As the title said, i'm currently building/build a set of solar powered nesting box nodes, to observe the inner of said boxes. (By Picture)
The Gateway (a RPi) is also solar powered and connected with a UMTS stick to the internet.
I'm currently writing a series of blog-post of this MySensors powered project. 
Just if anyone is interested in sending image-data over the mysensors network:
I now have some sort of working proof on concept.
I'm able to take a picture with a serial camera connected to a arduino nano and transmit it over my MySensors network.
The transmitting of the taken picture takes about 40 seconds, has a resolution of 640x320 and a size of 50kb.
@Anticimex said:
What's wrong with a few herbs?
Maybe he just wants to change the lights, music etc. in his living room to get a more fitting scene for his current activities?
The Perl-Script i'm using instead of a controller, because obviously no controller supports this yet.
25th of Mars 12:00 CET #!/usr/bin/perl
use Device::SerialPort;
use POSIX qw(strftime);
use Data::Dumper;
use Time::HiRes qw (sleep);
use Time::HiRes qw(time);
my $port = Device::SerialPort->new("/dev/ttyUSB1");
$| = 1;
use Time::HiRes qw(time);
$port->baudrate(115200);
$port->databits(8);
$port->parity("none");
$port->stopbits(1);
my $buffer;
my %transfers;
print "Waiting for incoming transfers...\n";
while (1) {
my ($count,$saw)=$port->read(256);
if($count > 0 || length($buffer) > 0)
{
$buffer .= $saw;
my ($cmd, $rest) = split(/\n/, $buffer, 2);
if(defined($rest))
{
if(@m = $cmd =~ /([0-9]*);([0-9]*);([0-9]*);([0-9]*);([0-9]*);(.*)/g)
{
my ($node_id, $child_sensor_id, $message_type, $ack, $sub_type, $payload) = @m;
# print "node_id: $node_id, child_sensor_id: $child_sensor_id, message_type: $child_sensor_id, ack: $ack, sub_type: $sub_type, payload: $payload \n";
if($sub_type eq "25")
{
if($payload eq "START" && $transfers{$node_id}{'state'} == 0)
{
print "New transfer incoming from node $node_id.\n";
$transfers{$node_id}{'start_time'} = time();
$transfers{$node_id}{'state'} = 1;
$transfers{$node_id}{'count'} = 0;
my $time = strftime("%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S", localtime);
open ($transfers{$node_id}{'FH'}, ">>node-".$node_id."-".$time.".jpg");
binmode($transfers{$node_id}{'FH'});
}
if($payload eq "END" && $transfers{$node_id}{'state'} == 1)
{
close($transfers{$node_id}{'FH'});
$transfers{$node_id}{'state'} = 0;
my $duration = time() - $transfers{$node_id}{'start_time'};
my $bps = $transfers{$node_id}{'count'} * 24 / $duration;
my $pps = $transfers{$node_id}{'count'} / $duration;
print "Transfer from $node_id finished.\n";
print "$duration seconds, $bps Bytes/s, $pps Packets/s\n";
}
}
elsif($sub_type eq "24")
{
if($transfers{$node_id}{'state'} == 1)
{
$transfers{$node_id}{'count'}++;
print { $transfers{$node_id}{'FH'} } pack('H*',$payload);
}
}
}
$buffer = $rest;
}
}
#Check for timeout
while(($node_id) = each %transfers)
{
my $duration = time() - $transfers{$node_id}{'start_time'};
if($duration > 120 && $transfers{$node_id}{'state'} == 1)
{
close($transfers{$node_id}{'FH'});
$transfers{$node_id}{'state'} = 0;
print "Warning: Timeout from node $node_id. Transfer cancelled.\n";
}
}
sleep (0.001);
}
The sketch:
#include <MySensor.h>
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Adafruit_VC0706.h>
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
#undef DEBUG
SoftwareSerial cameraConnection = SoftwareSerial(6,7);
Adafruit_VC0706 cam = Adafruit_VC0706(&cameraConnection);
#define CHILD_ID 3
MySensor gw;
MyMessage msg(CHILD_ID,V_VAR1);
MyMessage msg2(CHILD_ID,V_VAR2);
void setup()
{
gw.begin();
gw.present(CHILD_ID, S_CUSTOM);
if (cam.begin()){}
else { return; } //Abort the transfer if camera does not initialize
cam.setImageSize(VC0706_640x480);
delay(3000);
snapAndSend();
cam.reset();
}
//Do nothing.
