Posts made by Stuart Middleton

Hey, Anthony.

Yeah, the cube is the temperamental bit. It forgets the sensors every few weeks/months.

I have opened up the python web page to the web, secured behind a password, and it's OK to use. I mainly use it to monitor the system and look at the pretty graphs. I think the CC1101 with OpenHAB or custom software is the way to go.

Let me know if you get the Pi and CC1101 installed. I can't recall exactly what was wrong but I think it may be one of the packages that it tries to download no longer exists. It's something I really want to get fully working the way I want it, but to be honest it does a good job anyway.

Stu

Hey, @demusss. I'm still using the python script talking to the MAX! Cube. It's a little temperamental but works most of the time. I finally got my hardware (CC1101) but, if I remember right, the homegear instructions listed above don't seem to work anymore. There's a missing module? I can't recall now. I'm sure I could sort it out but I just haven't had time.

Ideally, I'd like to talk to the system myself via the CC1101 and write the software myself instead of relying on OpenHAB but time is the limiting factor, unfortunately.

Maybe I'll pick it up again this weekend and try and get the CC1101 comms working.

Stu

@Pigsy I've gone back to this in an attempt to get it working with Google Home. However, it isn't as simple as it first seemed. I can't get it working with the ESP MAC address so don't know what it's doing. I suspect the WeMo app would need to register it first which isn't possible since it doesn't emulate that part of the setup.

If I had an actual real device I could probably sniff the network and emulate this part too, then (assuming the WeMo servers don't require a WeMo reserved MAC) it may work. Unfortunately I don't have a WeMo device or the time to reverse engineer the app setup so for now it's just Alexa compatible

@Sergio-Rius Oh well, it doesn't look too hard to adapt for the error.

Thanks, @LastSamurai, I went and compared the DIrty PCB files with the v1.3 ones on OpenHardware.IO and they are indeed different. It looks like the DIrtyPCB link is out of date and still has the error on them.
@Sergio-Rius would be very grateful if you could update those files

I've been running a small test setup for some time with just 1 node and 1 gateway. For some reason, in the past week or so, I've noticed that the "present" doesn't either send or get to the gateway. I'm using MYSController to look at the messages but if I delete the node and let it re-register itself, it only gets its name and sometimes 1 of the 4 sensors presented. It once got 2 of them. I don't think it's a transmission problem as the node can happily send hundreds of quick fire messages without dropout.

Has anyone encountered this? Can anyone think of a reason this would happen before I start debugging the code?

Thanks,

The project where I had to write to flash?

This was a network connected temperature and humidity sensor for a store room which had a built-in OLED display but was also network connected and hosted a website for graphing data output and displaying historical and real-time data. I wrote to flash so I could update the web page and other data OTA which was too big to fit in RAM or EEPROM and I didn't want to store on the SD card in case it was removed for any reason. It wasn't MySensors connected, unfortunately

Awesome! That has saved me a lot of work

I knew I should have spent some time doing the research before emptying my ideas into the forum!

I've been involved in a project recently that needed to write to FLASH memory at runtime. This made me think about OTA updates of MySensor nodes. As I understand it, MySensors uses an external EEPROM to store the update in then rewrites the FLASH from this EEPROM. I'm thinking, would it be possible to do this without the EEPROM?

This is what I'm thinking... Let's say your sketch takes up 55% of atmega328 FLASH (based on a recent sketch of mine). You can write an independent sketch that could handle comms, downloading and flashing that can sit at top of memory. Assuming it is small enough to fit in with your existing sketch and any replacement sketch you may upload. It would obviously have to be a little more intelligent than a dumb flash bootloader. For instance, it would need to know if a download has failed or is partial and be able to communicate this back to the controller and only reboot when the entire new sketch is flashed.

I think it would be a pain to write and be very limited in flexibility regarding the size of the sketches you can upload, but it would mean you could make nodes without having custom boards with EEPROM built-in or adding EEPROMs to your simple designs.

Am I crazy, or is this something that would be useful to some? I'd certainly find it useful.

It is indeed. But I've designed a home lighting control system that is completely stand alone so needs no controller. You can still add a controller if you want, but the actual messages and switching are all contained either in the nodes or on the gateway. I wanted a robust system that didn't rely on a separate PC to function when there was no real need for one.

So for me, being able to add Alexa into the lighting system without relying on a controller is useful.

Of course, most people use some kind of controller with their setup. My implementation of a MySensors network for my home lighting system doesn't need a controller so this is very useful for me.

