@user2684
Thanks for your answer.

I will check out other boards and experiment with disabling debug.

What is the smallest / weakest Arduino model recommended for NodeManager?

I am using Arduino Nano V3-s but I get code-size errors at sketch uploading after activating 3 sensor types (Relay, Light-LDR and Dallas Temp) + some features (Debugging, Configuration, Receive, Conditional Report) with NodeManager 1.7.

Are Arduino Nano and Pro Mini recommended/supported by NodeManager?

In addition to the others, I would like to activate Eeprom, Ota_Configuration and Hooking features.

@gohan
Thanks, I am thinking of buying a logic analyzer even if not needed for this particular task.

@dbemowsk
Thanks, I will investigate the protocol further. Based on Thucar's comment it seems that it actually has an integration protocol only the Hungarian distributor was not aware of it.

@thucar
Thanks, this is very promising.
I will look into the OpenHAB modbus integration and the Villavent docs you linked.

Hi Everyone,

I would like to integrate a SystemAir Villavent VM 400 EV house ventilation unit into my OpenHAB / MySensors based home automation system (to intelligently control the strength of the air-flow for the rooms based on air-quality sensor data).

This model has no integration to any automation system (according to the local distributor) but has a wired remote control panel so I assume it is possible to decipher the commands sent on the wire between the control panel and the ventilation unit (looks like simple telephone cable).

How can I read / debug the commands ?

How can I build an Arduino + sketch to also send a command on the cable ?

Any help / pointers is appreciated !
Andras

@rozpruwacz

Actually, I considered that as the fallback solution but I do not want to increase complexity if there is a robust, simple solution.

I have managed to upload with a home made programmer (my Uno as an AVR ISP) and test the behaviour without the bootloader.

It seems to be very fast now even in the setup(), so I think this solves the problem for me perfectly. I guess it is now below 500ms, maybe even less.

Many thanks for the help.

@mfalkvidd
Thanks for the help.

If I use a programmer (like USBtinyISP) and thus remove the bootloader: How fast will it get? Will it completely eliminate the current boot time.

It seems that the part of the Mysensors radio init which is happening before the before() method is very fast since I have also tried the Nano with a plain Arduino sketch and it is still ~2s before it starts executing.

Hi fellow MySensorists,

I have put together an LED dimming prototype board using the instructions on the relevant Build page and the NodeManager documentation.

Everything seems to be working but I have trouble implementing one crucial feature which is important for my application.

My dimming application is a retrofit for a ceiling LED fixture which has no built-in dimming capability. My plan is to simply add my Mysensors based dimming board between the fixture's built-in 12V power-supply and the LED strips installed in the fixture. Thus, my Arduino would get the power from the fixture's power supply, same as the LED strips.

In this setup, my Arduino powers up every time when the light gets switched on and powers down when the light gets switched off.

I would like to switch the LEDs ON as soon as possible when the user flips the light-switch ON to have a good user experience. A long delay between flipping the switch and getting light is annoying (I also have some LED fixtures with slow PSUs and I hate them).

Currently, I try to restore the brightness in the before() method but this still results in a 2s delay between getting power and the LEDs start emitting in the fixture. This is probably because long bootup time of the Arduino and the initialization of the radio.

How could I get this delay down? (Ideally below 300-500ms)

Is there a method which runs immediately after the Arduino powerup (before any kind of MySensors activity around the radio)?

If the Arduino boot sequence is the main culprit for the slowness, how can I make it faster?

Any insight is appreciated,
Andras

@Igor-Antolić @mfalkvidd

Great answers, thank you both.

Hi All,

The LED dimmer solution listed in the Build section has very little information and I am not very knowledgeable about LED dimming. So, here I ask:

LED Flickering
Is this solution flicker free? What is the PWM frequency? (I don't see any pwm reference in the sketch)
I have read it that lower PWM frequencies are disturbing for people and can have adverse health effect.

LED Lifetime
Do this dimming solution reduce the expected lifetime of the LEDs?

Power consumption
The primary target of my LED dimming project is a fixture which we inadvertently, massively oversized (5000lm) so I would like to run it at 50% brightness, most of the time. (We liked the fixture itself and it looked much dimmer in the store).
At full brightness (as it is without dimming) the fixture is rated for 50W power input. Will the dimming solution lower the power consumption to near ~25W if we run them at 50%? Where will the dimming circuit have a lot of losses (if any)? The Arduino consumes next to nothing. Will the MOSFET consume a lot?

Input power
The drawing notes says this for the power source "12VDC 6-9A input". The 12V converter in my fixture is only capable of ~5A. Is this difference important? I suppose this was written there for the recommended LED strip which consumes more than the LEDs in my fixture.

MOSFET cooling
The description mentions that cooling is needed for the MOSFET but there is nothing relevant in the shopping list.
Would this cooler be suitable?

Any insight is appreciated!
Andras