se-O-matic

se-O-matic

Hi
I made a universal device for mysensors to building easy different nodes. The PCB fits in a small case (Strapubox 6090), so simple sensors can build with minimal effort.
alt text
The minimal assembly consists of a Mega328P microcontroller (as seen on many Arduinos), a RFM69CW rf module with 868 or 433 MHz and some little stuff for reverse protection and battery monitoring.

With different assembly options, this PCB can be used for:

Temperature, humidity and pressure measurements (With BME280 assembled)
Temp-Sensor above with additional light level (with extra BH1750 on the proto field)
Cheap temperature measurement (With DS18B20 assembled on the small proto field)
IR-reader for digital Power meter (with external IR Head connected to the UART)
Prototyping on Breadboards with soldered pin header

The PCB features also

ISP pins are connected to the pin header for easy flashing the bootloader
Arduino pro mini compatible pin header for connecting a cheap USB-UART-board without wires
Optional LED (for example for active transmission)
Mounting holes for fitting in the “Strapubox 6090” case
A snap off proto board, which fit under or on top of the MSN PCB.

Hardware and software can be found on my github repository. Github/se-O-matic/msn/

MSN as temperature sensors (BME280), complete assembly (without batteries):
alt text

MSN as power-meter reader with ir-head:
alt text

Greets!

se-O-matic

Thanks for the answers.

I want to keep the raspberry pi as central. This should fit all my needs in my rental apartment.
For HA, I have chosen a SD-card with application class A2.

For a clean setup, i will try to run HA in docker. So can i use the same Raspberry as gateway and for the controller.
So I dont have to use a "rare" mega328p for a serial gateway.

I report my results, when I find some time to work on it.

se-O-matic

Hello,

finally, ... I had time to test the "Option 2".
Because the stock of all shops are empty, I used my old RPI 3 B+. But after all, the CPU runs at 50%. Even the 1 GB ram is half free.

The way wasn't as easy as I thought. But now the setup runs pretty good.
This steps I had to make:

A fresh install of Raspian Lite (I used 64-Bit, if this is needed? I dont know)
Installed "Home Assistant Supervised", which runs in a docker. (I found a tutorial based on this informations: https://github.com/home-assistant/supervised-installer)
Installed the MySensors Gateway with some changes! (https://www.mysensors.org/build/raspberry)
3b. The manual works fine for 32 Bit raspbian. For 64 Bit you have to edit two files bevor the compile starts. (https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/11456/is-mysensors-rpi-gw-32bit-only/8)
In my case i have to change the section for the BCM2837 (= RPI3) as described in the post.

Now, I have a clean setup for my smarthome with MySensors Nodes and Zigbee Nodes.
alt text
The RFM69 ist directly connected to the GPIO of the PI.

The power consumption is araound 2 W. Somewhat lower when idle.

se-O-matic

With Home Assistant as Operating System it might not work, if the radio is connected to the GPIO of the Pi. The HASS-Os has some restrictions to run software like the Pi gateway beside Homeassistant.

I have currently a setup with a RFM69 connected to the GPIO for the RPI ethernet gateway. Homeassistant runs in a container and the mysensors plugin connects in Homeassistant to localhost or 127.0.0.1. But I have problems with the stability (I think so) with this combination, as seen in this forum.
In my opinion is a Serial (USB-Serial-Converter) Gateway with Homeassistant the best choice. So I want to build another gateway and resinstall my Pi with HASS-Os.

se-O-matic

No, it does not recover.

The Problem is not easy to debug. I now want to build a serial gateway. With that, I am more flexible to test. Maybe to run MySensors on a second raspberry pi with a standard Home Assistant HASS-Os image. Or I check the MySensors network with MyController.
At this moment i run the whole system on 64 Bit raspbian, with HA in docker, which is a little bit experimental and i had to fix some lines in the ethernet gateway to compile it for 64 bit. So this is experimental, too.

se-O-matic

Hi,
thanks for the reply.
Yes, a restart of the raspberry is enough.

