Topics created by NeverDie

@eiten I haven't yet made any progress on finding a good VOC sensor, but along the way I did find out something interesting regarding CO2: namely, if you sleep with your bedroom door closed at night, then the odds are good that the CO2 levels rise to surprisingly high and unhealthy levels. The better CO2 sensors are factory calibrated and never again need recalibration for the life of the sensor (usually around 10 years or so), because they are used in HVAC systems to control fresh air intake to guarantee indoor air quality. As a for instance, here is one such CO2 sensor: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/senseair/006-0-0008/15790694 At around $50 for just the sensor element itself, it's not exactly cheap, but then again, I'd say it's worth it, because who wants to be burdened by remembering to calibrate their CO2 sensors? Ideally, I'd like to find a sensitive VOC sensor that also will never require calibration. Nearly all, and maybe all, of the off-the-shelf IAQ montoring stuff that you might buy for, say, $300 or less seems to require periodic calibration. For that reason, this might be one of those occasions where build is rather than buy.

@mfalkvidd If things go sideways in the "you know where" region of eastern Europe, such that they affect Sweden, feel free to open a thread and ask for help. I'm sure everyone on this forum will do their best to get you any information or other resources you might need to adapt to events as they develop.

You need a Pin Vice (or vise if you're across the pond and want to butcher the Queen's King's English)... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143450664932?epid=2305158887&hash=item2166536fe4:g:g-AAAOSwnO1d2YjH&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoNgdTu9H35nxAzYb88y%2Bd%2BnDpgfsjI2QXCJzOGcO0bj4xAlrbUz9IScDEEydVAxUQ2Fv%2FQXkfPURAH3PWftlQIbAploXhvcmwP4%2F%2FY1YNgXeglqfwkTWyP%2BQkgvRuss8OI4OkverPgiUT%2BBftCZcFLqrm6LdeKgcz8uqo4pMxnLx4AtDgoQHTnSznUbSxLM4jDkUGLECVv%2Bqaptf8fgnWu0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8DLmJnqYA Pete.

Nomorobo.

@qqlapraline Those are some quick times for assembly! I usually am doing a board with parts they don't stock, so I have only used them for assembly a few times, and not recently, so it's good to hear. @NeverDie I've used JLCPCB a bunch of times now, and I have yet to find an error that affected the board electrically. I've found small things like sloppy printing or some rough edges of the copper, but always small, and like I said, it has yet to cause an issue for me. For prototyping they're really hard to beat.

It has been a long time but I’ve learned a few things that I wanted to share. This library of information (Thank you NeverDie and others) has been so helpful in my hobby developments. Software Defined Radios for signal analysis. With the help of Andreas Spiess explanation of IQ transformations, I learned about Software Defined Radios and I bought one (RTL-SDR). Using this I can clearly discriminate between effective 433 MHz transmitters and bad ones. Not only is the signal density displayed on the software (SDR#) but so is the frequency. Power Profiler Kit II has been indispensable in watching power usage and seeing into the details of the radio transmission. In effect this thing has saved me from buying an oscilloscope for my simple little bench. Tonight, I saw this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nycymUd-I It describes common PCB errors. It is too advanced for me, but I did pick-up a few ideas about ground planes (tip #6 from the video). I hope this is of some value for folks.

@NeverDie Oh, sorry, I wasn't trying to get proof or anything. I just was asking for your personal experience. Not doubting, just looking at them now and wondering how it had been for you. Do you mind saying which one you have that you are so happy with? I've been looking at different 'best' lists, and getting some conflicting info on them. I'd just like a little more input before buying one, but with seeing all the improvements, and how many devices we have that could use it, now I'm wanting to do it sooner rather than later. Thanks!

@NeverDie DipTrace stores all components with the project file, so you can open it on any computer and extract components from Schematic or PCB as a library. Also it automatically saves all project components into design cache, which is immediately accessible as a library with all its functionality.

I even managed to solder a nRF24L01+ to the board so everything works on 3.3Volt, and this node works fine. This took a lot of scratching copper from the board...

@ejlane Yeah. I did this a while ago and I will have to dig into my notes to figure it out. I don't recall how I combined the STM code with tekka's multiple transport (which i think was in the development branch already), but it was not much more than cut and paste. I have an NRF24 and an RFM69 running on one and an RFM95 on another. I can figure out the details when I get back home in May.

^^^This. Good point. Maybe do some testing with RadioLib to see whether or not you experience the same problem.

@NeverDie I used ethernet cable as an audio cable so later I can use those 6 unused pins something else.

@OldSurferDude Thanks a very valued to know. I was wondering today why my (big) powerbanks fall down after short time. I have small 1 & 2-pieces powerbanks, they work very well. I use also BSM hw-168 or hw-107 for charging single 18650. Will try to use them outside also with small solarpanels.

