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alexeliteA

alexelite

@alexelite
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Recent Best Controversial

  • 💬 Debugging Sensors and the Gateway
    alexeliteA alexelite

    What type of gateway and radio do you use?

    Announcements

  • Connecting smoke detectors to house alarm
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @vecnar so you have a smoke sensor with a normally open relay contact, and the contact closes when smoke detection is triggered. As I understand the contact is dry ( potential free).
    Your alarm system requires normally closed circuit and triggers on open circuit. (ignoring the resistor and tamper for now).
    You what to connect the two together, no mysensors stuff in between.
    Did I understand correctly?

    General Discussion

  • Corrupted serial debug output
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @skywatch, 3.3V at 16MHz is somewhat out of specs, but it works at 115200bps using the hardware uart.

    Troubleshooting

  • Increase VAR limit
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @NielBierman, the library provides 254 sensors definitions, and for each you can use types VAR1-5, that means 1270 distinct values.
    If you have 8 soil moisture and 8 temp you should define a sensor for every pair.
    Sensor 0 : VAR1 and TEMP
    ...
    Sensor 8 : VAR1 and TEMP

    Feature Requests

  • Can't find Mysensors in Home Assist
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @stewie I've read about another integration that it is available only when advanced mode is on in user profile. Do you have it on? If not, you can try turning it on to see if it becomes available?

    Home Assistant

  • Poor RSSI on RFM69 with RaspberryPi SPI
    alexeliteA alexelite

    I found the proximate cause for this problem and posted it in an already opened issue.
    https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1077#issuecomment-832228721

    Troubleshooting

  • Poor RSSI on RFM69 with RaspberryPi SPI
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @skywatch where did I say I ignore the note? A library is not the holy truth, it was written by a human being, with more or less accurate info.
    I have to check all info found on the net and also do my own testing.
    In this case the note should be true only for old Pi boards, Pi3 should be able to supply at least a few hundred mA on the 3v3 header pins. But for testing I checked if this makes a difference.
    RFM69HW datasheet makes me think power requirements only affect TX, 16mA in Rx mode, and up to 130mA in Tx.
    Noise can be a big factor to consider. I have decupling capacitor right next to the radio module, with thick traces to 3.3 and GND pins. The power supply is a RPi wall adaptor.
    The main idea is that it worked once and after a reboot with no hardware change, it stopped working as expected. This does not sound like a power problem or hardware one as a mater of fact, but a software one. kted inspired me to read more carefully some topics and it turns out other libraries are "plagued" with this problem. So it might have nothing to do with mysensors library but something in the Pi? Mabey a timing issue influenced by other service running? Can we solve it? Maybe if we try.

    Troubleshooting

  • Poor RSSI on RFM69 with RaspberryPi SPI
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @kted, thank you for your answer, is this documented somewhere? I searched a lot but only found partial info about rssi problems.

    I was trying to use a Python library and found a note about RFM69 H version that it should not be powered from the 3.3V pin. This should only matter for transmitting not for receiving, and without anything else connected to the Pi the 3.3V power pin should be able to provide a few hundred mA of current.
    I changed the board and powered it from 5V with a dedicated 3.3V regulator and RSSI increased a bit. :confused:
    RSSI2.png
    at around 10 pm I implemented the mod. But it is nowhere near what I got a few days ago when it worked only from 3.3V.

    https://rpi-rfm69.readthedocs.io/en/latest/hookup.html
    This pin can only support low power mode. Use different supply if you want to use the RFM69HCW in high power mode.

    Troubleshooting

  • Poor RSSI on RFM69 with RaspberryPi SPI
    alexeliteA alexelite

    With serial gateway attached to the Pi, RSSI varies based on distance, the right way. The node very close has a -45 value, and the rest from -65 to -80.

