nRF5 action!
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At the moment i am range testing.
I have the nrf51822 sending v_status true then false every second.
The esp8266 gateway recieves it and sends it back to the nrf8122 which turns an led on and off accordingly.
I have the nrf8122 running from a usb powerbank so i can walk around my house.
There are a few deadspots around the house with the unamplified nrf24l01 on the gateway.
I tried my nrf24l01 pa lna sma but it seemed to be only working every now and again so waiting on a new one being delivered.@rmtucker said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
I tried my nrf24l01 pa lna sma but it seemed to be only working every now and again so waiting on a new one being delivered.
According to hackaday, there's a certain very common model which doesn't perform well unless you wrap it first in saran wrap (as an electrical insulator) and then in aluminum foil (except for the antenna, obviously).
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@NeverDie I don't think many people know about it, I didn't know this define existed. But sounds like a good mode for things like temperature sensors with tiny batteries, so thank you for pointing it out.
@Nca78 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
sounds like a good mode for things like temperature sensors with tiny batteries
Exactly. If you're updating every 5 minutes (which is typical) or less, then it doesn't matter too much if you occasionally lose a packet, because there will be another one coming along in just a few minutes. So, if you can greatly increase your battery life as recompense, most people would
I'm shocked it's not more prevalent here on the mysensors forum.
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@Nca78 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
sounds like a good mode for things like temperature sensors with tiny batteries
Exactly. If you're updating every 5 minutes (which is typical) or less, then it doesn't matter too much if you occasionally lose a packet, because there will be another one coming along in just a few minutes. So, if you can greatly increase your battery life as recompense, most people would
I'm shocked it's not more prevalent here on the mysensors forum.
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@NeverDie I guess people are happy with 10 years of battery life. I am, so I haven't seen a need for increasing it further.
@mfalkvidd said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@NeverDie I guess people are happy with 10 years of battery life. I am, so I haven't seen a need for increasing it further.
Fair enough. How about smaller then? The battery may be the single biggest component. You could trade-off longer battery life for a smaller size.mote i.e. If it's a more energy efficient mote, it can use a smaller battery (or a smaller solar panel and a smaller supercap).
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I have checked the current with my nRF52 board with integrated shunt. I have measured 6.5µA while sleeping until timeout or sleeping until interrupt. It doesn't matter if RX/TX are connected but after flashing the firmware a reset by removing the voltage is required.
There was an bug, with any type of sleep(0) which is fixed by this PR https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/909
@d00616 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
I have checked the current with my nRF52 board with integrated shunt. I have measured 6.5µA while sleeping until timeout or sleeping until interrupt. It doesn't matter if RX/TX are connected but after flashing the firmware a reset by removing the voltage is required.
Does the onboard regulator on this board not draw any current when not being used?
ie when feeding the board with 3.3v and bypassing the regulator? -
I should be receiving my nRF51 modules a few days from now. Since they lack a 32K oscillator on the module, which "board" should I program it as?
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@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
I should be receiving my nRF51 modules a few days from now. Since they lack a 32K oscillator on the module, which "board" should I program it as?
With the Generic nRF51822 or the MySensors nRF5 boards, you can switch the oscillator via the tools menu. You have to choose the RC oscillator.
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@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
I should be receiving my nRF51 modules a few days from now. Since they lack a 32K oscillator on the module, which "board" should I program it as?
With the Generic nRF51822 or the MySensors nRF5 boards, you can switch the oscillator via the tools menu. You have to choose the RC oscillator.
@d00616 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
I should be receiving my nRF51 modules a few days from now. Since they lack a 32K oscillator on the module, which "board" should I program it as?
With the Generic nRF51822 or the MySensors nRF5 boards, you can switch the oscillator via the tools menu. You have to choose the RC oscillator.
If I were to choose RC oscillator in a case where the module (such as the Ebyte nRF52832 module) actually does have an external oscillator, will it no longer spend any power on the external oscillator?
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@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
MY_PASSIVE_NODE,
I found a shlocky workaround for the current problems with MY_PASSIVE_NODE. It turns out that if you have the gateway up and running before the passive node power up, then the passive node often gets stuck in a loop trying to register itself. However, for whatever reason, if you first power up the passive node, let it run for a bit trying to register and failing, and then power on the gateway, the loop is avoided. Then the passive node will broadcast one packet per cycle and the gateway will receive it and send it to the serial port.
Unfortunately, Domoticz can't really deal with it.
Soooooo... For now, I'm using Termite on the serial port to capture the packets and time stamp them. That at least allows me to continue with measurements as to whether MY_PASSIVE_NODE saves significant energy or not. It also has 1 second resolution, not the 5 minute time resoluton of Domoticz.
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@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
MY_PASSIVE_NODE,
I found a shlocky workaround for the current problems with MY_PASSIVE_NODE. It turns out that if you have the gateway up and running before the passive node power up, then the passive node often gets stuck in a loop trying to register itself. However, for whatever reason, if you first power up the passive node, let it run for a bit trying to register and failing, and then power on the gateway, the loop is avoided. Then the passive node will broadcast one packet per cycle and the gateway will receive it and send it to the serial port.