@NeverDie said in Looks as though ESP-NOW is finally working...: Anyhow, sleep current for ESP8266 and ESP32, the last time I checked anyway, was still kinda high, but I do wonder what the startup time would be if an ESP module were kept in a totally turned-off state until it was needed. Perhaps the higher transmit speed that is possible with a wifi PHY would allow high power to be used only briefly (~250ms in the example in the video), and so maybe total power consumed from the start of wake-up through the transmission may yet turn out to be a win? Power consumption in deep sleep is really low if using a barebone ESP32-WROOM or WROVER. I did a project in 2020 before the lockdown using a custom ESP32-WROOM in a Soil Moisture capactive sensor and took some measurements to check the power consumptions in each state. The results were: Power Consumption With delay (idle): 39,29 mA in the 3V3 input from FTDI adapter. In deep sleep: 5,4 uA in the 3V3 input from FTDI adapter. While transmiting (ESP-NOW protocol) the power spike was huge, an average of 200mA, and I think the peak demand was even higher (400 mA?) With 600mAh LiFePo4 Batteries, the expected duration is aprox. 5 months. No Regulator needed when using LiFePo4. If using regular LiPo or Li-Ion batteries, careful selection of the regulator is crucial because of the spike while transmiting if the regulator is not capable enough or close to the 3V3 pin of the module, a Brownout is quite probable. This duration (5 months) is calculated assuming that the processor wakes every 15 min to take a sample of the soil for 2 seconds. If the difference between the measured content and last reported value is less than 5% (aprox. Error of the probe), the value is not sent to the controller (no wifi used). It is estimated that 4 measurements per day are sent. If there is no different in moisture content in a days cycle (every 96 wakeups) the sensor reports the measured value along with voltage. Voltage is sent in every moisture report. It is not considered important to send more frequent updates of voltages, LiFePo4 have a flat discharge curve. The most impacting measure in extending the battery life in this design was the On-Time of the sensor necessary to stabilize the output (feeding the capacitive soil moisture sensor). It is observed that reducing the On-Time has an impact in the measured output. In the sensor, whenever I woke the sensor from deep-sleep I activate a mosfet to drive the feed to the capacitive soil moisture sensor and wait for 2,4 seconds.. that is the part of the cycle that is more critical to battery life. The time to transmit the data was on average 80 miliseconds (from ESPNOW initialization to data sent). Here is a dump from the serial monitor to check this duration: 16:21:19.694 > rst:0x5 (DEEPSLEEP_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT) 16:21:19.694 > configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee 16:21:19.694 > clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00 16:21:19.694 > mode:DIO, clock div:2 16:21:19.694 > load:0x3fff0018,len:4 16:21:19.694 > load:0x3fff001c,len:1044 16:21:19.694 > load:0x40078000,len:8896 16:21:19.694 > load:0x40080400,len:5828 16:21:19.694 > entry 0x400806ac 16:21:19.694 > Boot count: 8 16:21:19.982 > Moisture level (pre): 722.62 16:21:20.853 > Moisture level %: 0.00 16:21:20.853 > Voltage level: 2389.50 16:21:20.853 > Voltage Battery: 3.34 16:21:20.853 > Startig Wifi Now... 16:21:20.853 > Wifi Setup complete. 16:21:20.934 > Send success There is a possibility to further reduce power consumption. Yo can manipulate pint status and read the ADC while maintaing the main cores in deep sleep by using the low power co-procesor. This coprocesor would check if the value has changed since the last transmission and wake the main processor if it is necessary. And in relation to ESPNOW and MySensors, I used a TTGO-Lora board with ESP32 and LORA transceiver as the MySensors and ESPNOW gateway. The gateway processed the value from the sensors received by the ESP-NOW "custom" protocol to MySensors... the controller (Openhab) was only aware of sensors atached to the ESP-NOW Sensor --> TTGO-Lora (Translates from ESP-NOW to MySensor Message) --> Openhab I did also a proof of concept with a Repeter-translator from ESP-NOW to Mysensors: ESP-NOW Sensor --> TTGO-Lora (Translates from ESP-NOW to MySensor Message) --> TTGO-Lora (receives MySensor Messages) --> Openhab The ESP-Now MySensors gateway sketch was not very elegant but worked. The next step would be using ESPNOW as a new MySensor Protocol... to do it myself I should spent quite some time learning how MySensor Code works.. I have tryed in the past but never have the change to work enough time to understand it fully. If this transport is supported, I see quite an advante of ESP32 vs NRF5284, both would use the 2,4 GHz band, but ESP32 transmission power is +20dbm (vs +8 dbm for the NRF5284 if I am not mistaken), also, a barebone ESP32-WROOM price is 2 € and is not hard to hand-solder... to that you have to add the components to design a custom board but overall quite competitive. Pre-production test: Custom board (first try.. a cable to fix some design errors . )

@OldSurferDude said in Some"ting" interesting...: @NeverDie Non-internet connected networks still need NTP. I built an NTP server from a $5 gps module, a $3 Arduino nano, a $6 ethernet shield, network cable and a USB cable. A neighbor 3D printed an enclosure for me in exchange for 4 home baked cookies (they're awesome). Just for fun, I put in software for an under $2 display to make a clock. Should we re-title this thread, "Be Afraid, and here's how to ameliorate your fear. " In the scenario I was referring to, the IOT devices are still internet connected. They're just on their own dedicated local LAN (which could be a virtual LAN), that's all. Now, shutting them off from the internet entirely.... maybe that's another step one could take, depending on what it is. I have some lights/switches that were cheap but which have to run through the cloud in order to connect with Alexa. They wouldn't work properly if they were cut off from the internet.

It probably has to do with fewer people buying them once summer ends, so companies might lower prices to clear out stock before winter.

It would be great to see some improvements added to MySensors lib. Like a good message Queue and stuff like that. Ways to get more state out of the lib so you can provide a bit more user feedback. Right now I have some of those in my own lib. When I have time I'll post some on this forum. So others might benefit. But I'm currently hooked up to modular synths. Learning a lot of analog technology. Which broadens my Arduino horizon.

@NeverDie I have two of them and made some applications using PlatformIO IDE. I like the Wio Terminal. The only issue that I experienced until now is that I couldn't get one of my apps, which is repeatedly posting sensor data to Azure Storage Tables, running without hangs for longer time periods. If you can live with the watchdog it is useable. I didn't try the bluetooth and sd-card functions. A good thing is that you can easily enable debugging with a little bit soldering and a J-link debugger.

@hek From what I've read, to better avoid browser fingerprinting, Brave apparently camouflages itself as Chrome: https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/brave-user-agent-detection.html That would make sense, since there would be less uniqueness if mixed into a larger pool, and Chrome has the largest pool by far. Perhaps that would mean you'd be getting tips from seemingly "out of the blue". Brave is pretty new, but there's a good chance the idea might catch on when people realize it works in their best interests.

I've purchased the family plans for both LastPass and Bitwarden. I'm torn between the two. I've been alternating back and forth between using them and I much prefer LastPass. Family sharing in Lastpass is vastly superior and easier to use. Bitwarden does family sharing in a clunky and disjointed fashion. Family sharing of some sites is especially important to us. My wife is not technical at all and has learned to effectively use Lastpass over the last 12 years. I've not even shown her how Bitwarden works yet, and I know what her response will be.

