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  1. Home
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Minimal design thoughts

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  • T Offline
    T Offline
    tlund
    wrote on last edited by tlund
    #205

    @tbowmo

    That current draw seems a bit high.

    A modified 3.3V pro mini draws ~100nA in "deep" sleep without watchdog timer (pretty much everything disabled). The nrf24l01+ draws ~900nA in power down. If you wake up the 328 using its watchdog timer (i.e. sleep != 0), then that watchdog will draw around 5uA, but it wakes up every 8 sec, so the average "extra" current consumption caused by the watchdog is closer to 6uA. According to the si7021 datasheet* it draws 60 nA standby current, and 150 uA active current.
    In other words, you should see a current consumption < 10uA in sleep mode. When active, the si7021 is negligible compared to the nrf and 328's current consumption, but the total consumption for nrf and 328 should still be less than 22mA... The 60ms you see probably indicates that the nrf is not able to get a hardware ("link-level") ACK, so it retries up to 15 times. Also, disabling DEBUG in MyConfig.h will save a few extra milliseconds. You should also make sure node.send() is the last thing you do before node.sleep(), or else the NRF will countinue to draw ~13mA until sleep() or RF24::powerDown() is called.

    This should not be too far from the theoretical current consumption profile for your board when reading hum+temp at given INTERVAL:
    (Assuming the nrf, 328 and si7021 has already been "booted")

    sleep(INTERVAL): ~7uA on average
    awake time 2+12+10.8+8 = 32.8ms
    - 328 wakeup: 3.6mA for 2ms
    - si7021 conversion hum: 3.6mA + 150uA for 12ms
    - si7021 conversion temp: 3.6mA + 150uA for 10.8ms
    - nrf24 send: 3.6mA + 13.4mA for 8ms (assuming no message retries)

    What components are actually mounted on the board you tested?
    The ATSHA204 should draw max 3mA active, and <150nA sleeping.
    The 25aa080sn*

    • Write current: 3 mA maximum
    • Read current: 500uA typical
    • Standby current: 500 nA typical

    You probably already know all this, but I thought I might mention it anyway :)

    http://www.silabs.com/Support Documents/TechnicalDocs/Si7021.pdf
    http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-8740-CryptoAuth-ATSHA204-Datasheet.pdf
    http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/21230E.pdf

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    • tbowmoT Offline
      tbowmoT Offline
      tbowmo
      Admin
      wrote on last edited by
      #206

      @tlund

      I haven't done anything to optimise things yet. The sketch I'm running is in the examples section on Mysensors github repro so you could have a look there.

      The board is without external flash (didn't mount it on board #1 that i used last night) and without atsha204, as it's still the first prototype board. The new version should arrive tomorrow, where I can mount the atsha204.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • tbowmoT Offline
        tbowmoT Offline
        tbowmo
        Admin
        wrote on last edited by
        #207

        WUUUHUU! What a great sunday :)

        Just verified bootloader is working with external flash! Verified with dumping a small sketch to the external flash (By use of another sketch).

        So external flash is verified as functional, for the bootloader part...

        1 Reply Last reply
        3
        • tbowmoT Offline
          tbowmoT Offline
          tbowmo
          Admin
          wrote on last edited by tbowmo
          #208

          forgot an update last week, I received rev2 boards last monday (9/2). but was on vacation with the family (They have priority above "nerd" projects ;))

          Will see if I can get a couple of pictures of the new boards when I get home from daytime job today.

          And hopefully, I'll get a couple of boards mounted during this week, so I can get it verified, and we can start preparing for "production to the masses" :)

          AnticimexA RJ_MakeR 2 Replies Last reply
          2
          • tbowmoT tbowmo

            forgot an update last week, I received rev2 boards last monday (9/2). but was on vacation with the family (They have priority above "nerd" projects ;))

            Will see if I can get a couple of pictures of the new boards when I get home from daytime job today.

            And hopefully, I'll get a couple of boards mounted during this week, so I can get it verified, and we can start preparing for "production to the masses" :)

            AnticimexA Offline
            AnticimexA Offline
            Anticimex
            Contest Winner
            wrote on last edited by
            #209

            @tbowmo
            Nice! I have updated the ATSHA204 personalizer to work without UART and I will try to push it to github tonight or tomorrow so you can use it to verify the ATSAHA (if you need to). I am not completly finished to release signing support to the masses yet, but things are moving along nicely and I hope to be able to do that will full documentation and HW independency by the end of the month.