Hey, all,

I don't know if this has been posted before... I stumbled across a great Arduino library which makes an ESP8266 emulate a Belkin WeMo home automation device. (up to 14 devices per chip!). Any of these devices on your network will show up as a compatible, controllable device in the Alexa or GH app so you can add them as home automation devices and control them via voice commands.

I was thinking, it would be trivial to embed this into a node or gateway to receive commands from Alexa or GH and send the messages to any of the nodes on your MySensors network!

https://github.com/witnessmenow/esp8266-alexa-wemo-emulator

You need to hard-code your wifi access and the device names into the setup code. Device discovery by Alexa is fully automatic and as soon as your ESP8266 is on wifi the Alexa app sees it and the device names. Google Home requires you to manually type in the device's MAC address (maybe for security?). I've tried this with Alexa but I couldn't be bothered to find the MAC address of my ESP8266 last night so didn't fully test the GH integration, but there's no reason it shouldn't work.

Excellent, thanks, just what I needed to know

Do the nodes keep their ID with the gateway if i power cycle the whole system? I.e. if I've got nodes 1,2,3,4 & 5 and power down the gateway and all of the nodes, remove node 1 and power back up will I just see nodes 2,3,4 & 5 numbered the same? If I reconnect the missing node will it show up as node 1? Is this persistent always? And what if I add 254 nodes, remove 5 then add another 5, does it remap the only spare ID's?

Thanks,

It looks like I've got the wrong module. I ordered from ebay about 3 months ago and the title said "CC1101 315/433/868/915Mhz Wireless Module SMA Antenna Transceiver fr Arduino New", but the description talks about a default "433 mhz". I'm not sure if it's switchable, but it doesn't seem to work. I've ordered another for the grand price of £1.95, but it'll take a month or so to get here.

Thanks. I'm using a different module, but the wiring looks the same. I'll try again later.

I didn't factory reset them. I'll try that.

OK, so I uncommented the settings in max.conf (I hadn't got to those) and I do get the following

But no pairing when I do 'families select 4' then 'pon' and try to pair. The device just times out and an 'ls' doesn't show any devices.

I may try a cleaner install and start again. I've been following a few posts and translating them into English, but it's still not working. It could, of course, be my hardware.

Is there a log output somewhere that shows the hardware initializing?

OK, so I've got my module, connected it to my Pi and installed homegear (used the Rasbian version with homegear and openhad installed). I connected to the Pi, ran homegear -r, families select 0, pairing on and started pairing on a device. However, I don't see anything in the peers list.

So, any ideas or obvious things I'm missing?

Excellent, thanks. Just what I need.

I was just about to ask this very question!

So, assuming I don't get a connection on startup and drop into my main loop, what do I call periodically to try to connect?

I have a similar system that can operate autonomously. I do, however, need the main loop to be pretty much real-time, which means I can't afford a 3-second stall every X seconds while it tries to establish a connection with the gateway. Is there an asynchronous way to attempt a connection?

Thanks,

@twisted It's arrived! I've got a CC1101 module! I presume It's just connected to the Pi via SPI? I think there's a wiring diagram on the website. I'll dig out a spare Pi and let you know what happens.

The software is all written in python and is linked somewhere near the top of this post. There are instructions of how to install and use it included if I remember right.

The wiring is very simple. The boiler on output pin is defined in the software, so just change it to any GPIO pin that you want and connect your relay (3.3v I believe) to the pin and GND. I used a solid state 250v AC relay that accepts 3.3v input. Then just connect the "call for heat" wire on your boiler to the mains side of the relay. This is on your boiler schemaic, but is usually just the two wired to your wall thermostat.

I've got a combi boiler so just set it to be on all the time and let the Pi contol the heating.

It depends on how much of a beginner you are. If you're OK with very basic electronics, happy to install some software on a Raspberry Pi and can connect a mains voltage wire to your boiler without killing yourself, then it's pretty simple.

At a minimum, you'll need a Raspberry Pi PC, a mains relay board controllable from the Pi (very cheap on eBay) and some cable.

That pretty much covers all the settings. When my radio arrives I'll hopefully be able to get it working quickly and I may come to you for help with setting it up with openhab so I can at least see a working system before I start playing with the code. Thanks

Thanks. I'll take a look at that first.

I've got a CC1101 on its way from China. I'm hoping it'll be here soon. My plan was to rewrite the excellent Python code from this page to talk to them directly rather than through the cube. Currently, I don't have an off the shelf home system. I'm kind of writing it all myself as I go (maybe a mistake, I know). I'll let you know how I get on when mine arrives.