@NeverDie said in Advisory: put IOT devices on a separate LAN/vLAN for better security: @monte https://www.ebay.com/itm/X10SLH-N6-ST031-Supermicro-E3-1200-v3-LGA1150-Motherboard-3x-X540-T2-6x-10GbE/184546263249?hash=item2af7d080d1:g:CCUAAOSwoP1gSWhO Lest I mislead anyone, I subsequently contacted to the seller and, despite the wording, it doesn't include an E3-1200 with the board. He just meant that as shorthand to refer to the processor family that's compatible with the board. That said, there are a ton of inexpensive used LGA1150 CPU's on ebay that could serve the purpose.

Naturally, using Tasmota instead of ESPHome should work equally well.

@mfalkvidd said in Best PC platform for running Esxi/Docker at home?: @NeverDie ...You can also use the command line tool fstrim to manually discard unused data. Looking into this, I think checking the "Discard" box on the "Hard Disk" tab of the "Create a Virtual Machine" dialog box inside ProxMox may automatically accomplish the same thing. Also the ProxMox dataset that the VM is saved on needs to be set to thin-client. So, those two things plus the ssd emulation that you mentioned, and of course automatic file compression like lz4 needs to be enabled. So, in total, four things need to be set correctly for it to work optimally. Originally I was concerned that because, if using ZFS as the file system, ProxMox only allows storing a VM as a pre-allocated "raw" file (rather than as a qcow2 file as ProxMox would if ProMox were using a linux ext16 file system instead of ZFS) that the file would take up enormous space even if the raw file (i.e. the VM's virtual disk) is mostly empty. So, I did the experiment, and it turns out that is true if the ProxMox dataset isn't configured as "thin-client" or if automatic file compression isn't turned on, but fortunately the true size of the raw file does indeed shrink down if those two conditions are enabled. So, having proved that to myself, I'll pass on the tip: I now create a VM's disk to be as large as I can imagine it would ever need to grow, and then I let the thin-client mechanism maintain the true size of the virtual disk to be only as large as what is actually necessary. This way I don't have to worry that I created too small a VM disk, or that the VM will later outgrow the disk size that was originally allocated for it.

Ok, could not find the root cause for why the embedded forum thread on openhardware.io couldn't detect if user has a valid session/is logged in to the forum. Did a workaround by adding a "Comment" button which redirect user to the thread on the forum.

@monte said in Favorite hand solderable radio chip?: @NeverDie so is it directly compatible with nordic's protocol? Can it be used as drop-in replacement for nrf24? From MyConfig.h (obviously the assumed vendor is wrong ) There are some settings also to fix the ACK that is reversed compared to NRF24. /** @defgroup RF24SettingGrpPub RF24 @ingroup TransportSettingGrpPub @brief These options are specific to the RF24 family of wireless transport modules. The following chips are supported by this driver: | Vendor | Chip |--------------------------|---------- | Nordic Semiconductor | nRF24L01 | | nRF24L01+ | Beken Corporation | BK2401 | | BK2421 | | BK2491 | Hope Microelectronics | RFM70 | | RFM73 | Panchip Microelectronics | XN297 | Silicon Labs(?) | SI24R1 @{

I use these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32855681042.html Well, they work, but profile is not the best for dupont (2.5mm). But for their price it's ok.

@172pilot said in Good thing mysensors has non-repeatable encryption....: @NeverDie Is a signing chip really necessary? If the packets are truly encrypted, and the hack you're trying to foil is a simple replay attack, I would think that including a simple incrementing counter into the message would do it. All the receiver would have to do is to only accept decrypted messages with a counter number GREATER than the last one it received. This should be simple to do if the encryption/decryption is already considered relatively secure? I think the answer is probably yes. Today. At this moment. At least for me and probably you. I mean, one could reasonably ask: why bother with having better security than my garage door opener? But as cracker tools become more prevalent, who knows what's coming next? It's not just us against juveniles and thugs, it's us against whatever weapons juveniles or thugs can download or buy ready-to-use from kickstarter (or aliexpress for cheap soon thereafter).

@skywatch said in Awesome tip: run LinuxFX instead of Windows!: @NeverDie Thanks - Interestingly they show a free version on their site still. Did they revert due to bad publicity? https://www.linuxfx.org/ I stopped following it, but I seem to recollect that the free version was noticeably missing things--otherwise, who'd buy the paid-for version? Anyway, its standing on Distro-watch has fallen considerably. It may seem unfair to niche distros, but I think it's generally better to stick with the more popular distros, unless you have good reason to choose otherwise.

It's not a perfect pin-out match. You should definitely check out this thread: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/10327/rf-nano-nano-nrf24-for-just-3-50-on-aliexpress/1 But you're right, it's great for beginners. That's why it forms the basis of the Candle project.

yes also here (France) there is still some person with the mask, a remnant of the trauma?

@skywatch said in Which vector network analyzer should we buy?: It will be interesting to see the reviews of the new unit though..... Big discussion was at https://groups.io/g/nanovna-users/topic/first_pcb_pictures_of_the_v2/68761814. Now it seem continued to the https://groups.io/g/nanovna-users/topic/v2_design/71480430. These topics also explain why some shielding wasn't installed. Please note, there is also the NanoVNA2 by edy555, but the name has been taken.

Reporting back: Testing some cheap aliexpress 3mm red or yellow through-hole LED's, I found they required around 10ua to have decent visibility. Other LEDs that I got from amazon required several hundred microamps to be equally visible. However, running this 25 cent CREE green LED at 1ua at around 2.5v was sufficient to be dimly visible: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/941-C503BGASCB0F0792 Even 500na was enough, though at less than that it becomes dodgy. Part of the credit goes to narrowly focused optics. Also, 10ms was enough. So, 1ua at 1Hz with a 1% duty cycle means just 10na on average. Not bad! The pulsing actually makes it easier to see than it just being constantly turned on, I presume because of better contrast. I haven't yet tried it at night, but so far this is already better than what I was expecting a priori. Putting it at the bottom of a black tube might also be interesting to try: you'd get improved contrast, and with the narrow optics maybe little light would be sacrificed to the blackness of the tube Anyone here found an LED that's more efficient than this one? Or is this already about as good as it's likely to get?

