What did you build today (Pictures) ?

[NeverDie]

@mfalkvidd Didn't you play with electromagnets when you were a kid? At least try coiling the wire and maybe putting a metal core inside it. Use a lot of coils. The more the better. Then maybe your reed-type switch would have a chance of seeing enough magnetism to trigger it.

[gohan]

@neverdie wouldn't that choke the current passing through the coil? He said he needs 6-48V DC. 0.5-10A

[petewill]

@NeverDie The wires are there in case I need to upload a new bootloader. This sensor one of the first ones I have done where the Arduino isn't easily removable and I wanted to try to make it a little easier in case I had to change it.
I used an original Prusa I3 MK2 to do the printing. This is in ABS (because I didn't have any white PLA) so the print is a little rougher than if it was done with PLA.

@dbemowsk Thanks! No, my son didn't help with the case design (yet). It was from a previous project that I slightly modified. My son is 6 so he doesn't really have the attention span to do too much yet. I'm hoping that doing little parts of a project will be fun for him and eventually turn into full projects.

@mfalkvidd & @sundberg84 Thanks. I guess I need to rig something up if he is going to be helping me more often...

@gohan No, it's not battery powered. I didn't want to have to deal with changing batteries and there is a power outlet right near the location he wanted it. Here is the code:

/**
  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.

*******************************

  REVISION HISTORY
  Version 1.0 - PeteWill

 
*/

#define SKETCH_NAME "Controller"
#define SKETCH_VERSION "1.0"

//Child (sensor) name that will be sent to gateway
#define CONTROLLER_CHILD_NAME "Room Control"

// Enable debug prints to serial monitor
#define MY_DEBUG //MySensors debug messages
#define LOCAL_DEBUG //Code specific debug messages

// Enable and select radio type attached
#define MY_RADIO_NRF24
//#define MY_RADIO_RFM69

#define MY_RF24_PA_LEVEL RF24_PA_HIGH //Options: RF24_PA_MIN, RF24_PA_LOW, RF24_PA_HIGH, RF24_PA_MAX
#define MY_RF24_CHANNEL  76
#define MY_NODE_ID 1  //Manually set the node ID here. Comment out to auto assign

#include <MySensors.h>
#include <Bounce2.h>

#define SCENE_CHILD_ID 0

#define BAUD_RATE 57600

#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG
#define dbg(...)   Serial.print(__VA_ARGS__)
#define dbgln(...) Serial.println(__VA_ARGS__)
#else
#define dbg(x)
#define dbgln(x)
#endif

//Button Pins -- Arduino Digital I/O pin button is connected to
#define BLIND_UP_PIN 5
#define BLIND_STOP_PIN 4
#define BLIND_DOWN_PIN 3
#define LIGHT_ON_PIN 8
#define LIGHT_OFF_PIN 7
#define EXTRA_BUTTON_PIN 6
#define LED_PIN A0 //Pin for the LED transistor

#define FLASH_TIME 300 //Amount of time to flash the LED (in milliseconds)

#define ARRAY_SIZE(x) (sizeof(x)/sizeof(x[0]))

uint8_t ledOn = 0;
uint32_t ledMillis; //Used for tracking the LED flash time


//The sceneNum array corresponds with the buttonPins array so if a button pin is read, it will send the scene number to the gateway
int sceneNum[] = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

uint8_t buttonPins[] = {
  BLIND_UP_PIN,
  BLIND_STOP_PIN,
  BLIND_DOWN_PIN,
  LIGHT_ON_PIN,
  LIGHT_OFF_PIN,
  EXTRA_BUTTON_PIN
};

//Debouncer is used for the buttons.  Need to have the same number as the total buttons.
Bounce debouncer[] = {
  Bounce(),
  Bounce(),
  Bounce(),
  Bounce(),
  Bounce(),
  Bounce()
};

//used to keep track of previous values contact sensor values
uint8_t buttonPrev[] = {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1};

MyMessage scene(SCENE_CHILD_ID, V_SCENE_ON);

void before()
{
#ifdef LOCAL_DEBUG
  Serial.begin(BAUD_RATE);
#endif
}

void presentation()
{
  // Send the sketch version information to the gateway
  sendSketchInfo(SKETCH_NAME, SKETCH_VERSION);

