A family member gave me an old lamp with a fancy glass base. Well, I didn't like the lamp, but the base was nice, so I kept it in my basement for a few years. I found it again the other day and decided it needed to become a new type of lamp. I put a 150 LED strip (WS2812B) inside. I have an STM32 Blue Bill and RFM69HCW to run the light patterns and connect to MySensors.
In Domoticz, I have it set up as a dimmer light, but the node just switches patterns depending on what the dimmer level is.
At first, I wrapped the LED strip carefully around a tube that sits in the center of the glass jar, but it didn't look very good. Somehow just spiraling the strip in the bottom of the lamp has a much better effect.
My wife even liked it, so maybe I will put some finishing touches on it and actually use it as a lamp : )

I've been playing with an Adafruit AudioFX board and cobbled together this annunciator. Eventually it will be a MySensors node to play alarms or other sounds. It is using a cheap portable speaker to play the sounds. I got it to work with my doorbell button node today.

Just got a blue-pill, RFM69 node working. It was a bit of a learning curve moving from Atmega.

• Cheap J-Link: Never got it working. Cheap ST-Link: Worked
• Arduino (and VisualMicro) uploaded blink sketch with ST-Link: no problems
• Uploaded the USB bootloader using the ST-Link: no problems
• Took a while to figure out I didn't have the dfu driver loaded (Windows 10), but after that no problems using the usb
• MySensors security personalizer: no problems.
• Mock MySensors node: no problems. Talked to my gateway. Uses RFM69 encryption.

Seems like this is the Nano of the future, but without needing to level shift for 3.3V. I'm looking forward to making some real blue pill nodes and gateways.

BT832 Thin Node prototype. Inspired by https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2067/my-slim-2aa-battery-node and @neverdie nrf5 and am612 research. I noticed the BT832 is about the same width as a AA battery holder. I'm using one AA LiFePo4. This is my first sensor with nrf5, bme280, and am612. I also incorporated a jst-sh 6 pin connector for programming. It includes swd, power, and text. All sensors are working. It did not turn out to be very thin. Need to try some smaller PIR lenses and rearrange components for the next iteration.

@mfalkvidd Thanks for doing this kind of work (deleting fake users and stopping spam). I am sure it is not as much fun as answering real questions about MySensors topics. But I learn so much from people in these forums, that I would hate to see it overtaken by trolls and spam.

Unlike the NRF24, the RFM69 is not 5V tolerant on the data pins. The Uno and Nano both have 5V data pins. The NRF24 can work with them as long as it has the 3.3V supply. Unfortunately, the RFM69 needs the data pins to be 3.3V also.
I have used the RFM69 915Mhz successfully with a 3.3V ProMini (all pins 3.3V). To use with the Uno or Nano, you would need to power from the 3.3V supply and use a 5V to 3.3V level shifter on the NSS, MOSI, and SCK data pins.

I finally got a BT832 (NRF52832 from Fanstel) to talk to my NRF24 gateway. I got the NFR5s a while ago. Made a quick breakout board (quick to design, but slow delivery). In the mean time, I configured a STM32 "Blue Pill" as a Blackmagic Probe to program it. I had to get the latest Sandeep Mistry NRF5 files from github in order for it to support the blackmagic probe, but . . . it worked : ) So far I have just run the MockMySensors and it shows up on Domoticz.

@sundberg84
@tbowmo
Domoticz can also push the data to influx DB. See Settings>More Options>Data Push

It's a breakout for a Fanstel BT832 (NRF52832). Two experiments with this board, still a work in progress:

• I wondered if it would be possible to hand solder to the LGA pads on the back of the BT832 using small plated thru holes (6 solder spots middle left in the first picture). Two pads connected. The rest did not. About what I expected.

• Using just the microprocessor of the BT832 to make a LoRa node. (NRF5 radio turned off). So far the Ra-01 is not initializing. Edit (10/8). The RA-01 now initializes. I needed to update the pin assignments in MyBoardNRF5.h.

