💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors

[sundberg84]

@BastienVH Good to hear - its not essential to have to 0.1uF cap on the voltage retulator, it will work without but its good to keep noice out.
@ErrK Nice, I see you run through RAW pin and using the internal voltage regulator on the arduino - I have not tested that much, does it work ok?

[BastienVH]

@sundberg84
When I get the caps, I'll place them on the board.
I did notice alot of noise when I was reading battery state on a breadboard in an earlier build, so I will get that sorted.
Only problem is I can't find them locally, so have to get them from China.
Will take a while...

[ErrK]

@sundberg84 yes it's working good. But the problem is that it's eating up the batteries :)
It was up for only 15days.

I will now test with a arduino that i have removed the led and volt regulator.

[sundberg84]

Sounds good @ErrK - dont forget to power it through REG and not RAW on the PCB and add a jumper on REG since it wont work if you use the same setup as in the images and remove voltage regulator.

[ErrK]

Thank you @sundberg84. I will think of that.

[Barna]

Hi,
Why have you redesigned from rev7 to rev8?
When will the rev8 be tested ?

[sundberg84]

@Barna - I just wanted to make it smaller, with the radio not sticking out so much.
I ordered them a while ago, so if they made it out of china before their new year I think it will be tested soon.

[dark-nico]

Just received Rev 8 :

I'll test it asap :smiley:

[sundberg84]

Nice. @dark-nico
The main concern is the new placement of caps and voltage divider - I hope they fit in between the radio and screw terminal. Should not be a problem - but you know, always nice to see it IRL. Might be good to solder them first before radio, arduino and screw terminal.

[dark-nico]

Ok, I'll do that.
My main problem is that I haven't received both my booster and my 5->3.3 reg. :disappointed:
So I can test Batt version by bypassing the booster, but it will not tell us if the reg placement is ok.
I'll dig in my "donor harware" if I can find a reg.

[dark-nico]

Looks good!

and works fine!

Perfect, thanks again :thumbsup:

I'll test the batt version as soon as I receive the boosters.

[sundberg84]

@dark-nico - You know its easy to cut the PCB to make it smaller? Using it as 5v you can remove the right battery part:

Either cut with a knife and brake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiC-_g3iNb8

Or sometimes i just use a saw (before components are added) - might not be recommended ;)

[dark-nico]

@sundberg84 - Yes I know that I can cut that part, but I think this one will be my test board with all this option, including the battery parts.
However I'll keep the video method in mind, I was thinking about using a dremel, but, it seems cleaner.

[sundberg84]

@dark-nico Ok, have not tested adding both Bat and reg/5v posibilities at the same time. Might be that 5v travels backwards towards the booster... try it out, but as I said, not tested.

[DutchMurk]

@sundberg84 : I have also received the rev 7 from DirtyPCB and learned how to solder. Very nice and flexible design !

Perfect for a Newbie :). Thnaks a lot for sharing

[sundberg84]

Hi!
No problems! Makes me glad to see i made something usefull for others :)
Interesting setup you got the with the HLK as power :+1:

[dakipro]

Great design and project, thank you for sharing it. I really like the rev8 approach in reducing overall size as it will fitt much better in my boxes.
Is it possible to get rev8 files needed to order PCBs from some other places?
Keep up the good work!

[sundberg84]

@dakipro If you "download all project files" @ https://www.openhardware.io/you will get all files (Eagles, Gerber (run with Iteads CAM job) and other stuff).

[chuckconnors]

Please excuse the questions, but you did say this is for Newbies, right? :)

I'm planning on using this with the 3.3v Arduino with battery power once things are debugged. I see above that you say to power from the battery input rather than the FTDI pins. Is that for 5V and 3.3V? Also, what is the resistor labeled D3 Res Temp/Hum used for?

[sundberg84]

Hi! @chuckconnors

You should input power/gnd to the 5v/GND on the PCB and not the ftdi connector on the arduino you have soldered on the pcb. See the images above. This is how the board is designed. It doesnt matter if its 3.3 or 5v.
The resistor is for if you want to use for example a dallas temp or dht22 on pin 3, then you can add a resistor there since these sensors require this.