            Do you feel secure today? No? Start requiring some signatures and feel better tomorrow ;)

            tbowmoT 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • AnticimexA Anticimex

              @tbowmo
              Nice! I have updated the ATSHA204 personalizer to work without UART and I will try to push it to github tonight or tomorrow so you can use it to verify the ATSAHA (if you need to). I am not completly finished to release signing support to the masses yet, but things are moving along nicely and I hope to be able to do that will full documentation and HW independency by the end of the month.

              tbowmoT Offline
              tbowmoT Offline
              tbowmo
              Admin
              wrote on last edited by
              #210

              @Anticimex

              Nice! I have updated the ATSHA204 personalizer to work without UART and I will try to push it to github tonight or tomorrow so you can use it to verify the ATSAHA (if you need to).

              Is there any status messages sent to the UART, in case communication with ATSHA204 fails? Or is there any other method of indicating success/failure?

              AnticimexA 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • tbowmoT tbowmo

                @Anticimex

                Nice! I have updated the ATSHA204 personalizer to work without UART and I will try to push it to github tonight or tomorrow so you can use it to verify the ATSAHA (if you need to).

                Is there any status messages sent to the UART, in case communication with ATSHA204 fails? Or is there any other method of indicating success/failure?

                AnticimexA Offline
                AnticimexA Offline
                Anticimex
                Contest Winner
                wrote on last edited by
                #211

                @tbowmo
                No, I am afraid you have to have a serial debug port to get any status. My updates merely "permits" you to personalize a ATSHA without UART input (something I have added as a "are you sure, this cant be undone" precaution).
                However, it is possible to check connectivity by downloading my example "secure actuator" sketch and use a gateway sketch from the same "repo". The "secure actuator" will inform the GW that it require signing, and when GW asks the actuator for a nonce, actuator will ask ATSHA for a random number. A "virgin" ATSHA will give a fixed value which is recognizable and can therefore be seen by the GW. And if pattern shows, you will know that the actuator can talk to the ATSHA. A bit cumbersome, but that can be done without any hacking using existing examples (from my personal signing haxxor-branch for the moment).
                The alternative is to make your own simple read-and-transmit sketch to test of course.

                Do you feel secure today? No? Start requiring some signatures and feel better tomorrow ;)

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • tbowmoT tbowmo

                  forgot an update last week, I received rev2 boards last monday (9/2). but was on vacation with the family (They have priority above "nerd" projects ;))

                  Will see if I can get a couple of pictures of the new boards when I get home from daytime job today.

                  And hopefully, I'll get a couple of boards mounted during this week, so I can get it verified, and we can start preparing for "production to the masses" :)

                  RJ_MakeR Offline
                  RJ_MakeR Offline
                  RJ_Make
                  Hero Member
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #212

                  @tbowmo said:

                  forgot an update last week, I received rev2 boards last monday (9/2). but was on vacation with the family (They have priority above "nerd" projects ;))

                  Will see if I can get a couple of pictures of the new boards when I get home from daytime job today.

                  And hopefully, I'll get a couple of boards mounted during this week, so I can get it verified, and we can start preparing for "production to the masses" :)

                  Say what?? I take offense to that.. I'm a geek.... :-)

                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tvy_Pbe5NA

                  RJ_Make

                  hekH tbowmoT 2 Replies Last reply
                  0
                  • RJ_MakeR RJ_Make

                    @tbowmo said:

                    forgot an update last week, I received rev2 boards last monday (9/2). but was on vacation with the family (They have priority above "nerd" projects ;))

                    Will see if I can get a couple of pictures of the new boards when I get home from daytime job today.

                    And hopefully, I'll get a couple of boards mounted during this week, so I can get it verified, and we can start preparing for "production to the masses" :)

                    Say what?? I take offense to that.. I'm a geek.... :-)

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tvy_Pbe5NA

                    hekH Offline
                    hekH Offline
                    hek
                    Admin
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #213

                    @ServiceXp

                    Haha! That was fun!

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • RJ_MakeR RJ_Make

                      @tbowmo said:

                      forgot an update last week, I received rev2 boards last monday (9/2). but was on vacation with the family (They have priority above "nerd" projects ;))

                      Will see if I can get a couple of pictures of the new boards when I get home from daytime job today.

