NodeManager: plugin for a rapid development of battery-powered sensors

[user2684]

@mar.conte said in NodeManager: plugin for a rapid development of battery-powered sensors:

Should the gateway have the right nodemamager sketch?

Just to confirm what already discussed: a node/sensor with NodeManager running does not require a gateway with NodeManager on it. Generally speaking, there are two situations in which you may want use NodeManager on a gateway as well (available starting from v1.5):

• It as to run on a Sonoff device which requires to be configured as a gateway
• The gateway has sensors attached to it so you may want to use NodeManager's capabilities to configure your sensors in an easy way

There is also a third situation: you are just lazy and have NodeManager already open in the arduino IDE so you just configure the gateway's settings in config.h and upload the sketch :P

[mar.conte]

@user2684
👍🏾😉

[user2684]

Last chance guys to report any issue for those who had tested the dev version of v1.5 :-)
The final version will be out in a day or two otherwise.

Thanks!

[gohan]

I am waiting for the LCD mod :D

[user2684]

@gohan LCD unfortunately has to wait for the another release (https://github.com/mysensors/NodeManager/issues/95), I would like to find a way to provide the info on the LCD without the need for the user to configure it for every sensor but this would require investigating on the best generic approach and will take some time :-)

[gohan]

If you could provide a method to retrieve sensor data from main loop(), it is quite easy for everyone to print it to LCD

[user2684]

@gohan I wonder if something can be done even right now based on what you're saying. In the main sketch, after invoking nodeManager.loop(), you can actually retrieve the instance of each sensor and do something. The last "value", depending on the type of the sensor, is stored in a variable (e.g. _value_int) BUT it is private. I'll add a getValue() function so you can get out this value. Not ideal but I think it can be a workaround I can easily add before releasing 1.5 (https://github.com/mysensors/NodeManager/issues/104)

[gohan]

The problem is how do I know the name of the instance of the sensors

[user2684]

@gohan I mean if you declare a global int to store the child id, then you can save it when calling registersensor() (which returns the id of the sensor) in before() so eventually in loop() you can call getSensor() and then retrieve the value or do whatever else. Something like:

NodeManager nodeManager;
int sensor_id;

void before() {
  Serial.begin(MY_BAUD_RATE);  
  sensor_id = nodeManager.registerSensor(SENSOR_THERMISTOR,A1);
  nodeManager.before();
}

void loop() {
  nodeManager.loop();
  float value = ((SensorThermistor*)nodeManager.getSensor(sensor_id))->getValueFloat();

}

Just the getValueFloat() is missing. Not ideal but a starting point. Don't you think? Thanks!

[gohan]

That would work, at least for me :)

[user2684]

@gohan cool, just added it to the dev code. I'm packing now the final v1.5 and about to post it here in a few minutes. Thanks!

[gohan]

At least now we can add some more code besides the default created by nodemanager ;)

[user2684]

Very true also because I'd avoid having the users customizing their NodeManager.cpp (even if it is always possible) to prevent issues during the upgrade. For your information the alternative to create an inline class inheriting from Sensor and then invoking registerSensor() with an instance of this class is always valid even if clearly much more complex.

[user2684]

Version 1.5 of NodeManager is finally available here!
https://github.com/mysensors/NodeManager

I've done my best to implement most of the requests received so far since unfortunately I'm expecting starting from June very little spare time to spend here so I tried to hurry up a bit :-) The result is a pretty long change log and a total of 26 between ad-hoc and generic out-of-the-box sensors supported up to this release:

• Added support for ACS712 current sensor
• Added support for HC-SR04 distance sensor
• Added support for BMP085/BMP180 temperature and pressure sensor
• Added support for Sonoff smart switch
• Added support for Rain Gauge sensor
• Added support for MCP9808 temperature sensor
• Added forecast output to all Bosch sensors
• Added I2C address auto-discovery for all Bosch sensors
• Added support for running as a gateway
• Added option to retrieve the latest value of a sensor from outside NodeManager
• Remote reboot now does not need a reboot pin configured
• A heartbeat is now sent also when waking up from a wait cycle
• When waking up for an interrupt, only the code of the sensor expecting that interrupt is executed
• Added capability to retrieve the time from the controller
• Optimized battery life for DS18B20 sensors
• SLEEP_MANAGER has been deprecated (now always enabled) and setMode() replaces setSleepMode()
• New mode ALWAYS_ON to let the node staying awake and executing each sensors' loop
• ESP8266WiFi.h has to be included in the main sketch if MY_GATEWAY_ESP8266 is defined
• Added receiveTime() wrapper in the main sketch
• Fixed the logic for output sensors
• Added common gateway settings in config.h

I've added upgrade instructions as well in the documentation. Generally speaking to upgrade it is safe to just replace the existing NodeManager.h and NodeManager.cpp files but with this release I had to do some minor changes to the main sketch as well, as documented in the release notes.

Thanks everybody for all the advice and for reporting any issue always in a constructive way :-)

[user2684]

Hi, only for those having problems with a too high utilization of the dynamic memory preventing NodeManager to run smoothly (e.g. generating random data / outputting garbage characters / rebooting, etc), a quick fix is to decrease from 255 to a small number like 5 or 10 the size of the Sensor* _sensors array. This saves more than 20% on a pro mini which is huge. Of course you also need to change every cycle in NodeManager.cpp which is using that 255.

This of course will be also fixed in the next release. Very silly mistake I know to initialize such a big array but I couldn't image 255 pointers were consuming so much :-)

[mar.conte]

Hi, i wanted to know in which section of the sketch I turn on and turn off a led when the node controls the battery because at night the led me starts the pir; Now I've put the digitalwrite after nodemanger.loop

[user2684]

@mar.conte NodeManager does not control any led so I think you are free to place your code where you think is most appropriate for your needs. Thanks

[gohan]

@mar.conte put a capacitor on the PIR vcc/gnd and increase the size until it is stable.

[mar.conte]

@gohan
Good idea Tanks

[user2684]

Hi, I've added a "How to contribute" section in the documentation of the dev release in case anybody is interested to contribute to this project: https://github.com/mysensors/NodeManager/tree/development#contributing.

I'm not a git expert so I hope those instructions to have some sense :)