sendBatteryLevel and child sensor problems

[GardenShedDev]

I am having problem with a my HA and MySensors config and cannot get the Batter level reporting in HA alongside several child sensors.

My configuration is as follows:

ESP8266 with NRF24l01 radio configured as a a MySensor gateway, this is relaying MySensor node information to my Hassbian setup which has MQTT installed.

My Sensor node is configured using a Pro Mini, NRF24L01, DHT22 and a BH1750 lux sensor - this has a static Node id of 2.

I have configured my pro mini sketch to talk to the gateway and send Humidity, Temperature, Lux(light), Heat Index (temp) and Battery Level - each has a child assigned 1 thru 4 with sendBatteryLevel being an internal message.

MQTT and HA works well with ‘other’ non MySensor nodes.
HA is configured to debug log mysensors.

I can see data on MQTT by monitoring the relevant topics with MQTTfx - which shows that humidity, temp, lux and heat index are being sent and received by MQTT
Problem #1: I cannot see on MQTT or within the HA logs any activity to do with they battery (sendBatteryLevel) although I do get the following in the Node Serial debug log

!TSF:MSG:SEND,2-2-0-0,s=255,c=3,t=0,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:96

Problem #2: Within Home Assistant it is reading and displaying Humidity and Lux, child ids 1&3 respectively; child id's 2 & 4 are not being picked up by HA - I cannot see any subscription notifications in the HA logs to do with these two?!?!?

I have deleted the persistence file, restarted HA, restarted the gateway, restarted the sensor - before config change - after config change...and on.... and on... I think im at the point where I cant see the woods for all the trees!!!!

To start the ball rolling can someone please check over my sensor sketch below to ensure that I am not doing anything stupid or offer any ideas as to why I am seeing this behavior?

Thanks in advance

#define MY_DEBUG true                                     // Enable debug prints
#define MY_RADIO_NRF24                                    // Enable and select radio type attached
#define MY_NODE_ID 2                                      // Set the node ID manually - this must be set the mysensors.h call

#include <DHT_U.h>
#include <SPI.h>
#include <MySensors.h>
#include<Wire.h>
#include<BH1750.h>


BH1750 lightMeter(0x23);                                 /* BH1750 can be physically configured to use two I2C addresses:
                                                             - 0x23 (most common) (if ADD pin had < 0.7VCC voltage)
                                                            - 0x5C (if ADD pin had > 0.7VCC voltage)
                                                            Library use 0x23 address as default, but you can define any other address.
                                                            If you had troubles with default value - try to change it to 0x5C.*/

#define DHTPIN 3                                         // DHT PIN MAP 
#define DHTTYPE DHT22
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);


#define SENSOR_TEMP_OFFSET 0.00                          // Set this offset if the sensor has a permanent small offset to the real temperatures


static const uint64_t UPDATE_INTERVAL = 300000;           // Sleep time between sensor updates (in milliseconds)
                                                         // Must be >1000ms for DHT22 and >2000ms for DHT11


static const uint8_t FORCE_UPDATE_N_READS = 2;           // Force sending an update of the temperature after n sensor reads, so a controller showing the
                                                         // timestamp of the last update doesn't show something like 3 hours in the unlikely case, that
                                                         // the value didn't change since;
                                                         // i.e. the sensor would force sending an update every UPDATE_INTERVAL*FORCE_UPDATE_N_READS [ms]

#define CHILD_ID_HUM 1                                   
#define CHILD_ID_TEMP 2
#define CHILD_ID_LIGHT 3
#define CHILD_ID_HEATINDEX 4
#define CHILD_ID_BATTERY 5

float lastTemp;
float lastHum;
float lux;                                               // Light meter lux level
uint8_t nNoUpdatesTemp;
uint8_t nNoUpdatesHum;
bool metric = true;
float hic_temp = 0;

int BATTERY_SENSE_PIN = A0;                               // Define battery sense pins 
int oldBatteryPcnt = 0;

MyMessage msgHum(CHILD_ID_HUM, V_HUM);
MyMessage msgTemp(CHILD_ID_TEMP, V_TEMP);
MyMessage msgLux(CHILD_ID_LIGHT, V_LEVEL);
MyMessage msgHeatIndex(CHILD_ID_HEATINDEX, V_TEMP);
//MyMessage msgBattery(CHILD_ID_BATTERY, V_VOLTAGE);

/*************************************************************************************************************/
/************************************************  Presentation       ****************************************/
/*************************************************************************************************************/

void presentation()
{
  
  sendSketchInfo("LPMultiSensor","1.0");         // Send the sketch version information to the gateway

  present(CHILD_ID_HUM, S_HUM);                         // Register all sensors to gw (they will be created as child devices)
  present(CHILD_ID_TEMP, S_TEMP);
  present(CHILD_ID_LIGHT, S_LIGHT_LEVEL);
  present(CHILD_ID_HEATINDEX, S_TEMP);
//  present(CHILD_ID_BATTERY, S_MULTIMETER);

  metric = getControllerConfig().isMetric;
}

/*************************************************************************************************************/
/************************************************  Setup              ****************************************/
/*************************************************************************************************************/

void setup(){
  analogReference(INTERNAL);                    
  
