Posts made by Sander Teunissen

Hello all,

A little bit off topic, but I hope some of you experts are willing to explain something to me.
In the home automation business I see a lot of devices coming up equipped with a bluetooth radio.
One example is this one:

https://www.mysmartblinds.com/

I always thought Bluetooth was a peer to peer networking "thing". Now I guess that's not how the smartblinds work.
But how is a phone able to connect to multiple of these blinds ? Can it make multiple peer-to-peer connections creating some kind of start network with the phone as the "controller". Is this how bluetooth in combination with mysensors works too ?

I guess it doesn't make sense. I just took the smartblinds as an example but I hope someone can exlain this Bluetooth workings to me a bit more in detail and make it "click"...

Many thanks !

Sander.

Disclaimer: I work for Luxaflex/HunterDouglas.

The Hunter Douglas has motors that more or less do what you describe. The easiest way to get this running is to buy into the ecosystem (including the hub). From there you control your shades by telling them to go to 50% or something. This is not time based, but based on an encoder motor.

https://motorisation.hde.nl/products/PowerView/Roller-blinds/M25T.PV-data-sheet/

The PowerView radio system is based on 2.4gHz. And I know for a fact it can be controlled using a device like this:

https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/nRF51-Dongle

You can buy such a motor at your local luxaflex store (I think as normally we only sell complete systems.)

Yeah it uses Loxone protocol or something. But I am interested in trying to do the same with MySensors....

Has anyone ever seen this ?:
https://shop.loxone.com/enuk/touch-surface.html

It seems to be a touch panel that can be put behind a piece of wood of 3 cm thick.
Would love to make this with mysensors... Anyone a clue what type of sensor would be required ?

@koresh Great to hear you have assembled components available! I am following your other projects too (like the usb dongle and switchable power supply) .Will these become available as assembled components too ?

Is this device capable of being a gateway for both nRF24L01+ radio and the Hope RF RFM69HCW radio simultaneously ?
I have some nRF24 nodes and see a lot of new goodies equiped with the RFM69 radio. One gateway to serve both would be excellent !

@Koresh
I see so much beautiful stuff coming by. Are you planning on selling this as assemblies like you did with the stable node ?

Sander.

I guess ordering the pcb will only get me the pcb. I need to do the soldering etc myself ?
But I really wonder how to solder such a board seemingly being smd soldering. Are there any guides available for someone like me (pretty handy, but not experienced in this hardware stuff) ?
Thanks !

@tonnerre33 said:

@Sander-Teunissen depend which rfm69 you will order. For example i have choosen 868Mhz, that's why i'll choose this frequency for all my nodes and my gateway

I guess that's true when you do the board yourself.... But I am not tech savvy enough (or too lazy ) to do the board myself. I hope to buy them from Koresh directly...

@Koresh great! Looking forward to it!

@Koresh thanks. I guess

https://www.openhardware.io/view/102/Wall-Switch-Insertable-Node

Will be 433 too then ?

I was looking for a gateway for the rfm69 chip. I just learned it is available in different frequencies. On which one of this component operating?

Wow ! speed of light
Thanks. All clear.

It's been a while since I visited, but I keep running into a new radio component:
the RFM69.

My old network still works with the nRF24L01+

So possibly asking a stupid question: Can they be mixed ? Can I just add an RFM69 to my nRF24L01 network ? Or do I need to stick with one type of radio ?

Thanks !

Any update on your progress ? I am really watching out for this one !

@Koresh I guess I already know the answer, but this board works with 3.3 volts ? If I want to connect something like this:
https://www.mysensors.org/build/motion ,which works only on 5V I'd need to add a step up converter ?

Sander.

@Koresh No problems. I am happy working with them.

I just bumped into these too:
https://www.openhardware.io/view/102/Wall-Switch-Insertable-Node#tabs-instructions
So interesting ! will these be sold too ?

@koresh Just created a light sensor from one of the boards I bought from you. It works great !
I had to do some tweaking with the serial monitor speed from my arduino IDE (I had to double the speed which was set in the code or something)
I also had to press the reset button just before uploading of the sketch started.
Apart from that: Great !
Thanks !