                      And hopefully, I'll get a couple of boards mounted during this week, so I can get it verified, and we can start preparing for "production to the masses" :)

                      Say what?? I take offense to that.. I'm a geek.... :-)

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tvy_Pbe5NA

                      tbowmoT Offline
                      tbowmoT Offline
                      tbowmo
                      Admin
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #214

                      @ServiceXp

                      Ahh, in Denmark we don't distinguish that hard between nerds and geeks..

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • tbowmoT Offline
                        tbowmoT Offline
                        tbowmo
                        Admin
                        wrote on last edited by tbowmo
                        #215

                        A couple of days ago I promised pictures of the new boards. Unfortunately I have been busy with some other projects :s (I hate it, when work related projects take too much of the spare time..).

                        Anyway, here are a couple of pictures, not the best quality, as it was a couple of quick snaps I took when I received the boards last week..

                        rev2-front.jpg
                        rev2-back.jpg

                        The front one is a bit blurry, sorry about that, but that is what I have at the moment..

                        @bjornhallberg as you can see it seems that it works quite well with adding the break tabs

                        bjornhallbergB 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • tbowmoT tbowmo

                          A couple of days ago I promised pictures of the new boards. Unfortunately I have been busy with some other projects :s (I hate it, when work related projects take too much of the spare time..).

                          Anyway, here are a couple of pictures, not the best quality, as it was a couple of quick snaps I took when I received the boards last week..

                          rev2-front.jpg
                          rev2-back.jpg

                          The front one is a bit blurry, sorry about that, but that is what I have at the moment..

                          @bjornhallberg as you can see it seems that it works quite well with adding the break tabs

                          bjornhallbergB Offline
                          bjornhallbergB Offline
                          bjornhallberg
                          Hero Member
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #216

                          @tbowmo Looks great! I hope my regulators turn out as nice. They should hopefully arrive next week.

                          Best thing about the panelizer is obviously if you mass produce different sized boards, and use 10x10 cm PCBs (that are almost half the price / square cm), not only fitting a ton of boards in one space, but beating the freeware limitation in Eagle.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • tbowmoT Offline
                            tbowmoT Offline
                            tbowmo
                            Admin
                            wrote on last edited by tbowmo
                            #217

                            So almost finished the first two boards of the new revision..

                            I changed the footprint of all the SMD capacitors, and resistors, to footprints recomended by the manufacturer we are in dialog with for the mass production. Only problem is, that it's a nightmare soldering the 0402 smd components now, because the footprints are much smaller than what was used on the first revision.

                            Anyway, only missing decoupling capacitors now, so I'm going to power it up, just to see if everything works like it should.

                            2015-02-22-1.jpg 2015-02-22-2.jpg

                            The two first is also with atsha204 mounted! Hope that everything is connected as it should be :)

                            First powerup seems to be ok. no excessive power ussage, and bootloader is successfully dumped into the first board. So it seems like a success sofar. (Even LED lights up during bootloader startup.. So that's also a success :))

                            2015-02-22-3.jpg

                            Also ATSHA204 is confirmed working on the first prototype!

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            7
                            • AnticimexA Offline
                              AnticimexA Offline
                              Anticimex
                              Contest Winner
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #218

                              Properly done!

                              Do you feel secure today? No? Start requiring some signatures and feel better tomorrow ;)

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • S Offline
                                S Offline
                                sharath krishna
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #219

                                so @tbowmo when can we order em ? just waiting to get a may be around 10 to start with :)

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • tbowmoT Offline
                                  tbowmoT Offline
                                  tbowmo
                                  Admin
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #220

                                  @sharath-krishna

                                  To my best knowledge at the moment, it will be Q2 this year.

                                  It should work, as the extra components added in rev. 2, have been verified as working (it's the atsha204 chip, for signing purposes). Everything else should be working, as I haven't altered in the schematics, so connections should be the same as the previous version.

                                  AnticimexA 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • tbowmoT tbowmo

                                    @sharath-krishna

                                    To my best knowledge at the moment, it will be Q2 this year.

                                    It should work, as the extra components added in rev. 2, have been verified as working (it's the atsha204 chip, for signing purposes). Everything else should be working, as I haven't altered in the schematics, so connections should be the same as the previous version.

