I'm considering how to solve a problem designing a Outdoor Fence Gate Access Control to interface to my Vera HA. None of the current ZWave Lock products appear to be suitable for several reasons so I think I'm going to have to create my own solution using Arduino. But before I do I wanted to see in anyone on the forum had already tackled this
Thanks, I suspected that might be the case. I hadn't thought of the idea of using a second gateway. Obviously I have to update the Vera drivers, week it support two gateways, one old and one new?
I suspect I know the answer but I thought I'd ask anyway. I want to move my system to MySensor 2.0 so I'm thinking about converting the Ethernet Gateway first since it looks like its an easy move on the iBoard.
I'm guessing that at that point none of my sensors will work and I'll have to run like mad to change them over too. Correct?
Thanks
Several years ago I built my Ethernet Gateway using this iBoard and the MySensors 1.2 firmware. I made the wiring changes on the board to use the "vanilla" Ethernet Gateway software and the NRF24L01 Radio. I am still using it but I'm ready to make the move to MySensors 2.0 so I'm pleased to see the board works with the new library.
Did you make physical wiring changes on your hardware to suit the radio or just make the changes in changes in the Config. I have two of the iBoards, one with modified traces and one out of the box so I can go either way
@pbcstudios said:
m
I did something for this for my wife. I have a motion sensor in the study so the lights go on when someone comes in. But the timeout is never right, sometimes the room will be occupied for minutes, other times for hours. My wife got particularly irritated at the lights going out while she was on the PC. She 's very small and the motion sensor couldn't pick her up properly. So she had to get up and wave her arms to get the lights back on. Interesting to watch, as long as you don't laugh out loud :), but irritating for her.
So I rigged a Door/Window sensor to seat bottom of the desk chair. Now when anyone is sitting in the chair the sensor is tripped suppressing the timer and the lights stay on until they leave.
But it would be nice to have some sort of passive occupancy detector, not just for this situation but for any room in the house. Right now in the Family Room i have an override schedule that prevents the lights from going off between 7PM and midnight but if someone is there watching TV or reading in the afternoon and doesn't move enough to trigger the PIR then the lights go out. Again, depending on the size of the person and their location they may nor may not be able to get the PIR to trigger with just a wave of the arm.
I don't know what kind of technology would solve the passive room occupancy problem, and if it exists is it affordable.
I've been off on other activities so I haven't looked at the Vera Plug In for a while so this may already be in by now. But in the 1.3 version where my sensors are still running it was not. I'd like to see some sort of "adjustment" or "trim" option for reported values. The inexpensive sensors we get for these projects have variations from the true values. When I first set mine up i made the adjustments in the individual sensor code to trim the reported values closer to the actual (as determined by external measurements) This requires a number of iterations of change/reload/change/reload ... I think it would be useful if there were some sort of adjustment possible in the Vera device.
For example, I have an outside temperature/humidity/barometric pressure sensor running. The value of the humidity is about 6% low and the temperature about 3 degrees high, so I make these adjustments in the ImperiHome display where you can modify the reported values easily. But you have to do it on each instance of ImperiHome and of course it only changes that instance.
I'm curious if anyone has done any work on a Arduino-based Solar Panel Sun Tracker Controller especially one that could report its operation back to Vera.
I'm working on a solar powered battery system for several remote Wi-Fi video cameras that are not easily accessible for mains power or data. The battery system will be charged from a solar panel and I'm considering how to track the sun so that the panel gets optimum exposure during the day.
Thanks, from the discussion then it appears to be a fairly "messy" problem so I'm guessing this is not the platform on which it will be solved 
I don't see this referenced anywhere so I toss this out there as a thought provoker. Actually doing it is probably beyond my pay grade but I know many of you guys are way, way beyond me in this area.
Vera does not support ZigBee devices but there are some with no ZWave corollary and some cases where there are comparable devices the ZigBee version is often a lot less expensive that their ZWave counterparts.
There are ZigBee interfaces for Arduino boards so does it seem likely that a ZigBee interface for Vera could be assembled using Arduino at a reasonable cost and effort.
Discuss among yourselves
@hek Thanks.
I've checked it ask again and it looks fine. Everything is where it's supposed to be:
Arduino-Master/Libraries/MySensors/MySensor.h and MyGateway.h etc.
Anyway, keep trying
@hek Very strange. I'll see about upgrading the IDE but I think that's a reach
I didn't try the online approach yet, I haven't used at all this point. The iTead board needs some pin changes. Can those just be made online and then complied? Can the changes be saved to my local system?
Now I'm leaning toward a problem with my configuration, picking up the old libraries somehow?
