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The mysterious case of overly active motion sensors

LastSamurai Hardware Contributor last edited by LastSamurai
There is a problem with my MySensor network that has been annoying me for about a year now that I can't seem to solve. So here I am creating this thread, hoping for some help from you guys.
I have created several motion sensor nodes:
- some based on the small pir
- some based on the bigger pir
- and one based on the ikea Molgan hack
All of them are battery powered (tried 2aa, 3aaa for the molgan and CR2032) and all of them seemed to work fine at least for some time. Battery consumption was always pretty high though.

Then after different timeframes of about 6 weeks "disaster" struck every one of them: each one began to constantly trigger making them useless. First I though a low voltage level might be the problem but new batteries only worked for a short time (if at all) before seeing the same problem again.
My gateway is an arduino nano with a normal NRF24L01+ (+ a small cap) connected to it. Other sensors (a door contact switch and some temp/humidity sensors) work fine for the most part but there are some small hickups too (one isn't sending battery levels anymore although the other measurements still get send) and signing did not work on ~half of them. From what I gathered in this forum the connection did not work well enough for the longer messages.
I am planing to upgrade my gateway to use a PA LNA model with an antenna + external power supply and a nodeMCU for a MQTT gateway.
Would a bigger NRF only on the gateway side help? Any other ideas whats wrong with my network or why my motion sensors behave so strange?
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Does MySensors require Arduino Timer 2?
Hardware • mysensors interrupt nano interrupts esp • • OldSurferDude

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I have success! (oops, that's suppose to be Timer1) I only sample for 1/60 of a second. What I did was to back up all the timer registered I used and then resorted them after I was done sampling. (As opposed to initializing the registers in setup and then starting the timer when needed.) Now I have a Nano sampling the data and sending it to a MySensors Gateway on an RPi3B+ which then sends it to an MQTT broker runing on an old laptop. Also running on the laptop is Home Assistant running inside of VirtualBox. If MySensors does use Timer1, it appears that restoring the registers allows it to be shared. //------------------------------------------------------ISR ISR(TIMER1_OVF_vect){ // interrupt service routine for overflow TCNT1 = TimerPreloadValue; // must be first line! starts the timer counting again digitalWrite(TRIGGER_START_SAMPLE_PIN,HIGH); samplesVolts[--sample]=analogRead(VOLTS_IN_PIN); // decrement before capturing samplesCurrent[sample]=analogRead(CURRENT_IN_PIN); digitalWrite(TRIGGER_START_SAMPLE_PIN,LOW); if (!sample){ // count down to zero digitalWrite(TRIGGER_START_SAMPLE_PERIOD_PIN,LOW); // indicate that sampling is complete samplingEnd = micros(); TCCR1B &= 248; // turns off timer } } //------------------------------------------------------sampleOneCycle void sampleOneCycle(){ // back up timer registers uint8_t TCNT1_b = TCNT1; uint8_t TCCR1B_b = TCCR1B; uint8_t TCCR1A_b = TCCR1A; uint8_t TIMSK1_b = TIMSK1; // configure timer which starts the sampling noInterrupts(); // disable all interrupts TCCR1A = 0; TCCR1B = 0; TCNT1 = TimerPreloadValue; // preload timer //TCCR1B |= (1 << CS10)|(1 << CS12); // 1024 prescaler TCCR1B &= 248; // turns off timer? TIMSK1 |= (1 << TOIE1); // enable timer overflow interrupt ISR // demark sampling sample = NUMBER_OF_SAMPLES; // count down to zero digitalWrite(TRIGGER_START_SAMPLE_PERIOD_PIN,HIGH); samplingStart = micros(); TCNT1 = 65535; // first trigger right away! TCCR1B |= 1; // turns on timer interrupts(); // enable all interrupts // wait for sampling to be complete while(digitalRead(TRIGGER_START_SAMPLE_PERIOD_PIN)){}; samplingEnd = micros(); // restore timer registers TCNT1 = TCNT1_b; TCCR1B = TCCR1B_b; TCCR1A = TCCR1A_b; TIMSK1 = TIMSK1_b; }
Best VOC sensor for detecting a wide range of VOC's?
Hardware • • NeverDie

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@eiten I haven't yet made any progress on finding a good VOC sensor, but along the way I did find out something interesting regarding CO2: namely, if you sleep with your bedroom door closed at night, then the odds are good that the CO2 levels rise to surprisingly high and unhealthy levels. The better CO2 sensors are factory calibrated and never again need recalibration for the life of the sensor (usually around 10 years or so), because they are used in HVAC systems to control fresh air intake to guarantee indoor air quality. As a for instance, here is one such CO2 sensor: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/senseair/006-0-0008/15790694 At around $50 for just the sensor element itself, it's not exactly cheap, but then again, I'd say it's worth it, because who wants to be burdened by remembering to calibrate their CO2 sensors? Ideally, I'd like to find a sensitive VOC sensor that also will never require calibration. Nearly all, and maybe all, of the off-the-shelf IAQ montoring stuff that you might buy for, say, $300 or less seems to require periodic calibration. For that reason, this might be one of those occasions where build is rather than buy.
Arduino Nano Every problem
Hardware • • hakha4

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I bought the Every because it implied it was backward compatible with the nano. No, it's not, as we found out. Be that as it may, any word on a getting the Every working with mySensors?
Sensors and more
Hardware • • Robert Leverett

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"Remote Irrigation with LoRaWAN: LM27313 Challenges and PCB Design"
Hardware • • wrendral

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@wrendral said in "Remote Irrigation with LoRaWAN: LM27313 Challenges and PCB Design": I will go with a Li-Po Battery type: 304048 3.7V 1200mAh Might work, but maybe the internal protection will trigger with the high current peaks. I'd suggest you plan a 0 Ohm, (2512/THT) resistor as R2 and then replace it with a 100Ohm/1Watt if the protection triggers.

The mysterious case of overly active motion sensors

Suggested Topics

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General Discussion • • ToSa

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Hardware • mysensors interrupt nano interrupts esp • • OldSurferDude

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The mysterious case of overly active motion sensors

Suggested Topics

Over the air updates General Discussion • • ToSa

Does MySensors require Arduino Timer 2? Hardware • mysensors interrupt nano interrupts esp • • OldSurferDude

Best VOC sensor for detecting a wide range of VOC's? Hardware • • NeverDie

Arduino Nano Every problem Hardware • • hakha4

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Over the air updates
General Discussion • • ToSa

Does MySensors require Arduino Timer 2?
Hardware • mysensors interrupt nano interrupts esp • • OldSurferDude

Best VOC sensor for detecting a wide range of VOC's?
Hardware • • NeverDie

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Hardware • • hakha4

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Hardware • • Robert Leverett

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Hardware • • wrendral

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Online

11.4k
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