@stephenmhall - I'm getting a lot of issues that seem to plague the MAX system (not your excellent software of course ) where the cube forgets the valves randomly or updating timings don't get sent to the valves. I also hate that the realtime temp isn't reported.

With this said, I was wondering if you (or anyone else) had seen the BlueTooth version of the valves that they sell. And if so, has anyone taken a peek at the messages to see if the temp is reported? I'd rather control the whole thing via BT than go via the dodgy cube!

That error suggests you don't have a settings file?

Ah, well, I think the cube tells you it happens instantly but queues the requests up and waits to be contacted by a valve. I think that's what the memory slot parameters are for when you get the cube data. It fills them up with outgoing data ready for when the device makes contact. I'm not 100% sure about this but when researching it a while ago (I was going to go down the 868Mhz radio route before I found your project) I'm sure I read that's how it worked. I'll see if I can find the article.

twisted, unfortunately you can't directly communicate with the valves. AFAIK the way the work is that they initiate communication with the cube every 2(?) minutes and not the other way around. The cube just listens for the data and then sends data back to the valve. This is to conserve battery so the valve doesn't need to be active all the time. I'm sure stephenmhall will correct me if I'm wrong

I don't know. I would suspect that certain defines are not set up correctly or you are building for an unsupported CPU or a CPU you don't have installed?

Yes. However I've found it more unstable than the previous version. Maybe that's just my setup.

As a professional developer who lives in Visual Studio and XCode, I prefer the VS plugin. I'm not saying it's any good, and in fact it crashes now and then, but you get all of the power of VS behind you.

Cool, thanks. I'll grab it so the version I'm running is in sync.

I like the idea that all of the systems are essentially self contained to a point where they can perform their main task without a master controller. I.e. lights work without domotics or whatever needing to boot up. I also have an alarm system I'm working on. All controlled from a central server, BUT it still works as an alarm if the controller fails, I just can't get useful info from the web interface or control it remotely.

That's right. But the node or gateway are far less likely to go down than the controller. Especially in an environment where I'm constantly messing with my home control by adding new software to the controller and rebooting it. The gateway, in theory, will never be switched off

That is an option. I like the idea that the switch nodes that are physically close to the lights they control. The delay is less than relaying through the gateway (and possibly relay nodes) and the signal strength would be the strongest. I still think for functions such as "turn all lights off", a controller would be easier rather than a single switch needing to send messages to all lights in the house, but I could use a combination of both techniques. This method would make it more robust as if the gateway or repeater goes down, the system would still work. If I wanted to log the system for playback, I could always poll the lights every minute or so and get their state.

I've not started building it yet so I'm just after ideas, but a combination of node-to-node and controller for more complex actions and node setup may be the ideal solution.

I'd never even considered the delay! Yes, I agree. I'm after a stand alone lighting system that has the flexibility to connect to home automation software, but works quite happily by itself and is immune to the house software crashing or being rebooted. We get power cuts sometimes, and I'd hate to have to wait for my system to reboot before the lights work! And I'm pretty sure my wife would leave me if the light switches were unreliable!

Do you mean adding a level of complexity above using home automation software to handle the logic, or a level of complexity above just linking switches directly to nodes?

The latter I agree with. A controller node may add complexity, but it would give much more flexibility and configuration without having to write more complex switch nodes.

For example. A lighting system in a house is usually just one (or sometimes two) switches controlling a single or multiple set of lights. I would like a system where this is true, but at any point you can change which switch controls which light. Or add a switch to the system at any point. Or have a double tap on a switch (assuming touch switches) turn off a set of light. Have a triple touch turn off all lights for bedtime, but only on a certain subset of switches. Have the whole thing controllable from my phone from anywhere in the world. Have the system remember a weeks worth of lighting to replay while I'm away on holiday.

From my point of view, having switches as input nodes only and having a single controller node (probably built into the gateway node) would be the easiest to write as all the logic is in one place. I am thinking that node-to-node logic would work, but would mean having smart switches that could be programmed over-the-air to change their designated lights, or control multiple lights. I'm not 100% sure that this is the better way, but this is my current thinking. The main disadvantage of node-to-node is that the gateway may never see the switch commands and therefore would not be able to log the usage.

Maybe I'll change my mind by the time I've built it!

