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    benhub

    @benhub

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    Best posts made by benhub

    • RE: My gateway fails to answer

      Thank you very much! It seems that the (or at least one) reason for my issue was the step up booster on the sensor node.

      This post gave me the hint, that the step up booster might produce noise:
      https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4796/battery-powered-sensors/67?_=1606408518798

      So, now I power the nrf24l01 directly from the batteries and not through the step up booster anymore. Now the node is able to connect. There are still errors in the communication but not so many.

      posted in Troubleshooting
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: Node sends data only once when battery powered

      Sorry. Forget it. It was just some misunderstanding in the mycontroller UI.
      I just saw that my sensors were in state "NEW" in mycontroller. I had to put it into state "REGISTERED". Don't ask me, why I thought that it worked via USB — I now think, that it never really worked, maybe i read the wrong line and saw another sensor in the list.

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: My gateway fails to answer

      Wow! Thank you for your quick answer! That already helped a little bit.

      At least I now saw, that the connection works, when my sensor node is powered via USB. So it seems to be a power issue on the sensor node. I'll dig deeper on this side.

      posted in Troubleshooting
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: Why are the measured values so different? Are my humidity sensors faulty?

      Many thanks for your answers! I tried that thing with the sodium chloride solution and the values of my HYT221 sensor was far off (66%) whereas the measured values from the SI7021 showed 76%.

      So I now configured an offset in MyController for the HYT221 sensors.

      Thanks for your hints!

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub

    Latest posts made by benhub

    • RE: My gateway fails to answer

      Thank you very much! It seems that the (or at least one) reason for my issue was the step up booster on the sensor node.

      This post gave me the hint, that the step up booster might produce noise:
      https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4796/battery-powered-sensors/67?_=1606408518798

      So, now I power the nrf24l01 directly from the batteries and not through the step up booster anymore. Now the node is able to connect. There are still errors in the communication but not so many.

      posted in Troubleshooting
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: My gateway fails to answer

      Wow! Thank you for your quick answer! That already helped a little bit.

      At least I now saw, that the connection works, when my sensor node is powered via USB. So it seems to be a power issue on the sensor node. I'll dig deeper on this side.

      posted in Troubleshooting
      benhub
      benhub
    • My gateway fails to answer

      Hi! For a long time now I'm having troubles with my gateway. My setup is

      • a Raspberry Pi 3 running RaspberryOS Buster, with
      • an Arduino Nano connected via USB to act as serial gateway, using
      • an nrf24l01 wireless chip.

      The problem is, that when a node tries to connect to the gateway, I see the following messages on the gateway:

      0;255;3;0;9;3128482 TSF:MSG:READ,1-1-255,s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
      0;255;3;0;9;3128488 TSF:MSG:BC
      0;255;3;0;9;3128492 TSF:MSG:FPAR REQ,ID=1
      0;255;3;0;9;3128495 TSF:CKU:OK,FCTRL
      0;255;3;0;9;3128499 TSF:MSG:GWL OK
      0;255;3;0;9;3128719 !TSF:MSG:SEND,0-0-1-1,s=255,c=3,t=8,pt=1,l=1,sg=0,ft=0,st=NACK:0
      

      So, as far as I understand, the gateway receives the initial request from the node and tries to answer. But for some reason the sending fails. This raises some questions for me:

      • Does it mean the sending itself fails on the gateway side? Or does the gateway somehow know that the data is not received by the node?
      • Should the TSF:MSG:SEND work, even if the gateway is not used by a controller (i.e. when connected to the Arduino IDE debug console)?

