How to best set up a bigger mysensors installation

[LastSamurai]

Hi, I am currently planning a bigger mysensors installation for a whole house (3 floors, cellar, garden...) and I was wondering about the best way to set this up. The walls in this house seem to isolate radiowaves pretty well (at least for wifi which uses the same frequency) so I am likely to at least 2-3 "gateways" for mysensors (maybe one per floor).
Whould you recommend using one gateway + repeater, or different (wlan) gateways per floor? Repeater related problems seem to be hard to debug but multiple gateways might cause problems with nodes (do they? can a node auto-connect to another gateway if it loses connection to one?).

For now I plan to use domoticz as a controller if that makes any difference. Any other tips/ideas for settings up slightly bigger installations with dozens of nodes?

[Jan Gatzke]

@LastSamurai

There can be only one gateway in one network. Auto fallback does not exist afaik. You can have one network per floor. This means you have to choose another channel/frequency.
I have used one repeater in a similar scenario. Problems occur when the node occasionally can reach the gateway directly. I had to specify the parent node/repeater. Now it works well.

[gohan]

You could use rfm69hw with 433Mhz frequency, with high power output and better penetration maybe you could make it with just one gateway (maybe placed in the middle of the house). Also multiple WiFi gateways are possible, you only have to use different channels on the nrf24 to separate one network from the other

[LastSamurai]

I will try to make due with one high power gateway (+ possible repeaters) then. Thanks for the feedback though!
@gohan 433Mhz will be used too to control some old outlets. But most of my pcbs are designed for the nrf24 so I'll stay with that for now.

[gohan]

@LastSamurai there is a pcb to convert nrf24 sockets for rfm69, just in case you change your mind :)

[sundberg84]

@LastSamurai - as said in the post, i have also set static node ids and in some few cases parent as well. I have celler with concrete roof(gw), main floor (repeater) and attic (wooden floor) and that works for me with Nrf24l01+

[LastSamurai]

@sundberg84 Thanks, nice to know! Why the static node ids though? I get the static parent id but a node only needs to get the id once anyways, right?

[gohan]

Because node ids are necessary and if your controller doesn't have auto assign you have to do it manually

[LastSamurai]

@gohan Ah ok, sure! I haven't used a controller without auto-assignment yet ;)

[sundberg84]

@LastSamurai - my controller does have auto assign ID, but I like to have a documentation for my nodes. If i upgrade a node sometimes it recieves a new node id (even if its the same hardware) so this way i know that node 8 is always my rain sensor for example :)

[gohan]

Just as a note, once Node ID is assigned the first time (manually or auto) it is stored into the eeprom so in theory you can run the exact same code on multiple sensors (without defining node ID) that makes it easier to manage when you do updates (either via cable or OTA)

[Jan Gatzke]

I always got the same behavior. The ID should never change after it was first assigned, You need to flash the erase eeprom sketch to get rid of it.