pimatic-mysensors controller plugin

[Oitzu]

@karl261 maybe a defect nrf24 module? The serial connection to the nano seems to work and should normaly show received messages.
Do you have any spare modules laying arround?

[karl261]

@Oitzu that is possible. And also weird. It was working for three weeks without problem. Is there no way to get an error message from the nrf24? Why does it work after unplugging the pi? Why does it not help to reset the sub bus, which should power cycle the nano and the radio module?
I have some nrf24 around, but the installation is in a remote place which I can only access from time to time. That's why I installed mysensors and piratical in the first place. To remote control some things. So three weeks before I can try another radio. I hoped I could reset the system somehow to be able to use my system in the meantime...

[Oitzu]

@karl261 said:

@Oitzu that is possible. And also weird. It was working for three weeks without problem. Is there no way to get an error message from the nrf24? Why does it work after unplugging the pi? Why does it not help to reset the sub bus, which should power cycle the nano and the radio module?
I have some nrf24 around, but the installation is in a remote place which I can only access from time to time. That's why I installed mysensors and piratical in the first place. To remote control some things. So three weeks before I can

Well i can only guess whats the problem or whats the reason to it.
A faulty device can fail at the first day or just after 3 weeks.
The mysensors libs will check at start time the communication with the nrf24 module. If the communication don't work it will give out a "check wires" instead of the "Gateway startup complete.".

Maybe the difference between the full power cycle and the nano power cycle is the duration of the power cycle?
I can guess that the full power cycle left the nrf24 module for a longer time without power?
A longer power down of the nano would result in more time for the caps to discharge?

[karl261]

@Oitzu thanks a lot for your help. I appreciate it.

Some more observations:

• If I reboot the pi, I get

0;0;3;0;9;gateway started, id=0, parent=0, distance=0
0;0;3;0;14;Gateway startup complete.

in the screen session.

• However, if I do

echo '1-1.5' > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
echo '1-1.5' > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

which should power cycle the usb device I do not see anything in the screen session. Which means that the arduino nano was not power cycled.

However I do see that something happened in the log file:

Nov 12 17:31:40 raspberrypi kernel: [  300.831131] ftdi_sio ttyUSB0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
Nov 12 17:31:40 raspberrypi kernel: [  300.839881] ftdi_sio 1-1.5:1.0: device disconnected
Nov 12 17:31:46 raspberrypi kernel: [  306.271337] ftdi_sio 1-1.5:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
Nov 12 17:31:46 raspberrypi kernel: [  306.278553] usb 1-1.5: Detected FT232RL
Nov 12 17:31:46 raspberrypi kernel: [  306.283631] usb 1-1.5: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

So, what does it mean? I don't understand. Maybe there is something wrong with the pi's USB hub? Which is only reset when I pull the plug? But then the wifi should also not work, because it is sitting on the same USB hub.

/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/5p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=smsc95xx, 480M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=rtl8192cu, 480M
        |__ Port 5: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=ftdi_sio, 12M

I really don't like that there is no error message nowhere...

Is there any other place I could ask for help?

[karl261]

Ok, so I found a way to reset the usb bus using hub-ctrl.c. There is interesting information here:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=93463
https://github.com/codazoda/hub-ctrl.c
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71044&p=513908
http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/27903/usb-power-cycling-problem
So, in my case I can issue the command

./hub-ctrl -h 0 -P 5 -p 0 ; sleep 3; ./hub-ctrl  -h 0 -P 5 -p 1

and it does indeed reset the right port, because if I open now the screen sessoin I get the usual

0;0;3;0;9;gateway started, id=0, parent=0, distance=0
0;0;3;0;14;Gateway startup complete.

BUT: Still the thing is not sending receiving anything. WHY?

[Oitzu]

Tried to extend the sleep between power down and up?

[karl261]

Yes, I also tried with 30 seconds. Longer?

[Oitzu]

Well.. i think you can't lose anything. :D
Will be hard to debug after that without access to the actual hardware.

[karl261]

So, I made some modifications to the Serial Gateway sketch so it includes

radio.printDetails();

I see that it is looping though the loop function, but I actually see NO ouput from this function. What does this mean? That there is actually no radio connected? Wouldn't it say something like "no radio" or so?