@Yveaux But this IS the code from the site. All I did was add back my pin changes for the iTead board.
As a check I copied the code of the site directly, pasted it into the IDE with no changes and it fails to compile also. Three must be a problem with my copy/config of the Libraries but I've double checked them. I'm running everything from storage in DropBox so I can work from multiple systems so I dose it's possible there is a problem but I haven't found it yet.
I installed the new libraries today and took a shot at compiling the Ethernet Gateway. i made the changes to use the iTead "iBoard" that i am using successfully under Lib 1.3 but I get an Error Compiling in an area that does not appear to have anything to do with the necessary board changes:
This from the running compile log:
In file included from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors/Relay.h:15,
from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors/Gateway.h:15,
from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\Gateway.cpp:12:
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors/Sensor.h:23:20: warning: EEPROM.h: No such file or directory
In file included from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors/Sensor.h:18,
from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors/Relay.h:15,
from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors/Gateway.h:15,
from C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\Gateway.cpp:12:
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:47: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:48: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:51: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:53: error: 'uint64_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:73: error: expected `)' before '_cepin'
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:139: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:162: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:182: error: 'uint64_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:208: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:208: error: 'uint64_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:217: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:245: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:279: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:312: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:325: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:355: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:355: error: 'uint32_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:403: error: 'uint32_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:419: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:419: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:485: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:511: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:537: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:607: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:607: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:614: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:628: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:637: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:650: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:699: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:712: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:722: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:802: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:810: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:820: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:829: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:840: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:851: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:858: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:865: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:874: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:883: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:896: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:896: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:909: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:909: error: 'uint8_t' has not been declared
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:923: error: 'uint8_t' does not name a type
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h: In member function 'bool RF24::isValid()':
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:568: error: 'ce_pin' was not declared in this scope
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\utility/RF24.h:568: error: 'csn_pin' was not declared in this scope
C:\Documents and Settings\John Steele\My Documents\Dropbox\Apps\ArduinoDroid\Arduino-master\libraries\MySensors\Gateway.cpp: In member function 'void Gateway::begin(rf24_pa_dbm_e, uint8_t,
@hek Congratulations to you and to everyone involved in making this transition. Thanks for everything you have done for us.
Is it safe to assume that all of the code examples are now Lib 1.4 based? As I recall previous discussion said the Lib 1.4 change has to be applied to the Gateway and Sensors all together?
I did set up my Vera Lite with UI7 RC. Frankly I'm underwhelmed.
For day to day usage I use ImperiHome and I'm very happy with that. I occasionally resort to Authomation but less and less as I improve my ImperiHome configuration. I . Played with UI7 and frankly I think compared to UI5 it's a step backwards for setup and configuring things. For a new user who will use UI7 as their standard window into the system it's probably better this UI5 but to set up devices, configure them, etc I find the constant back and forth movement irritating compared to TABs in the current UI5
Clearly there are still some major holes in the RC yet, most obviously there doesn't appear to be a way to create multiple instances of an App. I've installed DSC (although haven't configured it to my alarm system yet), PLEG, Virtual Switch, Day and Night, Blue Iris.
When it becomes production and we all end up having to move I just hope that it installs clean and preserves the configuration, I really don't want to reenter my LEGS, cameras, and what have you
@gregl Not so much old as beat up
I have a Vera Lite with a bad USB so I suppose I could set it up with UI7 and do my part to try to contribute to the combined knowledge. I must admit to some curiosity about the new UI. Is there anything to watch out for in setting it up alongside two bridged Vera 3 units on UI5? Will my Vera account complain that you know of?
Right now my plate is full with trying to build a custom video camera installation for the front entry to feed the Blue Iris security system. The gods are conspiring against me on this one
@Jason I'll probably be able to get back to it tomorrow (Sunday). My configuration is similar but I'm on Library 1.3b and Windows.
@hek Very neat. Now I have to find some place to use this
@hek I spent a long time on the "Bleeding Edge" of IT, in my dotage I think I'll just wait thank you very much
@gregl I heard from deviktor (sp?) the hardware developer in Russia with a suggested
Sketch change but I haven't had time to try it yet. I'm trying to build a custom WiFi camera for my front door feeding Blue Iris running under Windows XP. The camera uses RTSP protocol and I can't get this implementation of XP to support RTSP some reason. Works fine with my ThinkPad but this particular XP isn't cooperating I've been in IT all my life and I've learned to hate computers
Hopefully I'll give his suggestion a try this week
void setup ()
{
Serial.Begin(9600);
etc
@Zeph OK by me. But I would observe that like any conversation in "the real world" it tends to branch out, and this is no exception. And things are only controversial or divisive if we choose to make them so.