This is the code of the temperatur sensors:

/*
 * My Sensors Node for temperature and humidity
 * 
 * Hardware: MSN R00
 * BME280 (temp, hum) at I2C
 * 
 * Runs at 2 x AA batterys
 * 
 */

// RFM69CW at 433 MHz / Raspebrry Pi as ethernet gateway
#define MY_RADIO_RFM69
#define MY_RFM69_NEW_DRIVER
#define MY_RFM69_FREQUENCY RFM69_433MHZ 
#include <MySensors.h>

// BME280 library from Adafruit, need the Adafruit "Unified Sensor library", too
#include <Adafruit_BME280.h>

// Define child IDs and messages
#define CHILD_ID_TEMP  0
#define CHILD_ID_HUM   1
MyMessage msgTemp(CHILD_ID_TEMP, V_TEMP);
MyMessage msgHum(CHILD_ID_HUM, V_HUM);

// Define strings, which are send to the controller
#define SKETCHSTR "Temp Humidity Sensor"
#define SKETCHVER "1.0"

// Sleep time for sensor 
uint32_t SLEEP_TIME = 300000;    // sleep time between reads (seconds * 1000 milliseconds)

// Constructor for sensor
Adafruit_BME280 bme;
#define BME280_TEMP_OFFSET -1.0    // calibration ofsset for the temperature

// Battery stuff
#define EMPTY 536         // Brown Out ATMega   //536 equal to 1.8 V
#define SCALE 0.2415      // (100/950-EMPTY)    //950 equal to 3.2 V
int BATTERY_SENSE_PIN = A0;   // select the input pin for the battery sense point
int batteryPcnt = 0, oldBatteryPcnt = 0;

// Global variables for sensor values
float temp = 25.0, hum = 50.0;
float temp_last = 0.0, hum_last = 0.0;

// Helper for calculate battery percentage
int calc_pcnt(int value){
  int batteryPcnt = ((value - EMPTY) * SCALE);
  batteryPcnt = (batteryPcnt > 100) ? 100 : batteryPcnt;
  batteryPcnt = (batteryPcnt < 0) ? 0 : batteryPcnt;
  return batteryPcnt;
}

void setup() {
  // use the 1.1 V internal reference
  analogReference(INTERNAL);

  //BME280 stuff
  bme.begin(0x77);
  bme.setSampling(Adafruit_BME280::MODE_FORCED,
                  Adafruit_BME280::SAMPLING_X1,   // temperature
                  Adafruit_BME280::SAMPLING_NONE, // pressure
                  Adafruit_BME280::SAMPLING_X1,   // humidity
                  Adafruit_BME280::FILTER_OFF );

  oldBatteryPcnt = calc_pcnt(analogRead(BATTERY_SENSE_PIN));
}

void presentation()
{
  // Send the sketch version information to the gateway and Controller
  sendSketchInfo(SKETCHSTR, SKETCHVER);
 
  present(CHILD_ID_TEMP, S_TEMP, "Temperature");
  present(CHILD_ID_HUM, S_HUM, "Humidity");
}

void loop() {
  //read temp and hum and lux
  bme.takeForcedMeasurement();
  temp = bme.readTemperature();
  temp = temp + BME280_TEMP_OFFSET;
  hum = bme.readHumidity();

  if(temp != temp_last){
    send(msgTemp.set(temp, 2));
    temp_last = temp;
  }
  if(hum != hum_last){
    send(msgHum.set(hum, 2));
    hum_last = hum;
  }

  // send the battery level
  batteryPcnt = calc_pcnt(analogRead(BATTERY_SENSE_PIN));
  if (batteryPcnt < oldBatteryPcnt) {
      sendBatteryLevel(batteryPcnt);
      oldBatteryPcnt = batteryPcnt;
  }
 
  sleep(SLEEP_TIME);
}

It's also hosted on github: https://github.com/se-o-matic/msn/blob/master/Software/msn_BME280/msn_BME280.ino

Thanks!

se-O-matic

Hi,
i'm running a sensor network for a couple of years without problems. The setup is described below.
Some days ago i build an other sensor node and now suddenly a random sensor is missing a view days after HomeAssistant restart.
So, after a restart everything works perfect. But after a view days the temperature reading of one node, not always the same node, didnt work. The values for humidity and battery level still work from this node. After a restart of the Pi everything works again.
One time I didnt restart for a couple of days, even more temperature sensors failed. And again the humidity readings still work. After a restart everything works again.

