💬 OH MySensors RGBW Controller

LastSamurai

@Jan-Gatzke Ah ok nice to know. I am facing the same problem. RGBW is not that well supported in domoticz. I am currently trying to switch to openhab2 but having some problems with my RGBW nodes there too. Development on the plugin seems to be very active though. If you want to follow the discussion have a look at the forum thread here or on github ;)
Once I got everything up and running in openhab I'll post an update here.

Meanwhile the newest sketch from my github should work with Home assistant too.

Sergio Rius

I just assembled my first OH! My... :grinning: board and realized that the V2 sketch doesn't work for me.
Anyways I'm posting a sample sketch for testing the board:

#define RED_PIN 3
#define GREEN_PIN 5
#define BLUE_PIN 6
#define WHITE_PIN 9

#define ON 100 // Please, don't burn my eyes
#define OFF 0

#define ON_INTERVAL (3*1000ul)

void setup() {
  // Setting pins to output and low is not required for analogWrite.
    Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop() {
    analogWrite(RED_PIN, ON);
    Serial.println(F("**RED**"));
    delay(ON_INTERVAL);
    analogWrite(RED_PIN, OFF);
    analogWrite(GREEN_PIN, ON);
    Serial.println(F("**GREEN**"));
    delay(ON_INTERVAL);
    analogWrite(GREEN_PIN, OFF);
    analogWrite(BLUE_PIN, ON);
    Serial.println(F("**BLUE**"));
    delay(ON_INTERVAL);
    analogWrite(BLUE_PIN, OFF);
    analogWrite(WHITE_PIN, ON);
    Serial.println(F("**WHITE**"));
    delay(ON_INTERVAL);
    analogWrite(WHITE_PIN, OFF);
}

LastSamurai

@Sergio-Rius Nice to hear! And good idea with the test sketch.

What exactly did not work with my sketch? I would really like to fix it (for others too).

Sergio Rius

@LastSamurai I'm using Domoticz. With your sketch, turning on and off worked.
But whenever it had any rgb value, the white light was always 100% on. The RGB leds where all three lit at a time and never more than 20% but slightly responded to dimming control.

The above code from @Jan-Gatzke works flawlessy. Even turns the white leds on when reaching the white band on the gradient.
Only I would like it to not turn off the color leds until the selected color is totally or almost white, so we could white-wash the selection.

Oh, men... soldering those mosfets turned around was so difficult. :) I recommend the next who buys boards to use the new designs.

Give me some time and I'll give a turn to the sketch. But I'm still working on the "water-heating-solar-controller", and still have to assemble the energy monitor board, and do something with the meteo board.

Sergio Rius

@LastSamurai I have some doubts on this code, can I ask you?
The change between color values is done by a fade, and I understand that you don't want a linear change but an exponential one. Right?

One doubt i have is that I'm seeing that the fade is accomplished using a conversion array. So you are doing variable steps depending on the difference of value for each channel. Wouldn't be preferable to always take the same amount of time/steps doing the change?

Wouldn't be better to divide the difference for each value on the same steps and then doing the transformation. Then could be fixed without an array.

Sorry if I wrote something wrong. My english it's not so good.

Jan Gatzke

@Sergio-Rius

The problem with the linear fading was that a value of 100 almost looked the same as 150. So the goal was to make the fading look more linear. The logarythmic calculations needed for this cannot be done on an atmega 328p. (I tried it)
This is why I calculated the values with MS Excel and put them in an array.

Making the fading process alway take the same time would be nice. Feel free to post your implementation. ;)

Sergio Rius

@Jan-Gatzke @LastSamurai I've been playing with the formula of the blog post written in comments on the sketch and I see that this isn't something trivial.
I think the code in the post has a misconception, that using 0-255 he missed that the graph data is not related to time, but pwm value.

So a fixed table for conversion between pwm value and appreciated light has to be built. And you also arrived to this conclusion seeing the array.
I'm generating the array on the fly using the formula with 256 steps.
(In the blog code there's a bug caused by the mean of zero in intervals and the formula that causes max value to being reached. You have to sum one to interval before using on the formula.)

I'm now trying to separate a loop for traveling the array that compensates for in between values so it can handle smaller steps->variable interval.

Sorry. Just thinking out loud.

Sergio Rius

I've been working on an sketch for this board. Somewhere in the path I started adding functionalities and it ended in a library. Perhaps it's way overkill, but I thought that could be easier add it to NodeManager like that.
It's based on the work done here and some more ideas around the network. Thanks to LastSamurai for the board and code and also to Jan.
You can find the sources there: https://github.com/SergioRius/RGBWDimmer

This thing includes a serial manager that I use myself, but you can remove it and delete all the code for debugging, and perhaps add yourselves if necessary.
Just clone the repo or download and install as a zip library on Arduino IDE.
The example works for the OH! MySensors RGBW board as is.