[Oitzu]

https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/blob/f9c8579bbdeaa50a0937287d4f7c14f794460540/libraries/MySensors/drivers/RF24/RF24.cpp#L455
Do you have MY_DEBUG_VERBOSE defined?

[karl261]

Good point. I had not, now I have. But still, there is absolutely 0 output from this. The only message I see is the "Gateway startup complete" stuff.

[edautz]

I use Pimatic for more than a year now and I am using the Mysensors plugin 0.8.21 for more than 4 weeks now.
I use a serial gateway based on a arduino nano and a NRF24 radio.

I have already several sensors running without troubles and it appear to be stable.

What I see from your information is that the serial gateway is communicating, but seems to recieve nothing from your sensors.

If you can see on the PI that your gateway is started up, then the PI is able to recieve the information.

I debugged my serial gateway using the
serial monitor in the Arduino ide. This is also the way to test your sensors. In the serial monitor you can see if they are connecting to the gateway and sending information.

[BastienVH]

Hi,

After using OpenHAB for quite some time, I've made the transition to Pimatic.
I've got a pro mini 3V running on 2 AA batteries with a DS18B20-temp-sensor.
I would like to be able to display the battery level but am having some trouble.
I combined the temp and battery sensor into 1, but the battery status isn't being analyzed properly.
When I restart the node it transmits a value of 12 and shortly after that a value of 0.

Any ideas how to solve this?
Is this related to pimatic and the format in which it receives battery data or is it simply a fault in my code?

Thanks in advance!

This is my 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.
 *
 *******************************
 *
 * DESCRIPTION
 *
 * Example sketch showing how to send in DS1820B OneWire temperature readings back to the controller
 * http://www.mysensors.org/build/temp
 */

#include <MySensor.h>  
#include <SPI.h>
#include <DallasTemperature.h>
#include <OneWire.h>

#define COMPARE_TEMP 1 // Send temperature only if changed? 1 = Yes 0 = No
#define ONE_WIRE_BUS 3 // Pin where dallase sensor is connected 
#define MAX_ATTACHED_DS18B20 16
unsigned long SLEEP_TIME = 30000; // Sleep time between reads (in milliseconds)
OneWire oneWire(ONE_WIRE_BUS); // Setup a oneWire instance to communicate with any OneWire devices (not just Maxim/Dallas temperature ICs)
DallasTemperature sensors(&oneWire); // Pass the oneWire reference to Dallas Temperature. 
MySensor gw;
float lastTemperature[MAX_ATTACHED_DS18B20];
int numSensors=0;
int node_id = 12;
int BATTERY_SENSE_PIN = A0;  // select the input pin for the battery sense point
int oldBatteryPcnt = 0;
boolean receivedConfig = false;
boolean metric = true; 
// Initialize temperature message
MyMessage msg(0,V_TEMP);

void setup()  
{ 
  // Startup up the OneWire library
  sensors.begin();
  // requestTemperatures() will not block current thread
  sensors.setWaitForConversion(false);

  // use the 1.1 V internal reference
#if defined(__AVR_ATmega2560__)
   analogReference(INTERNAL1V1);
#else
   analogReference(INTERNAL);
#endif

 // Startup and initialize MySensors library. Set callback for incoming messages. 
  gw.begin(NULL, node_id);

  // Send the sketch version information to the gateway and Controller
  gw.sendSketchInfo("Temperature Sensor met battery", "1.0");

  // Fetch the number of attached temperature sensors  
  numSensors = sensors.getDeviceCount();

  // Present all sensors to controller
  for (int i=0; i<numSensors && i<MAX_ATTACHED_DS18B20; i++) {   
     gw.present(i, S_TEMP);
  }
}


void loop()     
{     
   // get the battery Voltage
   int sensorValue = analogRead(BATTERY_SENSE_PIN);
   #ifdef DEBUG
   Serial.println(sensorValue);
   #endif
   
   // 1M, 470K divider across battery and using internal ADC ref of 1.1V
   // Sense point is bypassed with 0.1 uF cap to reduce noise at that point
   // ((1e6+470e3)/470e3)*1.1 = Vmax = 3.44 Volts
   // 3.44/1023 = Volts per bit = 0.003363075
   float batteryV  = sensorValue * 0.003363075;
   int batteryPcnt = sensorValue / 10;