      What I already did: I replaced already every part:

      • I replaced the nrf24l01 chip with another one.
      • I used the nrf24l01 with and without an external voltage regulator YL-105.
      • I used a NRF24L01+PA+LNA with external antenna for the gateway
      • I used another NRF24L01 module with antenna for the gateway
      • I used a shielded nrf24l01 adapter with antenna like this one
      • I played around with the MY_RF24_PA_LEVEL parameter.
      • I used capacitors on both ends.
      • I replaced the Arduino Nano of the gateway with another one.
      • I cleared the EEPROM for the gateway and the node.
      • I checked the wiring multiple times (including measuring with a multimeter).
      • I used another node.
      • I added step-up boosters to the battery powered nodes.
      • I replaced the raspberry pi.
      • I reinstalled the operating system on the raspberry pi.
      • I switched from MyController to OpenHAB with the same result.
      • I replaced USB cables.
      • And much more.

      The node and the gateway are both on my desk (so no long distance). The gateway code that runs on the gateway:

      // Enable debug prints to serial monitor
      #define MY_DEBUG
      
      // Enable and select radio type attached
      #define MY_RADIO_RF24
      
      // Set LOW transmit power level as default, if you have an amplified NRF-module and
      // power your radio separately with a good regulator you can turn up PA level.
      #define MY_RF24_PA_LEVEL RF24_PA_LOW
      
      // Enable serial gateway
      #define MY_GATEWAY_SERIAL
      
      // Define a lower baud rate for Arduinos running on 8 MHz (Arduino Pro Mini 3.3V & SenseBender)
      #if F_CPU == 8000000L
      #define MY_BAUD_RATE 38400
      #endif
      
      // Enable inclusion mode
      #define MY_INCLUSION_MODE_FEATURE
      // Enable Inclusion mode button on gateway
      //#define MY_INCLUSION_BUTTON_FEATURE
      
      // Inverses behavior of inclusion button (if using external pullup)
      //#define MY_INCLUSION_BUTTON_EXTERNAL_PULLUP
      
      // Set inclusion mode duration (in seconds)
      #define MY_INCLUSION_MODE_DURATION 60
      // Digital pin used for inclusion mode button
      //#define MY_INCLUSION_MODE_BUTTON_PIN  3
      
      // Set blinking period
      //#define MY_DEFAULT_LED_BLINK_PERIOD 300
      
      // Inverses the behavior of leds
      //#define MY_WITH_LEDS_BLINKING_INVERSE
      
      // Flash leds on rx/tx/err
      // Uncomment to override default HW configurations
      #define MY_DEFAULT_ERR_LED_PIN 4  // Error led pin
      #define MY_DEFAULT_RX_LED_PIN  6  // Receive led pin
      #define MY_DEFAULT_TX_LED_PIN  5  // the PCB, on board LED
      
      #include <MySensors.h>
      
      void setup()
      {
      	// Setup locally attached sensors
      }
      
      void presentation()
      {
      	// Present locally attached sensors
      }
      
      void loop()
      {
      	// Send locally attached sensor data here
      }
      

      So I don't have any ideas anymore and hope that someone here can help me at least for one more step.

      2.4G NRF24L01+PA+LNA SMA Antenna Wireless Transceiver communication module

      $2.34
      1329 available

      2.4G NRF24L01 + Wireless Transceiver Module + SMA Antenna For Arduino

      $2.57
      371 available

      NRF24L01P+PA+LNA 100mW 2.4G Wireless Transceiver 2300M RF Kommunikation Modul

      $4.67
      4 available

      DC-DC Converter 1V 1.2V 1.5V 1.8V 2.5V 3V to DC 3.3V Step-UP Boost Power Supply

      $1.29
      266 available
      posted in Troubleshooting
      benhub
      benhub
    • Would it be possible to run the MAX4466 with battery?

      Hi!

      I'd like to build a noise sensor, which senses the noise level (ideally in some comparable unit... decibel?). My idea is to do this using the MAX4466 microphone chip.

      https://www.adafruit.com/product/1063

      I'm not good at reading & understanding the specification sheets, but I guess I should find this information there:
      Would it be possible to run such a node with Arduino Mini Pro on battery power?

      Thanks for your help!