  // Register all sensors to gw (they will be created as child devices)
  present(SCENE_CHILD_ID, S_SCENE_CONTROLLER, CONTROLLER_CHILD_NAME);
}

void setup() {
  //Set up Pins
  for (int i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(buttonPins); i++) {

    // Setup the pins
    pinMode(buttonPins[i], INPUT_PULLUP);

    // After setting up the button, setup debouncer
    debouncer[i].attach(buttonPins[i]);
    debouncer[i].interval(100);
    dbg(F("Set up contact Pin: "));
    dbgln(buttonPins[i]);
  }

  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  uint32_t currentMillis = millis();
  for (int i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(buttonPins); i++) {
    debouncer[i].update();
    // Get the update value
    uint8_t value = debouncer[i].read();
    if (value != buttonPrev[i]) {
      dbg(F("Value is for sensor #"));
      dbg(buttonPins[i]);
      dbg(F(" is "));
      dbgln(value);

      if (value == 0)
      {
        //Button is pressed send scene value
        send(scene.set(sceneNum[i]));

        ledOn = 1;
        ledMillis = currentMillis;
      }
      buttonPrev[i] = value;
    }
  }
  if (ledOn)
  {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);

    if (currentMillis - ledMillis > FLASH_TIME)
    {
      ledOn = 0;
      digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
    }
  }
}

[mfalkvidd]

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

@mfalkvidd Didn't you play with electromagnets when you were a kid? At least try coiling the wire and maybe putting a metal core inside it. Use a lot of coils. The more the better. Then maybe your reed-type switch would have a chance of seeing enough magnetism to trigger it.

Yes, but that would unfortunately completely defeat my purpose. The device should be easy to install (I can't expect the end-user to coil their cable) and work with cables that are designed for >10A which means they will be too thick to coil. I understand that I did not mention all aspects of the use case in my post though so thanks anyway.

[Nca78]

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

Question for you all... what are you doing (if anything) to vent the fumes from soldering? I haven't really been worried about it in the past but it makes me nervous with my son doing it with me.

I have a Hakko 493 clone, it has a carbon filter to absorb the smoke (or most of it) so it doesn't smell too much in the room when I need to solder for a long time and I can't open the windows. I don't have a link because I bought it in my local shop (it was cheaper than AliExpress + shipping), but you can easily find similar models or clones of the FA400 by searching "smoke absorber" on AliExpress.

[NeverDie]

@mfalkvidd
I had a similar requirement recently, which was determining when my CNC was finished. I decided to measure the current to decide that. It's 24VDC and might have a current as high as 6amp in a theoretical worst case, but as little as 0.5a when moving just one of the stepper motors. So, what I came up with was this, which I've tested and it works:

Basically, it uses six 5-watt 3 ohm resistors in parallel to create a 1/2-ohm sense resistor, which an arduino then measures the voltage drop across by just doing an analog read from an analog GPIO pin across a voltage divider. I don't really know your use-case, but maybe you could adapt it for your application? You can ignore the LoRa module, which in my case I use to send out a signal to a remote receiver inside my house that the CNC print job (in the garage) is done.

[sundberg84]

I made a MysX template for anyone who wants to create a MysX board to any EasyPCB in KiCadd.
Found here: https://github.com/sundberg84/HomeAutomation/tree/master/MysX template EasyPCB

[petewill]

@nca78 thanks! I'll check that out.

[NeverDie]

Today I made and assembled a board which instantiates the schematic I posted above two days ago on this thread:

Basically, it sends a wireless signal as soon as the CNC machine finishes its work.

[hek]

My old Yamaha YSP-1100 soundbar just decided to die.

After some searching I found the problematic capacitor. A 22uF 600V had dropped to 6uF....

!

[NeverDie]

@hek How did you find the faulty capacitor?

[hek]

@NeverDie, well, I started my trouble shooting with a lucky google search. For old devices like this, you are often not the first person experiencing a problem.

[hek]

I had a good laugh when examining the other board. Is this a normal solution for remote-in?

[Yveaux]

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

solution for remote-in

DIY optocoupler?

[dbemowsk]

@hek If this is for a sound bar, I know on some older stereos they had a remote signal out that you could tie into other components in the system. Maybe it's something like that.