Hi Koresh. Interesting project ! Are you planning to sell some assembled parts too ?

@GertSanders Thanks Gert !
I did a quick build of the serial gateway using an arduino which I connect to my RPI. Pretty easy. I'll be watching this when I can switch back to the RPI built gateway...

Would it be safe to say a RPI gateway 2.0 is not available yet for beginners ? (like the instructions @mfalkvidd made are not usable for this ?)

I have a problem finding the right wall switch. Normally they are all laid out for 230 volts, making them really big and requiring a lot of depth. Does anyone have experience with low voltage switches, which look nice and can be used for such projects ?
Thanks !

@Dylano Google for low power arduino mini. Or arduino mini on battery. I've got one running now for half a year on two aaa batteries. Only lost 10% or something.
(Quickest is to remove the led and the voltage regulator)

You make some... I'll buy some... great work!

When I

ls -l ttyMySensorsGateway

I get

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jan  3 20:21 ttyMySensorsGateway -> /dev/pts/0

It's all root. This results in all kinds of acessability issues. I followed all instructions exactly. Anyone any ideas how to change this ?

Sander.

@mfalkvidd Yesterday I stopped trying and shutdown the Pi. This morning I tried the same again and it works !!
Pretty sure I haven't done anything else.
Thanks anyway.

Sander

When I try to run the init.d script:

sudo /etc/init.d/PiGatewaySerial start

I get the following error:

[....] Starting PiGatewaySerial (via systemctl): PiGatewaySerial.serviceFailed to start PiGatewaySerial.service: Unit PiGatewaySerial.service failed to load: No such file or directory.
 failed!

No such file or directory.... Obviously a missing folder or file, but I am not savvy enough to debug this.... Any help appreciated..

I am having the same issue. Just with my old B version, but changing from Wheezy to Jessie image. It just worked when on wheezy..

@andriej said:

Show the code.

What code would you like to see ? (It is all very experimental anyway..)

@rvendrame said:

Do you have any wall or any RF interference (such as microwave or hi-power appliances) in between or very close (<10cm to) the two radios?

My sensor is next to my home cinema system and a light dimmer. Could that be a source of the error ?

Getting started with this great product !

I have an rf node which has a led attached to it which I want to switch on and off.
When doing so 9 out of 10 times it works flawlessly. Is this acceptable or should I get 10 out of 10 times ? Node and gateway are 2 metres apart and I use the capacitors.

I have the following setup:

• rf node with temp sensor and switchable led.
• rpi rf gateway with mosquitto broker and websockets enabled. (all connected through node-red)
• polymer web app with websocket connection to switch the led on and off...

Sander.

@Andreas-Maurer said:

The symlink alwayshas 777. Everyone can use it.
Please have a look at /dev/pts/2 This device should have the configured groups.

Ok?

Yes. Ok!
It works.
Thanks !

@Andreas-Maurer

to run the gateway:
sudo ./PiGatewaySerial (without sudo I get the error below)

Could not create a symlink '/dev/ttyMySensorsGateway' to PTY! (13) Permission denied

running:
ls -l ttyMySensorsGateway

gives the following:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 May  7 17:27 ttyMySensorsGateway -> /dev/pts/2

I checked the makefile and it says

TTY_GROUPNAME := tty

But it doesn't seem to do anything...Any ideas ?

@Roberto-Brunialti Yes. Works perfectly ! (apart from the root access
As stated by blksun813 you need to "sudo make install in the librf24-bcm folder". (add the sudo...)

@Andreas-Maurer Thanks for the quick answer. I used the code from github. I am going to check your suggestions tonight. (right now I am at work

Sander.

the ttyMysensorsGateway can only be accessed as root (user root, group root).
Other serialports seem to have the group "dialout" attached.

I am running node-red which is unable the gateway and I guess this has to do with it. Anyone a solution ?

@Andreas-Maurer Could you tell me which controller you are using for your setup ?

Thanks !