💬 Sensebender Micro

tbowmo

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.

flybysun

Hi,
I'm using the mysensor lib for a while but I recently run into problems. I've some arduino pro minis running with dht22 sensors which send their data over nrf24 to an mqtt ethernet gateway.
But maybe someone can help me with this one: I have build my own sensebender-micro modules. First of all I programmed the fuses of the mega328p as follows: lfuse: 0xE2, hfuse: 0xD2, efuse: 0xFE. Then I've programmed the DualOptiBoot Bootloader to them, everything worked fine so far, I can upoload sketches from the Arduino IDE via FTDI Programmer. The Problem: When I upload the official example sketch and watch the serial monitor I just see the MySensors splash screen. It seems, that the sketch does not even run into the setup routine. This starts to make me crazy, since I do not even know where to search. If I upload other sketches (basic blinking led, serial port examples or the passive node example from mysensors) it shows that my hardware in general seems to work. When I enable debug this is the output:

 __  __       ____
|  \/  |_   _/ ___|  ___ _ __  ___  ___  _ __ ___
| |\/| | | | \___ \ / _ \ `_ \/ __|/ _ \| `__/ __|
| |  | | |_| |___| |  __/ | | \__ \  _  | |  \__ \
|_|  |_|\__, |____/ \___|_| |_|___/\___/|_|  |___/
        |___/                      2.3.0

16 MCO:BGN:INIT NODE,CP=RNONA---,VER=2.3.0
26 TSM:INIT
28 TSF:WUR:MS=0
36 TSM:INIT:TSP OK
38 TSF:SID:OK,ID=100
40 TSM:FPAR
75 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-255-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:
2084 !TSM:FPAR:NO REPLY
2086 TSM:FPAR
2121 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-255-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:
4130 !TSM:FPAR:NO REPLY
4132 TSM:FPAR
4167 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-255-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:
6176 !TSM:FPAR:NO REPLY
6178 TSM:FPAR
6213 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-255-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:
8222 !TSM:FPAR:FAIL
8224 TSM:FAIL:CNT=1
8226 TSM:FAIL:DIS
8228 TSF:TDI:TSL
18229 TSM:FAIL:RE-INIT
18231 TSM:INIT
18239 TSM:INIT:TSP OK
18241 TSF:SID:OK,ID=100
18243 TSM:FPAR
18280 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-255-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:
20289 !TSM:FPAR:NO REPLY

Even the NRF24 connection seems to work. This is the output of my mosquitto broker when running the passive node example:

home/OpenMQTTGateway/LWT Online
home/OpenMQTTGateway/version 0.7
mygateway1-out/100/255/0/0/17 2.3.0
mygateway1-out/100/255/3/0/6 255
mygateway1-out/100/255/3/0/11 Passive node
mygateway1-out/100/255/3/0/12 1.0
mygateway1-out/100/0/0/0/6 (null)
mygateway1-out/100/0/1/0/0 25.70
mygateway1-out/100/0/1/0/0 26.90
mygateway1-out/100/0/1/0/0 27.30
mygateway1-out/100/0/1/0/0 25.80
mygateway1-out/100/0/1/0/0 26.00

I appreciate any help, thanks in advance!

Cheers

mfalkvidd

Hi @flybysun, welcome to the forum!

!TSM:FPAR:NO REPLY

means that the sensor node does not get a response from the gateway. What type of gateway are you using? Could you post the debug log from it?

If you haven't already, check https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/666/debug-faq-and-how-ask-for-help/ for the most common problems and how to troubleshoot them. (Hint: Power supply is the most common problem, the nrf24 is extremely picky)

flybysun

Hi @mfalkvidd, thanks for the warm welcome!
So, tonight I'll give it another try. I soldered 1000uF above VCC and GND on both the sender and the gateway RF Links (that's all I could find here for now). Still got issues. Here are the logs from my gateway, when it starts up and receives values from my working sensor I had before:

0 MCO:BGN:INIT GW,CP=RNNGA---,VER=2.3.0
3 TSM:INIT
4 TSF:WUR:MS=0
11 TSM:INIT:TSP OK
12 TSM:INIT:GW MODE
14 TSM:READY:ID=0,PAR=0,DIS=0
17 MCO:REG:NOT NEEDED
580 GWT:TPC:IP=192.168.0.222
1583 MCO:BGN:STP
1584 MCO:BGN:INIT OK,TSP=1
1587 GWT:TPC:IP=192.168.0.222
2589 GWT:RMQ:MQTT RECONNECT
2797 GWT:RMQ:MQTT CONNECTED
2800 GWT:TPS:TOPIC=mygateway1-out/0/255/0/0/18,MSG SENT
20587 TSF:MSG:READ,1-1-0,s=0,c=1,t=1,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:32.5
20592 GWT:TPS:TOPIC=mygateway1-out/1/0/1/0/1,MSG SENT
55353 TSF:MSG:READ,1-1-0,s=1,c=1,t=0,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:27.3
55358 GWT:TPS:TOPIC=mygateway1-out/1/1/1/0/0,MSG SENT
55364 TSF:MSG:READ,1-1-0,s=0,c=1,t=1,pt=7,l=5,sg=0:32.6
55369 GWT:TPS:TOPIC=mygateway1-out/1/0/1/0/1,MSG SENT

This looks okay I guess, now this happens when I activate my SenseBender Micro:

139854 TSF:MSG:READ,3-3-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
139859 TSF:MSG:BC
139860 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=3
139864 TSF:PNG:SEND,TO=0
139866 TSF:CKU:OK
139868 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
140512 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-3-3,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
141940 TSF:MSG:READ,3-3-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
141945 TSF:MSG:BC
141947 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=3
141949 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
141952 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
142632 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-3-3,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
144021 TSF:MSG:READ,3-3-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
144026 TSF:MSG:BC
144028 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=3
144030 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
144033 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
144746 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-3-3,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
146101 TSF:MSG:READ,3-3-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
146106 TSF:MSG:BC
146108 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=3
146111 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
146113 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
146857 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-3-3,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0

I filled this logs into the Log Parser and found out that the Gateway receives informations on the sensor node, but when it responses it does not get the ACK from the sensor node.

May I have a faulty NRF24? I just received a new batch from AliExpress and this my first try with them.

My gateway is an Arduino Uno Board with the Arduino Ethernet shield and on top of that equipped with the long range version of the NRF24 Board (the one with the antenna).
The SenseBender is equipped with the "normal" smt version as suggested. The sensor nodes which are working right now were equipped with the smd version of the nrf-board.

I also found out that the initialization of the sensor and the gateway has a different Core initialization, different capabilities (CP). I looked through the API, but didn't find what CP=RNNGA or CP=RNONA stands for.

Any suggestions or ideas?

💬 Sensebender Micro

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