[gohan]

@neverdie could you achieve something similar with a sonoff pow measuring the whole cnc power consumption?

[NeverDie]

@gohan I don't know, as I'm not familiar with Sonoff, or how sensitive it is.

[gohan]

It's a WiFi power meter with a relay to turn off the load, so you could set a rule on controller that if measured power goes below a certain amount it will notify something

[NeverDie]

It's a very good suggestion. If I wasn't already done, I'd try it. If it works, the Sonoff would be simpler and less effort.

[sundberg84]

Another hour on my... whatever it is.

Anyone that can recommend a open source router (hardware) or cheap hardware for pfsense which isn't that big and draws that watt amount.

[gohan]

WHat do you need a PC for?

[sundberg84]

@gohan it's a pc with my intention to run pfsense (open source router) but it is old and draws to much power for my taste.

[executivul]

How much power does that pc draw?
Mine:
Asrock Q1900B-ITX + pico 12V to atx psu + PCIE Intel Nic 2/4 Gbit ports + SSD can run on 20W or less, but I believe the J1900 Celeron lacks AES for VPN if you care about it.

HP DL 380 G7 2xL5640 hex core, 144GB Ram, 4xGbit Nics, SSD, 90W at idle (99.9% of time) and pfsense is only one of the VMs I constantly run, besides OH2, Ubiquity controller, Nextcloud. The ability to snapshot a development VM, or fork (clone) it is a killer feature for me.

Another DL 380 G7 in standby is drawing 15W.

Phu*ck I have some old shitty switches that draw 30-40W, not to mention security cameras, 300-500Wh during the night for all my crazy home automation&security.

[mfalkvidd]

@sundberg84 not cheap but 15W (at max load): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pfsense-Hardware-Qotom-Barebone-Mini-PC-Nano-itx-Core-i7-4500U-Fanless-Mini-Computer-X86-Router/32799048185.html

Cheaper alternatives:
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/2015-new-arrival-direct-selling-bay-trail-J1800-mini-pc-windows-8-1-Qotom-linux-2G/108231_32285025655.html max 10W
https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/sg-1000.html 2.5W idle

[scalz]

the little netgate looks cute, but wondering if it would be enough powerful (for streaming etc.)

@sundberg84
when you already have parts laying around, like ram, hdd etc, you could also use intel J3355 or J4205 cpus, maybe better than J1800. J3355 boards are not expensive. Then add a pcie NICs or a simple usb to gigabit..
I would choose micro atx board because often cheaper, same for ram (more compatible ref vs itx boards sometimes are restrictive), and it may be more flexible for pcie slot. That is, if size is not a concern.

Or maybe a more powerful cpu, if you plan to factorize lot of things in VMs etc.

In both case it could also allow you to save power by decreasing number of rpis for example. But an interesting math would be pros&cons between features, power consumption saving, cost of a more expensive setup vs years for ROI about power savings (if that is the point)

Maybe we'll see new mini pc router in future with new sbc and mcus..

[tbowmo]

@sundberg84 you could have all the rpi's running on the pc hardware, and save a couple of pennies on the electricity bill..

I exchanged my HA rpi with an atom based machine, as it had 4Gb ram. Now I'm using docker to containerize the different parts of my setup (influxdb, grafana, domoticz, nodered, moquitto, etc.). Ok, it uses a bit more power, but not that much compared to the flexibility that I have now. So now I have a lot of "machines" for handling the different parts.. I can even spin up an experimental domoticz in seconds (I'm playing with mqtt for backbone in my HA setup, instead of mysensors serial protocol, and a lot of http calls to different parts of my system.

[gohan]

You take for granted everybody knows how to work with docker

[tbowmo]

@gohan

I didn't know how to work with docker 2 months ago.. If I can learn it, others can do it too It's not that complicated after all

[sundberg84]

Some weeks ago I made a video with my children and i had this idea to do something with electronics... so mostly as a testproject I made a introduction video for EasyPCB. I kinda like it... but my English isnt the best in some places.

Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors – 08:01
— Andreas Sundberg

[sburlot]

I built a GPIO interface for the Raspberry PI using @GertSanders PCB (link)
I ordered the PCB via OSH Park, successfully soldered 2 and my setup is now much cleaner without these jumper cables.
For the second one, I soldered the NRF directly on the PCB (just because I wanted to gain some height), and everything works flawlessly.

Big thank to @GertSanders for his PCB!

My gateway runs mysgw, Mosquitto and Node-Red.

In the back is my Raspberry Dashboard displaying the weather, info from my solar installation and the sensors MQTT messages.

[dbemowsk]

@sburlot Can't help but see your weather display in the background. What platform is that?

[NeverDie]

I made this LoRa shield for an Arduino Pro Mini:

I like it because of the small form factor and because it preserves access to all of the Pro Mini pins. i.e. you can plug it in just like a Pro Mini.

I also gave it 4 header pins for an Si7021 TH sensor, which I haven't yet attached.

[sburlot]

@dbemowsk
It's a Raspberry 3, with a cheap 480x320 screen, and a Python+PyGame script.

Start of my script comes from this script
Temp+Humidity comes from mySensors SenseBender Micro via NodeRed/MQTT
Solar power comes from my inverter via a script (also MQTT)
Weather from WeatherUnderground

[dakipro]

not built today, but someone mentioned fumes extractor, so this is what I built for soldering, light and fume extractor are powered by a small usb rechargeable powerbank. Fan has a active carbon filter behind it and works great for small to medium-ish projects I work on

[NeverDie]

@dakipro Very creative! Thanks for sharing. I've seen those flexible hose things before in other contexts, but I don't know the name. What is the term?

[NeverDie]

Found it: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Round-Nozzle-Flexible-Water-Oil-Coolant-Pipe-Hose-3-8BSP-Thread-5pcs/32831878467.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.38.4c927439kjZ18O&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10152_10065_5711320_10151_10344_10068_10130_10324_10342_10547_10325_10343_10546_10340_10548_10341_10545_10084_10083_10618_10307_5711220_5722420_10313_10059_10534_100031_10103_10627_10626_10624_10623_10622_10621_10620_10810_10811,searchweb201603_25,ppcSwitch_5&algo_expid=b2667682-4b14-4802-a36d-35f0b06b6ca7-5&algo_pvid=b2667682-4b14-4802-a36d-35f0b06b6ca7&priceBeautifyAB=0

[dbemowsk]

@neverdie Don't they use something like that on CNC machines for the coolant?

[NeverDie]

@dbemowsk Yup.

[dakipro]

Thanks. About the cnc pipes, just check if they are US or EU threads, as I was initially planning to fasten them with nuts, but couldn't find any US type in scandinavia. So I had to improvise with A LOT washers and heavy screws as seen in the picture. For the base I used old laptop cooling holder (whatever the name is).
And it works surprisingly well for what I use it, I was expecting it to have a bouncing effect, but it is not that much noticeable.
Way better then that ebay crappy holder with big magnifying mirror that is just so flimsy and annoying.
I was planing to dedicate one hose as a solder feeder, but never bothered with it.

Light is a touch-to-adjust type, very very practical , something like this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5X-6-LED-Night-Light-Soshine-USB-Power-1W-5V-Touch-Dimmer-Warm-White-Light-B2L8/282772437504?epid=721587756&hash=item41d68cfa00:g:gZQAAOSw1cNaMlr5

I also have a switch for a fan on the side, and a volt stepup as the fan works on 12V (9 or 10 is my setting).

I have glued the magnets on the right on the last photo, they are then actually on the left of the silicone mat where the "compartments" are

[NeverDie]

@dakipro What hose diameter do you recommend? I'm guessing larger diameters will be stiffer than smaller diameters, but that's only just my uninformed guess.

[Nca78]

@dakipro that's really nice, I have bought pipes and clips, but didn't find a suitable base yet. Good idea to use a battery too, it avoids an additional cable.

[sundberg84]

Another EasyPCB video - a complete build of a 5v node with a radiotest and cleareeprom.

Complete build! - Easy/Newbie PCB (Nrf24l01+) for MySensors – 15:44
— Andreas Sundberg

[dakipro]

@neverdie i think i have the larger ones, but with 3-4$ pricetag one can easily order both and use what works best (or even combine them for more flexibility). I originally planned on using only 4 pipes, but then I figured why not put them all, they will just lie around anyway. Now I have two clamps orientated horizontally and two vertically for easier mounting.