@jendrush Most of the Southern states are pretty easy. You do have the Federal background check but unless you are a felon there's no much to do. If you pass the check you pay and leave with the firearm. In Florida there are no local rules, the State rules preempt all local ordinances. The only thing we can't do it's carry a gun openly in public but we're hopeful that will change this year.
@hek not quite but close. Depends on the State you live in ... in Florida it's very uncomplicated, but some States it's worse than pulling teeth.
@jendrush Yeah, especially here in Florida, it's just a matter of money, very few rules and complications
@hek I think I'll save my money toward another rifle
In the interim I could just solder on a lead but it isn't an urgent question anyway. I was hoping for the multiple DH-11 solution but if that's not to be then I'll probably just wait the redesign ... :-).
I've been reading some of the other PCB design discussions and they are quite interesting. There are as many solutions as there are people trying to solve them And some of our compatriots are very very creative
@jendrush True, just no off-board connector available for it, I'm using a PCB of my design that supported two digital pins off-board.
But I'm looking at reworking the PCB design to eliminate the 3.3 V step-up regulator and allow for a 5 V step-up regulator so I may just redesign with more pin access as well.
@a-lurker Thanks. The sensor in question is installed in my gun safe and i was trying to avoid an additional node in the room where the safe is located. But I guess that is not to be; another node or a special version with another DH-11?
Node I think.
Looking at the sketches I see that one can use multiple Dallas Temp sensors on the same digital pin by creating an array of sensors. Will the DH-11 work the same way?
@hek Good Man
I've casually mentioned it a few times and shown her some of the things people have made for the home and she didn't frown ... too much.:-)
Our older daughter is an artist and she has expressed an interest in 3D printing a way expand her market for the art shows she attends.
@gregl I spent some time on it again but nothing.
Using your DevDuino_BatteryPoweredSensorTest.ino:
I tried it as both a Nano and a Pro-Mini. The Serial monitor output is attached, garbled.
I ran the inclusion on Vera to see if anything was working anyway but it didn't find anything. I tried a second DevDuino with exactly the same results, garbled Serial monitor output and nothing on attempting to include in Vera.
So as of now nothing is happening and I have three DevDuinos that do nothing.
@Yveaux My pleasure, we need to have a common front on this kind of thing
I am oddly/sadly glad to see that I am not alone in my frustration
Right now I have about a dozen working sensors in various states of undress Its time to make nice to my wife suggesting that a 3D printer could do all sorts of great things for her, something that she has needed for years but just didn't realize it. That's the ticket
I think I've discovered the most frustrating thing about this whole MySensor effort ... finding boxes to put the things in Just when I think I've solved it, i find the box is too tall or too short or too narrow
Absent a 3D printer ...
@javier the design principal is an
Arduino Gateway connected to the Vera, either directly over USB or indirectly via Ethernet; no sensors are attached to the Gateway;
Each Arduino Sensor Node has the various sensor devices and talks to the Gateway over a wireless connection
I vaguely recall there has been some discussion of attaching Sensor devices to the Gateway but don't recall that ever went anywhere.
@javier Do you have a USB Gateway AND an Arduino Sensor with the BMP ... two separate devices linked by radio. It SOUNDS like you are trying to run the Baro sensor on the Gateway?
@Bandra Looks fairly simple, maybe its time to upgrade to 1.4
I've modified the sketch I use for temperature/humidity/barometer to remove the barometer and implement a magnetic door sensor. My plan is for this to be installed in/on my gun safe to monitor interior temperature and humidity and log whenever the safe is opened/closed.
Basically the contact sensor works but of course its loop-driven so it doesn't report when the door is actually opened/closed. It also reports every OTHER reporting cycle for some reason.
I have the sensor wired to Arduino Pin D3. Can someone guide me in making the contact sensor interrupt driven to report immediately?
Thanks
John
Thanks to all. @jribera's power sequence actually makse some sort of obtuse sense in the world of Vera
I ended up by tackling the Ethernet Gateway project I had on hold. Late last week I received the iBoard I ordered to use for the gateway (see http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/224/iboard-cheap-single-board-ethernet-arduino-with-radio ).
I'd planned on working on it sometime in the next few weeks. But since I was already off the air I figured I'd just jump in and get it done. I had it up and running in under an hour.
@hek Thanks, the iBoard was an absolute snap solution.
@gregl
I just wanted to post to say that I implemented the Ethernet Gateway on the iBoard this afternoon and it worked first time. I used your directions for the hardware modifications and the minor changes to the sketch, uploaded it, turned it on and Voila! it eventually found all the sensors and it up and running.
