💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors
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@fabix68 Your problem might be in the fact that the 18650 battery is a 3.7 volt battery, where the CR2032 is only a 3 volt. The extra 0.7 volts will make all the difference. If you use a CR2032, there are a few things you want to do. The first thing is that you need a battery booster. This will boost your power from 3 volts to the needed 3.3 for the nano and the radio. Next is to remove the LED from your nano. This will put unnecessary load on your battery and drain it much faster. You may even want to remove the regulator from the nano.
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What are your setup @fabix68 ? If you are using a 3.3v arudino straight on it will not work.
Please describe your setup and hardware and not only your battery, -
I'm using Arduino mini pro 3.3v to which I removed led and regulator, battery boster and tamper on batt.
I attach the photo
@fabix68 should work just fine.
Whats your issue? Any serial output? -
Hello, don't waste your CR2032 yet, as it is now you will be lucky to last a few days ...
CR2032 and other lithium cells with the same chemistry have a strong internal resistance. It means the more current you draw from them, the more energy you will waste because of this internal resistance. It makes the voltage drop and it means your battery booster will need more and more current to maintain the output voltage = vicious circle with more and more energy wasted.
Your solution is not to add a battery booster but to use another sensor that will be able to run at low voltage: BMP180/BMP280/BME280 or SHT21/SI7021. They have a very low power consumption (unlike ds18) and will accept Vcc voltage below 2V. I would suggest the SHT21/SI7021 as it's easier to use and will go in sleep mode between measurements without any action from you.
Without battery booster you will also have a much increased range as the booster generates a lot of noise that perturbates the radio.
You will also need to:- add a big capacitor (at least 100µF) in parallel with the battery to ease out the current peaks
- remove the voltage regulator as it's still on your pro mini at the moment
- adapt your sketch to sleep (with 200ms you should be ok) between all consecutive radio calls. Don't forget to do it in the presentation method as it's the most sensible part, before it's called the library has already done many radio calls that made your battery voltage drop. You should begin the presentation method with a sleep.
- update the fuses on your pro mini to remove the BOD which is by default at 2.7V and will limit the total power you will get from the battery
- use a brand name cell, the cheap chinese no-name cells will have much lower real capacity available, voltage will drop much faster.
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@Nca78 said:
SHT21
Nca78 thanks for the reply.
I did not know the SHT21 sensor, it looks like a good alternative also DHT22.
I've already added a capacitor and view the trace output with the oscilloscope, it is clean, why not explain the decrease in range.
With regard to the program, has been provided for the sending of data every 5 minutes, if it changes from the previous value, to then return to sleep.
I never tried to change the fuse on the PRO. I believe that this is the solution. Run it at minimum frequency, remove the BDO so you can also remove the battery booster. -
I am wondering on the Rev 8 boards how much room there is around the outer mounting holes to drill them a bit larger? Is this just a dual layer board or are there other sandwiched layers in it that might be affected if I drill them larger?I have been trying to find a decent way to mount these and stack them with other boards, but I'm not having much luck. The project I am working on right now is a revised board for my garage door controller and I have my power supply circuit on a piece of proto board and I want to stack the newbie PCB on top of it, but can't find standoffs that small, and I am having real trouble even finding screws that will fit the holes. Has anyone done mounting of these? If I can find screws and mounting hardware that will work without having to drill the holes bigger I am all for it.
Vera Plus running UI7 with MySensors, Sonoffs and 1-Wire devices
Visit my website for more Bits, Bytes and Ramblings from me: http://dan.bemowski.info/ -
I am wondering on the Rev 8 boards how much room there is around the outer mounting holes to drill them a bit larger? Is this just a dual layer board or are there other sandwiched layers in it that might be affected if I drill them larger?I have been trying to find a decent way to mount these and stack them with other boards, but I'm not having much luck. The project I am working on right now is a revised board for my garage door controller and I have my power supply circuit on a piece of proto board and I want to stack the newbie PCB on top of it, but can't find standoffs that small, and I am having real trouble even finding screws that will fit the holes. Has anyone done mounting of these? If I can find screws and mounting hardware that will work without having to drill the holes bigger I am all for it.
@dbemowsk said:
I am wondering on the Rev 8 boards how much room there is around the outer mounting holes to drill them a bit larger? Is this just a dual layer board or are there other sandwiched layers.
Its a dual board - drill as much as you want, you can see all traces. In my upcoming rev the holes are bigger. I have recieved this feedback and are improving this.
Controller: Proxmox VM - Home Assistant
MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - W5100 Ethernet, Gw Shield Nrf24l01+ 2,4Ghz
MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - Gw Shield RFM69, 433mhz
RFLink GW - Arduino Mega + RFLink Shield, 433mhz -
@dbemowsk said:
I am wondering on the Rev 8 boards how much room there is around the outer mounting holes to drill them a bit larger? Is this just a dual layer board or are there other sandwiched layers.
Its a dual board - drill as much as you want, you can see all traces. In my upcoming rev the holes are bigger. I have recieved this feedback and are improving this.
@sundberg84 said:
In my upcoming rev the holes are bigger. I have recieved this feedback and are improving this.
what should be on the next rev ?
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@sundberg84 said:
In my upcoming rev the holes are bigger. I have recieved this feedback and are improving this.
what should be on the next rev ?
@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? -
@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? -
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.
@Qu3Uk - its a good suggestion.
I will se what I can do. -
@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
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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.
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@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.
Controller: Proxmox VM - Home Assistant
MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - W5100 Ethernet, Gw Shield Nrf24l01+ 2,4Ghz
MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - Gw Shield RFM69, 433mhz
RFLink GW - Arduino Mega + RFLink Shield, 433mhz -
@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.
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
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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
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
