My Slim 2AA Battery Node
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Just noticed, that I use another login at home. So, the Tim-Abels is the rollercontainer... Sorry for that.
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@AWI one step forward, two steps back... Thanks for the hint.
I guess, I should send battery percentage every 10 interrupts or so. Even if the contact doesn't trigger for a while, I can force it by showing my neighbours my ocd on doors ^^ (knock, knock, knock - Penny!)
What do you think?
@rollercontainer alias @Tim-Abels ;-) Sounds good, although with 1.3uA the battery won't show much variation..
This is a similar on running on a coin cell (not calibrated). The voltage drop is caused mainly by the bad radio connection (many retries for sending > 10 mA)

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Maybe its better to measure the voltage every 10 or 100 loops and only send one custom message/alert when its dropped below a threshold. I am using the MQTTClientGateway and Node-Red. In case of a battery-low message, node-red could send me an email with the node name. I will give it a try...
From https://www.mysensors.org/download/serial_api_20:
V_TEXT 47 Text message to display on LCD or controller device S_INFO V_CUSTOM 48 Custom messages used for controller/inter node specific commands, preferably using S_CUSTOM device type. S_CUSTOM``` -
Did you considered a tiny solar cell like enocean does?
https://www.enocean.com/en/enocean_modules/stm-320/
That would be perfect... -
searched a bit and found that @ceech already made a harvester with a coin cell.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/BQ25570-thermal-solar-energy-harvester-/332071662285
still too big and too expensive in comparison with dozens of alkaline batteries which will run for years, but that is the way to go sometime.
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@siod
Gateway issue? Other sensors working or all down at same time? Do you have a sniffer or listen-only gateway, or heartbeat LED attached to each sensor?What's the purpose of the delay(1000)? It usually safer to use wait() or sleep() and perhaps also to deal with the interrupt results first. You could also try level interrupt instead of "change". You're not using indefinite sleep so it shouldn't be a problem, but try anyway..
@m26872 said in My Slim 2AA Battery Node:
@siod
Gateway issue? Other sensors working or all down at same time? Do you have a sniffer or listen-only gateway, or heartbeat LED attached to each sensor?What's the purpose of the delay(1000)? It usually safer to use wait() or sleep() and perhaps also to deal with the interrupt results first. You could also try level interrupt instead of "change". You're not using indefinite sleep so it shouldn't be a problem, but try anyway..
@m26872
Gateway seems to work fine as the 3rd and still working sensor is still communicating. Also the freezed sensors start communicating after I restarted the sensor, not the GW. So I don´t see a problem with the GW.
"Do you have a sniffer or listen-only gateway" -sorry, don´t know what this is o0 !?
I have not attached a heartbeat LED yet, but that´s sth. I could do as a next step...
The delay (1000) was initially planned to settle the sensors a bit and gie me abetter Battery reading, but as it is not working as it was intended I will delete it in a future update...
You could also try level interrupt instead of "change" -again, I don´t know what you are talking about here, hope you can help me out.Thanks so far!!
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@m26872 said in My Slim 2AA Battery Node:
@siod
Gateway issue? Other sensors working or all down at same time? Do you have a sniffer or listen-only gateway, or heartbeat LED attached to each sensor?What's the purpose of the delay(1000)? It usually safer to use wait() or sleep() and perhaps also to deal with the interrupt results first. You could also try level interrupt instead of "change". You're not using indefinite sleep so it shouldn't be a problem, but try anyway..
@m26872
Gateway seems to work fine as the 3rd and still working sensor is still communicating. Also the freezed sensors start communicating after I restarted the sensor, not the GW. So I don´t see a problem with the GW.
"Do you have a sniffer or listen-only gateway" -sorry, don´t know what this is o0 !?
I have not attached a heartbeat LED yet, but that´s sth. I could do as a next step...
The delay (1000) was initially planned to settle the sensors a bit and gie me abetter Battery reading, but as it is not working as it was intended I will delete it in a future update...
You could also try level interrupt instead of "change" -again, I don´t know what you are talking about here, hope you can help me out.Thanks so far!!
@siod said in My Slim 2AA Battery Node:
"Do you have a sniffer or listen-only gateway" -sorry, don´t know what this is o0 !?
I meant the https://www.mysensors.org/controller/sniffer, but I think it's easier to equip sensors with Radio Traffic LEDs and/or your own heartbeat/error LEDs.