Thanks for the guidance. I received the iBoards in the mail the day before yesterday and planned on getting to it sometime in the next few weeks. This afternoon i power cycled my Vera with the Serial Gateway on it to move a power plug that was in the way and when it came back up it couldn't find the Gateway. I tried everything I could think of and then decided to bite the bullet and do the Ethernet GW right then and there.
worked great. Thanks
John
@C4Vette
--- Are you confident about the Arduino's USB-chip?
I can't speak to that, I have no idea
--- Powered Bub?
I haven't tried a powered hub but the Vera 3 has two USB ports, the Logs stick is on one and the Arduino is on the other.
I had to power cycle my Vera 3 today to move the power plug and now I've lost the USB/Serial port connection AGAIN. Just about every time anything at all happens the serial port goes away and does not want to recover.
I've reloaded all the LUUP files, reloaded LUUP, power cycled, Rebooted, everything I can think of to no avail.
When Vera restarts it says Select Serial Port. In Develop Apps the Serial :Port selection shows unavailable. I know the USB is working, the USB Logging appears to be working --- although that also went away in the original power cycle
Does anyone have a fix or work around for this problem? I guess I'm going to have to get cracking on building the Ethernet Gateway, this is ridiculous.
@gregl Normally I would but the garbled serial output is with the Pro Mini setting, I get nothing with the low per settings. So at this point I can't be certain I've got anything
‘mÃÿ+ã‚ã‚“¢ãòòªÊê¸;ÂSo far I'm getting nowhere but I'm getting there at record speed And i have two of these devices in exactly the same condition --- OOPS
The board LED no longer comes on so something has changed. i tried running it live and including it in Vera but nothing was found so i doubt anything is actually happening. I've run the ClearEEProm sketch to see if that would help to no avail. i've tried using the SEEED board settings as well as the Pro Mini.
Clearly i have some other problem but i don't know what at this stage. Back to the drawing board
@gregl I used the Arduino ProMini 3.3v setting and it did indeed upload. I get nothing usable on any speed setting in the IDE Serial Monitor.
Now I know it at least uploads I have other changes to make: to match the pins used by the radio, get the low power stuff working, etc. Do you have this stuff already done? Can you post it, I'm not sure where these changes have to be made, the WiKi talks about the nRF24L01.h library but I don't see any calls to that library.
John
@gregl I implemented the board changes defined by SEEED and that's free selection in the IDE. After the "upload" I get the "avrdude ..sync " error that indicates it didn't upload.
Are you using the Devicter FOCA programmer?
Has anyone implemented MySensors on the DevDuino Version 2 board yet? I've bought several and I've modified a Temp/Humidity/Pressure sketch that complies properly but doesn't upload.
I've installed the SEEED board changes in the Arduino IDE and have a FOCA USB-Arduino programmer but when I try uploading nothing seems to happen. The TX/RX LEDs do nothing and clearly nothing gets uploaded.
Any hints?
John
@BulldogLowell that's a rational possibility. I have the sensors on the secondary Vera. Both Vera (what's the plural of Vera ) show the same illogical numbers however.
This morning I've managed to get then all reporting different numbers now. I reset the three operating nodes at the same time (they are all battery operated so I brought then all to one place) and at the same time reloaded the secondary Vera. When I moved the nodes back where they belong on the next reporting cycle everything appears to make sense ... I'm not getting the same numbers any longer. It looks like "things got wound up around the axle" somehow and a little electroshock therapy was in order.
I understand the significant "inverse" relationship between temperature and RH, that's not the problem.
The problem is the numbers being displayed in Vera and the fact that the RH could not change over the ranges I'm seeing that fast (a plausible 60pct to an implausible 90 pct in a few minutes) unless you dumped the sensor in a bucket of water ; and it is not rational that temperature numbers can be EXACTLY the same (80.6 F) for 14 hours in two entirely different kind of spaces, one inside, insulated and under A/C (kitchen), the other un-insulated, essentially outside (garage)
What does make sense is that for some reason it appears the Vera Plugin is not assigning incoming values to the correct sensor all the time. Unfortunately it is beyond my meager understanding of Vera and its code and MySensors plug-in and its code to debug the phenomenon.
@BulldogLowell Interesting point. I soups they COULD be the same but it just makes me uncomfortable for a room in A/C space to be 80.6F and the garage to be exactly the same all day with an outside temperature of 87F all day It just doesn't seem rational
@BulldogLowell First, I did not realize they were that fast ... mine are not located whee they would experience a rapid local change do I poisoned they were more allow acting devices. As to the very high levels I saw they were effectively sudden changes, it hit 90% in a matter of minutes.