I'll be implementing a few ideas over the coming months and hope to get a working solution, probably using the gateway node as the logic controller for deciding which switch controls which light. It should be simple enough. However finding the time to build and write it all may be an issue

Thanks for the info. Regarding the rebooting of the controller. I was thinking if the controller held the logic to rough switches to lights, then rebooting (or having it crash) would mean the system would fail. Doing node-to-node or building the logic into the gateway means the lighting would always work with no controller attached. Hope that makes sense.

Ah, sql syntax (according to a website I found) uses double single-quote to escape a single quote when used in a table.

This is my rooms table from the database

1 Living Room 12DA70
3 Hall 137F27
2 Kitchen 12DBCB
5 Master Bedroom 1245D7
4 Landing 12E19F
7 Lara's Room 12DA58
6 Luke's Room 12DA35

OK, I have no idea how to PM you

Ah, yes. My room names are already set up. Yes, replacing a single quote with two single quotes. I'll PM you my DB. It may have worked if I'd started from scratch.

Hi all,

I've been playing with MySensors for a while now but have finally gotten around to ordering some boards and components en masse. My plan is to automate my lighting for my entire house by replacing all of the light switches with nodes and placing a relay / dimmer node on each light fitting. I also want this to be independent to my home control system. I.e. I don’t want all my lights to stop working when I reboot my Pi for instance.

The way I see it is, either I write custom switch and light nodes, each of which can receive a command to tie light to switch and they then talk directly to each other, or I write software on the gateway to manage these connections and turn light A on when switch Q is switched etc. Either way I’d like to be able to re-assign things without dismantling the network and re-programming each device. I'd also like to monitor and record every switch event and be able to send light control messages via the gateway from external software when needed.

I was thinking the easiest way would be to put software on the gateway to map switches to lights which could be set up with external software but would be stand alone once set up. This option would be the simpler to write. However, a direct node-to-node system may be advantageous in the case of communication problems, with the proximity of the switch to light being an advantage. I don’t know how reliable larger networks are (I’m estimating 25-30 lights and 15-20 light switch nodes).

Also, would it be sensible to have this network completely separate to any other networks I may want in the house (temperature sensors for instance) in order to limit traffic?

I’m going to start work on this and I guess I’ll see how it evolves, but I would be interested in hearing other people’s opinions.

Thanks,
Stu

Hey, just got around to trying your fix and there's a little issue. The converted name works for the web page but not for the DB query. I've changed the following line in graphing from

tempData = DB.getTemps(cleanName, currentTime)
to
tempData = DB.getTemps(cleanName.replace(''', "''"), currentTime)

to get it to work. Hope that helps

Now it's all happy I should really get around to connecting it to my boiler instead of just looking at the pretty graphs!

I'm going to try and find time to test this later. Just super busy at the moment. Stupid day job!

BTW, I fixed the ' issue by changing graphing.py to use urllib.unquote() on the room name then replaced a single ' with a double ''. I then had to replace the single ' again for the html print or the page just came out empty.

I'm seeing 0.0 readings from radiators for some reason. They were all valid last night but just seem to drop out randomly. Do you know if this is a bug or just the MAX system being a bit crappy? I've not had time to look at the code yet, just thought someone may know.

And while I'm here, I can't get to the graphs on any rooms with a ' in them (i.e. Luke's Room) due to a database error (I'm guessing the DB lookup isn't escaped. I'll try and take a look at this at some point over the weekend.


Ah, excellent thanks. I've noticed some of the temps have been reporting zero on the hot days. I'll grab it and give it a go.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I've got a system running that does exactly what you've got here, but I've not had time to finish it up, make it pretty and write the web interface. THANK YOU!

Hi all,

I'm looking to make my own wireless radiator valves that hook into the MySensors network. However, it seems as though anything that receives messages to switch things or move things needs to be permanently powered up. I've read through the hardware designs and don't see anything that can accomplish this with the node in sleep so it is able to run for months / years from batteries?

So, I've thought of a couple of solutions. I see the RF module has an INT output on receiving certain messages. Would it be possible to wake the Arduino from sleep when a message comes in? Is the protocol used suitable for this? And if so, does the radio module work at sufficiently low power to work for long periods from batteries?

Or...

Design a node that wakes ever X second and sends a message to the controller,. The controller responds with a control message to tell it to do something (or nothing). It then sleeps again to conserve power.

Option 1 would give low power, instant control while option 2 would allow control only every X seconds (fine for a radiator valve).

Does anyone have any opinions on this? Or maybe point me to the documentation that I've missed where it's already been discussed / designed / implemented?

Cheers,
Stu