Even cheaper, this guy's design is just 3 hinges and some scrap wood: DIY Pick-N-Place Super Simple DIY PNP for SMT – 06:23— Tom Stringham

I'm planning to use this: https://smile.amazon.com/Chapin-10027-48-Ounce-Industrial-Acetone/dp/B00C4NQSQ6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 or this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZZGWJ61/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ACTB8CBED46SR&psc=1 for rising with acetone I plan on using this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B3C2PM3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 or this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Z4RGQW/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=A29JIFH4ZXPNL8&psc=1 for rinsing with IPA. I'm sharing the info because it's not always easy to find spray bottles with the right kind of chemical resistance. From what I've read, the usual advice for mechanical sprayers is to empty the container immediately after use because even with Viton seals and gaskets, very often "resistant" does not equate to "unaffected." For instance, LDPE ziplock bags may be able to withstand acetone for a while, but eventually the acetone will break through. Likewise, I used to think that nitrile gloves were fairly resistant to most chemicals, but then I noticed that acetone passed through them quite quickly. Likewise, nitrile gloves would be a poor choice for handling methyl alcohol. According to this handy chart, the best type of glove for both acetone and methyl alcohol (as well as IPA) are butyl gloves: https://www.augusta.edu/services/ehs/chemsafe/PDF files/gloveselechart.pdf As it happens, I picked up a pair just recently as PPE for use with, before, or after an ultrasonic PCB cleaning. However, last week I visited one of the big box hardware stores and their entire inventory of chemical resistant gloves was wiped out, so be sure to plan ahead.

Quite a large number of inexpensive nRF51/nRF52832 watches which appear to have already been hacked, documented, and made available for others to now hack too: https://github.com/curtpw/nRF5x-device-reverse-engineering

The technique with a large GND-plane can be quite well used when dealing with RF circuitry But I agree this isn't pretty looking electronics...

A different link to the same thesis as previoiusly where he claims a wake-up distance of 20 meters: https://hh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1187369/FULLTEXT02.pdf Well, it looks not difficult to construct. The AS3933 chips are available for around $1.30 on aliexpress, so cheaper than nRF5x chips. Perhaps cheapest of all would be be a tightly controlled nRF24L01, but it would surely draw more current listening than an AS3933.

IIrc, in the USA, the frequency hopping would make the 27dbm legal. Otherwise not. In answer to your question, the higher priced module above claims to do fec. Although I think it's normally done at the phy layer, which they aren't . Maybe if you turned off crc and did promiscuous Rx....

Can't remember if there where any specific books.. Probably some magazines like elector electronics in the 80's. There where a couple of danish magazines back in the 80's, that I read at the public library (I'm turning 46 in a couple of weeks).

@mfalkvidd Not just the NFC chips, but their billowy antennas also add to their size. I wouldn't be surprised if a certain fully functioning nRF51 module has a smaller footprint:

@alowhum "WRITE LINE The minimum amount of data that can be written to the panel is one line. The actual number of data bytes written depends on the horizontal resolution of the panel itself. Therefore, a panel with a resolution of 400 × 240 will require a 400/8 = 50 bytes of data (plus overhead)" https://www.sharpsma.com/documents/1468207/1485747/Memory+LCD+Theory%2C+Programming%2C+and+Interfaces Remembering just 50 bytes for a 400 x 240 display doesn't sound particularly bad to me. I guess in the worst case, if you didn't want that burden in your MCU, you could dedicate a cheap, tiny slave MCU to mange it for you. For instance, maybe the main MCU just does println's, and the slave MCU handles the scrolling. I doubt it would be necessary, but one could fallback to that if push ever came to shove.

I made pcb for it it's on the roof of my flat, will dig trough my archives to see if i have kicad project for it.

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.

@cloolalang Actually, I'm tempted to try the SX1280. It's a lot more different: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/11265/second-setup-choosing-a-radio/34?_=1595815545926 It looks as though a "good enough" test drive library may possibly already exist: https://github.com/StuartsProjects/SX12XX-LoRa The same person range tested it and also did a thoughtful review: https://github.com/StuartsProjects/SX1280_Testing Paraphrasing, he says it lends itself to a more simplified programming style than the highly register centric approach of the SX127x's. Spoiler: he proves a range of 40 kilometers transmitting at just 4dB. He estimates a range of 200 kilometers should be possible. Impressive for such a modest little module: Sounds interesting!

@neverdie said in Anyone here tried/using either Dragino LoRa gateway or some other LoRa TTN gateway?: Are you sure? I'm glad I asked, because from my reading I had thought that FOTA had been baked into the LoRaWAN specification for over a year now: https://lora-alliance.org/in-the-news/lora-alliancetm-enhances-lorawantm-protocol-new-specifications-support-firmware-updates I am sure, but I am unable to find a reference. Having it in the spec is not the same as having it implemented in the infrastructure. If you deploy your own TTN v3 stack (most of it is open source), you can probably get it to work. I've had on my todo to do this for a long time, but other things have priority. You can also but a commercial license for the commercial version: https://www.thethingsindustries.com/technology/pricing So far I have only seen one implementation of fota, and that's by arm, which has a hard requirement that your firmware needs to be built on arm mbed. https://github.com/ARMmbed/mbed-lorawan-update-client

@NeverDie I don't remember exctly, but voltage requirements for mcu only might be the same (approx). On modules, it can differ, depending on external spiflash&ram voltage requirements. I thought you were talking about the esp32-s2, announced a few months ago, which has usb and few more IOs for example but it's single core. the simple S version is maybe used as coprocessor, like on particle boards, if I'm not wrong

Here is a review of this https://youtu.be/55tgEMTumGo Not sure why, it YouTube has started suggesting this kind of videos after I read this post

@neverdie said in A $6.61 "linux computer" that's about the size of an Arduino Pro Mini...: @nca78 At least in the past, the trouble I had with non-raspberry pi SBC's is that the linux software coverage for them was typically spotty/buggy. Has that improved at all, or is it still a big risk? Things have improved a lot the last few years, as long as you are careful in device selection. Don't become enamoured with hardware specs only. Some of these SBCs look great "on paper" but the software (driver) support is awful and they are stuck on some old kernel because the Chinese mfr. do not understand anything about what is Free Software and do not cooperate with the community in releasing documentation so we can write drivers, etc. Also look for good community support around the device in question. But typicaly this will be ~= the above (the more open the device, the more, better, and longer term support). If you do a little homework though, you will be alright. Some good resources to get started are Armbian (stick to their Supported Devices list, and you will have a good result), https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers, and linux-sunxi, etc...