I still have a hard time accepting that the inside temperature and the temperature the garage were exactly same, to decimal point. Several hours later I saw exactly the same values for the study and the kitchen. I just find it hard to believe that these spaces are experiencing same temp the same time.
But I have nothing other that feeling on which to base this so I guess I'll have to go back to sleep until I can gather more data
@hek re: the Bridged discrepancies.
Ultimately my intent would be to use the values as input to Program Logic Event Generators (PLEG) running on the Primary Vera to assist in control of lights, A/C, etc. All the PLEG house management controls run in Vera 1; just a few Plug Ins, smoke detectors, the Arduino sub-system on Vera 2 right now. So obviously the numbers need to update correctly.
I've updated this post sith some information from this morning that reflect what appear to be impossible numbers, such as 91% humidity in the garage. Its South Florida but it isn't THAT humid at 9AM unless it pouring down rain
I've done some experimenting with other things in the bridged environment and there are a few APP Plug ins that don't work properly at all. As you note there is not a lot of information on the details of the bridging interface so its difficult to discern what's correct or not.
As of this morning the numbers on the two UIs seem to be tracking ...some of them are wrong but they are at least wrong on both UIs this morning
Its not only the bridged environment that's causing me problems. Today the two UIs seem to be tracking but the numbers are impossible.
In the attached images note the humidity numbers. Node 1 is in the Study, air conditioned space so the 39% humidity while probably wrong is at least plausible. Node 3 is in the garage, not A/C space but the number is very high (as I type this I've looked at it again and now its 90% --- if that was true it would be raining in my garage
Node 6 is in the Kitchen, again air conditioned space and the chance that there is 78% humidity is impossible.
And again as I type this the temperature in the garage and study are both exactly 78.8 again, not very likely, one is inside in A/C the other essentially outside non A/C space.
The bottom line, the numbers just make no sense.
[UPDATE]
The Humidity in the kitchen sensor seems to have suddenly "popped" back to something reasonable at 43%. I say "popped" because in the space of two updates (120 seconds) it went from 78% to 62% to 43%. The garage is still sitting on 91% ... yesterday it was at 65% most f the day and evening. The study and garage temps are still identical at 78.8, again not very likely.
Very odd indeed.
Attached are two images of sensors attached in a Bridged Vera environment. The first image is Vera 2 the Secondary Vera and the second image is Vera 2, the Secondary Vera. The Sensor Gateway is directly attached to Vera 2.
The readings are clearly inconsistent. As can be seen the temperature reading on Vera 2 are all the same which is not possible, one of the sensors is outside the others inside and they do not match the comparable values displayed on Vera 1. The humidity readings on Vera 2 are consistent with reality but do not track with the corresponding values on Vera. The Last Update times are consistent with reality and clearly show that the updates are occurring and being transferred across the interface.
Any ideas why this would occur?
Could I put a suggestion in the hopper for the Vera interface. I've built a number of sensors do far and I noticed that there is a significant difference in the accuracy of the components used for humidity, temperature, etc. While it's possible to add adjustment factors in the Arduino code, I've done this, but the variation is on a part to part basis, not global.
I'd like to see an adjustment factor built into the Vera display/output for each individual sensor. For example, the ability to add/subtract temperature to the sensor value to align it with the actual. Similarly add/subtract humidity, pressure, Lux, etc, specific for each type of sensor. This would allow the user to "trim" the results to match actual observed values at each sensor location.
I wanted a mailbox sensor so I used a Schlage ZWave door sensor with a separate magnetic contact attached to the mailbox door. When opened Vera alerts using several different messages depending on the target devices. It does a voice announce using TTS on the primary control tablet running ImperiHome and sends text alerts to two phones using PushOver.
@hek Ah yes, The Sacrifice of the Vera Virgins ... I think my problem was that I didn't wait until the Full Moon or something
@gregl YES, please do explain it. I'm up to my eyeballs with the Serial Gateway so I want to start working on an Ethernet Gateway and if this can be adapted easily then there is no sense go all in for a single unit gateway of my own.
Further to the saga of the Serial Gateway failure, I have discovered that Vera/Arduino are a lot like Windows Plug-n-Play: You Plug it in and Play with it for a while and eventually it will work +)
This morning I unplugged the gateway and plugged it into my laptop, started the Serial Monitor and got screens of data as sensors sent data to the Gateway. So, now I know for certain that the Gateway is working the USB is working, the cable is working... EVERYTHING is working but it isn't
So I plug it back in the Vera and try to select the Serial Port; No Joy. I hit the Reload on Vera, click Develop Apps, Serial Port and VOILA, all of a sudden there is the configuration data for the port. Configure the port, Vera restarts and my sensor network runs again.