void loop()
{
}
void snapAndSend()
{
cam.takePicture();
uint16_t jpgLen = cam.frameLength();
Serial.print("Sending Picture of ");
Serial.print(jpgLen, DEC);
Serial.println(" Bytes.");
gw.send(msg2.set("START"));
while (jpgLen > 0)
{ //Send off 24 bytes of data at a time
uint8_t *buffer;
uint8_t bytesToRead = min(24, jpgLen);
buffer = cam.readPicture(bytesToRead);
gw.send(msg.set(buffer, bytesToRead));
jpgLen -= bytesToRead;
}
Serial.println("Done.");
gw.send(msg2.set("END"));
}
Hardware:
Typical MySensors-Node and a Serial TTL Camera like this:
http://aliexpress.com/item/NEW-RS232-TTL-JPEG-Digital-Serial-Port-CCTV-Camera-Module-SCB-1-with-video-out-Support/1975852463.html
@TRS-80 you may want to look at RTL-SDR http://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
If you just want to scan on the nrf24l01+ channel range, this is maybe enough for you: https://maniacbug.github.io/RF24/scanner_8pde-example.html
Part 4 posted: http://blog.blackoise.de/2016/04/building-a-connected-nesting-box-network-part-4/
Now with 90% less text and 60% more pictures! 
@drock1985 would be great!
tweet tweet
Hello @OPatrick!
The modules are only emitting when needed. They don't keep something like an active sync by default.
The strength of the signals can be configured and should be as strong as needed but as low as possible.
How often signals are emitted depends strongly on your sketches / use cases.
But in "stand-by" the modules are completly powered down and don't emit any signals.
I wouldn't worried that much. The nrf24l01+, by example, works in the 2.4ghz band with a relativly low signal strength. The human skin itself is a barrier that these signals can not penetrate.
Just if anybody else is running into this problem:
Shielding the module with tinfoil against RF worked great! With the tinfoil shield i got over 1km reach in a clear line of sight!
@gohan these values are just the ones i used and should filter lowpass at about 5.9 kHz.
The ripple on the LM2596s is usually arround 25-50kHz. (Depends on which clone you get. ;))
I'm no electrical engineer. Maybe @AWI can comment if there may be a more suitable component selection.
@ronnyandre The main reason for using a filter would be a crappy/cheap switching power supply.
I needed to use one of these filters on a cheap LM2596s (clone) module to filter the output to a nrf24l01+ pa/lna module.
Unlike @AWI 's solution i just added a second stage after the first stage (that is on the module).
http://blog.blackoise.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/lc-filter-schem1.jpg
L1: 3.3µH
C1: 220µF
Worked fine enough to get the nrf24l01+ pa/lna module working.
Short: probably. TrY soft spi for the nrf24
@karl261 with the original nrf24l01+ modules this is correct, yes.
To save battery use the lowest setting that still works without transmitting errors.
@karl261 the MAX Setting is the HIGH setting + a extra bit. The extra bit is ignored by the original nrf24l01+ chips. Some nrf24l01+ clones (also known as the SI24R1) are using this bit to switch into a higher mode.
I wonder if i ever solved this. 
I remember i began drawing a schematic in KiCAD. Maybe i should look if i will find this and which mosfet i used in the schematic.
I like the magic blue smoke hole directly above the cap on your RPi case. XD
@AWI nice finnish 
I wonder if the nrf24 shielding is still necessary in a metal enclosure.
@alexsh1 is this now officially called "the ugly fix"? 
I should reconsider my naming choices.
@Mark-Swift does "appear" mean you actually measured it all the way to ground or that you believe that it should be well grounded?