Unfortunately, Domoticz can't really deal with it.
Soooooo... For now, I'm using Termite on the serial port to capture the packets and time stamp them. That at least allows me to continue with measurements as to whether MY_PASSIVE_NODE saves significant energy or not. It also has 1 second resolution, not the 5 minute time resoluton of Domoticz.
@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
MY_PASSIVE_NODE,
I found a shlocky workaround for the current problems with MY_PASSIVE_NODE. It turns out that if you have the gateway up and running before the passive node power up, then the passive node often gets stuck in a loop trying to register itself. However, for whatever reason, if you first power up the passive node, let it run for a bit trying to register and failing, and then power on the gateway, the loop is avoided. Then the passive node will broadcast one packet per cycle and the gateway will receive it and send it to the serial port.
Unfortunately, Domoticz can't really deal with it.
Soooooo... For now, I'm using Termite on the serial port to capture the packets and time stamp them. That at least allows me to continue with measurements as to whether MY_PASSIVE_NODE saves significant energy or not. It also has 1 second resolution, not the 5 minute time resoluton of Domoticz.
Good news! Using the above method, I've established that the EByte nRF52832 module consumes an order of magnitude less current if "MY_PASSIVE_NODE" is defined. :) :) :)
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@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
MY_PASSIVE_NODE,
I found a shlocky workaround for the current problems with MY_PASSIVE_NODE. It turns out that if you have the gateway up and running before the passive node power up, then the passive node often gets stuck in a loop trying to register itself. However, for whatever reason, if you first power up the passive node, let it run for a bit trying to register and failing, and then power on the gateway, the loop is avoided. Then the passive node will broadcast one packet per cycle and the gateway will receive it and send it to the serial port.
Unfortunately, Domoticz can't really deal with it.
Soooooo... For now, I'm using Termite on the serial port to capture the packets and time stamp them. That at least allows me to continue with measurements as to whether MY_PASSIVE_NODE saves significant energy or not. It also has 1 second resolution, not the 5 minute time resoluton of Domoticz.
Good news! Using the above method, I've established that the EByte nRF52832 module consumes an order of magnitude less current if "MY_PASSIVE_NODE" is defined. :) :) :)
@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
Good news! Using the above method, I've established that the EByte nRF52832 module consumes an order of magnitude less current if "MY_PASSIVE_NODE" is defined. :) :) :)
Does that mean you are reaching consumption levels as low as atmega+nrf24 ?
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@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
Good news! Using the above method, I've established that the EByte nRF52832 module consumes an order of magnitude less current if "MY_PASSIVE_NODE" is defined. :) :) :)
Does that mean you are reaching consumption levels as low as atmega+nrf24 ?
@Nca78 said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@NeverDie said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
Good news! Using the above method, I've established that the EByte nRF52832 module consumes an order of magnitude less current if "MY_PASSIVE_NODE" is defined. :) :) :)
Does that mean you are reaching consumption levels as low as atmega+nrf24 ?
Not for all cases, but maybe for this case, provided I can run it off of both of its internal resonators (the 32Khz and the 64Mhz). The datasheet promises a "fast wakeup" if run off the internal 64mHz resonator, and its access to the radio should be a lot faster through DMA, which is automatic.
Presently, running it all night long (12 hours), it lost less than 50mv off the supercap, and some of that is probably just self-discharge by the supercap.
Also, getting the DCDC to work would no doubt help...
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Maybe using the internal oscillator doesn't matter. Thge datasheet says, "The HFXO must be running to use the RADIO..."
i.e. without the external 64Mhz oscillator, the radio can't be used. So, if that's true, then I guess from my point of view the 64Mhz external oscillator isn't optional after all. Perhaps that explains why there is one on literaly every module I've seen so far.
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I'm ordering today some AVX supercaps with smaller Farad values so that I can get more resolution on the amount of energy (at least relatively) being consumed in different configurations.
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I received the nRF51822 modules I had ordered (center of photograph):
Small enough to fit almost anywhere! -
@rmtucker said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
I tried my nrf24l01 pa lna sma but it seemed to be only working every now and again so waiting on a new one being delivered.
According to hackaday, there's a certain very common model which doesn't perform well unless you wrap it first in saran wrap (as an electrical insulator) and then in aluminum foil (except for the antenna, obviously).
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@NeverDie
I connected a new amplified nrf24 to the gateway with the tin foil as mentioned and it is reading -60dB compared to -89dB with the non amplified version.
Now lets see how far it goes past the original test.😉 -
@NeverDie
I connected a new amplified nrf24 to the gateway with the tin foil as mentioned and it is reading -60dB compared to -89dB with the non amplified version.
Now lets see how far it goes past the original test.😉@rmtucker said in nRF5 Bluetooth action!:
@NeverDie
I connected a new amplified nrf24 to the gateway with the tin foil as mentioned and it is reading -60dB compared to -89dB with the non amplified version.Did the tin foil make a difference? Hackaday seemed to think it made a big difference. I haven't tried it yet.