Plug-n-Play. Once you understand this concept all is revealed to you
I think its time to start working on the Ethernet Gateway
@hek Good idea, I might try that if I can figure out where to look
@BulldogLowell That's on a good day
I just don't know where to go from here. i'm reasonablely confident in the Gateway itself. I don't see how it can be the Nano, its a new unit and it looks like its receiving date from sensors. Its a new unit so the probability of a USB side problem is slim.
I've reloaded all the Arduino files but i'm tempted to a) remove the gateway, b) delete the files from Vera c) reload Vera files d) reconfigure.
Any thoughts?
@hek Well actually "Love" isn't QUITE the word I would use
@hek I haven't had time to try the old Nano in anything else. But BOTH Nanos show the Green LED periodically when the sensors transmit so they are apparently good and working on the "other than USB" side
The strange thing was i fiddled with it a number of times and then Bingo, the Serial Port stuff appeared. It worked, I was able to reacquire the sensors and everything looked fine. The I powered it off/on to move and and when it came back up nothing.
Saturday i lost my serial gateway after several months without a problem. The Serial Port "went away" and I was unable to re-establish it, Vera did not offer the opportunity to configure it. I reloaded Vera gateway files, restarted, time and time again with the same result. It looked like it could be the Vera Lite USB so I ended up replacing the Vera. After a comedy of errors with it auto-upgrading to UI6 and having to fallback to UI5 I finally got it restored to the last backup of Saturday.
Well, I was still unable to get the gateway running, it still would not establish a serial port. I swapped the Arduino Nano and the USB cable thinking those might be at fault. I finally got the option to configure the serial port and reacquired the sensors. Then I powered the Vera off to put it in its operating location and when it came back up there was no serial port and no options to re-establish it.
Needless to say this is frustrating. Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior on the serial gateway? I now have a new Vera and it looks like that might not have been the problem in the first place 
@Damme Possible. But now I have another problem, the USB port has died so I no longer have access to the Gateway Yet another opportunity
@Yveaux I honestly wish it had occurred to me too. But it didn't. Now as luck would have it, it looks like the USB port on my Vera Lite, where I have the Arduino, has packed it in. I can't even get it to recognize a flash drive any longer. So now I'm stuck until I solve that problem
I have ordered some NRF24L01 units with SMA antennas, no Amps however, for use on battery sensors ... +2-3 dBi may help
@hek just my luck, the USB on my Vera Lite has packed up so now I can"t do any more testing until I sort that out. Maddening
@Damme
After your discussion of the antenna It occurred to me that the one thing I had not changed was the GW radio. I had one spare NRF24L01+PA+SMA so I swapped it in the GW. That appears to be the fix --- I can now see the sensor module all the way out in the yard at the far end of the house, through outside walls and a half dozen interior walls. I doubt i'll get the ~450 meters you describe but its a LOT better than the 10 feet I was getting
I've found a NRF24L01 without the PA but with a SMA antenna so I think i'll see about adopting that for the sensors, especially the battery sensors. No amplifier but it is a 2-3 dBi antenna and every little dBi helps
It occurred to me that the one thing I had not changed was the GW radio. I had one spare NRF24L01+PA+SMA so I swapped it in the GW. That appears to be the fix --- I can now see the sensor module all the way out in the yard at the far end of the house, through outside walls and a half dozen interior walls. I doubt i'll get the 450+ meters reported elsewhere on the forum but its a LOT better than the 10 feet I was getting
@daulagari Yes, my error, 36 is in the 5GHz band.
The 2.4 GHz channels are 5 and 11. There are some neighbors' Wifi on Ch 1 and 2 but they are heavily attenuated.
I got ~450 meters between my nrf24l01+ap and a regular nrf24l01, and this through the house (concrete + wood) and through a forest.
I'd give real money for anything approach half of that :). The besI I've been able to get so far between a NRF24L01+PA and a NRF24L01 is about 15 feet through a single interior wall!. I've tried everything I can think of, I'm on the verge of just chucking this entire experiment as fun but not so much
I've played with antenna orientation on the sensor and the GW with no difference. I've played with different radios on the sensor, I've moved the sensor radio off the board (ground plane) on a cable, etc., The only time I got anything approaching useful range was to put a NRF24L01+PA+SMA on the sensor and then I was able to get communications from the street, about 30 meters -- It might be further but that proved it was possible so I didn't bother going further away. But of course battery consumption skyrocketed.
I've tried additional capacitance on the radio, I soldered a 220 UF cap directly on the Vcc and Gnd pins of the module with no change so I suspect that has nothing to do with it.