The delay (1000) was initially planned to settle the sensors a bit and gie me abetter Battery reading, but as it is not working as it was intended I will delete it in a future update...
I suggest you start with deleting or replacing this delay. It could be it.
You could also try level interrupt instead of "change" -again, I don´t know what you are talking about here, hope you can help me out.
I think you had pull-up inputs. Then it's just to replace the
CHANGEwithLOWin your call tosleep().Thanks so far!!
My personal troubleshooting method in cases like these (and too many others) is just exhaustive use of the good old substitution method. Hw, Sw, entire systems or whatever you can do. :grimacing:
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Hello everybody,
I´m struggeling with getting the https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2715/slim-node-as-a-mini-2aa-battery-pir-motion-sensor
to work.
The node registers with the GW, but doesnt submit the tripped reading.
Not even a permanent on or something. Just nothing. So i dont know how to troubleshoot here.
The PIR HC-SR505 is functional. I tested it with a testscript on a UNO.
And the 2AA Slimnode is functional as well. When using the node as a binary switch it works perfectly fine,
Just the combination 2AA Slimnode and HC-SR505 doesnt work.Anybody has an idea ?
Thanks in advance Komaandy
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Hello everybody,
I´m struggeling with getting the https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2715/slim-node-as-a-mini-2aa-battery-pir-motion-sensor
to work.
The node registers with the GW, but doesnt submit the tripped reading.
Not even a permanent on or something. Just nothing. So i dont know how to troubleshoot here.
The PIR HC-SR505 is functional. I tested it with a testscript on a UNO.
And the 2AA Slimnode is functional as well. When using the node as a binary switch it works perfectly fine,
Just the combination 2AA Slimnode and HC-SR505 doesnt work.Anybody has an idea ?
Thanks in advance Komaandy
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Does anybody has a idea why my nodes keep freezing ?
I build like 5 identical nodes with a PIR and after working fine for a couple of hours at least half of them freeze.
There is one particular node that is working for 4 days now straight, but all the others are frozen meanwhile.
I have no idea where to start troubleshooting, as they are all the same ( capacitory, resistors,radios,Atmega328p,batteries,solder,radio,sketch)
and are all basically within the same radius placed around the gateway. I have other "not battery Slim Nodes" and they never freeze, though running the same sketch.Please i need some tips
Regards
Komaandy
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Does anybody has a idea why my nodes keep freezing ?
I build like 5 identical nodes with a PIR and after working fine for a couple of hours at least half of them freeze.
There is one particular node that is working for 4 days now straight, but all the others are frozen meanwhile.
I have no idea where to start troubleshooting, as they are all the same ( capacitory, resistors,radios,Atmega328p,batteries,solder,radio,sketch)
and are all basically within the same radius placed around the gateway. I have other "not battery Slim Nodes" and they never freeze, though running the same sketch.Please i need some tips
Regards
Komaandy
@Komaandy - did you try the hardware without the PIR?
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Do you mean running the node without the PIR ?
I thought about, I guess i will test it.
You think the PIR freezes the node ?@Komaandy - Yes and Yes :)
Its a good way to debug, remove not crucial stuff to see if it works... one by one and you will figure it out.
The PIR (depending on which one and what kind of power you are using) might be the problem but hard to say without knowing your setup. -
@AWI said in My Slim 2AA Battery Node:
@Komaandy please don't double post. Please continue in the other thread
@Komaandy and @sundberg84 Once again; Please continue in the other thread! Especially since @Komaandy now confirmed that it is this far NOT a generic Slim Node issue. Also, I haven't got any feedback on my reply there, but I assume it didn't work?
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Hi @Komaandy ,
unfortunately I must report that I made the same expiriences you made. I am running 5 "My SLim 2AA Battery Node" Sensors from which only 2 really work. The others keep freezing after an hour, a day, are sometimes after a few days. I have still no idea why this is happening, but because of this I stopped building more of the "My SLim 2AA Battery Node" sensors, which is very sad, because it´s an ingeniuous design.
I am using MQTT and therefore I installed NRF24L01 modules. Some of them are really weak, so I thought that´s the problem: The node does not freeze, it´s just the NRF24L01 that is not sending any info anymore. So I attached a LED to my node to see if it is still alive. Whenever I opened a window the LED must lid. So when I did not got any info from the node I checked if the node is still operational by opening a window and there I noticed when the LED did not lid, that the node was completely frozen. So It was not a wireless connection problem, but the NRF24L01 of course could still be the problem.
