nRF5 action!

[NeverDie]

@scalz Well, what do you think he should use instead? Bare chips? That's not as easy to solder.

[NeverDie]

By the way, any update as to when Nordic will be shipping final silicon on the nRF52840? Seems overdue. I just checked Digikey, and still all they have are the ancient PDK's.

[Nca78]

@scalz said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

well, you should choose a better module than funky design modules.. just my opinion, for saving?? 2bucks!

Well I was about to complain about my limited choice on Arrow (others ask 75$ shipping :o ), but after checking (again) I see that Arrow now has the Fanstel modules, so I have no reason to complain anymore :D
Too bad the BT832F is not in stock, but BT832 at 4.6$ is great, with the XE version in the gateway to compensate the lower range.

[scalz]

@neverdie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

@scalz Well, what do you think he should use instead? Bare chips? That's not as easy to solder.

Frankly, I'm lazy answering to this question, same for technical stuff. sometimes I feel people miss what I'm trying to explain even if they haven't xp, and I keep repeating it... And the same for my designs, I'm wondering if it's worth the effort when i hear people trying to save 2-5bucks (not rewarding for time&money spent, not asking money btw), or want to reinvent cheaper&less quality variants (why not teamworking, not interested in infinite challenge, waste money&time) or complaining it's too hard to solder, did you read my many redondant advice in the forum, I don't handsolder tiny dfn, I reflow them, far far easier&quicker.
So that's settled, this is why I delayed my releases, until i change my mind, and I'm playing with software.
Sorry I don't want to look pedantic, not targeted against you especially, just tired ;)

@Nca78 cool

[NeverDie]

@scalz For comparison, I feel like the nRF24L01 is also pretty much a waste of time, given that better performing alternatives exist, and yet it's the most popular radio on the mysensors forum, possibly because it's so cheap and easy to wire up.
You have unusually high skills. A lot of people on this forum just want a list of throughole parts from Aliexpress that they can connect together using dupont wires. So, there's quite a range of skill levels. The biggest barrier I see is people not wanting to hand solder (let alone reflow) SMD parts onto a custom PCB. I think that's partly why the openhardware thing hasn't gotten much traction.

[Nca78]

@scalz said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

@neverdie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

@scalz Well, what do you think he should use instead? Bare chips? That's not as easy to solder.

Frankly, I'm lazy answering to this question, same for technical stuff. sometimes I feel people miss what I'm trying to explain even if they haven't xp, and I keep repeating it... And the same for my designs, I'm wondering if it's worth the effort when i hear people trying to save 2-5bucks (not rewarding for time&money spent, not asking money btw), or want to reinvent cheaper&less quality variants (why not teamworking, not interested in infinite challenge, waste money&time) or complaining it's too hard to solder, did you read my many redondant advice in the forum, I don't handsolder tiny dfn, I reflow them, far far easier&quicker.
So that's settled, this is why I delayed my releases, until i change my mind, and I'm playing with software.
Sorry I don't want to look pedantic, not targeted against you especially, just tired ;)

Reflow is nice and easy when you know how to do it, but not everyone has the space and money for it, and is willing to spend the necessary time to learn how to do it well. You need oven (that you usually need to modify), you need to buy stencils, you need to buy solder paste and keep it fresh in a separate fridge if you don't want to intoxicate your family when putting it in the kitchen fridge, you need to test/tune the process etc etc It's not for everyone. I tried, I have bought a hotplate (oven is too big and too expensive) and hot air gun, I ordered stencils to make some tests, but I can't get decent quality solder paste. Local shops sold me stuff that was way too old, when it comes from AliExpress it's low quality and it spent weeks at 30+ degrees, at Arrows it's either 50-100$ (that will end mostly wasted because I have no space for dedicated fridge), unavailable (maker paste) or "hazmat" so only sent by ground meaning not available for me. Life is hard :D

About the price I dont think everyone is ready to sacrifice quality to save a few $, I see people buying NModule PCBs at 25$ or more through openhardware.io for example, when they could buy much cheaper when ordering directly. I don't think those people will cry if components on a board cost 15-20$ instead of 10-15 but offer better range or reliability, lower power consumption etc.