Battery bank is I winner I think, it is very very practical and holds several hours.
Even if it goes flat during the project, it is just to plug everything into the wall charger, as one would have to do anyway.

[zrom69]

here is photo my usb gateway with STM32 power
it's a big difference with arduino nano

[zrom69]

and that's a TV box turn into a mini pc more powerful than raspberry pi 3
and I installed linux with domoticez and imperihome EMMC Flash is fluid and fast
and toutsca works well

8 x CPU: Amlogic S912 Octa core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU jusqu'à 2GHz (DVFS)
GPU: 750MHz + ARM Mali-820MP3 GPU Processeur
RAM: 3Go DDR3
ROM: 32Go EMMC Flash
Système d'exploitation: Android 6.0
Ethernet: 100M/1000M
WIFI: 2.4GHZ / 5.8GHZ 802.11a / b / g / n / Ac
Bluetooth: BT4.1

[tbowmo]

Not working on hardware at the moment, but I am still "building" things with mysensors.. Recently I have been moving all my homeautomation to docker containers, and also moving stuff towards using MQTT as a backbone transport.

Right now I have moved automation rules from domoticz to nodered, after which I have "killed" domoticz (the only reason why I had been keeping it alive, was because it handled some of my automation rules for turning tv / amplifier on when chromecast was active etc).

Together with my chromecast "surveilance python service" I get notifications on MQTT when any of my two chromecasts starts an app / pause/ play etc. The python program also has a MQTT listener, so I can send pause/play etc. to my chromecasts over mqtt. And even throw a stream to it over mqtt.

Today I made a universal control endpoint, so I can send pause/play etc. to a single mqtt topic, and then nodered directs it to the active chromecast, or to my dvd player if that is the active in the current scene.

In the end everything should play together with a dashboard that I have made in angular5 (rewriting it at the moment to use MQTT instead of various http calls)

The plan is that the dashboard is on a wallmounted tablet, acting as a simple dashboard / weather station, where one can control basic things in the livingroom (start streaming of specific Radio / TV channels among other things).

The nodered project can be found here, if anyone would like to have a look..

[bjacobse]

@tbowmo
Quite cool, what is your reason behind to move away from Domoticz and go all in on node-red?

[gohan]

I guess because you can do pretty much everything you want instead of being bound to what Domoticz can do

[tbowmo]

@bjacobse

I have been using influxdb/grafana for the last year or so, for logging data and presenting it, so no need to use domoticz for that. Over a year ago I injected nodered into the stream, so it sits between mysensors and domoticz, and was used to route things around (And make some fake sensors for domoticz).

For the dashboard part I have been developing my own solution. First it was running within domoticz as a customized dashboard, but I moved it to Angular instead, with a strong dependency towards domoticz, as I could query that to get sensor values. Lately I had moved on to use MQTT for the dashboard (and internal node-red data routing). There I can get persistent data (retain) that keeps the latest data on a given topic. Then my need for domoticz went away there..

The last thing I then used domoticz for, was the automation rules for turning on / off my tv when the chromecast was activated, and control a couple of LED strips according to the state of the chromecast (playing / paused etc). With that moved to nodered, then domoticz could be turned off.

The complete software stack is a bit larger, than with domoticz for everything, but it is much more flexible, than what I could achieve with domoticz.

also it brought in a couple of needed updates for my node-red mysensors nodes, so that was a "bonus" as well

[sincze]

@tbowmo interesting indeed, tnx for sharing. Currently I still use Domoticz for the API Logging is done with INFLUX and Grafana. However in addition to Domoticz I use Pass2PHP. I can now control everything with PHP. PHP seems pretty common so a lot of examples I can find online ;-0. I am a complete MQTT / NODE-RED NOOB.

[Yveaux]

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

I am a complete MQTT / NODE-RED NOOB.

So start playing with it to become a Node-Red/MQTT Fanboy!

[sundberg84]

It is always those last connections...

[tbowmo]

@sincze well you're half way there, already got influxdb implemented

NodeRed is pretty easy to work with, and MQTT is (almost) just start and forget with mosquito. Just a messaging channel that you can hook any listener into, like python scripts, angular5 web apps etc.