A lot of my investigastions was about figuring out what is happening when entering the sleep mode, because I thought (and still believe) the node is just not waking up from sleep anymore. Unluckily I still did not find a solution.
Anywhere you said that the none battery driven nodes are working flawlessly, that´s another point I was thinking about. I have one MQTT Arduino Nano device in the basement which is directly powered over USB and I never had problems with it, also the MQTT / NRF24L01 range is awesome.
But I have no oscillator or anything to check if it a power problem with the "My Slim 2AA Battery Node".
Maybe you´ll find a solution for your problems which could help me, too. I´m looking forward hearing from you. -
Hi @Komaandy ,
unfortunately I must report that I made the same expiriences you made. I am running 5 "My SLim 2AA Battery Node" Sensors from which only 2 really work. The others keep freezing after an hour, a day, are sometimes after a few days. I have still no idea why this is happening, but because of this I stopped building more of the "My SLim 2AA Battery Node" sensors, which is very sad, because it´s an ingeniuous design.
I am using MQTT and therefore I installed NRF24L01 modules. Some of them are really weak, so I thought that´s the problem: The node does not freeze, it´s just the NRF24L01 that is not sending any info anymore. So I attached a LED to my node to see if it is still alive. Whenever I opened a window the LED must lid. So when I did not got any info from the node I checked if the node is still operational by opening a window and there I noticed when the LED did not lid, that the node was completely frozen. So It was not a wireless connection problem, but the NRF24L01 of course could still be the problem.
A lot of my investigastions was about figuring out what is happening when entering the sleep mode, because I thought (and still believe) the node is just not waking up from sleep anymore. Unluckily I still did not find a solution.
Anywhere you said that the none battery driven nodes are working flawlessly, that´s another point I was thinking about. I have one MQTT Arduino Nano device in the basement which is directly powered over USB and I never had problems with it, also the MQTT / NRF24L01 range is awesome.
But I have no oscillator or anything to check if it a power problem with the "My Slim 2AA Battery Node".
Maybe you´ll find a solution for your problems which could help me, too. I´m looking forward hearing from you.@siod Thanks for your report. Could you please share some more info. Hw/sw versions, nRF-batches, sensors, configs/settings, sketches etc. @Komaandy could only confirm issues with a PIR eqiupped node, but you have a door-switch so I guess it's a potential generic problem then. Let's hope for other reports as to help us narrow down the search.
I have not yet migrated to MySensors 2.x :flushed: , but it's hopefully coming soon. My Slim Nodes from the start of this thread (~ 10 pcs) are still in flawless production.
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@siod Thanks for your report. Could you please share some more info. Hw/sw versions, nRF-batches, sensors, configs/settings, sketches etc. @Komaandy could only confirm issues with a PIR eqiupped node, but you have a door-switch so I guess it's a potential generic problem then. Let's hope for other reports as to help us narrow down the search.
I have not yet migrated to MySensors 2.x :flushed: , but it's hopefully coming soon. My Slim Nodes from the start of this thread (~ 10 pcs) are still in flawless production.
@m26872 - I made myself a slim node with a light sensor and a uv-sensor last weekend. Its running latest dev branch and has been working flawless atleast 1 week now.
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@siod Thanks for your report. Could you please share some more info. Hw/sw versions, nRF-batches, sensors, configs/settings, sketches etc. @Komaandy could only confirm issues with a PIR eqiupped node, but you have a door-switch so I guess it's a potential generic problem then. Let's hope for other reports as to help us narrow down the search.
I have not yet migrated to MySensors 2.x :flushed: , but it's hopefully coming soon. My Slim Nodes from the start of this thread (~ 10 pcs) are still in flawless production.
@m26872 First of all: I already got so much help and I am very grateful for that, awesome community!
I don´t think I will ever find the problem with those sensors and because of the lack of time I have (familiy, work...) I think looking for the problem would take longer than just build a new sensor. And that´s what I will do next: I will just build another node, one step after the other and so I can validate if it maybe is a hardware problem or a code problem. BTW my whole sketch is just a few posts above this one...
So I will come back after I started over...