My network:
A Raspberry Pi 3 with 64 Bit Raspbian. Homeassistant running in Docker.
A RFM69 rf module is connected to the GPIO of the RPI to run a ethernet gateway. I had to recompile it because of the 64 Bit structure.
I have several sensors based of an arduino structure and the RFM69 modules:

3 Temperature/Humidity PLUS ONE NEW Temp/Hum sensor
1 Temp/Hum/Light sensor
1 USB charger sensor (report two current values, if switched on)
1 power meter sensor (actually offline to rewrite the code for an new power meter with different protocol)

Additionally a couple of actuators and switches over zigbee (SonOff USB stick), like curtains and wall plugs.
And one BTLE temp/hum sensor.

Now I 'm a little helpless where to start the debugging. I think the problem occurs between the mysensors gateway and HomeAssistant.
Is this a space problem for storing the data?
Maybe I can switch to a more convenient setup, like an mysensors USB gateway and the HASS-OS from HomeAssistant instead of the "experimental" docker stuff?

I hope someone has a good idea to help.

Thanks!
se-O-matic

se-O-matic

Hello,

finally, ... I had time to test the "Option 2".
Because the stock of all shops are empty, I used my old RPI 3 B+. But after all, the CPU runs at 50%. Even the 1 GB ram is half free.

The way wasn't as easy as I thought. But now the setup runs pretty good.
This steps I had to make:

A fresh install of Raspian Lite (I used 64-Bit, if this is needed? I dont know)
Installed "Home Assistant Supervised", which runs in a docker. (I found a tutorial based on this informations: https://github.com/home-assistant/supervised-installer)
Installed the MySensors Gateway with some changes! (https://www.mysensors.org/build/raspberry)
3b. The manual works fine for 32 Bit raspbian. For 64 Bit you have to edit two files bevor the compile starts. (https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/11456/is-mysensors-rpi-gw-32bit-only/8)
In my case i have to change the section for the BCM2837 (= RPI3) as described in the post.

Now, I have a clean setup for my smarthome with MySensors Nodes and Zigbee Nodes.
alt text
The RFM69 ist directly connected to the GPIO of the PI.

The power consumption is araound 2 W. Somewhat lower when idle.

se-O-matic

Thanks for the answers.

I want to keep the raspberry pi as central. This should fit all my needs in my rental apartment.
For HA, I have chosen a SD-card with application class A2.

For a clean setup, i will try to run HA in docker. So can i use the same Raspberry as gateway and for the controller.
So I dont have to use a "rare" mega328p for a serial gateway.

I report my results, when I find some time to work on it.

se-O-matic

Hi,

currently I'm using MySensors RPI-Gateway and MyController on the same RPI 2 .
I connected a RFM69 Modul directly to the GPIO of the Pi.
This system works fine for many Years.

Now its time for an upgrade.
I want to use HA and I want to add ZigBee devices. For that I purchased the SonOff Dongle-P and I grapped a RPI 3 for testing HA parallel to my running setup.

Now I want to tidy up. Two RPI for a task, which one alone can do is not the best solution.
The question of all questions is now, how to combine HA, MySensors and Zigbee in the best way?

Option 1 (I have to build the serial GW, and ICs (328P) are rare at the moment):
HassOS + MySensors Serial Gateway (RFM69 connected to an ATMEGA328 connected to the UART-pins from the RPI) + ZigBee USB Stick. (I dont want to use a UART<-> USB chip, when a RPI has native UART on the GPIO)

Option 2 (Favorite, because I dont have to build hardware stuff):
HA running in Docker + MySensors RPI Gatway (RFM69 connected directly to the GPIO) + ZigBee USB Stick. (I found a tutorial for installing HA in Docker with Supervisor)

Are there any pitfalls in the Options above?
Can I use the UART Port "/dev/ttyAMA0" in HassOS?
Are there any limitations in Option2, when HA running in Docker?

I hope someone can give some tips.

Thanks!
Sebastian

se-O-matic