@alowhum good point. Maybe not learning, but inference could be very useful.

I have done some test on LGT8F328P-SSOP20 years ago. It may drop down to ~50uA under sleep mode. You may found the lgt8f branch in https://github.com/arcayi/mysensors/tree/lgt8f, which unfortunately was not accepted by master.

@Jens-Jensen Thanks for posting that video. I wonder if in Julien's' case there might have been moisture penetration through the insulated wiring ingress points. If the outer insulation coating were sufficient, then waterproof wiring wouldn't require that sticky goo they put underneath it. Once it gets inside the "sealed" enclosure by travelling through the insulation, it can do its damage with nothing to stop it. So....maybe if Julien had applied something like Corrosion X or some other conformal coating and then sealed it all up it might have lasted longer. I think extending the heatshrink to completely cover the wiring so that only the metal connection terminals on the end are exposed may be the only way to prevent the moisture ingress, assuming the heatshrink stuff really is moisture proof. In contrast, I suppose in the Great Scott epoxy filled approach, even if moisture does ingress through the wiring insulation, it has nowhere to go since all the electronics are protected with the epoxy. For those who don't know: something can be waterproof without being moisture proof. Housewrap would be a perfect example of that, as would gortex raincoats. So, having something that's waterproof rated doesn't tell you enough information. i.e. even something rated at ip68 could let in moisture. A lot of plastics are waterproof, but not moistureproof. Also, from what I've read, the most commonly used hot glues are not moistureproof. And of course if you have any air at all inside, the moisture in it might condense into water if it gets cold enough.... So, I think Julien's setup is prone to eventual failure for a whole host of reasons in addition to those that he mentioned: the host glue, the wire insulation travel path, and the trapped air. I did once try an experiment using just hot glue to seal cheap corrosion prone chinese electronics (pretty much engulfing it in hot glue as Julien tries at the end of his video), and I was surprised that it failed in just a month or two of wet outdoor weather.

@alexsh1 eh, yeah. Nearly 2 days

@nagelc I'm working to get the nRF52840 supported by mecrisp-stellaris. If that happens, then it will be faster than uLisp, because then FORTH will automatically compile seamlessly into native machine code rather than running on a VM. Allegedly the performance would then be very close to that of compiled C code. To me that would be like having my cake (interactivity of a REPL) and eating it too (fast execution speed).

I haven't bought anything lately, but saw a good discussion here: https://hackaday.com/2018/09/18/ask-hackaday-hows-that-capacitor-shortage-going/

@NeverDie i can speak for arduino side im not sure how it works for CircuitPython. virtual hard drive part is only true if there was a bootloader prior to update. im not sure how nordic ships their dongles but i think they dont install adafruit bootloader inside of them so you need a fresh bootloader install and it is easy but you need jlink for that. after connecting your jlink to nrf52 open the arduino from menu find jlink for adafruit nrf52 and then just simply click install bootloader and voila it works with arduino. but then again that usb dongle wont work seamlessly with adafruit bootloader because im sure adafruit has different pin maps you just need to check their pins from variants file and match them on paper to the dongle so when you write your code you know which ones to use, unless theres a seperate variants file specifically made for this dongle.

@neverdie I mean the game. They have everything "nuke" and "atomic".

Getting closer.. I received a much better 'radar' sensor (the directional one). The only downside is that it has a bright green LED that turns on whenever it detects motion.

@neverdie yes. Same in latest esp8266 board versions in Arduino IDE.

@neverdie ASR6501 M0 with sx1262

@monte said in easy FPGA'S: I have same questions as some guys in the comment section of that video. I know what FPGA is, but I can't understand what is the use scenario for those who are using MCU's for their projects. And as we are on mysensors forum, maybe you have in mind some application for FPGA to our common needs? I can't imagine myself starting to learn verilog right now, but I hear about it from all around so I might consider learning it in near future, but I can't make myself learn stuff unless I see some interesting application of new knowledge. Thanks for bringing this up. I'll concede the point, because after looking into it a bit more, I think you're probably right. I mean, the newer ARM chips consume less than 100na in sleep mode and seem generally quite power efficient: https://www.microchip.com/design-centers/32-bit/sam-32-bit-mcus/sam-l-mcus

Thanks. Unfortunately, none of those resources had the part identifiers for the parts that I have. So, lesson learned: I'll create my own ID catalog every time I buy a receive a new part. That way, if need be, I can identify it later.

@NeverDie I clean my solar lights with: Cloth (2 pcs) Sponge Dish soap (a few drops) Regular 3% hydrogen peroxide (1 gallon) Oxy laundry booster (1/4 teaspoon) Bowl of water Another bowl for the peroxide or the same bowl without the water Rubber gloves (1 pair) UV light or sunlight Paper towels Plastic wrap (optional) Tape (optional) Like other lamp owners, I don't clean them as often, but at least twice a year. I want my solar lights to be perfect every time I use them.