[mfalkvidd]

Today I built auto-detection of missing MySensors keywords. The build system will complain if someone adds a new keyword to the Doxygen documentation but forgets to add it to keywords.txt.

This is what the output looks like on the current code base (we're missing a bunch of keywords):

This is the code change:

I have also added those missing keywords to keywords.txt, so now they'll be highlighted properly in the Arduino IDE.

Thanks to Anticimex for assisting me in working with the build system.

[mfalkvidd]

One more build for today: building the raspberry pi gateway.

I often need to test different settings for the Raspberry Pi Gateway. Running make after just changing one parameter in the configure command (for example, turning on or off interrupts for nrf24 or changing the PA_LEVEL) results in a 1m 13s wait on my Raspberry Pi:

I installed ccache using these instructions and now a make with the same type of change is done in 31s.

Not that much of a win, but it saves a lot of time when trying many different settings.

[gohan]

did you cut the compile time of the gateway?

[mfalkvidd]

@gohan yes?

[gohan]

@mfalkvidd on my Pi3 it takes 40 around seconds, are you using an old Pi1 ?

[mfalkvidd]

@gohan no, I'm using a Pi3.

[mfalkvidd]

Today I finally got my thumbs out and upgraded my plant monitoring to MySensors 2.x (from 1.x).
Updated sketch is available on Github: https://github.com/mfalkvidd/arduino-plantmoisture

Result: I really need to water my plants But the 2.5 year old batteries are still going strong.

[sundberg84]

Tonight some more PCB design:

[dbemowsk]

@sundberg84 I will throw my two cents in on the design. An issue that I had brought up on previous revisions had to do with capacitors. On the Rev 9 and below boards, your capacitor footprints were pretty much all for flat ceramic capacitors. While I was able to make it work for the couple can style electrolytics that I used, it wasn't quite right. Now on this revision, I see that all of your capacitors have a can electrolytic style footprint. I think it needs to be a mix. The 4.7uf and 10 uf capacitors should be can style footprint, whereas your 0.1s should be non polarized ceramic flat cap footprints. The flat pack ceramics I think have a wider hole spacing.

Again, just my two cents

[sundberg84]

@dbemowsk the positive with polarized footprint is that you can use both and it's very easy for a newbie to see which one is Gnd. You who are more experienced can determine if you want to use a flat unpolarized cap.

[mfalkvidd]

This evening I spent a few hours finding more MySensors keywords that exist but weren't highlighted.
I found about 20 that were documented but not highlighted, so I added them.

I also found 3 that weren't documented nor highlighted. I have created issues on github to document them. Help is welcome. Documenting the keywords is an easy way to contribute to the project.
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1090
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1089
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1088

[dbemowsk]

@sundberg84 one of the 0.1uf caps that i use has short leads and wouldn't fit that hole spacing. They are higher voltage capacitors that i bought years ago for another project that i am trying to use up. I do see your point though.

[maghac]

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

Today I finally got my thumbs out and upgraded my plant monitoring to MySensors 2.x (from 1.x).
Updated sketch is available on Github: https://github.com/mfalkvidd/arduino-plantmoisture

Result: I really need to water my plants But the 2.5 year old batteries are still going strong.

What kind of components is this running on? I am having trouble getting my batteries to run even 2.5 months (or 2.5 weeks for the outside temp sensor...)

[mfalkvidd]

@maghac see the link in my post for full details. But basically it is just what's recommended on the battery page. Arduino pro mini with power led and ldo removed, bod set to 1.8V, powered by 2xAA.

[sundberg84]

This post is deleted!

[Thucar]

[dirkc]

@thucar what display do you use and where did you buy it? What library did you use?

[Thucar]

@dirkc the display is a JLX12864-378 off a chinese “component tester” kit I had available. Using the u8g2 library to run it.

[sundberg84]

Today I built a led dimmer and motion detector for my kitchen. Running on 12v and a led list of about 2m.

Everything is built on my MysX led board and it was so easy to assemble everything and it's really small.

I have documented this project and will show you in a video when edited.

[Spanners]

Today I built a new Ethernet Gateway.