About the "funky modules", yes they are not high quality but they still do the job (and way better than atmega + nrf24 clone), and when I first bought them I had no good alternative to get such a compact module, I would have bought them even if more expensive because compact modules on AliExpress or Ebay were either much bigger or with chip antenna, Arrow only had a Rigado module with LGA pins and other reputable shops have rip off shipping costs. Now I see Fanstel modules nearly as small, with better quality, FCC registration, low EMI etc etc at Arrow it would be stupid to continue, so of course I will not buy them anymore and redesign my board for the Fanstel. And if I make it public then I can provide a reliable source for the module, everyone can order from them with no shipping costs and 100% reliability. Way worth the few extra $.

And it's not always about reinventing things, it's about making things yourself and learning, too. I want to learn about ARM processors, bluetooth etc so to avoid having to learn anything at the same time I leave the reflowing, antenna tuning etc aside at the moment and use modules. If in the middle of this process I make a board that people with basic soldering skills can make themselves then how is it negative ? Those who take the MySensors hobby seriously will still favor your board because of the top notch quality and components used, there will also be a bunch of people interested in the complete board, but I think it's also great if people with lower technical skills but thirst for DIY can have something, too, even if "lower quality". Of course that won't be my "22" board, that's why I was thinking about a "33" version with more space to put bigger components (big SMDs or sensor breakout boards) and extension via MySX connector. Not sure if I will ever make it, and I hope it's not part of what is making you lose your motivation to release AEOS, because I'm waiting for it and it would be a good occasion to retry reflow soldering ;)

[NeverDie]

@nca78 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

you need to buy solder paste and keep it fresh in a separate fridge if you don't want to intoxicate your family when putting it in the kitchen fridge

Yikes! I didn't know there was a risk of that happening.

[Nca78]

@neverdie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

@nca78 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

you need to buy solder paste and keep it fresh in a separate fridge if you don't want to intoxicate your family when putting it in the kitchen fridge

Yikes! I didn't know there was a risk of that happening.

Well it's probably not a real problem, but I don't want to take risks with my 4yo chidren.

[NeverDie]

I do think a lot of people really underestimate the toxicity of getting solder paste onto their hands. I always use disposable neoprene gloves when handling it, and try to throw away anything that comes into contact with it. You definitely don't want to run the risk of unintentionally ingesting that stuff. AFAIK, the neurotoxicity is permanent damage.

[NeverDie]

By the way, I never got to the point where reflow was "nice and easy" with tiny pad chips. But that's just me. Operator error, I'm sure. It ended up taking so long to get a good outcome that I just decided it wasn't worth the time. Maybe I'll revisit it at a future date.

Anyway, everyone has their limits. I mean reflowing the gazillion tiny components on a HopeRF module, for instance. That doesn't look easy to me, even if I knew what I was doing.

@scalz Anyway, it's great that you are doing it. You're an inspiration for us all.

[NeverDie]

@Nca78
Here's the board settings that I use:

[korttoma]

Like NeverDie I am also having some trouble getting started with the NRF5 programming.

Here is my setup:

The problem "No valid JTAG Interface Configured":

Did I miss some step to configure the J-Link somewhere?

[NeverDie]

I've always used the IDC connector. I'm not sure that it works if you don't.

[Nca78]

@korttoma I have the same problem with the official jlink drivers. So I drag/drop the hex file from output directory to the Jlink drive at the moment.

[korttoma]

@nca78 :D that worked! thank you thank you thank you!

My first NFR5 node is ALIVE!

[NeverDie]

@neverdie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:

I've always used the IDC connector.

i.e. the 10-pin connector.

[Nca78]

@neverdie thank you for pointing to the power problem. I had one jumper left for my adapter to connect GND to GND and "as usual" it had a contact problem, I just replaced it and I can see the module in nRFgo Studio, even without external power.

[Omemanti]

Question;

I've been using the Ebyte modules and I'm making progress. But somehow the energy consumption is far too much. 11,7 mA when I use a clean sketch with hwSleep().

When I change to "Normal" Sleep() I get 0.1mA.

which one should be the right one to use, keeping in mind, I would like to wake up from an interrupt.

[mfalkvidd]

@omemanti sleep. See https://www.mysensors.org/download/sensor_api_20#sleeping for details.

[korttoma]

@Mika what is your experience regarding battery consumption on these?

LINK

I put together a sketch witch seems to work fine but one CR2032 just lasts a couple of days.

