💬 Sensebender Micro

[tbowmo]

@mvader

The sketch should support reboot, try sending I_REBOOT to one of your nodes (info can be found here, look under internal messages)

I haven't tried it myself yet, as I haven't touched my sensebender micros for ages..

[joaoabs]

Hi,
Three questions regarding SenseBender Micro:

• What board should I configure in Arduino IDE in order to upload sketches? Would it be equivalent to Arduino mini pro, or is there any "board library" to load ?(Didn't find it, Woudn't it make sense to be included in the examples/Libraries pack?)...
  (Found it: https://github.com/mysensors/ArduinoBoards . If you look between the photos above there is a simple link lost in the between)
  MySensors Admins: Just a small suggestion: As it is now, - a simple link between photos is easily overlooked. Can't you place it near the specs where it should be more visible?

• It has an I2C bus for the SI7021, but it seems the ATSHA204A (which I believe its I2C also) is connected to another pin (a3). Does this mean it has two I2C buses?

• Can anyone confirm that the port that measures the battery voltage is A0?

Thanks,
Joaoabs

[Anticimex]

@joaoabs we do not support I2C variant of atsha204a. Only single wire variant.

[tbowmo]

@joaoabs

It uses the internal vref to measure the battery voltage. Some of the theory is described here https://www.sciencetronics.com/greenphotons/?p=1521

[joaoabs]

For the battery powering voltage measuring do you mean that this is not needed after all? (https://www.mysensors.org/build/battery#measuring-and-reporting-battery-level)
It would be just a matter of enabling the flag "#define BATT_SENSOR 199 " and no resistors needed?

[tbowmo]

@joaoabs

Yes, when you power it directly of f.ex. two AA batteries, then you can use the secret trick mentioned in that article that I linked to, for measuring battery voltage without external resistors.

[joaoabs]

Sorry for the dummy question, but my SenseBender Micros came with a small white sticker on top of the Si7021 sensor (like in the pictures above). Is it supposed to be removed or to stay like that?

[Anticimex]

@joaoabs the datasheet for the device clarifies that I believe

[tbowmo]

@joaoabs

Just leave it on..

[NailMan]

Hello!

Help me understand why the sketches are not loaded in Sensebender Micro - there is a synchronization error:
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x82
....
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x82
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

• FTDI connected via 3.3V jumper

• Another device built on the SB Micro with SB bootloader is also not flashed with the same error, but on the PC of my friend, sketches successfully loaded into the device and on my PC are given the correct data when working sketch

• device and serial port are selected correctly

• mySensors Lib and device packs(AVR, SAMD) installed with standard lib and device managers(and also added path https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mysensors/ArduinoBoards/master/package_mysensors.org_index.json in the settings menu)

• at the same time if I take a pure Pro Mini and load into it any sample sketch of mySensors package - it will successfully do it and will work.

What am I doing wrong and how do I get the Sensebender Micro to take sketches?

[tbowmo]

@nailman

Did you select the sensebender micro as target in Arduino? Is it the same FTDI device that is used on both computers?

[NailMan]

@tbowmo
Yes, of course, I chose the target device "Sensebender Micro -> "Atmega328p, 1mhz" and "Atmega328p, 8mhz"(for device (RGBW controller) based on SB Micro with 8Mhz quartz resonator).

I tried three different FTDIs.

With any other Arduino (with native loaders) there are no problems with these FTDI adapters.

[alexsh1]

@nailman At what Mhz does your RGBW Controller is running now?
It seems to be the problem is in identifying the correct board.

If I have a board running at 1Mhz and try to program it at 8Mhz, similar to your error would come up, i.e. not in sync

[tbowmo]

Unless the bootloader is reprogrammed, then it defaults to 8mhz, and you have to actively set registers to run at 1mhz in your sketch.

Do you have a ISP programmer? If yes, could you make a memory dump, and send it to me?

[joaoabs]

Hello,
Coming back to the battery powering topic: I was checking some SlimNode code and it uses #include <Vcc.h> library to report battery level. I can see in that the example code above doesn't use it. Does anyone know what is the difference? Which is better?
Thanks,

[tbowmo]

@joaoabs

Could you post a link to the code from slimnode?

[joaoabs]

Hi,

The slimnode original thread has a few (not sure anymore which example I'm using now because the thread is huge and I've lost track of it)
Here is one example:
https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2067/my-slim-2aa-battery-node/306

and other:
https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2067/my-slim-2aa-battery-node/116

[tbowmo]

@joaoabs

The library use the exact same method to read VCC, as the Sensebender Micro example. It's just the functions that is extracted into a library (which I think have been done by @Yveaux )

[NailMan]

@tbowmo
I apologize for the delay in replying, I was very busy with work.

It turned out to be some mystical incompatibility of the FTDI and Sensbender Micro or a device based on its loader. Three versions of my FTDI refused to work with Sensbender Micro, but they worked with regular Arduino, and the fourth one, bought on AliExpress, works perfectly normal. Externally, all the same, only those that do not work with Sensbender Micro, the labeling of the chip differs slightly in the quality of engraving on the plastic.

Maybe it's fake or some kind of non-standard chips.

[alexsh1]

@nailman There are a lot of fake FTDI modules. Some are labelled FTDI other claim to be FTDI but are CH340. Some have DTR others RST and good ones like Adafruit Friend it is selectable.

My recommendation is do not try to save a few bucks here. Spend money on a good quality FTDI adapter like Adafruit Friend.