Using a Freetrionics Ethermega - Fixed SPI bus, so no soft SPI and I can use MY_RX_MESSAGE_BUFFER_FEATURE. PoE, improved voltage regulator design so I can run the amplified NRF24 with MY_RF24_PA_LEVEL RF24_PA_HIGH.

Under the radio is a small prototyping area with capacitor for the radio and an ATSHA204A - because one day I swear I will implement signing.

Slightly modified Gateway sketch that writes successful DHCP IP addresses to EEPROM. I assign a static address on my router. If there's a power failure, the gateway will start up with last address - router takes ages to come online.

Fired up the X-carve to cut the aluminium chassis, which has added benefit of shielding the NRF radio as well. The complicated cutout on the front was to allow air intake for the fan. Was supposed to just be a grille, but after a couple of beers I got too cute for my own good. Took 2 hours to cut that.

[sundberg84]

A video of my Ledstrip project in the kitchen:

MySensors LED Strip Dimmer - EasyPCB (Nrf24l01+) and Led Board. – 19:12
— Andreas Sundberg

[kalina]

Today I have finished work on control center for my smart home. The box includes a Raspberry Pi 3, gateway, ethernet switch, power supplies 5V and 9V. Audio input jack, ethernet and AC line cabels out from the box. Maybe, a GSM module should be included to the free space too (i will thinking about...). I am going to install this box in the near future.

[sindrome73]

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

ione di installare questa scatola

if I can know !! The audio socket what is it for ???

[kalina]

@sindrome73 said in What did you build today (Pictures) ?:

The audio socket what is it for ???

For connecting the audio system to the RPI3

[sindrome73]

@kalina
And then once connected to the Raspy ?? What are you doing?? And a new thing for me !!

[kalina]

@sindrome73 said in What did you build today (Pictures) ?:

@kalina
And then once connected to the Raspy ?? What are you doing?? And a new thing for me !!

Maybe this picture will explain my intentions

[sindrome73]

Ok, now it's clearer

[mfalkvidd]

Today's work:

1. Fixed https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1096 (PR in progress)
2. Fixed 60+ spelling mistakes in the example sketches https://github.com/mfalkvidd/MySensors/commit/6e7ee6ab30d503a6f288553689fdfbe645c931e6 (will submit PR when above PR is done)

[dakipro]

My friend had a leakage from the water heater, luckily he was around (and renting) so not much damage was made, so inspired by the incident I made another water leakage sensor for water heater (reusing the code from my previous "ribbon cable sensor" )

Then I have an "alarm" flow in node-red (via openhab) which blinks all lights in the house, sends notification to mobile phones with high priority etc. Which brings me a lot of joy when all works fine (and annoys my wife, as usual)...

They are so easy to made that I might as well make a few of them just for convenience and "feeling rich with sensors" if you guys know what I mean

[sundberg84]

@dakipro what kind of setup do you end up with regarding bootloader / bod? What do you use to reprogram the pro minis bootloader?

[dakipro]

@sundberg84 these run great on 1.8v BOD with some bootloader I found on the web (linked in the last post here ).

I use uno to flash the bootloader (tried with some IVRs but never got it to work, so just dedicated one uno prototyping hat for flashing) and then upload the sketch with IDE.

They are reporting battery from 2v to 3v (0-100%), and previous linked node is now reporting 51% of battery after 6 months, with sensor check every 2min and hearth beat every 4h.

[dakipro]

Installed z-wave roller blinds (discussed on this topic) from Swedish company m.nu .

If all is great, I will order three more motors (and two knobs/switches) for living room and terrace doors (which should also automatically keep the shades open if doors er open, to prevent damage).

Made a basic node-red flow that uses xiaomi lux sensor to get them down, but ultimate goal is to have them understand when the light is very bright and when it is "cozy", perhaps even knowing to get the blinds just low enough. Found one good explanation on the internet, will check it out (perhaps use multiple lux sensors strategically placed around the room to determine sun position and strength). Any tips and tricks?