  Wire.begin();                                         //start lightmeter and set mode - pin assignments (SCL ([A5], SDA [A4} ) fixed for pro mini
  lightMeter.begin(BH1750_CONTINUOUS_HIGH_RES_MODE);    /*Start I2C for GY 30 - BH1750
                                                          Full mode list:
                                                          BH1750_CONTINUOUS_LOW_RES_MODE
                                                          BH1750_CONTINUOUS_HIGH_RES_MODE (default)
                                                          BH1750_CONTINUOUS_HIGH_RES_MODE_2
                                                          BH1750_ONE_TIME_LOW_RES_MODE
                                                          BH1750_ONE_TIME_HIGH_RES_MODE
                                                          BH1750_ONE_TIME_HIGH_RES_MODE_2
                                                        */

  dht.begin();                                          // start temp/ humidity sensor
  delay(1000);
}

/*************************************************************************************************************/
/************************************************  Main Loop          ****************************************/
/*************************************************************************************************************/

void loop(){

  
  float temperature = dht.readTemperature();            // Get temperature from DHT library
  if (isnan(temperature)) {
      Serial.println("Failed reading temperature from DHT!");
      } else 
      {
            temperature += SENSOR_TEMP_OFFSET;
            send(msgTemp.set(temperature, 1));
      } 

    float humidity = dht.readHumidity();                // Get humidity from DHT library
  
  if (isnan(humidity)) {
      Serial.println("Failed reading humidity from DHT");
      } else  
      {
           hic_temp = dht.computeHeatIndex(temperature, humidity, false);                 // Compute heat index in Celsius (Fahreheit = false)
            
            send(msgHum.set(humidity, 1));
            send(msgHeatIndex.set(hic_temp, 1));
      }

 
  lux = lightMeter.readLightLevel();                        // Read Lightmeter
  send(msgLux.set(lux, 1));


  int sensorValue = analogRead(BATTERY_SENSE_PIN);          // Read Battery level
  Serial.print("Battery level: ");
  Serial.println(sensorValue);
                                          /* 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 
                                           3.28/1023 = Volts per bit = 0.003206256 */
    float batteryV  = sensorValue * 0.003206256;
    int batteryPcnt = sensorValue / 10;
    Serial.print("Battery Voltage: ");
    Serial.print(batteryV);
    Serial.println(" V");
    Serial.print("Battery percent: ");
    Serial.print(batteryPcnt);
    Serial.println(" %");

    sendBatteryLevel(batteryPcnt);



  Serial.println(" ");                                
  Serial.print("Child ID ");
  Serial.print(CHILD_ID_HUM);
  Serial.print("  -  Hum: ");
  Serial.println(humidity);
  
  Serial.print("Child ID ");
  Serial.print(CHILD_ID_TEMP);
  Serial.print("  -  Temp: ");
  Serial.println(temperature);
  
  Serial.print("Child ID ");
  Serial.print(CHILD_ID_LIGHT);   
  Serial.print("  -  Lux: ");
  Serial.println(lux);

  Serial.print("Child ID ");
  Serial.print(CHILD_ID_HEATINDEX);
  Serial.print("  -  Feels Like: ");
  Serial.println(hic_temp);

  Serial.print("Child ID ");
  Serial.print(CHILD_ID_BATTERY);
  Serial.print("  -  Battery: ");
  Serial.print(batteryV);
  Serial.print(" V");
  Serial.println(" ");
  Serial.println(" ");
  
  sleep(UPDATE_INTERVAL);                                // Sleep for a while to save energy

}```

[gohan]

Nack means it was not received by the gateway, so I guess that is why it is not displaying. What gateway version are you using?

[GardenShedDev]

I might answer this wrong but....Im using v2.1.1 library for arduino and the demo sketch for the esp8266 GW from the library

[gohan]

Try to install version 2.2 and flash again gateway and node

[GardenShedDev]

Ok so I have been looking for the 2.2 library and I am struggling to find it - likely my bad being a newbie and not looking in the right place - if you can provide a hint that would be great !

....In the meantime it did get me thinking. My gateway was not running on 2.1.1 and was on 2.1.0. So I updated it and as if by magic the battery percent started to appear in Home Assistant with a pleasing ack in the node debug log - YEY!!!

I also noticed that the GW was not presenting the sketch detail and version incorrectly so I fixed it - I cleared out the persistence file in Home Assistant restarted everything and im right back to square one - no battery status in HA and a nack from the gateway...ho hum.......

[gohan]

Library is still on github, just choose development version instead of master

[GardenShedDev]

Thanks for the pointer obvious in hindsight!!

So problem fixed after looking at the issue log on github here. Seems that this is a known feature/ problem of the library/ nrf24.

Basically if your trying to send messages via the radio one after the other you need to wait for gateway to respond/ process before sending the next message. If you don't you will get intermittent results which mirrors my problems with presentation, messages and battery.

There are some good conversation on how this might be fixed under version 2.2 or not but for the simple solution has been to implement the solution proposed by user trlafleur - its simple, works and I don't have to start messing with dev libraries (which I dont have a clue on)