@matheus-galvao said in Best options for a low current display for a battery operated node?: GYTN-2490 Hello, I didn't do much for this one, I just used an existing PCF8576 arduino library. Are you using this exact same LCD driver, or another one ? They are not very difficult to make libraries for, I made a library for PCA9553 (much lower power) and it was easy, the annoying part is sometimes to convert the digits to "raw" data sent to the LCD driver when LCD driver designers and lcd manufacturer didn't have the same idea for segment mapping

I'm quite lazy, and use this approach and use a USB powerbank, and check if DHCP server is alive or dead (Dead= no 230V) https://raspi-ups.appspot.com/en/index.jsp

Old topic, I know. Did anything ever come of this? I'm also thinking it would be easy & cheap to get the espnow working as a transport layer. I found this: https://www.mysensors.org/apidocs-beta/classESPNOW.html But it goes above my head and abilities when it comes to code.

So, after increasing the bandwidth to 500Khz and reducing the data payload, the node now consumes 38ma for 13ms during its Tx to the gateway, which is 37% of the energy consumed in the earlier measurement above. I see that further improvements are possible, but I deem it good enough for now.

Hadn't seen it. I'm lately of the mind that it's better to have everything (including sensors) integrated onto a single board.

I came up with some variations on the above ideas: The three on the left are very close to the size of just 2x AAA batteries. One of the two on the right uses a JST-XH connector. The next iteration of the LoRa shield PCB will have that JST connector plugging in from the side so that it doesn't interfere with the FTDI connector as much. I think that for connecting to custom made PCB's, the JST connector doesn't actually make much sense, but it would make sense if plugging into a COT power pack.

A bit of googling would have shown me how. Startup or enthusiast licence. Cheers.

@johnrob said in Best sensor for quantifying magnitude of vibration?: While not specifically answering your question... would loctite help? Yes, I think it would help. Not very easy to apply in this situation though, because most connections are t-nut without much thread pushing through to the other side.

@Muhammad-Ibrahim I suggest you look into PrintNC, which didn't even exist 4 years ago when this thread began. I'm aware of a number of people who have recently "upgraded" (their words) from MPCNC to PrintNC.

Thought I'd share a couple cool things I've learned recently. One is that meshmixer offers treelike supports, which is pretty cool, and it's free: You can import your model and just add the supports without using the rest of meshmixer, if that's all you want. That's how I plan to use it. The other is that if you want to print faster, but with good print quality, you should definitely look into linear advance. How to use Linear Advance in Marlin – 10:58— Teaching Tech Anyone else learned anything cool lately?

I choose the sensbender bootloader from arduino ide

Now that @nca78 has brought it up, has anyone here looked into somehow integrating TensorFlow, or something like it, into their home automation? Other than replicating the Nest thermostat, what else might it do that would be useful? https://www.tensorflow.org/

in fact since 90% of people that have some kind of home automation system already have a mini computer running the controller anyway

Well, if you just want to look at the model, here it is: http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/c84428-wifi-connected-professional-weather-station I picked one up yesterday at Costco's bricks-and-mortar store. Not sure whether it will be easy to hack or not.

@NeverDie It looks to be what can be expected after googlin' a bit; e.g. https://openawg.github.io/2016/04/19/first-test-chamber-constructed.html Opening the freezer's door will further disturb things (did it stay closed in both charts?) Were both measurements aquired using the exact same si7021 sensor?

see here : https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/oshpark-plated-slots/

@smilvert Got it working: https://www.openhardware.io/view/510/Multi-Sensor-TempHumidityPIR-LeakMagnetLightAccel#tabs-source I cited you in the credits at the beginning of the sketch.

It would make quite a show at a comicon, not very practical for everyday use

Dave Jones tried to do a videoblog teardown of both an Apple USB charger and a fake Apple USB charger, but it turned out they were both fakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE I think this proves you can't be sure just by looking at something that it's genuine. Not all the counterfeits are obvious.

I use 3 personal laptops, 1 work laptop, 1 computer, 1 tablet and 1 phone to come to MySensor depending on where I am and if I have some time. However I am permanently logged in only on 2 devices. I do occasionally log in from others but not all the time.

@nca78 said in Fewer home automation postings? What's behind it?: The only problem I see is it's based on an atmega setup which will probably soon be deprecated for MySensors. Yes that is an issue. For now I'm trying to keep the sketches so simple that the simple signing and encryption feature will still work. I read that in MySensors 2.3 a goal was to make the encryption and signing features use less ram, so there might still be some life left in the Nano I also found an STM32 board that has a NRF socket built in. But that has to be manually soldered, and it also make sensors less easy to connect (fewer GND and VCC pins).

Probably custom took its time to clear them.

There's a library specifically designed to work with them: https://github.com/Sofcom/NRF24Lmodule-SE8R01 Also found another interesting library for working with other, different, "clones" of the nRF24L01: https://github.com/jnk0le/RFM7x-lib

Good to know when I'm going to receive mine...

@Nca78 said in Anyone using a low-voltage motor controller?: @NeverDie how low is the voltage ? L9110 can go down to 2.5V and is ultra cheap on ali, else there are also plenty of DRV8833 (min 2.7V) breakout boards it seems ? Thanks! They're so cheap that I ordered both of them just to have them on hand for the future: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DRV8833-2Channel-DC-Motor-Driver-Module-Board-1-5A-3V-10V/32709948530.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.9ar2Ko and https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-lot-L9110S-DC-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Board-H-Bridge-L9110-for-arduino-Free-Shipping-Dropshipping/32251090078.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.9ar2Ko Meanwhile, for expediency, I ordered two different kinds from Pololu: https://www.pololu.com/product/2990 and https://www.pololu.com/product/2960

Yes, as mentioned earlier in the thread. I think you're right, though, it would be easier and more practical. Then the problem reduces to mostly just a detection issue.

@NeverDie Ah, ok. My bad. The method to set the number of retries is apparently not exported for nRF5. We need to work on our driver interface...

@NeverDie The Domoticz team is not likely to look here, but I moved the thread to the Domoticz category to make it a bit more visible.

@NeverDie said in How to graph datapoints more often than once every 5 minutes?: @rmtucker Which different controller do you recommend? I Am using myHouse at the moment.

@neverdie said in Recommendation for PCB fab?: Anyone try this? Sounds like a promising alternative: https://hackaday.com/2018/09/18/get-your-pcbs-made-at-the-mall/ Good idea but it's not really solving much, it's keeping the most annoying parts: using chemicals (can't do it in an appartment building), making the vias by hand.