Sketch:

/**
 * The MySensors Arduino library handles the wireless radio link and protocol
 * between your home built sensors/actuators and HA controller of choice.
 * The sensors forms a self healing radio network with optional repeaters. Each
 * repeater and gateway builds a routing tables in EEPROM which keeps track of the
 * network topology allowing messages to be routed to nodes.
 *
 * Created by Henrik Ekblad <henrik.ekblad@mysensors.org>
 * Copyright (C) 2013-2015 Sensnology AB
 * Full contributor list: https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/graphs/contributors
 *
 * Documentation: http://www.mysensors.org
 * Support Forum: http://forum.mysensors.org
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 *******************************
 */

// Enable debug prints to serial monitor
//#define MY_DEBUG 

// Define a static node address, remove if you want auto address assignment
//#define MY_NODE_ID 26                                                          // Kök
#define MY_NODE_ID 27                                                          // Test device
                                                  

// Enable and select radio type attached

#define MY_RADIO_NRF5_ESB

#include <MySensors.h>

#define SN "NRF5 Scene"
#define SV "1.0"

#define CHILD_ID_SCENE 1

// PIN for the buttons
byte buttonOne = 28;

//Bounce debouncer[NUMBUTTONS];
int buttonOneoldValue;


// Pin definitions
#define DIGITAL_INPUT_INT 28   // The digital input you attached your interrupt  (Only 2 and 3 generates interrupt!)


// Sensor messages
MyMessage msgOn(CHILD_ID_SCENE, V_SCENE_ON);

// Global settings
uint16_t SceneOne = 0;
uint16_t SceneTwo = 1;


void blinkityBlink(uint8_t repetitions) {
  for (int x=0;x<repetitions;x++) {
    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN,HIGH);
    wait(20);
    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN,LOW);
    wait(100);
    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN,HIGH);
    wait(20);
    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN,LOW);    
    if (x<(repetitions-1)) {  //skip waiting at the end of the final repetition
      wait(500);
    }
  }
}


/****************************************************
 *
 * Setup code 
 *
 ****************************************************/
 
void setup() {
  
  hwPinMode(LED_BUILTIN,OUTPUT_D0H1);
  blinkityBlink(2);  //signify power-up and start of operations

  NRF_CLOCK->INTENSET=B11;  //enable interrupts for EVENTS_HFCLKSTARTED and  EVENTS_LFCLKSTARTED
  NRF_CLOCK->TASKS_HFCLKSTART=1;  //start the high frequency crystal oscillator clock
  while (!(NRF_CLOCK->EVENTS_HFCLKSTARTED)) {} //wait until high frequency crystal oscillator clock is up to speed and working
                                                
  hwPinMode(DIGITAL_INPUT_INT, INPUT_PULLUP);
    
    /// Make input & enable pull-up resistors on switch pins
  hwPinMode(buttonOne, INPUT_PULLUP);
  buttonOneoldValue = -1;
  

  sendBattLevel();
  

}

void presentation()  {
  sendSketchInfo(SN, SV);
  //present the scene controller to gateway
  wait(10);
  present(CHILD_ID_SCENE, S_SCENE_CONTROLLER);
      
  wait(10);
}


/***********************************************
 *
 *  Main loop function
 *
 ***********************************************/
void loop() {
  
  // Check for button activity
     
  int value = digitalRead(buttonOne);
    
  if (value != buttonOneoldValue)
    {
      // Send in the new value
      if (value == LOW)                                                      
      {
        send(msgOn.set(SceneOne));
        
        wait(20);

        send(msgOn.set(SceneTwo));

        sendBattLevel();
              

      }
      buttonOneoldValue = value;
    }
    
  sleep(digitalPinToInterrupt(DIGITAL_INPUT_INT), CHANGE, 0);  
  
}




/********************************************
 *
 * Sends battery information (battery percentage)
 *
 * Parameters
 * - force : Forces transmission of a value
 *
 *******************************************/
void sendBattLevel()
{
    long vcc = hwCPUVoltage();
  
    // Calculate percentage

    vcc = vcc - 1800; // subtract 1.9V from vcc, as this is the lowest voltage we will operate at
    
    long percent = vcc / 14.0;
    sendBatteryLevel(percent);    
  
}

I noticed that the chip sais:
N51822
QFABC0
1646UU

QFAB translates to 16kB RAM, 128kB flash and I can not even select this option in the arduino IDE. Can this be the problem?

@d00616 refer to his document for some high current consumption issue but I'm not sure what to do with the info.

Is there something wrong with my sketch or is there just an old crappy chip on the device??