Battery powering

[CrankyCoder]

Happy Friday guys! Fighting with another node and hoping someone may have some thoughts. I have followed the battery powered guide.

My little sensor does not want to run on 3v. Anyone have any luck running 2.0 on a 3v battery?

[mfalkvidd]

@Jason-Brunk running MySensors 2 on battery shouldn't be a problem. What happens on the sensors? What does the debug output say?

[CrankyCoder]

I am wondering if maybe the capacitor on my radio is too big while running off the coin cell.

Here is what i am getting currently

Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk what arduino ide are you using? 1.6.10 seems to have issues in combination with MySensors.

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
I don't use 2.0, yet, but I have a lot 1.5.1 running on battery without problem.

Try to run your node with power from e.g. FTDI or other source, then you can see if it works and also if it sleeps.

What I notice for some of my nodes is that it needs a new battery to work, when my CR2032 battery comes down to ~2,5 volt it stop working maybe because of the mA is to low from battery to power up NRF or ATmega.

[CrankyCoder]

@Yveaux I am using 1.6.9

[CrankyCoder]

@flopp Just put a fresh battery in. Checked it before hand, 3.07v

Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR
Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP:ASSIGNID:OK (ID=1)
TSM:FPAR

What capacitor size are you using on the radio? any use to put a cap on the main power/gnd between the battery and the rest of the circuit?

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
I am using 4,7 uF SMD mounted on the NRF.

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
You can try with a cap on main pwr/gnd.

Maybe you can measure the voltage on main pwr/gnd and see what happens when it starts?

[CrankyCoder]

@flopp i changed batteries and made sure i don't go below 2.6v and still the furthest i get is

TSP▒Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK
TSP▒Starting sensor (RNNNA-, 2.0.0)
TSM:INIT
TSM:RADIO:OK

Looks like it is locking up as soon as the radio is initialized.

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk
Do you have an other NRF, if you have try with that

[CrankyCoder]

yeah, this one works if i give it a 3.3v power source. But i can try my other one.

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk Do you know/did you change the brown-out level of your atmega? See BODLEVEL at e.g. http://cryoarchive.net/tutorials/avr-tutorials/avr-fuses-explained/
What Arduino hardware are we talking about?

[flopp]

This post is deleted!

[CrankyCoder]

Im using a 3.3v pro mini.

From what I gathered BOD level only affected the power down. Would it affect the power up and radio initialization?

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk said:

yeah, this one works if i give it a 3.3v power source. But i can try my other one.

Do you mean NRF?
NRF should work down to 1,9 volt

[CrankyCoder]

@flopp That is correct, everything registers ok and debug shows the connections when i give it 3.3v from my usb power supply

[flopp]

@Jason-Brunk said:

@flopp That is correct, everything registers ok and debug shows the connections when i give it 3.3v from my usb power supply

Then it can be bad battery.

Measure battery, should be about 3.1.

Connect something to the battery, like an LED, battery shall now show maybe 2.9, not lower. If it shows lower I guess the battery is almost empty.

[Yveaux]

@Jason-Brunk said:

Im using a 3.3v pro mini.

How are you pwering it? Through RAW or VCC? Did you remove/disable the regulator?

[CrankyCoder]

@Yveaux VCC. Yeah i pulled the regulator off