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

[mar.conte]

Hello everyone, you can send commands to the node by domoticz even if the node is in sleep forever? Or the node must always have a sleep delay?

[Efflon]

@mar.conte if it's sleeping, it will not receive anything until wake-up. If you change the sleep mode to wait,

nodeManager.setSleepMode(WAIT);
[or]
nodeManager.setSleep(WAIT,1,HOURS);

the sensor will be awake all the time (and drain your battery).

[user2684]

@Efflon glad to see you found out the right balance for you needs. Based on what you are saying I probably want change the default value of setBatteryReportWithInterrupt() back to true, in this way the new version will present the same behavior as the old one but can be changed at any time by the user. Of course if anybody has a different view, please let me know.

[user2684]

@Efflon @mar-conte, if the sensor is powered by batteries, I'll leverage smart sleep which NodeManager is using by default. Smart sleep is btw the reason why I moved into MySensors: since all of my sensors are battery powered, I needed a way to send commands also in this situation.

There is no overhead for the sensor in terms of code (it just needs to wake up periodically to receive commands) and on the controller side the implementation is very simple: once the controller knows the node is a sleeping one, it will queue the commands and send them once the node is awake next (when using smart sleep, a heartbeat is reported once the node is awake and just before going to sleep again).

I'm using this since a while for my boiler controller without issue: the node controls a (latching) relay and goes through a 5 minutes sleeping cycle with the controller (I'm using my https://www.mysensors.org/controller/myhouse) queuing the on/off command. This will introduce a little delay (1-5 minutes in my case) but can be adapted with a shorter/longer sleeping cycle.

[mar.conte]

@user2684
a really interesting project, however I would use NodeManager to query each time the battery status of my pir sensor; I would like to know how I can send from domoticz commands to query my node !! thank you

[gohan]

what's the point of querying node for battery status? Just put in the code to report it when battery level changes.

[user2684]

@mar.conte if you want to query the battery level on-demand, you can by sending to NodeManager's service child id (by default 200) a REQ V_CUSTOM message with BATTERY as a payload.Of course the node must be awake to respond or the controller must support smart sleep. Or as @gohan says, just have the node reporting the battery level

[mar.conte]

@user2684
Tanks i try and report you
By

[rhaymo]

Hi,
first of all, thanks to user2684 for his great job.
I wonder if it would possible adding a feature in nodeManager, where after a wake up from interrupt, only the onLoop method of the sensor attached to that pin is executed. onLoop of sensors not attached to interrupt are executed only after a full sleep cycle. (of course, this requires that after a wakeup from interrupt, the node come to sleep only for (sleepTime - elapsedTimeBeforeWakeup) )

In my case, I have a sketch for a node with a temperature and door sensor. Temperature is sent each 60 minutes, while door status only on interrupt.

[user2684]

@rhaymo you're right, combining sensors waking up from an interrupt and sensors reporting periodically does not work properly with NodeManager right now. I've opened this enhancement request: https://github.com/mysensors/NodeManager/issues/41.
It may be not trivial to implement so it will not be part of the next release which is almost ready but I'll work on it just after since looks like a key requirement for many projects.
Thanks!

[bilbolodz]

@user2684 Great plugin, thanks. Please: consider adding support for a more than one DS18B20 devices and fixed mapping sensor_id <-> DS18B20 id.

[Robbie_]

Hi User2684,

As promised i took NodeManager for a spin. It functions well but i have an issue with powering a DHT22 from the digital pins. It just does not show any temp/hum. If i use the power from the battery it functions well.

Any clue what this could be?

I used setPowerPins6,7,10000 to be sure the DHT22 has enough time to start up. If i use my multimeter between pins 6,7 i see the voltage going to 3.something volts and to 0 when the 10000 miliseconds are gone.

My config is as following;

// before
void before() {
  // setup the serial port baud rate
  Serial.begin(MY_BAUD_RATE);  
  /*
   * Register below your sensors
  */
  nodeManager.setSleep(SLEEP,1,MINUTES); 
nodeManager.registerSensor(SENSOR_DHT22,3);
nodeManager.setPowerPins(6,7,10000);
  /*
   * Register above your sensors
  */
  nodeManager.before();
}

[bilbolodz]

@Robbie_ I've NOT checked anything but I think that probably better:

1. power up DHT
2. wait a little to "dht startup"
3. register sensor

[Robbie_]

@bilbolodz
So like this?

nodeManager.setPowerPins(6,7,10000);
nodeManager.registerSensor(SENSOR_DHT22,3);
nodeManager.setSleep(SLEEP,1,MINUTES);

[bilbolodz]

@Robbie_ said in NodeManager: plugin for a rapid development of battery-powered sensors:
Try this:

nodeManager.setPowerPins(6,7,10000);
wait(10000);
nodeManager.registerSensor(SENSOR_DHT22,3);```

[Robbie_]

@bilbolodz said in NodeManager: plugin for a rapid development of battery-powered sensors:

wait(10000);

Thanks for the fast reply! Still the same issue;

SEND D=0 I=200 C=0 T=48 S=STARTED I=0 F=0.00
14258 TSF:MSG:SEND,100-100-0-0,s=200,c=1,t=48,pt=0,l=7,sg=0,ft=0,st=OK:STARTED
14395 MCO:BGN:INIT OK,TSP=1
ON P=7
14426 MCO:SLP:MS=10000,SMS=0,I1=255,M1=255,I2=255,M2=255
14493 MCO:SLP:TPD
14512 MCO:SLP:WUP=-1
DHT I=1 T=nan
OFF P=7
SLEEP 60s
SEND D=0 I=200 C=1 T=48 S=SLEEPING I=0 F=0.00

[user2684]

@bilbolodz multiple DS18B20 are supported indeed, when you register a DS18B20 sensor and provide the pin where multiple devices are attached, NodeManager will go through all of them (by calling getDeviceCount() of DallasTemperature) and will register each of them with a different child id. Is this what you were looking for?

[user2684]

Hi, @Robbie_ the order doesn't matter since all of this is happening inside before(), NodeManager just keeps track of all your settings without doing anything at that stage.

Your configuration looks correct to me, the DHT sensor attached to pin 3, pin 6 playing the role of ground, pin 7 the role of vcc and waiting for 10 seconds after powering on, before actually reading the value from the sensor. The log also tells the same story, pin 7 is turned on, then 10s of sleep and then the "nan" read which I cannot really understand (the code is very simple, just executes a digitalWrite(_vcc_pin, HIGH) at that stage).
Would you please ensure pin 7 is HIGH during the 10s sleep?

Not sure if it matters (and those more expert than me with a DHT sensor can confirm) but I've noticed that I call dht.begin() only once (during before()) and during loop() I just call readTemperature(). Does powering off the sensor have an impact on this? e.g. should I call begin() before every read?
Thanks

[gohan]

I think you need to call the begin if you power off the sensor

[bilbolodz]

@user2684 said in NodeManager: plugin for a rapid development of battery-powered sensors:

@bilbolodz multiple DS18B20 are supported indeed, when you register a DS18B20 sensor and provide the pin where multiple devices are attached, NodeManager will go through all of them (by calling getDeviceCount() of DallasTemperature) and will register each of them with a different child id. Is this what you were looking for?

Multiple sensors: great but for me important thing is "fixed" matching exact DS18B20 to particular child id. I'm going to monitor may two function water boiler and check input/output temperature. In case when one of the DS disappear (because of many reasons) after next nodemanager device startup assigning sensors to child id will change and it will be a great problem. That's why I'm asking for exact assigning DS id - child id. Is it clear now?