What did you build today (Pictures) ?

[tssk]

Prototype of room sensor for stardard electric box

• arduino pro mini 3.3V
• sx1276 radio
• bme680
• 2x1.5V AA battery holder
• battery measuring circuit according to https://www.mysensors.org/build/battery
• ABB Tango cover (drilled)

Cover is not fully closed to allow air circulation. But I would preffer some method to drill holes/grill into it - any tips to get decent looking result?

[NeverDie]

@tssk said in What did you build today (Pictures) ?:

any tips to get decent looking result?

1. Drill at low RPM so you don't melt the plastic.
2. If you're going to drill a bunch of holes to make a kind of grill, then preferably use a CNC (even a cheap one!) to drill them so that they don't look hodgepodge.

[sundberg84]

@tssk - really like your design! Well done.

[mfalkvidd]

@sundberg84 thanks for creating this thread btw. You got the 1st and 1001st post :)

[sundberg84]

Today im testing and outdoor node in a new PCB, but I had mixed csk and ce on the radio (it's a dual radio PCB).

[NeverDie]

@ncollins Just wondering: why 4 load cells per sensor instead of only one?

[ncollins]

@NeverDie

• At 50kg per cell, 4 would allow me to actually turn the bed into a huge scale if I decided to go down that route
• I don't believe these are intended to support a significant load for extended periods of time, they can permanently deflect. Given they always have the weight of a king size mattress + boxspring, I wanted to distribute that as much as possible

[sundberg84]

Current issue: outdoor nodes random stops/disappears - maybe during the time when its high humidity, so trying to try some different approaches i read - this multisensor is getting painted with clear nail polish. Also this PCB is a new board im testing, that Im hoping to be the base for my "final" home automation nodes. Still in dev. but great possibilities!

[NeverDie]

@sundberg84 Gaskets that are held under tight compression seem to work well at holding out moisture. I've seen a number of commercial products that rely on that and only that for in-ground radio sensors.

[NeverDie]

Here's an example from the new Flume (version 2) water meter monitor:

It gets strapped to your water meter, typically in the ground. All it has is one gasket to seal out everything. This particular box just snaps closed. No screws! Quite a difference from Version 1, which also used a gasket, but had 12 screws holding it snug.

[tssk]

@sundberg84 Really like the shape and look of the PCB! I hope I can achieve similar result for my room sensor.

[berkseo]

And another of my completed projects is a mini weather station running on nRF52832 and nRF52840, you can install bme280 or si7021, htu21d. Powered by a single cr2450 battery. As always soon to be on openhardware.io

Video: https://youtu.be/HNjYtKyh8zo

[NeverDie]

@berkseo By calling it a mini weather station now you'll need to add an anemometer and rain gauge... :-)

[berkseo]

@NeverDie Sorry, I didn't know there were rules like that now :), then it would just be a temperature, humidity and pressure gauge with weather forecasting, okay?

[franz-unix]

Hi guys,

this is my last node. A 3d printable smart USB power hub.

If someone is interested, here all the details.

[nagelc]

I am testing a node with a DigiPyro, PYD 1598 motion detector. It is advertised to be low power and runs from 1.8 to 3.6 volts, so should run well with a coin cell. They have to be programmed with several options and I have not found a lot of documentation. I went with what seemed like the most sensitive choices and it seems to work so far. More research needed . ...
https://www.excelitas.com/product/pyd-1588-pyd-1598-low-power-digipyros

I bought a couple of these from DigiKey for around $4 each. Now they are more than $12 each and there is no stock. So, these may not be as good a choice as they seemed at first. We'll see . ...

[Joerideman]

The milling topic got my interest and I have been working on getting a machine for myself.
So far I have just assembled the machine and realised milling is a bit more difficult to start then 3d printing.
anyway, I would like to share my progress. I am building video's now :)

No circuitsboards yet, but here is a introduction of my way to victory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45tTuHpgH1c&feature=youtu.be

[BearWithBeard]

Winter time is tinker time!

This is a compact environmental sensor node with an E-Paper display. My goal was to have a decent screen-to-body ratio with a simple and minimalistic display, easy to read from a distance. It is the first design in which I did not use an ATmega MCU. It is also the first time that I used KiCAD instead of EAGLE, soldered no-lead SMD components and worked with an EPD.

• It features a SHTC3 sensor to measure temperature and relative humidity and a VEML6030 to measure the ambient light, so that I can toggle lights or other appliances in the room based on temperature, humidity or light conditions.
• I have also added a MEMS sensor (LIS3DH) to auto-detect the device orientation and rotate the EPD image accordingly and / or detect tap events to toggle between different display modes / data sets.
• It can be powered directly from a 3V source or use the optional 3.3V boost circuit which accepts 1.5V or 3V sources.

I finished soldering and testing all the components today and just started programming the rough "framework". Looks promising so far! But still lots to do, including finalizing the 3D printed enclosure. This is how it is supposed to look in the end:

[berkseo]

Hi guys. I recently made a plant watering control sensor with an electronic paper display. Today I did my first tests, ..everything went well :)

https://youtu.be/0dnzQiRZj7M

[berkseo]

@BearWithBeard said in What did you build today (Pictures) ?:

VEML6030

Take a closer look at the max44009 light sensor and the lis2dw12 accelerometer. You can save a few microamps.