +/-12V signal, another pair for data bus etc. And now I'm looking for most efficient way to connect it everything together.
                                        Each room will have temperature sensor for sure (in the switch), some may have dimmers etc. Last idea was to put mini arduinos inside the hole in wall, but I'm afraid of resetting them every once in a while, just because arduino likes to hang itself...

                                        :-)

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                                        • P Offline
                                          P Offline
                                          pjr
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #51

                                          @andriej remember to calculate how much current you can take thru cat5e and how much load there can be with one pair.
                                          From wikipedia: "Maximum current per conductor 0.577A". So this would make P=UxI -> 12Vx0.577A=6.92W. There is calculations where one nano can take max 1.4Watts. You could use more wires of the car5e for power or lift voltage upper. 48Vx0.577A=27.70W ;)

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