Fortunately, 1mbps seems to work, even if 2mbps doesn't.

I tried pidome last year. But the outdated tutorials didn't help me get going. Recently I have reported the steroids/viagra/pr*n links that fill the site, but nothing happened. This week the site has been down. Maybe they are back and fixing it? Maybe it's just crumbled from neglect. I moved to mycontroller. It shows potential and the developer is very responsive.

Exactly the same as @stefaanv and many others, I started with Domoticz and used it for few years, but after a while it was a bit too much "this script for this", and "this hack for that", and this in python and seven virtual switches for that hack... So I was looking into a more robust solution, and I was sold on presentations that leading people of OpenHAB held online, showing the architecture, the reasons and plans, having clear roadmap and long term plan for the system. I feel I understand how and why openhab works the way it does, why it is organized in such a fashion. And that is very important with any software, to have a good documentation (technical, not just for the users). With domoticz, almost no idea about how it was internally organized, why and what the future plans are. It was always somehow "well this is what we have, it works, and here are the workarounds... with bunch of hidden difficult to find virtual switches and rest api" When I started making more "abstracted" rules about events and logic, then lua showed quite a few challenges, but it was mainly having 30-40-50 virtual switches, a pain in the ** keeping track them all, making rules for each of them (f.eks. switches for datetime: isSunrise, isMorning, isAfternoon, isEvening, isNighttime, isDaytime..... isSomeoneHome, isMeHome, isWifeHome,... ) And this was actually the biggest issue I had with domoticz, handling and organizing the automation part and virtual switches. At the end I had like 6-7 times more virtual switches then physical ones. Then I moved in another apartment and decided to try openhab2. It is just way more robust. It didn't took me a long time to get up and running, and having items defined in a text file is a blessing as you can just do a backup, organize them in multiple files, use git (or backup) for versioning. Writing comments also helps A LOT when you come back to the item after few months/years. Only thing I was struggling a bit is the RFlink, whose binding is not quite ready yet. But I managed to install and use rflink->mqtt "gateway" and all works as expected. I am also using node-red for logic as @Fabien which I am still learning, but so far it looks much much better and easier to debug. Not all challenges from above are domoticz related, some are also "me a rookie" related, so not to downspeak on domoticz, it works great! As long as you are comfortable with all above and dont plan to overgrow it. My goal is to make "smarter home", more then just basic rules and remote home. (about remote home, my.domoticz.com for remote access never actually worked for me, noone could/tried to solve it, so I felt it didn't work) And that is where the community comes in place, it feels that the people on the openhab are more technical, and generally have great technical discussions about best solutions and approaches. F.eks. only for persisting values, you can have multiple completely different database systems, using the advantage of each of them. And each is very easy to install, as they all comply to some "technical rules and documentation". Now that is a downside, as you need to know that you need persistence strategy at all, I wish some would come predefined, but... I am not developing anything, but I feel there are "big boys" who think hard about issues and then develop a long term and best solution for the problem. And I want a stable and long term solution for my home automation, and waf On the other side, openhab is a bit more technical, but I think that someone who can change mysensors sketches and make that work, can make openhab work as well. They are very focused on "non-technical" user these days, and it shows with every update. I guess home-assistant is pushing its way forward. (a novel about my life and divorce with domoticz will be published someday, snippet above is just the preview, I have too much caffeine cannot sleep help)

@mfalkvidd > Seems like leds are only able to convert about 10% though. 10% !! What a bummer. For being so efficient, can you imaging how low power the next step in lighting will be? Time to invent the next version of LED.

Success! Treating the nRF52805 like an nRF52810 and uploading to it from Segger Embedded Studio's IDE using Nordic's nRF52 SDK's PCA10040e board definition, then pin P.18 blinks using the same sketch that blinked P.18 on the nRF52832. I'm reporting back with this good news, because I haven't seen it tried or documented anywhere before. At least for this modest first attempt, this simple spoof works! At $2.50 each, these tiny nRF52805 modules with their trace antennas are a good value. By the way, the compiler that's built into Segger Embedded Systems is super fast compared to gcc.

Answering my own question: looks as though 1.02mm diameter should work fine.

You are buying the board only, you have to buy the supercaps separately

Closing the loop: today I received the boards from pcbs.io. They look like nice boards.

I use Chipquick noclean SnPb Type 3 and 4.

Build one yourself: http://hackaday.com/2015/02/06/a-diy-pick-and-place-you-can-build-right-now/ I guess you would have to pay something like $10000- 15000 for a semi-professional machine form chine. I.e. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Head-Automatic-Pick-and-Place-Machine-SMT-QM1500-/252639482960

what I meant is that they don't actually go to 0v even if you short them as you will always be able to measure some small voltage. I am no expert but my bet is that that 0.5/0.6v is kind of their bottom line where they don't hold any more useful energy below that. For balancing there are SAB Mosfets that help to keep all the supercaps on the same voltage, but the reverse charge issue is the same for all series circuits, also LiPo worn out batteries can get to 0V and then getting reverse charged with all the consequent risk of fire.

@kalle unfortunately I cannot decide for myself, as I live in Vietnam and it's not even available to select in the list of countries where they deliver

@NeverDie sounds like mysensors is not your cup of tea then.

I haven't tried it on an atmega328p-au. Have you? Are you able to get all the solder paste molten at once so that the chip does auto-alignment with the pads like it would in a reflow oven?

With the BME280 voltage regulator removed, I powered it stand-alone using a 3.3V bench power supply. Using Dave Jones's uCurrent in conjunction with a Fluke 87V multimeter, I measure the standby current at a mere 155 nanoamps. I had planned to power it from pins on the atmega328p and then powering it down between measurements, but at 155na I'm not sure it even matters, provided it's being powered from a battery. On the other hand, if the entire mote is being powered from a capacitor that's charged from solar energy that's harvested from only weak ambient indoor light.... I guess in that scenario it might depend on the relative leakage rate of the capacitor that's used for the mote's energy storage as to whether or not it's worth fussing about.