    Troubleshooting

  • Poor RSSI on RFM69 with RaspberryPi SPI
    alexeliteA alexelite

    I have a Raspberry pi 3 with a RFM69HW connected directly to GPIO pins as MySensors gateway. 868Mhz.
    For months the gateway was placed behind the TV with an antenna dangling 30 cm below the TV. With this setup the average RSSI value for messages form nodes was around -100. Mounting the antenna just behind the TV stopped all communications so I attributed the low RSSI to TV's proximity.
    Recently I prepared a new location for the gateway and moved the Pi. RSSI value improved considerably and was very stable at around -80 for most nodes in the house, some higher than this.
    A day after the move, I had to reboot the Pi and the RSSI value dropped back to an average of -100. No hardware change.
    I tried multiple reboots and got some inconsistent results as seen in the first image.
    I made a new HAT with a brand new radio with a bigger ground plane. Same results.
    This node is a floor up with a reinforced concrete slab in between, opposite sides of the house.
    RSSI1.png
    This is a relay node 2 m from the GW. It is rarely actuated (very low message rate) and usually only responds to discovery messages. After the GW move the tx power was very high and ATC adjusted it from -40 to -60.
    RSSI3.png

    I made a signal strength node. It goes to full power because RSSI is so low. If I set the lowest power, signal strength does not drop and all messages are received OK. The RSSI value for messages from GW have an RSSI of -60. If I take the signal strength node closer to the GW (a meter away), still no change. only node's RxRSSI increases.

    I've been trying to understand this for days. The problem is that all nodes max out on power because of this value.

    Another test I did:
    I made 1 node and 1 gw based on Lowpowerlab's library (LPL) (atmega328 + rfm69hw + Ft232), connected the LPL_GW to the Pi and measured the received signal strength. -60 when LPL signal strength node is on a different floor, and increases to -30 when moved in the same location.
    I will try to use this hw for a usb connected mys gateway, but other than this I am out of ideas.

    Troubleshooting

  • Best password manager?
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @mfalkvidd said in Best password manager?:

    Bitwarden

    Bitwarden self hosted works very well for me. Definitely a strong candidate for best password manager.:+1:

    General Discussion

  • [SOLVED]Atmega 328P reset to start
    alexeliteA alexelite

    Did you check the voltage on the reset pin? Might be a faulty pullup connection on the reset pin, if your circuit is on a breadboard.

    Troubleshooting reset starting atmega328p

  • SP32 GW and RFM69HCW radio pinout
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @DenisJ CSN is NSS on radio module, and IRQ is DIO0

    Troubleshooting rfm69hcw

  • Feather M0 RFM60HCW (433Mhz) - can't connect to gw
    alexeliteA alexelite

    You can try with #define MY_DEBUG_VERBOSE_RFM69_REGISTERS to se if radio communication is ok and mysensors library is able to communicate with the radio. You should see registers dump at startup.

    If that is ok, on the gateway you should see a "find parent request" from this node.
    This should narrow the problem to "are you transmitting and not receiving", or "you are not transmitting".

    Troubleshooting

  • Feather M0 RFM60HCW (433Mhz) - can't connect to gw
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @Alpoy said in Feather M0 RFM60HCW (433Mhz) - can't connect to gw:

    Feather M0 RFM69HCW

    I think you only need:
    #define MY_RFM69_IRQ_PIN 3
    #define MY_RFM69_CS_PIN 8
    for M0 this is not required
    #define MY_RFM69_IRQ_NUM 3

    Troubleshooting

  • Your suggestions to choose naming for "sensor" and "variable"
    alexeliteA alexelite

    Gateway >> Node >> Device >> Metrics

    Nodes have devices attached and each device has metrics.

    MyController.org mycontroller.org mycontroller

  • Possible securiy breach in ESPS.
    alexeliteA alexelite

    I do not think it is a security breach, because ESP32 has AES256 encryption for flash data, if enabled.
    https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/security/flash-encryption.html

    Hardware

  • Events instead of states
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @toddles I don't think you can trigger an event directly. HA mysensors integration changes the state of entities only.
    Your node sends button state on one single sensor id, value dependent on key pressed? And you only send on depressed event not on release?
    If so, why not send also a release event, or count the times one button is pressed before sending?

    Home Assistant event button

  • RFM69 sensitivity vs packet loss
    alexeliteA alexelite

    I also have the gateway near the TV (behind it) with the antenna 30-40 cm below it.
    The RSSI value drops for all nodes and this drop can successfully be used to detect tv on :D . With the magnetic antenna on tv's support, communication stops working even for nodes 4 m away, in the same room.

    mysensors rssi.jpg

    Development

  • Filter node
    alexeliteA alexelite

    @Snyfir In your first post you say that only one node is mains powered. Instead of modifying the library, why not provide a UPS type power supply for that node. Something with an old phone battery or 1-2 18650 cells.
    But I guess the other two already have something like this, they are not battery only.
    That way if the power goes down all your repeaters are up.

    Feature Requests
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