   #ifdef DEBUG
   Serial.print("Battery Voltage: ");
   Serial.print(batteryV);
   Serial.println(" V");

   Serial.print("Battery percent: ");
   Serial.print(batteryPcnt);
   Serial.println(" %");
   #endif

   if (oldBatteryPcnt != batteryPcnt) {
     // Power up radio after sleep
     gw.sendBatteryLevel(batteryPcnt);
     oldBatteryPcnt = batteryPcnt;}
     
  // Process incoming messages (like config from server)
  gw.process(); 

  // Fetch temperatures from Dallas sensors
  sensors.requestTemperatures();

  // query conversion time and sleep until conversion completed
  int16_t conversionTime = sensors.millisToWaitForConversion(sensors.getResolution());
  // sleep() call can be replaced by wait() call if node need to process incoming messages (or if node is repeater)
  gw.sleep(conversionTime);

  // Read temperatures and send them to controller 
  for (int i=0; i<numSensors && i<MAX_ATTACHED_DS18B20; i++) {
 
    // Fetch and round temperature to one decimal
    float temperature = static_cast<float>(static_cast<int>((gw.getConfig().isMetric?sensors.getTempCByIndex(i):sensors.getTempFByIndex(i)) * 10.)) / 10.;
 
    // Only send data if temperature has changed and no error
    #if COMPARE_TEMP == 1
    if (lastTemperature[i] != temperature && temperature != -127.00 && temperature != 85.00) {
    #else
    if (temperature != -127.00 && temperature != 85.00) {
    #endif
 
      // Send in the new temperature
      gw.send(msg.setSensor(i).set(temperature,1));
      // Save new temperatures for next compare
      lastTemperature[i]=temperature;
    }
  }
  gw.sleep(SLEEP_TIME);
}

[Dheeraj]

@BastienVH . check few things first.

1. hardware wiring is correct and as per mysensor guide.
2. what debug value "sensorValue" you are seeing on serial console if you debug your sensor node.
3. check the debug log in pimatic

[BastienVH]

@Dheeraj
I feel so stupid now... I built this circuit on a breadboard and after fiddling around with it yesterday, I forgot to place the resistor for the battery in the right pin. It was now on a different row.
Saw it and fixed it. Now I get a battery percentage in Pimatic!

Thanks for your help!

[fets]

@karl261 Do you have any news ?
Which raspberry pi are you using ? PI 2 ?

I experienced the same issue with domoticz on raspberry pi2 + serial gateway with RFM69 radio.
I really don't think that the issue is the controller. It seems that the radio is stuck cause when I debug my node after reset, all outgoing messages are marked with st=fail meaning that radios can't reach each other.
I don't know if it's my chinese arduino nano or raspberry pi 2 usb power or my radio module.
Investigation in progress. Something a reboot is not enough, I have to disconnect usb cable in order to make it work again.

[karl261]

@fets Yes, indeed, I made some progress during the last weeks. Today I finally found a way to display these debug messages. Took me months. See this thread: http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2392/how-to-properly-debug-serial-gateway-nrf24l01
I think my serial gateway was somehow badly connected. During the past weeks I verified everything, re-soldered, tested various power supplies and radio modules, etc. Now it seems to work usually stable. But not always. Now I am playing around with increasing the sending power of the radio modules.

I am using a pi 2.

Interesting, your problem sounds very similar. Unfortunately I do not really have any advice. Maybe try to build a duplicate and see if this works better?

[fets]

@karl261 My issue seems solve using capacitors on my rfm69 radios.

[fahrettine]

Hi everyone,
I installed Pimatic and it looks work just fine.
In the Config menu I added the codes below.
Saved and restarted the Pimatic.
I see "Light Unknown%" on the frontpage.
How can I fix that? Thanks....

{
  "plugin": "mysensors",
  "driver": "serialport",
  "protocols": "1.5.1",
  "startingNodeId": 1,
  "driverOptions": {
    "//": "'/dev/ttyUSB0' if using serial Gateway",
    "serialDevice": "/dev/ttyMySensorsGateway",
    "baudrate": 115200
  }
}

],
"devices": [
{
"id": "Light",
"name": "Light",
"class": "MySensorsLight",
"nodeid": 15,
"batterySensor": false,
"sensorid": 2
}
],

[Sweebee]

@fahrettine How does your sketch look? Does pimatic receive anything in de log?