I've had surprisingly good luck buying cheap parts from Ali-express, but not this time. I bought an NRF52832 iBeacon that supposedly had an SHT30 temperature sensor and KX022 accelerometer. When the parts arrived, neither of those parts were populated. All the beacon has is a push button.

I was able to program it to work with MySensors, however. With only SWIO and SWCLK (no txt out), I took @scalz advice (in another topic) and used a J-Link EDU Mini so I could use the RTT app to get printf style debugging. That worked nicely and I learned a new tool.

Perhaps I can use the iBeacon button for a remote.

I use the RA-01 with MySensors RFM95 drivers. Works just fine.
I have not tried to change the frequency though. I have only used 433Mhz.

Something like this might work if you just want a noise level, but don't actually need a calibrated readout.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15892

@Omemanti Looks really professional. Are these a commercial style of switch? Wonder if I could get something like that in the US.

@mfalkvidd Neat! It's so obvious once you see it. This is something I need. I have a box full of dupont cables, but it always seems I can't find the right length gender combination.

I also have a wide variety of USB cables hanging on hooks. Something like this with wider slots would be a better solution.

Gonna have to get that 3d printer on day.

Just saw this in my Hackaday Feed:

https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/

I'm not sure it fits the "beginner" category, but cost is no longer a barrier to entry.

Does anyone use software to help manage hobbyist projects?

I usually have 3 or 4 future projects in early stages, a couple that I am building and programming, and one or two old ones that need a refresh. These are simple things like MySensors nodes.
Between arduino sketches, Domoticz scripts, KiCAD files, BOMs, data sheets, and notes, I end up with a lot of files connected to each project. I just use spreadsheets, Git, and file folders to keep track, but whatever system I come up with devolves into a chaos of files and folders after a while.

At work we use a derivative of PTC Windchill, which would be crazy for home use. Seems like there should be something similar, but simple for hobbyist projects.

Is anyone using a lightweight program to track inventory, BOMs, and organize small projects better. I didn't really find anything on Google

@halo6 I use Domoticz instead of Vera, but the general idea should work.
Add another child sensor to your parking sensor that is a binary switch. Maybe S_DOOR, V_TRIPPED or S_BINARY, V_STATUS. That switch gets presented to your controller. Then have the parking sensor listen for a message to that child ID and work normally if on or do nothing (but listen for messages) when off.

In Vera, write a small script that turns on the new parking sensor switch when the garage door is open, and turns it back off again when the garage door is closed.

I've had surprisingly good luck buying cheap parts from Ali-express, but not this time. I bought an NRF52832 iBeacon that supposedly had an SHT30 temperature sensor and KX022 accelerometer. When the parts arrived, neither of those parts were populated. All the beacon has is a push button.

I was able to program it to work with MySensors, however. With only SWIO and SWCLK (no txt out), I took @scalz advice (in another topic) and used a J-Link EDU Mini so I could use the RTT app to get printf style debugging. That worked nicely and I learned a new tool.

Perhaps I can use the iBeacon button for a remote.

@idanronen said in Wireless remote door lock - HW choices:

Hacking - Like i said, it will be operated from home assistant, and I'm not worried about that being hacked. The device can be hacked directly by someone sending random messages with a compatible NRF24 or other device somewhere nearby. I'm not really sure how to handle that one, as this sort of communication is broadcast and a verified message would have to change content every time to be secure, sort of like a rolling code.

So . .. . above, I said that ProMini with batteries was the simplest, but you may want to move to a 32 bit controller for this one.
MySensors provides a security framework to address the hacking aspect above. Using signing on a complicated node, I started running out of memory on the ProMini. I have moved to the NRF5 series, mostly to get more memory. There is a lot of additional features and power also, but it is a harder learning curve to get the tool chain working.

It can be done in the MySensors framework, but I am not sure I would call it simple. See this thread:

https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1085/node-to-node-communication

I used node-node communication once to reduce latency on a button press, but as @mfalkvidd states, this is not the norm for MySensors. After more fiddling, I determined I did not actually need the node-to-node to make my application work.