(gif of the action, cannot upload gif to the forum https://media.giphy.com/media/5aY6vSwVn1hsdYC6nd/giphy.gif )

[Nca78]

I printed a small box and put my first "22" board in action on my entrance door. So far so good it's reporting the status reliably, and looking really tiny. A big difference with my first sensor 2 years ago in a big generic project box.
Just need to clean the glue left from previous sensor now

[dakipro]

@nca78 said in What did you build today (Pictures) ?:

"22" board
Looks great, can we get more info about it/link?

[mfalkvidd]

I've continued my quest to get all MySensors defines documented, by creating some pull requests
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/1111
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/1108
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/1106
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/1105

The only keywords left new are ones that I don't understand good enough to document. These are tracked in
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1107 and https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1090

[mfalkvidd]

I also added buy links for a shielded PA+LNA module and a more reliable source for regular nrf24l01+, on request by @gohan who managed to dig up good Aliexpress buying sources. Thanks gohan!
The buying links are available at https://www.mysensors.org/build/connect_radio and https://www.mysensors.org/store/radio

[Nca78]

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

Looks great, can we get more info about it/link?

Not really, I posted about it long ago here (https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/7836/what-did-you-build-today-pictures/136) It's just made for me to play by making a sensor as small as possible, but it's pretty hard to solder and with CR1632 and nrf22 the battery life won't be that good (around 1 year) so I don't think I'll publish it.

[sundberg84]

These arrived today...
New gateway and nodes with signing is first on my list.

[Thucar]

Built half of my dutch bucket system. Namely the drain part. Irrigation to follow.

[dbemowsk]

Working on setting up a new work bench in my back room in my basement where my HA equipment rack is. I wanted to build a case for my serial nRF24L01-PA-LNA gateway built on a rev8 Easy Newbie board. I just had the board sitting on a shelf on my rack, and now I want to mount it on my MDF board with all of my other equipment. Here is the design that I came up with for the case.

This is the inside bottom of the case:

And here is inside the top of the case:

It has a spot for 3 - 5mm LEDs for the transmit, receive and error lights. There is a hole on the right side of the case for the PA-LNA antenna connector. The oval hole on the lower right side of the case is for the DC in jack. I had one of these in my parts bin:

The hole on the bottom right is for the FTDI adapter connection. I am using one of these adapters that has a mini-USB connector:

I have the case running on the printer now. I will post pics when it is done.

[Yveaux]

@dbemowsk very impressed by your openscad designs, as always

[dbemowsk]

For anyone interested, here is an OpenSCAD rendering of the MySensors logo:

I tried posting the OpenScad code for this, but it is too long to add to a normal post. So here is a link to the OpenSCAD file.
MySensors_logo.scad

Special thanks to @hek for giving me the .svg file that allowed me to create this. I would be curious to see peoples uses for this.

[dbemowsk]

So I tried printing the cover for this with my original design using Cura as my slicer, and I couldn't get the logo to print right, plus the text under the LEDs was a bit too small. I then modified the design a bit and made the logo and text a bit bigger. I again tried printing it using Cura, but the logo still was missing some lines in the body. I then thought that part of the problem was the slicer I was using, so I tried it using Slic3r and I have to say, the logo came out MUCH better.

I ended up losing the Y in "My" Sensors and the ending "t" in "Transmit", but I am going to use the case the way I currently have it. Now I just have to assemble the new gateway. I am planning on making a whole new gateway and trying out the new 2.2.0 library. Hopefully my older 2.0.0 nodes will not have any issues with it, but that is why I plan on keeping my pro mini from my 2.0.0 gateway so I can revert back to that if I have to.

[dakipro]

Built case for soldering tools, to easily move them out of the way.

Not really, bought it on banggood and asked wife to assemble it (she likes those type of projects, especially if the office might look a tiny bit cleaner) https://www.banggood.com/DIY-Self-assemble-RC-Model-Tools-Case-Screwdriver-Box-Gripper-Package-Plier-Stand-Retro-Style-p-1257252.html?cur_warehouse=CN

Laser cut plywood(or something), looks quite nice I think. I will order few more when they appear in stock.

[GertSanders]

So here is my contribution to this tread: a differential drive "brain". A work in progress:

[dbemowsk]

Finally finished my 2.2.0 gateway and have it mounted in the new enclosure. It appears to be talking to my 2.0.0 sensors just fine.!

[sundberg84]

Another motion and led strip node.