💬 The Sensor Network
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These technologies are quite expensive to make, mysensors comes with some pretty cheap solutions, I think mysensors can be used in urban areas where the density of electric meters is quite high, especially in the panels where the meters are usually installed are grouped several as ex. 4 and more, for this panel you can mount a node that will read the indications of all meters, thus drastically reducing the number of nodes and the cost will be even more attractive to carry out this project, I thought that these nodes can be made on esp8266 + RFM95 to gain greater distances between Gateways nodes, in rural areas I will think about implementing LoraWan, for me it is quite complicated to clarify with this technology.
@frydrik LoRaWAN nodes can be made with esp8266 and rfm95. I have done so myself.
LoRaWAN gateways are slightly more expensive, but they are able to handle at least tens of thousands of nodes which is 100x more than a MySensors gateway, so the cost per node is much much lower than for MySensors.
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the problem is that I can't find code examples for LoraWan nodes so I can start this project on LoraWan, first I created my own LoraWan gateways on TTGO LoRa32 SX1276 OLED, and on another module TTGO LoRa32 SX1276 OLED a test node as in the video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T40a51TAMDI&t=401s
something works but the number of messages that reach the gate are very small in 24 hours I can receive 5-6, the problem I think I miss a gateways with one channel, and the node transmits randomly on that 8 channels, in addition I do not understand how to combine a sketch that reads the pulses from a meter with the loraWan library, I can't find examples of how to do it, that's why I was enchanted by the mysensors community, it's simple to create a node to understand how it works,
in mysensors I found what I needed + it is a receptive community, if you have experience with LoraWan please guide me how to start creating these nodes, I found how to build a local LoRaWAN® Network Server, and unfortunately here I stopped -
the problem is that I can't find code examples for LoraWan nodes so I can start this project on LoraWan, first I created my own LoraWan gateways on TTGO LoRa32 SX1276 OLED, and on another module TTGO LoRa32 SX1276 OLED a test node as in the video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T40a51TAMDI&t=401s
something works but the number of messages that reach the gate are very small in 24 hours I can receive 5-6, the problem I think I miss a gateways with one channel, and the node transmits randomly on that 8 channels, in addition I do not understand how to combine a sketch that reads the pulses from a meter with the loraWan library, I can't find examples of how to do it, that's why I was enchanted by the mysensors community, it's simple to create a node to understand how it works,
in mysensors I found what I needed + it is a receptive community, if you have experience with LoraWan please guide me how to start creating these nodes, I found how to build a local LoRaWAN® Network Server, and unfortunately here I stopped -
@frydrik I have multiple years of experience with LoRaWAN, but transferring that experience from one person to another in a forum thread is not possible.
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@frydrik I have multiple years of experience with LoRaWAN, but transferring that experience from one person to another in a forum thread is not possible.
@mfalkvidd Hi, I have a question regarding the numbering of nodes, as I understood, 254 can be connected to a Gateway, if I configure a node of these 254 as a repeater then at this node they will connect in theory another 254, the question is how the handle can define this number of nodes?
#define MY_NODE_ID ------ does it work in the range from 1 -254? -
@mfalkvidd Hi, I have a question regarding the numbering of nodes, as I understood, 254 can be connected to a Gateway, if I configure a node of these 254 as a repeater then at this node they will connect in theory another 254, the question is how the handle can define this number of nodes?
#define MY_NODE_ID ------ does it work in the range from 1 -254? -
@frydrik yes MY_NODE_ID can be between 1 and 254. No, repeaters will not allow you to add more nodes to the same MySensors network.
@mfalkvidd thanks for the answer, but I have another question, why can't the number of nodes be increased to more than 254? Is it a hardware limitation or can these values be changed inside libraries?
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@mfalkvidd thanks for the answer, but I have another question, why can't the number of nodes be increased to more than 254? Is it a hardware limitation or can these values be changed inside libraries?
@frydrik Don't forget that each node can have up to 255 sensors and you can have multiple networks. So 3 gateways running 3 networks could have 193,548 sensors. Wouldn't that be enough? If not just add another gateway.
If you used every channel on an nrf24l01+ you could have 254x254x128 sensors = 8,258,048!
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@mfalkvidd thanks for the answer, but I have another question, why can't the number of nodes be increased to more than 254? Is it a hardware limitation or can these values be changed inside libraries?
@frydrik said in 💬 The Sensor Network:
@mfalkvidd thanks for the answer, but I have another question, why can't the number of nodes be increased to more than 254? Is it a hardware limitation or can these values be changed inside libraries?
Because the MySensors library is designed that way, and because sending larger addresses will mean that messages must be shorter that what's currently supported.
But MySensors is open source - anyone with enough skills, time and motivation can change it.
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@frydrik Don't forget that each node can have up to 255 sensors and you can have multiple networks. So 3 gateways running 3 networks could have 193,548 sensors. Wouldn't that be enough? If not just add another gateway.
If you used every channel on an nrf24l01+ you could have 254x254x128 sensors = 8,258,048!
@skywatch thanks for the answer, I understand that 254 nodes can be connected to a Gateway, and 255 sensors can be connected to each node, the question is how to apply this for reading electric meters where their number is considerably higher than 254, as with a node to read as ex. at least 20 meters?
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@skywatch thanks for the answer, I understand that 254 nodes can be connected to a Gateway, and 255 sensors can be connected to each node, the question is how to apply this for reading electric meters where their number is considerably higher than 254, as with a node to read as ex. at least 20 meters?