I did have a chance for one more experiment. I had a SEEED "DevDuino" I bought to play with but haven't used yet. I swapped the radio from that module onto my sensor board and I was able to get reporting from another 10 feet away so there is definitely something related to the individual NRF24L01 modules --- different batch I guess. It still doesn't get me to even the other end of the house (perhaps 20 meters from the GW) let alone outside anywhere.or through outside walls.
@daulagari A possibility. I have three separate Wifi Access Points running in the house two 2.4 GHz 802.11n and one 5 GHz 802.11a. The 11A and one of the 11N points are in a dual band device, the other 11N is part of my AT&T uVerse router. I have them forced to specific channels, but none of then adjacent to the MySensors default (CH 76 as I recall), the highest one is the 11A on Ch 36
Right now I'm using a Serial Gateway on my Vera Lite but I have hope to eventually move to a Ethernet Gateway for location reasons. I'm curious if it is possible to use multiple Gateways merged to a single logical Gateway?
@Zeph it's just ordinary drywall. In the interest of complete disclosure, there is a floor-ceiling bookcase on the wall but if this stuff is THAT sensor then ...
The radios are all from an order about a month ago so they are probably the same batch. I have another batch of 10 coming but that's probably a week away yet.
About the only thing left is to change radio channels but the numbers the scan don't tell me much, they don't vary but a few percent, so I am at a loss where to go.
@Yveaux While I suppose that's possible 10-15 feet is still 10-15 feet
I'm about idea'd out. I put a 200 uF electrolytic directly on the Vcc and Gnd terminals of the radio module and it made no difference whatsoever ... the sensor fails to report beyond about 10 meters and one interior wall. That doesn't leave much upside.
I'm at a loss at this point, I've tried different radio modules to no avail. I've taken the radio off the board ground plane to no avail.Thus far the only thing I've found that allows decent distance is a radio with the PA/SMA antenna and that simply eats battery. I can't make hide nor hair out of the scanner output ... the channel variation doesn't appear to be more than a few percent for the most part so it doesn't look like that's much of a solution.
I admit to being curious if anyone has actually had these things work beyond the workbench
So i breadboarded a Nano and a NRFL2401 with a PA and antenna, uploaded the scanner sketch and this is what I got: I'm using the default radio channel from the distribution library.
RF24/examples/scanner/
Scanning all available frequencies...Scan completed.
000 (2400Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
001 (2401Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
002 (2402Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
003 (2403Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
004 (2404Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
005 (2405Mhz): 104 - ******************************************************
006 (2406Mhz): 91 - ******************************************************
007 (2407Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
008 (2408Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
009 (2409Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
010 (2410Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
011 (2411Mhz): 86 - ******************************************************
012 (2412Mhz): 89 - ******************************************************
013 (2413Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
014 (2414Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
015 (2415Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
016 (2416Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
017 (2417Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
018 (2418Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
019 (2419Mhz): 85 - ******************************************************
020 (2420Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
021 (2421Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
022 (2422Mhz): 90 - ******************************************************
023 (2423Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
024 (2424Mhz): 85 - ******************************************************
025 (2425Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
026 (2426Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
027 (2427Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
028 (2428Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
029 (2429Mhz): 90 - ******************************************************
030 (2430Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
031 (2431Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
032 (2432Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
033 (2433Mhz): 91 - ******************************************************
034 (2434Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
035 (2435Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
036 (2436Mhz): 104 - ******************************************************
037 (2437Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
038 (2438Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
039 (2439Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
040 (2440Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
041 (2441Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
042 (2442Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
043 (2443Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
044 (2444Mhz): 110 - ******************************************************
045 (2445Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
046 (2446Mhz): 111 - ******************************************************
047 (2447Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
048 (2448Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
049 (2449Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
050 (2450Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
051 (2451Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
052 (2452Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
053 (2453Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
054 (2454Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
055 (2455Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
056 (2456Mhz): 106 - ******************************************************
057 (2457Mhz): 101 - ******************************************************
058 (2458Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
059 (2459Mhz): 106 - ******************************************************
060 (2460Mhz): 91 - ******************************************************
061 (2461Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
062 (2462Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
063 (2463Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
064 (2464Mhz): 107 - ******************************************************
065 (2465Mhz): 101 - ******************************************************
066 (2466Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
067 (2467Mhz): 90 - ******************************************************
068 (2468Mhz): 102 - ******************************************************
069 (2469Mhz): 103 - ******************************************************
070 (2470Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
071 (2471Mhz): 102 - ******************************************************
