Office plant monitoring

[ronnyandre]

Thanks for this great solution @mfalkvidd! It works great when my Arduino Pro Mini is connected to the computer, but not when I try to run it off a battery pack.

I have a Pro Mini 3.3v connected to a 0.8-3.3v step up from a battery pack (2xAA; 3v). And then I have connected the radio and sensor to VCC on the Pro Mini. When the Pro Mini is connected to my iMac, Domoticz receives everything as it should. However, when I disconnect it from the computer and connect the battery source, all LEDs light as they should, indicitating that they have power, but it won't connect to Domoticz over NRF24.

I have used a multimeter to check the voltage and if the radio receives enough power, and it does. All power/ground pins show around 3.3v. Any ideas to debug what's wrong?

[Fat Fly]

@joshmosh said in Office plant monitoring:

mfalkvidd

Where i find mfalkvidd's sketch ?

[mfalkvidd]

@ronnyandre a multimeter is unfortunately not sensitive enough to display if there is enough power during the short bursts when the radio is active.

Most step-ups don't deliver power that is stable enough. You could try adding more/larger capacitors, but from what I have seen in the forum, people seldom get thing working reliably with a step-up. I have never tried using step-up myself, I use power directly from the batteries.

If you haven't checked already, see the troubleshooting chart at https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/666/debug-faq-and-how-ask-for-help/

[mfalkvidd]

Where i find mfalkvidd's sketch ?

At github, but be aware that this code is for MySensors 1.x. It does not work with MySensors 2.x.

[ronnyandre]

@mfalkvidd Thanks for the quick answer! I also read on the page for battery powered sensors that the step up generates alot of noise that can interfere with the radio, and that a solution might be to add capacitators (which I already tried), but also powering the radio directly from batteries. I'll try that later today. Thanks! :smiley:

And thank you for the link to the troubleshooting. It's now bookmarked! :wink:

[Fat Fly]

Please somebody help me add to skech one relay for water pump. I use this in Domoticz. I do not want build other hardware for this.It is possible ?

[gohan]

Just copy the relay code from https://www.mysensors.org/build/relay and add it your sketch and make necessary changes to adapt it: like setting child_id in presentation

[Fat Fly]

@gohan I make something this. Please look if all is right. My software writer skill is low. :) Some small errors. :)
https://pastebin.com/8LWpgb8L

[gohan]

because you are using old code, you need to convert it from libraries 1.5 to 2.x: there is a guide to do that

[Fat Fly]

Can i use old libraries and gateway version 2.1 ?

[gohan]

You can downgrade libraries and use old examples, but I'd suggest to stick to the new version

[Fat Fly]

@gohan said in Office plant monitoring:

but I'd suggest to stick to the new version

I try but idonotknow. :)

[Fat Fly]

@gohan
Please help with small errors. https://pastebin.com/VRXyT8Ut I try for library 2.x

[fhenryco]

It's a pity that at least one sketch for the analog reading of moisture sensor is not v2 compatible and made available on the main page ... i have no idea if making it v2 compatible would be a hard job...even if it's just a question of changing some library calls i'm afraid i don't have the skill for that...

[mfalkvidd]

My Bonsai tree humidity node celebrates 2 years on battery today!

During these two years, the gateway has received 146,528 updates on humidity level (and an additional 30,870 updates on voltage level).

The battery level has gone from 3.187V to 3.049, which means an average drop of 0,0058V per month. Assuming I let it go down to 2.34V (limit for 8MHz according to the datasheet) and that the voltage drop is linear, I should get (3.187-2.34)/0.0058 = 146 months = ~12 years. There are several error sources in this calculation, but it looks like battery life will be quite good.

Here are the voltage and humidity graphs for the last year.

As you can see, there was a problem in November. I was asked to verify the battery voltage reading by using a multimeter. When I opened the box to do that, I must have tripped something because the node got caught in some sort of loop, consuming battery. I restarted the node and the batteries recovered almost to the level they had before the problem occurred.

Last year's report: https://forum.mysensors.org/post/52232

[gohan]

@mfalkvidd said in Office plant monitoring:

and that the voltage drop is linear

You wish!!! :D

[mfalkvidd]

@gohan no actually I don't. The voltage drop is normally a s-shaped curve that is very flat in the middle. That means I am experiencing a higher drop at the beginning. That's likely the reason that the prediction after 2 years is more than 10% longer battery life than the prediction after 1 year was.

[gohan]

Yes, it depends when the voltage starts to drop significantly, but unless you have tested another battery before it is hard to know in advance 😀

[mfalkvidd]

@gohan alkaline batteries in general have been tested quite extensively and don't deviate much from the S-curve characteristics.