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@skywatch thanks for the answer, I understand that 254 nodes can be connected to a Gateway, and 255 sensors can be connected to each node, the question is how to apply this for reading electric meters where their number is considerably higher than 254, as with a node to read as ex. at least 20 meters?
@frydrik For a population of 500,000, say 200,000 customers, you are into commercial scale data gathering such as EON etc might deploy, a principal driver for the power companies fitting smart meters.
I would have to guess in a city of the size you mention, smart meters are already in place... -
@frydrik For a population of 500,000, say 200,000 customers, you are into commercial scale data gathering such as EON etc might deploy, a principal driver for the power companies fitting smart meters.
I would have to guess in a city of the size you mention, smart meters are already in place...@zboblamont Absolutely - with hundreds of meters in properties, most of which will have wifi ap's, wifi cameras, bluetooth devices and microwave ovens then it's a really complex situation.
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@frydrik I think you need to spend more time with mysensors to appreciate it's strengths and weaknesses and from that experience decided if it is suitable for your needs.
@skywatch Hello, I'm fascinated by the mysensors project, take off your hat in front of those who develop it, I'm not a programmer, that's why I can ask a lot of stupid questions, but otherwise you can't gain experience, I'm currently programming an arduino I use graphical programming I use a Russian application: flprog is very good for me, you can program an arduino with superficial programming knowledge. Now I'm trying to learn C ++ so I can clear up the code in arduino.
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@frydrik said in 💬 The Sensor Network:
@mfalkvidd thanks for the answer, but I have another question, why can't the number of nodes be increased to more than 254? Is it a hardware limitation or can these values be changed inside libraries?
Because the MySensors library is designed that way, and because sending larger addresses will mean that messages must be shorter that what's currently supported.
But MySensors is open source - anyone with enough skills, time and motivation can change it.
@mfalkvidd Hello, can you help me understand, I use the example to read the data on an electric meter, but I have some problems,
when I set PULSE_FACTOR with the one indicated on the meter I receive the wrong result, for me the meter has PULSE_FACTOR 5000 and I receive double V_VAR1 with the number of real pulses, that is if the number as ex. 10 pulses the node transmits in Gateway 20. if I set PULSE_FACTOR = with the one indicated on the counter I get a value double with the real one, in the sketch I set PULSE_FACTOR 2500 and now I get real kwh as on the counter, my question is why does V_VAR1 have such values? -
@skywatch Hello, I'm fascinated by the mysensors project, take off your hat in front of those who develop it, I'm not a programmer, that's why I can ask a lot of stupid questions, but otherwise you can't gain experience, I'm currently programming an arduino I use graphical programming I use a Russian application: flprog is very good for me, you can program an arduino with superficial programming knowledge. Now I'm trying to learn C ++ so I can clear up the code in arduino.
@frydrik You don't really need to be a "C++ programmer" to use mysensors. There are a lot of examples that you can learnn from and modify to your needs.
That said I am impressed that a Russian speaker is getting on with this in such a fast way. :)
I hope I don't upset anyone with this, but I still think of mysensors as an amateur/home project.... A learning adventure if you think of it like that. I don't consider it a commercial ready application for large scale implementation.
That is of course just my experience and opinion based on many years using it. Your opinion may be different to mine, but the only way to know is to learn, try, fail, develop and try again...... ;)
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@frydrik You don't really need to be a "C++ programmer" to use mysensors. There are a lot of examples that you can learnn from and modify to your needs.
That said I am impressed that a Russian speaker is getting on with this in such a fast way. :)
I hope I don't upset anyone with this, but I still think of mysensors as an amateur/home project.... A learning adventure if you think of it like that. I don't consider it a commercial ready application for large scale implementation.
That is of course just my experience and opinion based on many years using it. Your opinion may be different to mine, but the only way to know is to learn, try, fail, develop and try again...... ;)
@skywatch Hello, I am from the Republic of Moldova, I am a Romanian speaker, I also learned the Russian language, My country is the poorest country in Europe. I am also trying to implement this remote meter reading project as a pilot project, on my own account, I have no funding here, I have to implement it myself without any resources. so I can't say this is a commercial project
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@skywatch Hello, I am from the Republic of Moldova, I am a Romanian speaker, I also learned the Russian language, My country is the poorest country in Europe. I am also trying to implement this remote meter reading project as a pilot project, on my own account, I have no funding here, I have to implement it myself without any resources. so I can't say this is a commercial project
@frydrik OK, so with no funding the only option is to educate yourself little-by-little.
Build a small test system and keep trying it in new locations to see how it goes. Learning by doing is the best and quickest way I think.
Have you considered that signals might be hacked, spoofed or jammed? How will you mitigate such things?
What you want to do may seem simple at first, but there is a lot to think about with such big ambitions.
There is no easy short cut - try things for yourself and if you have problems then post them here and I am sure many people will try and help you.
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@frydrik OK, so with no funding the only option is to educate yourself little-by-little.
Build a small test system and keep trying it in new locations to see how it goes. Learning by doing is the best and quickest way I think.
Have you considered that signals might be hacked, spoofed or jammed? How will you mitigate such things?
What you want to do may seem simple at first, but there is a lot to think about with such big ambitions.
There is no easy short cut - try things for yourself and if you have problems then post them here and I am sure many people will try and help you.
