Posts made by nunver

@sundberg84 yes it gives an ID of 1, but somehow sensor keeps asking four more times. At the end of the cycle, no ID is set. So no sensor shown.

I have a question about using this board as a gateway. Pinout of Mini Pro and Nano are almost identical. I built an adapter board to plug in a Nano into this board. Pin by pin control shows it is OK. I checked connectivity with MYSController. The gateway boots up. When I turn on my battery powered sensor, it asks for ID, the gateway "supposedly" sends it. I watch this from the messages. The sensor does not register. It asks four more times, the gateway responds four times. But sensor could not be ID'd and of course registered.

I am thinking either reception problem on sensor side, or transmission problem on gateway side? Could it be a power problem related with design of the board? Is there any way to identify?

Thanks

@sundberg84 Assembled my second node. This time 5V regulated. One remark and a quick question. You have LE33 in BOM as regulator. I did not have one readily available but an LM1117 which is a totally different package. I had to go through all datasheets to get correct pinout. Could you put labels near pins like 5 3 G?

And the question; dumb as it may sound, do we place a jumper at REG pins when using the regulator version?

@barduino yes I know the boards are designed by sundberg84. I got my boards manufactured as well. What I meant was nicely done.

As for the cable, you could have got raw voltage from the battery booster pin. I was wondering if for any specific reason you had the cable. I understand not.

Regarding protection against reverse polarity, can't you use a diode? You loose 0.6V but there is ample margin.

@barduino nice board. One question, why do you have the cable? Sorry for my newbie question

@sundberg84 Just received the boards and installed my first node with it. I wanted to test all voltages are correct before hooking up the Arduino and NRF. Noticed that I get battery voltage at NRF and booster voltage on Arduino. Checked the schematic. It the board I received is correct after all. Is this intentional that we do not use booster voltage for NRF?

THanks

@gmccarthy As far as I know, NRF channels above 100 should not have interference from Wifi 2.4 Ghz. I was getting 2-3 meters at best. I changed the channel to 110 and corrected the power supply a little. I am yet to implement cling wrap.

I get 10-15 meters between two standard modules inside an apartment. The apartment is like a faraday cage and sometimes I cannot get wifi on the outer extremes while router is in the middle. I am getting sensor readings from one end to the other now, passing through the area where I have the router. So, I think interference is critical in distance.

@ceech for the solar panel and lipo version, could you let me know what type of battery and panel I shoulld buy? Also, is there a tutorial for usage of that version? I am new in solar panel and cahrging batteries. Thanks

@sundberg84 thanks for clarification. From what @Anticimex wrote, I understand I have to tinker beyond my newbie hat to get Arduino to operate without booster. Thanks again.

@sundberg84 I am ordering the PCB's of Ver.8 today. Again, really nice and helpful work for newbies like me. Just one newbie question, though. I understand that both Arduino and NRF are capable of operating down to about 2V. Why do we need the booster in battery operation. I plan to use only Dallas 18B20. Thanks.

@AWI It does not sound right to me having to use battery power where there is AC. There should be a way to get clean enough power for these little devices?

@petewill Yes, I did increase PA level to Max. I don't understand how I could change the payload size, though. Mysensors have a certain format.

Basically, from what I understand, a few meters of range is abnormal, and there is something I am doing wrong (a lot of which you outlined above and elsewhere). I understand that if powered correctly and fitted with capacitors and, if need be, some home made antennas, they should communicate through concrete walls up to 10-20 meters.

Do you confirm? Only then I will have the stamina to go back and spend another weekend crouched on that desk.

@sundberg84 I have the same problem. Can't get those radios talking to each other over a distance longer than 3 meters. I did everything described in many other posts. Capacitors, seperate 3.3v power source, etc, etc.

Only thing is, gateway is Uno powered from the USB port on my computer and sensor is Pro Mini powered through a phone charger. I supply 3.3V regulated power through LM1117 on the sensor. However, I use Uno's 3.3V on the gateway. I am using MYSController to test the connection.

I am really enthusiastic about MySensors project, but really got stuck at this very first stage. Please, need help.

@sundberg84 Really nice work.

@sundberg84 Yes you are correct there as well. Maybe two fuses like you have but different locations?

@sundberg84 Correct, need to move the fuses out of varistor loop, between varistor and HLK.

@petewill I am no expert either, which is why I am reading this thread . It is true that we protect the home, not the device. But fire starts at the device if not properly protected. The rating of the device says absolute maximum 0.2 A. This translates to 24W for 120 V and 44 W for 220 V, if my math is correct. Since this is way above the supply rating of the device, we must consider 0.2A as really absolute maximum. So, if we want to protect, in my opinion, we need 0.2A fast acting fuse.

Again, not an expert, so please disregard this post if I make no sense

@petewill Thank you very much for this excellent thread. It's great to see the community is in agreement on how to implement a safe power supply.

Just one comment; for 220V, shouldn't we opt for a lower amp rating fuse? If we stay with 300 mA, I am thinking we will not protect the device?

@aproxx Great job. Just started to work with mysensors and I was looking for a power supply alternative to mobile phone chargers. Though one question; the board that you included the relay was really interesting. Why did you not proceed on this? Also, do you sell the PCB's?