Posts made by Alexander Ivanov

In the office I have industrial light sensors which don't work properly - when I enter a room the lights are turning on but after period of time it switches lights off like there's nowhere in the room.

I'd like to install PIR/presense sensors in bathroom but definitely don't want to have ussues with turning lights off because sensors don't work properly.
Does anyone has a solid experience in building / using presense sensors?

I'm using MySensors under Vera UI7 in the environment where radio power is not enough. Repeater feature logic is not very clear for me and I have some questions:

• can a node work via many repeaters? I mean, if a node is really far from gateway, can it get data from the gateway via many repeaters, for example: Gateway->Repeater1->Repeater2->Repeater3->Target Node ?
• can a node can be included via repeaters? I mean, does inclusion mode work if the node not connected directly to gateway, but via repeater(s)?
• do repeaters load network and/or gateway? Will tens of repeaters affect network performance and is it worth to make each node a repeater by defaul?

Thanks!

If there's no ready-to-use sketch, then which field I need to track to understand RX level?

I have some strange issues with connection between node(s) and gateway. All NRF24L01+ based.
To analyse this I plan to create a device to measure signal level. Is there any ready-to-use sketch for this?
Thanks

I have long (~10m) wires connected to Arduino Pro 3.3V ports. All of them used with just debouncers, so I connect these wires with GND to switch something.

Shall I do something special to decrease noise or any other potential problems?

I found problem in my code: my node sends update if only it has value changed, which can take really long.

@flopp, "it will start to search for a Parent after 6 failures" - does 6 tries happen automatically or the node need to send something 6 times?

@hek, many thanks, changed the format and see full info now!
Question about this Last update value: does it show when value was changed for Vera or this is time when the node sent last value (even if the node sent same value as before)?
I mean, does it show time of last communication of with the node, or time when value was changed?

@r-nox but not clear what the time there really means.

@r-nox, Device List scree, "Last update" field under each node (not device/sensor).

@DavidZH, sounds promising. Give me something for tests, I will spend next few months on this.

@r-nox, two issues:

• timestamp is not shown in most mobile clients, can be easily missed.
• there are timestamp for nodes, but it's not obvious what they mean, asked question here: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/5882/last-update-node-field-in-vera-interface

The purpose of my request is just to understand to see that sensors work correctly and haven't lost connection. Currently it's not obvious at all - I see last value which can be shown forever.

I'm moving to Vera+MySensors and will do all light management under MySensors.
Months before I raised a discussion to allow node to be operated individually, even if it's not connected to MySensor network. Unfortunately, it will not happen - once node is not connected - it will stop working.

I definitely don't want to put my house in the dark because something went wrong. Does anybody created a reliable switch, based (maybe) on MySensor node + (say) Arduino ? Can anybody share good experience?

@sundberg84, I'm using Vera (Edge). Really surprised on nodes behaviour. If it's really 6 tries, my node which updates temperature twice a min should restart connection in 3 mins after loosing it. But this is not happening.

I have 21:50 local time at Vera clock. Two temperature nodes which updates info twice a mins show different strange time:
(node1) Last Update:20:09
(node2) Last Update:19:54

What does "Last update" node field really means ? And how to add date there to see that the node still responding?

I found that after rebooting Ethernet gateway some nodes are not responding (at least first minutes, I didn't check longer).
Does MySensor nodes automatically tries to re-establish connection with gateways once the connection was lost? If yes, how to tune time to connection re-establishing?

Thanks

Hi,
Sometimes my VeraPlus loses connection to temperature sensor. If it happens, I'd like to see N/A (or someth. similar) as temperature, instead of last stored value.
Is there any way to change last stored temperature value to N/A if temperature sensor doesn't respond more than (say) 10 minutes?

I guess it will require MySensors code modification, right?

Hi Everyone,

Since it's not possible to run a node code if the node is not connected to a gateway, it's especially important to have a backup gateway.
It's reasonable to power up a backup gateway (and power down "main" node) if the main gateway is not responding after period of time.

