Topics created by bjornhallberg

@bjornhallberg said in RFM69 Range issues: Gateway (rfm69hw) initialization: #define MY_IS_RFM69HW #define MY_RFM69_FREQUENCY RFM69_868MHZ #define MY_RFM69_NEW_DRIVER Maybe I missed someone pointing this out, but the original poster's gateway initialization looks like it's missing something. These defines are not at all obvious, especially with the HW version. Strange things can happen, including unexpectedly low power. Check the API docs and also another thread. With the HW version of the RFM69 on the gateway, and the RFM69 new driver, in addition to what you list, you need to also include: #define MY_RADIO_RFM69 #define MY_RFM69HW true https://www.mysensors.org/apidocs/group__RFM69SettingGrpPub.html#gaf1455cd3427c9dc4c4564542c3dafc16 https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/11316/rfm69hw-atc-not-working

@NeverDie Perhaps but the design is a bit too simple and unoriginal. I'd have to clean up the files a bit and I haven't touched Eagle since I made this board several years ago.

@mfalkvidd said: I am using them at 12V so the power would be ~4W. Not too much but still enough to get the sink hot! The voltage makes no difference. 5A is still 5A. you are right brain fart

I think this is officially sort of solved now. Changed the sensor code so it only asks for VAR1 four times, then starts doing its job. Sure there are other implications but I was just too impatient. Still a lot of unknowns in this equation, but at least to my surprise, Domoticz did have some sort of intelligence built-in and seems to automatically start with a fresh counter every day. I was worried I'd have to schedule something in Python to store and subtract "old kwh". Though this makes it even more pressing that I get communication between the gateway and sensor working so I can send back the pulseCount after a reset or some such.

@bjornhallberg Have a look at this http://ing.dk/blog/hvilken-elmaaler-har-du-120890#p391493 There is a schematic of a IR head for the kamstrup meters. Might be usefull for your meter as well.. If you're up to reading danish, there are a couple of sites where the author of that blog deciphers the kamstrup protocol.. like this one http://ing.dk/blog/kamstrup-meter-protocol-127052

@bjornhallberg Google a bit. There are multiple posts on the net of Arduino's getting stuck in watchdog reboots because it fires and doesn't get disabled correctly on startup. Some bootloaders handle this situation better then others. Only question is why the watchdog timer would trip...

I have some 50pcs sample 1206 10uF ceramic caps that I got from AliExpress the other day. Purported to be X7R. I measured them (7 of them at least, it's tiresome to pick them up with pincers from the reel and put them back) with my DMM and they all checked in at between 9.5 and 10.1 uF or so. After having soldered two of them for prototyping, and heated them somewhat obviously, they measured at about 10.5 uF so not much of a change either. Is this information enough to say that the rating for these caps is good enough? Can't prove that is is X7R or whatever I mean, but that they at least can't be bottom of the barrel so to speak ...

Opps, I meant to say @Bandra 's board is a great small footprint board, If you're looking for small form factor, I highly recommend his.

@soward I use some sort of no-name 10 uH 12mm (I know, stupidly big) shielded inductor from AliExpress. Looks a lot like these, fairly bulky and heavy: http://m2.uxcell.com/photo_new/20140506/c/ux_a14050600ux0992_ux_c.jpg Haven't done more than go over it with the continuity tester to see that it didn't have some sort of rudimentary inside damage. I also tested the capacitors, they were close enough to 10 uF but I did some surprising minor variation that can't be blamed on the DMM. Random Ebay caps are probably not a good idea if you need spot on values. But they did seem to work.

I have some FirstAlert OneLink smoke detectors; they network together at 433 MHz. Each gets a room type (selected from a fixed menu of a dozen: Kitchen, Utility Room, Master Bedroom...); the audio for speaking the names is in the ROM. If one goes off, they all go off and announce loudly - "Alert Alert Evacuate Immediately - Smoke in the Utility Room" (along with beeps). Runs on 2xAA. It's a good idea but... Something more customizable would be good. Last week it woke us at 3am to let us know that the battery in one of the remote rooms needed replacing - same loud alarm and voice as a fire being announced throughout the house and waking everybody up. Also the selection of room names doesn't always fit - we have to remember that we called the office a "utillity room" during setup because they don't have all the room names to match our house. (I did at least write the names on the outside of the units so I can sort it out by getting close to each unit in turn, without going into config mode to have it repeat its own name). It would be nice if the "outdoor voice" was reserved for real alarms, and battery warnings arrived by email, or in a softer voice and during the daytime only, or whatever. So a customizable and interfaceable [not real words but they should be] version of this system would be good. I do not know how hard it would be to hack a conventional smoke alarm. For safety I would probably want to keep the direct alarm connected (no un-alarmed fires due to software bugs). But one could perhaps add the ability to also trigger the buzzer in firmware as suggested above (eg: for intrusion alarms, or to relay a smoke alarm as the OneLink does), and to pass on a locally detected alarm to the system (for relaying or for announcing in other ways). Duplicating the OneLink functionality would also require a loud but tiny speaker in each unit, with locally stored voice announcements.

@Yveaux Ok, thanks for the clarification. I'll look into both the repeater and troubleshooting/moving the gateway.

It would be nice to control the Patrull similarly to http://thingm.com/products/blink-1/.

@mrwomble Yeah, the issue was probably due to the battery getting discharged during the OTA update, since that keeps the radio awake for a long time. So, should we use a 3.3V step up converter for this sensor?

Though Fluke 115 could be a good option if you have enough budget but Fluke 101 is also good basic pocket portable digital multimeter with reasonable price.

@Yveaux Yes that is what I was getting at. I just wanted to know that I wasn't going to end up in the same pit as with the 433MHz modules ... and I know virtually nothing of the workings of the NRF chip. Thank you for reassuring me