💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors

sundberg84

@Lior-Rubin Changelog so far:

Bigger mounting holes 2.5mm
IRQ Jumper from Radio. This makes this trace disabled and D2 can be used for interupts unless jumper is connected.
BAT and REG jumpers changed positions for better tracing.
MysX 2,6
Text on voltage regulater (Vout/Vin/Gnd)
Bug with G on CAP now on the right side.

Release and if there will be more things added I dont know.
Any suggestions?

Qu3Uk

In power input I would suggest moving GND to the middle of VCC/RAW so you could using a 2 pin block for GND/RAW like what is shown in post 205. Might cause tracing issues though for you.

sundberg84

@Qu3Uk - its a good suggestion.
I will se what I can do.

Lior Rubin

@sundberg84 I may suggest the following:

place for Temp\Hum sensor
place for Light sensor
ability to use AC to DC (3\5v) in the board
ESP8266 option rather than Arduino (maybe 2 versions)
TX\RX connection or FTDI connection

dbemowsk

I had mentioned this before, but the electrolytic capacitors wer put in the design using a ceramic capacitor designation which doesn't allow room for correct placement of capacitors. The main one is the one near the radio. The pads for the cap are spaced too far apart for a small electrolytic, and they are too close to the connector requiring that the capacitor leads be bent toward the radio connector to be able to get it to fit.

sundberg84

@Lior-Rubin @dbemowsk - thanks you for the suggestions. I will take them into consideration!

Im not sure I will implement everything because the main purpose of this PCB is to keep it SIMPLE. Its a newbie/easy PCB and to many components and/or other things will make it hard for new members to use.

rchamp

@sundberg84

I agree with sundberg84 here. Would it be nice to have those other features? Sure, but then you're limited to what else you can do. This is a GREAT board for many/most sensors around the house. And in regards to light or temp/hum, in my experience it's better to have these detached and in better location for detection while keeping "main" board. more out of sight.

I'll post up some pics of my builds for ideas, but I've built sensors with temp/hum, temp/hum/motion (both battery powered running for over 7 months) and my latest a Neopixel multi strip driver for kitchen cabinets using 5v regulated power. And I haven't had any issues with the cheap through hole ceramic caps for .10uf or the electrolytic caps for 4.7 or 10uf sizes on this board

rchamp

@rchamp

Only issue I've have was with resistor to D3 which I don't use. My first board I put a resistor there and when doing a trace noticed I was constantly getting regulated 3.3v and it fried my dht11. Might Have been I interpreed the purpose of it wrong as I am new to electrical engineering, but I digress. I just power the dht of of vcc and gnd in prototype area and wire sensor outpUT directly to D3 breakout. No resistor.

My biggest challenge is finding/building quality quick connects for quick changes and mods /addons. I've reverted to Barrel connectors as they're easily available and can get pigtail versions and panel mount Versons easily

dbemowsk

I too agree with @sundberg84 and @rchamp. You ask for a spot for all these different sensors, well it has it with the small proto area. If you make it specific to certain sensors you are limiting it's flexibility. the proto area as it sits is big enough, if I want to put a temp/humidity sensor, light sensor, motion sensor or whatever else, I can wire the connectors in the proto area. If anything, I might say to make that proto area even one row bigger in each direction to give a tad more room for maybe resistors or capacitors that may be needed for some sensors. May give a little more flexibility for if you wanted to do a multi sensor board.

@Lior Rubin, you said "ESP8266 option rather than Arduino " did you mean "ESP8266 option rather than nRF24"? Also,why would you need to put an TX/RX or FTDI connector. IF you use pro mini , it has the FTDI connector on it already.

velkrosmaak

@sundberg84 I hit this post again today with the intention of finally biting the bullet and buying some boards - but then I saw your notes about the next revision of the board. Could you tell me when you're expecting to release that? Is it worth me waiting a while?

Thanks!

sundberg84

@velkrosmaak - I dont know - im in the middle of another project and it wont be any bigger changes.
See the changelog above.
Only thing that can matter if you planning to do a project with 2 interupts that need D2 and D3,

Lior Rubin

@dbemowsk said:

@Lior Rubin, you said "ESP8266 option rather than Arduino " did you mean "ESP8266 option rather than nRF24"? Also,why would you need to put an TX/RX or FTDI connector. IF you use pro mini , it has the FTDI connector on it already.

I meant to use the ESP8266 option rather than the pro mini+nrf24. So to transfer the sensors to use IP and not radio.

for the FTDI, the connection on top of the arduino board is hard to connect because of the terminals.

dbemowsk

@Lior-Rubin said:

I meant to use the ESP8266 option rather than the pro mini+nrf24. So to transfer the sensors to use IP and not radio.

for the FTDI, the connection on top of the arduino board is hard to connect because of the terminals.

As for the FTDI connector, you have a few options. You can switch the right angled header pins for straight ones and plug in vertically. Option 2 is to mount it reversed pointing away from the terminals. Option 3, which is what I do, is to mount the Pro Mini with female header strips on the board. The ones that I use bring it up high enough where the FTDI connector clears the terminals if I use them. Doing it that way gives you the added benefit of being able to remove the pro mini and swap it if there is a problem.

Nca78

@sundberg84 said:

Only thing that can matter if you planning to do a project with 2 interupts that need D2 and D3,

Even for that the current version is not a big problem. Just cut or unsolder the interrupt pin on the NRF24.

pettib

Hi
Do anyone have a working sketch for a 2xAA battery powered DHT22 with Mysensors 2.0 that works with this pcb rev.8 ?

//PT

sundberg84

@pettib - almost ;) https://github.com/sundberg84/MySensors2.0.0/blob/master/UVSensor/UVSensor.ino
This is a UV sensor - so everything else works. Just exchange the UV code for DHT22 code.

pettib

Thanks. I will try this.

//PT

ChrisW

Hi guys!

Any suggestions as to why my voltage on 3.3 is either battery voltage (if BAT is short circuited) or 0v if BAT not short circuited. I have the same problem on two boards so I guess I´ve done the same mistake twice and that it´s not H/W error.. This means the radio doesn´t work unless I have brand new batteries or hook it up to USB for programming..

dbemowsk

@ChrisW, I am assuming you are using 3.3v nanos. What are you using for batteries? Where are you measuring your 3.3v? I am assuming that you are measuring it on the radio on pin 2. When using the power booster at 3.3v, first measure the output power of the booster at the pin closest to the RAW input. If you have your 3.3v there, then you need to add a jumper to the regulator pads since you are not using a 3.3v regulator (below the 0.1uf and 10uf capacitors) for the radio. That jumper needs to go between the 2 pads near the flat edge of the regulator silkscreen. You can also jump the lower two pins from the BAT and REG jumpers, that does the same thing. This jumps your 3.3v over to the radio power in. DO NOT put a jumper across BAT. Adding that can ruin your radio if you put more than 3.3v on your PWR in from your batteries. The nRF24L01 radios are sensitive to the power applied to them.

sundberg84

@ChrisW - im sorry, Im dont really understand you - english isnt my first language, could be why.
Could it be a short somewhere? and booster is mounted in the correct way? Please describe some more and answer the questions @dbemowsk asked and im sure we can figure it out.

💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors

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