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Hello
I have a strange problem, My sketch works for maybe half a day and then the yellow LED starts to show a glowing/pulsing light. It is connected to a 5V USB power supply. I don't know how to troubleshoot this since it take so long time for the problem to occur.
I have enabled a watchdog functionality in the sketch, so why isn't that kicking in if there is any problems?
It is a MKRNB 1500 board.
@yveaux In my outdoor tempsensor everything was working for a while. And to avoid any problems with the initial setup I put a Nano on a breadboard with only the nrf24 connected.
The first setup could have had some issues that I don’t know of, but strange that my test setup have the same problems? That should have avoided any hidden problems to test everything again in a new setup.
And Arduino runs on 5V and nrf24 on 3.3V.
Is there any other way to check the function of a nrf24? Maybe some other sketch that is not mysensor but able to verify the nrf24 works. I need to try to narrow down the problem because it seems strange that all 4 are broken.
I have a problem with my NRF24(kind of always had some problems). I have the kind where you can see the IC, not any blob. So I hope they are genuine.
I have a temperature sensor that worked for a couple of weeks, and then all of a sudden stopped to work. Now I have connected everything so I can see the debug output and get this:
16 MCO:BGN:INIT NODE,CP=RNNNA---,FQ=16,REL=255,VER=2.3.2
26 TSM:INIT
28 TSF:WUR:MS=0
34 !TSM:INIT:TSP FAIL
36 TSM:FAIL:CNT=1
37 TSM:FAIL:DIS
39 TSF:TDI:TSL
10041 TSM:FAIL:RE-INIT
10043 TSM:INIT
10049 !TSM:INIT:TSP FAIL
10051 TSM:FAIL:CNT=2
10053 TSM:FAIL:DIS
10055 TSF:TDI:TSL
20058 TSM:FAIL:RE-INIT
20060 TSM:INIT
20066 !TSM:INIT:TSP FAIL
20068 TSM:FAIL:CNT=3
20070 TSM:FAIL:DIS
20072 TSF:TDI:TSL
30075 TSM:FAIL:RE-INIT
I've seen that before and therefore tried to change the NRF24 module to another one. But it didn't work. So just to test I rigged up a testbench with another Arduino and only connected the NRF24, and none of the modules that I have left is working as it should. And the spares I had have only been laying in a box. I don't understand what could be wrong? Can all of them die without ever being used?
Thank you for the answers. Maybe you are right and I don’t need to measure the actual waterflow. I realize now that this could be solved in a smarter way. A way that would give me 6 months of runtime.
Maybe I need to just start testing and see what works best.
Thank you for the answers.
Of course I should have been more precise about the usage of the sensor.
It will be a outside sensor. I want to measure the output of my water cleaning filter for my little fish pond. When the output decreases too much I know it is time to clean the filter.
I’m guessing that the output with a clean filter is somewhere between 5-10 liters a minute. Hard to estimate. And I also guess when it gets close to 2-3 litres a minute it would be time to clean it.
The goal would be a sensor that runs on battery for the season which would be about 6 months. During late autumn/winter/early spring the filter will not be used.
Is there a 3.3V water flow sensor available somewhere and is it possible to run one with battery power for atleast 4-6 months?
I guess I would want to send average values about every 5 minutes.
@skywatch Thank you for your reply. Of course I should have made a reply about the result.
A 47uF tantalum capacitor worked. And the node has been working perfect the whole time since the change. Also during the winter in at least -10 C.
I don’t know if the capacity of ceramic capacitors is enough? The ones I have is pretty small, and it is hard to find bigger and I also find it a little complicated to solder many at the same time to increase the capacity.
When it comes to the cables all are soldered on the arduino side. Maybe should concider to solder everywhere. The node started as a prototype with the plan to make it properly when I saw it was working. But it is more fun to do something new, at least when the node is working.
@eric007 It is possible to know if the watchdog have restarted? Otherwise you wont know which solution worked. But that it is working may be good enough =)
I would suggest to find the problem instead of treating the symptom.
I had similar problem with a outside node. Lost contact after 3-4 days. Had to switch from electrolytical capacitor to tantalum on the power of the nrf24 to solve the problem. Of course there can be other causes, but it feels much better when the real problem is solved.
@mfalkvidd Thank you. Will try that and see what happens.
I tried to ask at the Domoticz forum but I find it hard to get any help there. So I just try and ask the same question here.
I wonder if anyone knows what kind of values the water volume widget expects in Domoticz?
I have a sensor that presents water flow and volume every time a valve is opened. It would like to log the amount of water for that session when the valve is open and then closed and also the total volume for each day.
As it is now I send the increasing total the whole time the valve is open and end with zero when I close it. Don’t know if it is the zero that mess things up? But any suggestion to what kind of values I should send to Domoticz is appreciated.
@johnrob Yes, could be some bad knockoff of the original. Maybe should try another seller.
@johnrob I found it hard to make it waterproof where the cables go into the connector. If I have 3 or 4 pin connector it gets very wide so I need a wide pice of shrink plastic(or what is it called in english). But if I use that wide it won’t seal the cable going in since those are often pretty small.
Also I found it hard to get the pins inside the connector to stay in place after mounting. Many times the pins don’t align exactly with the female and instead get pushed inside into the connector. So the don’t get any contact with the female. Then I need to use a plier to pull the pin out and try again.
I wonder if anyone have a good suggestion on waterproof connections? Preferably with different number of pins, like 2,3,4 or 5 pins. I want to use them for outdoor sensors, and sometimes as power supply connection for outdoor sensors.
They are available with different amount of pins, but they turned out to be pretty useless. So I'm looking for some better solution and hope that I can get some suggestions.
I have ordered some bigger tantalum capacitors. But have in the meantime tried with 100 and 220 uF ordinary electrolytic capacitor. But it didn’t make a difference. As soon as it get cold outside it stops working.
And since it is outside attached to sensors that is hard to take inside it makes it hard to connect a computer and enable and watch debug output.
But I wonder, is there something else that could be sensitive to the cold? In general -5– -10 cold shouldn’t be a problem for electronics?
@manutremo Thank you for your answer. I do mention Domiticz several times 😉 Anyway, I like to post here since I think this forum has more kind and helpful people. But I will take a look at the Domoticz forum.
Hello
I just got me a Z-wave USB stick and my first Z-wave device (https://www.kjell.com/se/sortiment/el-verktyg/smarta-hem/z-wave/fjarrstrombrytare/fibaro-z-wave-fjarrstrombrytare-med-energimatare-p50884)
It is working as it should, but it also created some questions.
In my devices page I got a lot of new devices by just adding this one Fibaro switch. They are of several different types, and some names are Unknown. But some have names as Alarm Type, Alarm Level, Power Management. I just wonder, is there some place where I can read what these different devices do, and how I can use them? Sitting and doing trial and error seems time consuming. And I guess if I buy some other type of Z-wave switch a lot of other devices will pop up in Domoticz.
Maybe commercial controllers do this in a better way, but I like the open source stuff and hope that there is somewhere I can find explanations about the different features supported by Z-wave devices.
Also, I actually wanted a switch that could be used outside. This time under a roof but still be able to work in cold weather. But do anyone know if there is Z-wave switches available that is water protected and work in cold weather?
And last question. Is there some way to group the devices in Domoticz in the Device page? I think that all devices that is for one switch should be shown in one row. Otherwise if I add another 5-10 Z-wave devices the device list will be huge, and almost impossible to manage.
Appreciate any help.