@scalz said: can't help you for the moment. no need of challenge but nice try, i don't see why and for what??? Yeah, I see all too clearly what your saying. I'm outta here.

@NeverDie Thanks i'd took the 1 led off but have taken d13 and the regulator off now. Sitting at around 2.7v although as i'm more so testing i'm reporting the temp as often as every 5mins if it changes.

@scalz Unfortunately, I didn't like the chipquick flux performance as much, so I reverted back to what I had been using.

Eval boards with the extended range module already installed are available now for $20: http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cyble-224110-eval-ez-ble-psoc-xtxr-evaluation-board

Thanks! I definitely like V1's compact size (0.8in x 0.9in). Are there any mysensor nodes smaller than that, or is it currently the smallest? The Sensebender is also fairly compact (0.69in x 1.18in), although its effective thickness is much greater because of the way a traditional non-SMT NRF24L01+ gets stacked on it using a header.

Have a look at 123d.circuits.io. It has an editor like Fritzing, which you can easily toggle to schematics view or PCB design. It might fit yours needs.

@lood29 Interesting. Looks like I can cut the threshold way down. I'll give that a try.

@jemish said: @Dalhoj This is realy good module, where can I buy this module. He already gave a link on AliExpress earlier.

@engy Hello. It's why I am using RFM69 as there is no fake

@NeverDie Not exactly mass produced, but here are some other options: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/uXIff7XO https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/pRJiKWxV https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/nJ8HNuZj Cheers Al

@rvendrame said: Even being the RFM69x demanding for more power? I guess it makes the diference for battery operated nodes. Jeenodes says "The conclusion here is: for these types of uses, with occasional brief wireless sensor data transmissions, the power consumption of the wireless module is not the main issue. It’s far more important to keep the idle (i.e. sleep mode) of the entire circuit under control." http://jeelabs.org/tag/lowpower/ So, taking that literally, hopefully the RFM69HW high Tx current consumption won't be an issue.

There's some Nordic example code that allows both Bluetooth LE and nRF24-ish protocols to run simultaneously on this chip. Well, baby steps: I've made a start at porting it to Arduino and to the Nano mentioned above. So you can exchange messages over nRF24-ish radio whilst also seeing those devices and messages on your phone using a BLE client. You can then send messages back. (And all that on USB serial, too.) Take a look and see where you think we could take it next - there's a list of things at the end: https://github.com/DuncanCragg/Onix Cheers! Duncan

@shabba said: Has anyone tried the moteino or anarduino using mysensors? I am very tempted to press the buy button on one or the other. Pity they are so pricey but I am getting lazy to solder etc so I like having it all on one PCB I have! I'm using a Moteino as a gateway with a non -H and that worked out of the box. I'm now building some sensors (including the outdoors in the PIR-light one) with -H versions. I bought these Moteinos without the RFM to avoid customs costs. If you do buy them without RFM; do not forget to insulate the bottom side of the RFM with PV-tape. I didn't, and I couldn't get it to work properly. Insulated and away it went! In short: Moteino works! Small form-factor, wide voltage input with own LDO and low-power is easy. Succes with your projects!

Hi guyz, i just wanted to ask if I would need to make any modification to the code if i were to switch my current Ethernet gateway and my sensors from NRF24 to RFM69

A good article regarding self discharge: http://www.robotroom.com/Capacitor-Self-Discharge-4.html

Last update was in september. https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino/commit/2fd948fc6667460961194040bef635d25b4dfd8b

I had to restart this night which was the first restart since months. Tonight the clocks were changed (Daylight Savings Time). I suspect that this was the reason. Apart from that it is absolutely stable.

Hi everyone, bumping this thread because I could read some of you were interested in packet loss (@NeverDie and someone else) and my findings could help fix it partially or completely via software. It's certainly a hardware problem, though I can't figure out if it's due to the components physical positioning, the power supply, or both (and/or more issues like wiring, proper PCB traces, etc). Also, even the same modules from the same manufacturer, say EByte E01 PA+LNA modules in my case, have shown different performances, so it might be something bound to the variability of the SMD components used as well. Let's get straight to the point. I am the developer of rf24tunlink, a radio network bridge which uses primarily nRF24 modules. During R&D, I found that around 30% of packets from my modules were dropped due to a couple corrupted bytes, which was constant even in close range. That does indicate a hardware problem already, but the distribution of the bit flips is an even stronger indicator. All flips are in the first bytes! You might be getting at least one flip in most packets, resulting in ALL of them being dropped automatically because this invalidates the CRC. In this scenario ShockBurst can fail, or you might get duplicates, might not get ACK payloads or simply get a slow link because the same packet can be sent up to 15 times with a wait between each retry. Not coming here unarmed: how to fix it? Easy in principle, you: Disable CRC -> ShockBurst off, no ACK payloads, essentially your module will be RX only. Implement RS ECC: sacrifice just enough bytes to fix all the corrupted bytes. (in my case, 2/32 was enough!) That's how I turned a 30% packet loss into a 100% flawless reception, see this result: There is more to it, as the link gets worse, of course this situation also gets worse. Finding out how many errors are in a packet can help you estimate signal quality and potentially take preventive measures. Now, if you only care about sending a specific packet, you either receive it or not at all and that's it. But if you want more like I did, then things get more complicated. In this case I wanted a full duplex link -> a second pair of nRF24 modules was mandatory I also wanted to send network data (iperf, ping, ssh, realtime video, audio, telemetry, control, anything really) -> frames needed to be split into radio packets, sent, corrected and stitched back into a frame. That is a HARQ algorithm. After all of this, I could get a usable network speed of 1.2Mbps (determined via iperf). Used a Pi 4, Pi zero 2 W and 4 nRF24 PA+LNA modules. You could use this same metric to evaluate your components, some modules could do better and some could do worse. Would be cool to fix this hardware for all and get closer to that 2Mbps max speed. Some people declared a speed of 1.7Mbps and I have seen a 1.5Mbps peak during development, so there is definitely room for improvement.