                                    AnticimexA Offline
                                    AnticimexA Offline
                                    Anticimex
                                    Contest Winner
                                    wrote on last edited by Anticimex
                                    #221

                                    @tbowmo Looking at the placement, I have a few questions regarding connectivity. With the RF-board mounted (looks like it goes in on the bottom layer), will it be possible to access the other holes?
                                    Essentially, I wonder about the mounting possibilities. As there are no holes for screws, I am guessing the board is intended to be mated to a backplane using the IO-pins as interconnects? But will that be possible when the RF board is mounted? The programmer and FTDI-headers I suppose go up from the top layer so they are out of the way, but my concern is that the RF board will cover the IO-rows on the other side.
                                    Or is the intention to have a board that is wire-soldered directly and RF module is mounted last? I worry a bit on maintenance then :)

                                    Do you feel secure today? No? Start requiring some signatures and feel better tomorrow ;)

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                                    • tbowmoT Offline
                                      tbowmoT Offline
                                      tbowmo
                                      Admin
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #222

                                      @Anticimex

                                      main thought was that it was only going to be used with wires connected to the board (that's the way I wanted to use it). the FTDI header, was only intended for downloading software, and debug purposes.

                                      The radio will cover the FTDI header, and the pinheader on one of the sides of the board. So you have to mount the board to another board "upside down", that is with the atmega facing down to the other board. In this case the micro sensor is sandwitched between the radio module, and the extension board.

                                      There are tradeoffs when trying to make things as small as possible (which was my initial goal of this board).

                                      AnticimexA 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • tbowmoT tbowmo

                                        @Anticimex

                                        main thought was that it was only going to be used with wires connected to the board (that's the way I wanted to use it). the FTDI header, was only intended for downloading software, and debug purposes.

                                        The radio will cover the FTDI header, and the pinheader on one of the sides of the board. So you have to mount the board to another board "upside down", that is with the atmega facing down to the other board. In this case the micro sensor is sandwitched between the radio module, and the extension board.

                                        There are tradeoffs when trying to make things as small as possible (which was my initial goal of this board).

                                        AnticimexA Offline
                                        AnticimexA Offline
                                        Anticimex
                                        Contest Winner
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #223

                                        @tbowmo Sure, no problems. I was just wondering about the intended usecase. I think it should be possible to mount both the programming and the FTDI header on the same side though. This leaves the RF board free to use all needed space. And direct wires to all other IO. A "ugly" approach is also to simply not solder FTDI at all. Just put the pin header in and press it against the side when programming (if bootloader exists). Same could be done for the programming header (if you want a really thin board topology).
                                        But since batteries will create some "height" I think it should be possible to keep both headers pointing up from the AVR-side of the board. Might I suggest for future revisions a 3mm mounting hole/point up center between the nice silk screen grafitti? But perhaps it will be obscured by the RF board. It will be tricky to get the board mounted through that hole in that case if it has to be done before the board is soldered I guess. Oh well, you can't get everything :)
                                        Good work on the routing. The I2C pullups must have been painful.

                                        Do you feel secure today? No? Start requiring some signatures and feel better tomorrow ;)

                                        korttomaK 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • AnticimexA Anticimex

                                          @tbowmo Sure, no problems. I was just wondering about the intended usecase. I think it should be possible to mount both the programming and the FTDI header on the same side though. This leaves the RF board free to use all needed space. And direct wires to all other IO. A "ugly" approach is also to simply not solder FTDI at all. Just put the pin header in and press it against the side when programming (if bootloader exists). Same could be done for the programming header (if you want a really thin board topology).
                                          But since batteries will create some "height" I think it should be possible to keep both headers pointing up from the AVR-side of the board. Might I suggest for future revisions a 3mm mounting hole/point up center between the nice silk screen grafitti? But perhaps it will be obscured by the RF board. It will be tricky to get the board mounted through that hole in that case if it has to be done before the board is soldered I guess. Oh well, you can't get everything :)
                                          Good work on the routing. The I2C pullups must have been painful.

                                          korttomaK Offline
                                          korttomaK Offline
                                          korttoma
                                          Hero Member
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #224

                                          @Anticimex said:

                                          Just put the pin header in and press it against the side when programming

                                          This is what I do with the Pro Mini, have not had any problems yet.

                                          • Tomas
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