💬 NModule

[Nca78]

@zmatokan said in 💬 NModule:

@Nca78

If I would use:

• 5v power supply
• 5v arduino
• 5v motion sensor

i would need to

• remove onboard arduino voltage regulator
• connect RAW and GND to the 5v powersupply
• add radio volt regulator and capacitor
• soldier JPOWER

Yes. If your sensor can work with the voltage drop of the arduino regulator (I think yes), you can also keep it and leave JPOWER open. Less risky and you might have a "cleaner" power for the motion sensor.

@zmatokan said in 💬 NModule:

And if i use:

5v power supply
3,3v arduino
3v sensor

i would need to:

• remove onboard arduino voltage regulator
• connect RAW and GND to the 5v powersupply
• add 3.3V AMS1117
• add radio capacitor
• soldier JRADIO

No, with a normal SMD radio the onboard regulator of the promini will be enough to supply power to board + radio + i2C sensors. So keep the arduino regulator, don't add an AMS1117, leave JPOWER opened, solder JRADIO.

[ghiglie]

Hi there! In these days I got some boards from my drawer - I spare quite a lot, I ordered 10 panelized one, so I have 40 NModules! :O :smiley:
4 sensors are yet running on battery (2 on CR2032 and 2 with with 2xAA). The fifth module had an accident and I need to program it via SPI. is it safe to flash it with the antenna still soldered?

[Nca78]

@ghiglie said in 💬 NModule:

Hi there! In these days I got some boards from my drawer - I spare quite a lot, I ordered 10 panelized one, so I have 40 NModules! :O :smiley:
4 sensors are yet running on battery (2 on CR2032 and 2 with with 2xAA). The fifth module had an accident and I need to program it via SPI. is it safe to flash it with the antenna still soldered?

Haha that's a lot of boards. May I know what the accident was ? There was a case of a nmodule having a shortcut when manipulated, is it something similar ?
The radio SPI pins can handle 5V but not it's power supply. So as you have no regulator on radio for these boards, I see 3 choices :

1. best one = use a programmer running at 3.3V and you can power the board & radio with it. 100% safe. You can do this with the ArduinoISP sketch, a 3.3V pro mini and a ftdi adapter.
2. if you only have a 5V powered programmer, power the board separately and connect only the SPI pins with the 5V programmer. But this is out of spec as the voltage on SPI pins will be higher than VCC + 0.5V
3. open the JRDIO jumper so that the radio is not connected to VCC and use 5V programmer for SPI pins + power supply of the board. In that case to respect the datasheet of NRF24 you need to supply separately at least 3V to VCC radio, else you are in the same situation than point 2, but with the radio and that is I think a worse situation so in that case solution 2. is safer.

[ghiglie]

@Nca78 said in 💬 NModule:

Haha that's a lot of boards. May I know what the accident was ? There was a case of a nmodule having a shortcut when manipulated, is it something similar ?

Oh, easy! I already had soldered TX/RX pins and the angled ones (towards the atmega). I decide to take them off and reverse the angled... Iron's temperature was quite high... Some tracks got as bright as old 100W bulbs filament! :D

The radio SPI pins can handle 5V but not it's power supply. So as you have no regulator on radio for these boards, I see 3 choices :

1. best one = use a programmer running at 3.3V and you can power the board & radio with it. 100% safe. You can do this with the ArduinoISP sketch, a 3.3V pro mini and a ftdi adapter.
2. if you only have a 5V powered programmer, power the board separately and connect only the SPI pins with the 5V programmer. But this is out of spec as the voltage on SPI pins will be higher than VCC + 0.5V
3. open the JRDIO jumper so that the radio is not connected to VCC and use 5V programmer for SPI pins + power supply of the board. In that case to respect the datasheet of NRF24 you need to supply separately at least 3V to VCC radio, else you are in the same situation than point 2, but with the radio and that is I think a worse situation so in that case solution 2. is safer.

I'm yet programming it with ArduinoISP on a genuine UNO, so I'm safe. I'll solder the SMD antenna ASAP, the TH one isn't bearable once you see how slim the node gets with your PCB!

[ghiglie]

Ok, just for record: be very very very very very carefull when desoldering the regulator+led+resistance. Do it before soldering the ping legs on module: I had a pair of nodes, correctly running, beatyfully soldered, legs trimmed... and darn, dunno what I did on tracks, they are not powering up anymore.
Luckily I could desolder the antenna from under the PCB and stick on another (the first I told) and put the other as spare.

Oh, I love DIY when I fix my errors! :laughing:

{update: one sensor died yesterday. Maybe my Minis are too cheap? }

[zmatokan]

@Nca78 Thanks man! I managed to make it work. Seems like the problem was with radio modules. Now it works fine!

[Nca78]

@zmatokan said in 💬 NModule:

@Nca78 Thanks man! I managed to make it work. Seems like the problem was with radio modules. Now it works fine!

Happy to hear that, thank you for the feedback !

[zmatokan]

@Nca78 Are you still working on this pcbs? i think it would be great to add a version that supports HiLink 220ac->5dc module on powerboard.

[Nca78]

@zmatokan said in 💬 NModule:

@Nca78 Are you still working on this pcbs? i think it would be great to add a version that supports HiLink 220ac->5dc module on powerboard.

No I'm not working on NModules anymore, I have a few old nodes using atmega/nrf24 but I switched to NRF5 for "basic" nodes now, and to ESP32 for more "advanced" stuff.
NModule was designed for beginner and simple/riskless use, so I don't think adding high voltage option is a great idea, it's better to use an external power supply and connect the output to the powerboard.