It's very self explanatory in the code, but in essence:

It can be used stand-alone or with mysensors
You simply send to the commands and the class does all for you.
Uses a non blocking system for the fading.
Configurable fading time and resolution
Several configurable fading curves
Option for gamma (brightness + hue) calibration.

I'm currently debugging the fading curves equations other than linear, as the arduino mcu capabilities are tight and it's so easy to overflow it. Also I'm doing a program for calibrating the hue (arduino with leds and a rotary encoder for manually adjusting), so for now gamma only compensates brightness. You can change the values if you prefer. I'll be a good idea to lower the white channel.

It still lacks some memory optimization, but for now I'm scared about overflows. I got one of those and it was a two days nightmare and I had to revert to ints to get something running.
I'll soon add a stand alone sample and port to NodeManager.
For the while, for using it alone the minimal it's:

#include "RGBWDimmer.h"
RGBWDimmer myDimmer(1, 3, 5, 6, 9);  ///< id (to remove), Red Pin, Green Pin, Blue Pin, White Pin

bool JustDontBlockLoop = true;

void loop() {
  if(JustDontBlockLoop) {
      myDimmer.setNewValues(255, 0, 150, 0);  ///< RGBW decimal values. If you prefer hex, use setNewValuesHex
      myDimmer.StartFading();
      JustDontBlockLoop = false;
  }
  myDimmer.loop();
}

I hope you like it. And if you have any idea for adding functionality, please tell me.

Sergio Rius

I updated the repo for being easier to download and install.

LastSamurai

Wow nice! Might take me some time, but I will take a look at your code (and maybe add some of its features back to my sketches if that fine with you).

Sergio Rius

@LastSamurai Yes, of course.
Just a question. How did you make the "values curve"? You said in excel and perhaps a graph... did you manage to change graph values and update data in any way?

I've made the sketch for adjusting the gamma values, something with a Serial monitor menu that allows for increasing and decreasing the channels in real time. And adjusted the greens for a better hue (orange being orange, not a greenish yellow) but now I do't know how to adapt the curve.
I refuse to modify the 255 values by hand.

Now I'm making a case for 3d-print. Where do I have to post it, there or in a separate post? I read anything about posts becoming entries at hardware.io and ¿build?

ThetaDev

Do you really need an external voltage regulator for this module? I mean the Arduino Pro Mini has its linear regulator already built in. You can only draw about 100ma from it, but wouldn't that be sufficient for the micro, radio and the mosfet gates?

LastSamurai

@ThetaDev Maybe you you could get away with it but especially the radio is very sensitive concerning the power supply. Cheap pro minis often use very cheap regulators too and then this might become a problem.
I also wanted to support the high power version of the NRF and that definitly needs more power than provided by the onboard regulator.

pepson

Hi
How i can modify sketch files INO to use it with radio RFM69HW with this adaptaer:
https://www.openhardware.io/view/16/NRF2RFM69#tabs-design

LastSamurai

I never tried that but as far as I know you have to tell Mysensors to use a different kind of radio by adding a define like:

#define MY_RADIO_RFM69

Just do a quick search on this forum though ;)

pepson

And your project works also with Home Assistant ?
Can you show how it looks in your automation ? Which controller you use ? (Domoticz or other)
And on MySensors 2.2.0 this also works ?

LastSamurai

I only had Home Assistant installed for some days (did not really like it at the time) so I can't tell you that it works 100% but it did back then. You have to add some strange additional messages but I tried to integrate that into my code.
I am using my RGBW controllers with openhab 2 in one location and with domoticz in another. As it is controlled by MySensors it works (and looks) pretty much like any other mysensors node. Both installations run on 2.2. Hope this helps :)

pepson

@lastsamurai
Very thanks for info. I try build and test with Home Assistant.

Sergio Rius

Mmmmm... How much have you pushed this board? I mean, in terms of load.
I just had one fail at me and I'm trying to understand what component may have been the weak link.

It was driving a 5m white stripe when it turned himself off and on again, but although the light was still on the node was down. I took it out and almost burned my hand. Not the mosfets, but the arduino and radio. Nothing seems bad (components good looking, arduino seems to start) but as soon as you apply 12v, even without load it starts the barbecue.

It seems that the mosfets are good to 4,2Ah if I understand it. So what would be the boards specs? :thinking_face:

gohan

Have you checked the voltage on the arduino?

💬 OH MySensors RGBW Controller

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