072 (2472Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
073 (2473Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
074 (2474Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
075 (2475Mhz): 105 - ******************************************************
076 (2476Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
077 (2477Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
078 (2478Mhz): 103 - ******************************************************
079 (2479Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
080 (2480Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
081 (2481Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
082 (2482Mhz): 103 - ******************************************************
083 (2483Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
084 (2484Mhz): 89 - ******************************************************
085 (2485Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
086 (2486Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
087 (2487Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
088 (2488Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
089 (2489Mhz): 101 - ******************************************************
090 (2490Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
091 (2491Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
092 (2492Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
093 (2493Mhz): 88 - ******************************************************
094 (2494Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
095 (2495Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
096 (2496Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
097 (2497Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
098 (2498Mhz): 90 - ******************************************************
099 (2499Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
100 (2500Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
101 (2501Mhz): 107 - ******************************************************
102 (2502Mhz): 90 - ******************************************************
103 (2503Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
104 (2504Mhz): 105 - ******************************************************
105 (2505Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
106 (2506Mhz): 101 - ******************************************************
107 (2507Mhz): 100 - ******************************************************
108 (2508Mhz): 103 - ******************************************************
109 (2509Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
110 (2510Mhz): 99 - ******************************************************
111 (2511Mhz): 92 - ******************************************************
112 (2512Mhz): 90 - ******************************************************
113 (2513Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
114 (2514Mhz): 102 - ******************************************************
115 (2515Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
116 (2516Mhz): 91 - ******************************************************
117 (2517Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
118 (2518Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
119 (2519Mhz): 101 - ******************************************************
120 (2520Mhz): 104 - ******************************************************
121 (2521Mhz): 93 - ******************************************************
122 (2522Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
123 (2523Mhz): 98 - ******************************************************
124 (2524Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
125 (2525Mhz): 95 - ******************************************************
126 (2526Mhz): 94 - ******************************************************
127 (2527Mhz): 96 - ******************************************************
Which does not look much like the display at the reference: http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,54795.0.html
and i'm not sure what its telling me other than some relative signal level data. Perhaps someone could help me interpret this
Updagte:
As it continues to run it shows significantly different values over time, some reaching as high as
063 (2463Mhz): 84 - ******************************************************
064 (2464Mhz): 89 - ******************************************************
065 (2465Mhz): 97 - ******************************************************
066 (2466Mhz): 201 - ******************************************************
067 (2467Mhz): 252 - ******************************************************
068 (2468Mhz): 300 - ******************************************************
069 (2469Mhz): 284 - ******************************************************@hek my solution was to divide by 100 to get millibars and I use that for a while. Once I was shown how to get 2 places past the decimal I add a divisor for millibars to inches of Mercury, 33.86......
I also added an adjustment factor to get it to the actual local value. In my case I added "-101" millionaires to get the correct local metric value and then applied the metric to imperial divisor. Now I get display values such as 30.02, today's reading at the local GA airport a few miles from me.
Thanks to everyone
@axillent I won't deny that, but it seems simple enough.
@axillent First thing I see is that this version has the radio on pins 8,9 whereas the version I used has it on pins 9,10 which is where it is in my hardware.
I finally got my barometric sensor running. I used the BMP180 sensor which apparently uses the same library as the BMP085 sensor
I haven't made the forecast function to work yet, when I compiled with it the sensor went "crazy" and kept transmitting rubbish. So I've no-oped it for now
I ran the scanner but got page after page of:
RF24/examples/scanner/
Scanning all available frequencies...Scan completed.
Scanning all available frequencies...Scan completed.
Scanning all available frequencies...Scan completed.
Scanning all available frequencies...Scan completed.
My radio is configured exactly as described although I will admit i just loaded the sketch to the sensor board and ran it on there rather than set up a special build just for that.
:
@axillent The wireless channel is the one thing I hadn't investigated as yet so i will. I suppose it could be congested around here.
@axillent This SMA unit has the PA on it. The radio channel is the default for everything.
You distance is similar to mine, about 4.5-5 meters with one wall and it works. Beyond that NADA
@axillent Do you have a feel for the range of this rig? If this is the answer I'll get the capacitor and mod every radio
My Gateway has the SMA antenna on it and is less than 30 feet, and one interior wall, from the sensor and it doesn't work. When I bring the sensor to within about 10-12 feet it works every time but out at 20+ feet it fails almost every time. Its hard to believe that there is so little range
I've tried a number of things:
(a) several different radios - no change
(b) remove the radio and place it on a 8 inch cable to get away from the ground plane - no change;
(c) jumpered around the up-regulator (i.e. everything direct connected to battery) - no change;
(d) radio with SMA antenna - works every time but the battery consumption goes through the roof. In 12 hours with the SMA antenna the battery dropped 0.12 V versus 0.04 V in 24 hours with the regular radio. The AMP on the antenna version consumes a lot of juice.
Puzzlement