In general, it's easy - we need to have a dedicated node which "pings" the gateway and once it doesn't respond -- it should power up backup gateway + power down main gateway. The problem is, the dedicated node code (in loop procedure) won't start if the node isn't connected with a gateway (see link above). How to overcome it, any ideas?

Regards, Alexander

@TheoL said:

@kskud My rule of thumb for designing devices like that, is to always add some kind of switch. So that you're always able to operate the device manually when MySensors isn't working.

At the moments my node halts after before() procedure.
@kskud, how to achieve that, how to make void loop() working even if MySensensors doesn't work?

I implemented all what kskud recommended but it didn't help, the node excutes only "before" procudure and nothign else (no setup, presentation, loop, receive). Any ideas?

Hi Everyone,

I'm building a light switch which should work even if MySensors network is not available.
What I found in MySensors 2.0 is:

• if there's no network available, the system runs only "before" procedure
• once I power on Ethernet gateway (but I haven't done node inclusion), the system runs "before", "setup" and "presentation" procedures, but doesn't run "loop".

How to enable "loop" for my node even if there's no MySensors network available or/and the node wasn't included to the network?

Thanks
Regards, Alexander

@hek
Correct, I already flashed Ethernet Gateway (W5100) and a test node (Relay Actuator) with new beta version of the library.
In Vera I removed Ethernet Gateway and added it again, so it shows in properties:
Plugin Version:1.5
Lib Version: Unit: {empty}
Inlcusion mode doesn't search for new nodes, so this is why I asked - is the old Vera plugin developed for library 1.5 compartible with library 2.0 ?

Can I test it with current version of Vera plugin, which shows
Plugin Version:1.5
Lib Version: Unit: 1.5.1
is it compartible ?

Hi Everyone,

I'm building MySensors network and really care about overall network stability and reliability. In this topic I don't want to touch software topic and focus only on hardware environment. Can somebody help to answer questions below to finally create FAQ on MySensors hardware?

1. What is the best Arduino Pro Mini for nodes powered with power supply - is it 3.3V or 5V version, or it doesn't matter at all ?
2. If we take 3.3V version - does internal power regulator have really enough power (with capacitor) for radio module in worst case? Or it's better to use LE33A (even if I use radio module with extended range)?
   BTW, LE33A is 100mA only, I'm not sure it's enough for worst cases, probably it's better to use L4931CZ33 (250mA versions)?
3. I plan to use one power supply in basement and many (~20-30pcs) long (10-30 meters) power wires to Arduino nodes. What kind of capacitors it's better to use at the end of power wires? And what kind of capacitors are the best to use on radio power?
4. Which voltage range is the best for powering Arduino Pro Mini? I planned to use 12V but it's upper limit and it's probably better to use something like 6V?
5. I plan to use resettable fuses for nodes, could you recommend proper value for them. Is 100mA too low?
6. Does anybody care about node PCB coating to additionally protect them against humidity?

Thanks in advance

Thanks for your reply. Today I've got KORAD KA3005D power supply (listed in Store section), powered test node with 5.5V and everything seems to work well and stable. Before that I powered test nodes from different power souces starting from USB power supplies ending to 12V power adapters.
I need to test all once again to make futher conclusions.

Hi Everyone,

I'm developing smart home with MySensors 1.5 + Ethernet controller + Vera Edge UI7. Vera Edge is always up-to-dated. I can always ping Ethernet gateway and it's recognized by UI7. Yes, all nodes wided via LE33ACZ with capacitor.
Unfortunatelly I have lots of problems with my implementation:

• Inclusion with AUTO parameter doesn't work, I have to assign nodeID manually, only after that UI7 starts recognizing new nodes. Clearing EEPROM sometimes help but in most cases doen'tg
• Inclusion is always unpredicted process. Sometimes UI7 adds all presented sensors, sometimes partially. In many cases UI7 can add "Arduino Node" and "Repeater Node" but it's not systematically.
• When I delete node from UI7 - it can't forget it untill I reboot UI7.

Because of all of these I feel that the system is really buggy and unstable, I can't trust it.
Is it because of UI7 which lots of people don't like? How to trace the problem?

Thanks in advance