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: Combined electricity, gas and water use sensor

      If you want to be flexible, maybe it would be a better idea to separate this into different modules, and connect all modules to a single sensor node via i2c:

      • a module that uses IR
      • a module that uses a magnetic reed switch
      • a module that connects to the meter in some other way

      Every module consists of its sensor (the reed switch) and an Arduino Mini Pro. All modules talk the same protocol over i2c. The i2c address could be made configurable with jumpers. And one central sensor node does the usual mysensors part.

      Just an idea, I never tried that. But I think I'll give it a try too.

      With this one could create a mysensors node with 2 IR nodes and one reed switch, if you move to a new house with different meters, you could simply replace one of the IR node with a second reed switch.

      posted in General Discussion
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: Why are the measured values so different? Are my humidity sensors faulty?

      Many thanks for your answers! I tried that thing with the sodium chloride solution and the values of my HYT221 sensor was far off (66%) whereas the measured values from the SI7021 showed 76%.

      So I now configured an offset in MyController for the HYT221 sensors.

      Thanks for your hints!

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub
    • Why are the measured values so different? Are my humidity sensors faulty?

      Hi! I created four humidity sensor nodes, two using the SI7021 sensor and two using the HYT221 sensor. The tolerances of these two sensors are as follows:

      • SI7021: ± 3% RH (max)
      • HYT221: ±1.8% RH (max)

      I run all sensors using an 3.3V Arduino Pro Mini 328P replacement board, each powered by 2AA batteries. At the moment all 4 nodes run at the same position, so under same conditions and so I'd expect them to measure almost the same humidity values.

      But they're not: While all sensors report almost the same temperature, the results for humidity are very different:
      The two SI7021 are between 41-42% at the moment, whereas one of the HYT221 is around 35% and the other is at about 30%. I have a fifth sensor in the same room part of a Tado thermostat, reporting 40% RH at the moment.

      0_1545084391502_20181217_230601.png

      I already double-checked my code and all the formulas in the specs but it looks fine to me. So I guess, the HYT221 sensors are faulty. Since they are rather expensive compared to other sensors I expected them to be more accurate than the SI7021, but the HYT221 already contradict themselves, because with a tolerance of 2*1.8% I cannot explain this difference of 5% between both of them.

      What do you think? Are the HYT221 faulty? Is there another problem I didn't see yet?

      Specs for the sensors:
      https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/data-sheets/Si7021-A20.pdf
      https://www.ist-ag.com/sites/default/files/AHHYTM_E.pdf

      The code I'm using:
      https://github.com/benhubert/mysensors-tempsensor-hyt221
      https://github.com/benhubert/mysensors-tempsensor-si7021

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: Node sends data only once when battery powered

      Sorry. Forget it. It was just some misunderstanding in the mycontroller UI.
      I just saw that my sensors were in state "NEW" in mycontroller. I had to put it into state "REGISTERED". Don't ask me, why I thought that it worked via USB — I now think, that it never really worked, maybe i read the wrong line and saw another sensor in the list.

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub
    • RE: Node sends data only once when battery powered

      I just measured the voltages and found one main difference:
      The FTDI module powers the sensor with 3.46V whereas the batteries provide only 3.06V. Could this be the reason? But I think this is the intended voltage of the two AA batteries, right? So it should work with this 3.06V, right?

      Another additional note: The LED flashes with every measurement, even when powered by battery. So it looks like the software is working and the arduino gets enough power. Could it be the nrf24l01 chip having troubles?

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub
    • Node sends data only once when battery powered

      Hi! I built two SI7021 sensor nodes and have a problem with both of them:

      When I power them through the USB port and a FTDI connector (configured to 3.3V) the nodes send data as expected. When I power them using two AA batteries, the nodes connect to the controller only once, but never appear again.

      The nodes are built with the following hardware:

      • Mini Pro 3.3V with power LED and voltage regulator desoldered
      • nrf24l01 radio
      • SI7021 sensor

      Resistors and capacitor for measuring the voltage are not connected yet.

      Any idea what could be the reason? Any hint in some direction?

      posted in Hardware
      benhub
      benhub