I don't think you should have to disable the transport. Just look at the example of the Sensebener https://www.mysensors.org/hardware/micro

A simple sleep should be sufficient .... I didn't even know the transportDisable and transportReinitialise were part of the library :)

And not really sure with what you mean with sleep not working. If you remove the transportDisable, the waits and the transportReinitialise you should see a reading every 5 seconds in your controller.

The European Union is close to adding extra taxes to orders imported from China. Some countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and France don't want to wait for that and are in the process of adding 2 euros per order line to any order that comes outside of the EU.
So e.g. if you order some smt resistors that normally costed 0,50 euro that will become 2,50 that is without transport costs and import rights. Which is ridiculous.

Now for most of the components it's not a big problem. I stopped ordering from AliExpress a long time ago - at least for critical and precise components or breakouts. Since most you get from there is B quality, meaning it didn't pass the quality tests from the manufacturer.

TME for example is a good alternative to LCSC Electronics. Fast delivery not that much more expensive, but also good service and good quality. With more expensive I mean that the total costs including transport costs aren't that much higher then ordering from China. Especially with the new taxes.

I'm looking for an alternative for PCBs. But so far I haven't found one European based that is also affordable. I found one that asks 40 euros instead of the 3 euros a PCB costs when you buy from PCBWay or JLCPCB e.g.

So if you have some good alternatives, then I'm all ears.

@OldSurferDude What is the distance between your Gateway and the backyard Node?

Also I'm experimenting with radio ranges. I wasn't really happy with the NRF range even when using a PA / LNA. The max I can get is a bit over 20 meters. That is without repeaters.

I've created an RFM69 gateway with a Nano and added it as a second gateway to Domoticz. On that gateway I soldered a DIY antenna - not a long range - and that one has a range of over 70 meters. Measured with the GW inside an my battery powered test node was outside.

For my test I just created a simple node that echo's the state of a binary sensor that I toggle each 5 seconds. I have two leds when for the sending and one for the receiving, so I could see where the border of my range is.

So for my outside nodes I'm in the progress of replacing all the NRFs with RFM radios.

Also when you change the caps to 100uf you should have a longer range and a more reliable network. But adding repeaters does help in extending the range.

@skywatch When I have time I will give you a library. I like code the best when there's no wait or delay in it.

Giving a library means I have to take it out of my code and make it decent xd

I use a message queue, I implemented a long time ago. But all of this shouldn't be needed, as there's a retry built into the MySensors Core.
I do it to give other Nodes the time to send as well. Because sometimes the traffic is really bursty

@OldSurferDude I believe we started with 4.7 Uf, then it was 10Uf and eventually it become 100uf.

Although I still wanna try if0.1 1 and 10 uf in parallel will work better. I believe EEVLOG gave an explanation why that is the best. But I forgot

@OldSurferDude Swap them with 100uf. That improves communication a lot. You might even be able to get rid of the delays

I just hate delays in code.

I'm gonna keep an eye on this. I don't use AI for my projects, as for me personal it's the challenge to get it to work. But I do know that it benefits a lot of people. So to each his own.

You mean you have no 100uf capacitor between the ground and vcc of the nrf radio? Because you really need it.

I still wanna experiment with replacing the 100uf with 0.1 uf 1 uf and 10 uf in parallel. They use that in analog synth PSU's to guarentee a smooth power.

Added some 3d sketches so you can see what I'm trying to accomplish. Unless ofc someone will tell me this is a bad idea

@OldSurferDude Sounds like a power issue to me. What radio are you using. NRF or RFM?

Check your capacitor, maybe it's old?

Like skywatach says. It's hard to tell what's going on without those. Also put the node in debug mode so we can see the communication log.

From reading your post, I think it can be two things: a power problem or a communication problem. But we need more info to be able to help out.

@mfalkvidd A while ago I tinkered with Media Wiki running on a docker. If I remember correctly you can set access for authors moderators etc.

But I forgot, I need to spin that docker up any time soon anyway. Because it contains my network documentation and I need to update it. I'll let you know.

@hek I hope they will. It doesn't need to be the front page perse. Just a separate wiki, where we can organize knowledge a bit better.

btw. Good to see you again my friend

@hek Would you think it would be possible to add a Wiki? A read a thread about battery powered sensors. The Author had a difficult time going through all search results. If we would have a wiki it would be easier to make some topics and to keep them updated.

Just a thought

I do like the new forum layout

I have no experience with a raspberry pi as a gateway. I just add MySensors arduino gateways. Because it's easy to run a RFM69 and a NRF gateway.

I forgot the command. But you should check the sys log. See if it says anything strange

Also any special scripts running around 12 o'clock?

@OldSurferDude So if I get my circuit to work, that would by 22 times less (on average). Well I'm doing too many things at the same time. :)

@mfalkvidd Than I'll order a first prototype if this version. I might even swap the buck converter for an AMS11173V. I always thought it would draw much more current when sending.

My production Gateway is still on a breadboard with a normal NRF24L01+ radio - so not the long range. After 11 years it's time to get rid of that breadboard setup- as it's collecting dust - and make a final PCB for it, so that I can put it in a decent housing. Also a good moment to upgrade from MySensors 2.0.0 to the latest release as I haven't upgraded that Gateway for years.

My plan is to power the gateway from the barrel jack on the Arduino UNO and I also want to replace that normal NRF24L01 with a PAN LNA version. Now I know that extending the range consumes a lot of power. That's why I wanna power the Arduino from the power jack as it can handle 2 Amps. And then use a buck converter that grabs it's power from the VIN pin on the Arduino, to lower the voltage to 3.3V for the radio.

Well that is the plan at least. The official documentation says that you can provide power through the barrel and use the USB.

Here's the schematic for my Uno shield
:

My question is: How much current does the NRF24L01 PAN LNA draw when set to RF24_PA_HIGH? Question answered 13 mA at max strength.

For now it remains Work In Progress

Edit 1:
I had this idea already over 11 years ago, but at the time I didn't have enough knowledge and skills. Then later when I had learned those I didn't have the time :).

The idea is to mount all components - including the NRF24L01+ PA LNA breakout on the underside of the Uno shield. There's a crazy amount of unused surface space on the Uno so in theorie it should work. I wanted to try it out so I could come up with a very compact design.

There's one catch though. If I would ground plate the whole shield I would create a cage of Farraday - if that is the Engish term - so I only ground plated the parts where my power regulation and encryption parts are. Nothing near the radio. Not sure if it would influence the NRF or the Arduino, but better safe than sorry.

So Today while it was snowing outside, I mocked up an Arduino Uno and my shield in Free Cad - I'm using 14.8 mm header pins so that should be around 15.6 mm spacing between the boards.

This is how the front looks, with the shield mounted on top of the Arduino Uno. The spacers will be 3d printed. The two rectangles on the top left are the positions of a slide switch. I use it to turn off the led indicators, as 99.9% of the time you don't need them. But for 0.1% the time I'm happy that they are their.

On the right of the sliding switch there are three 2 mm Leds and on the right of those there's the RP SMA connector of the NRF breakout board.

This is a side view there's plenty enough space between the shields.

And here's the other side view. With the board thickness added it will be around 18.2 mm thick - that is without the pins of the trough hole components. But I'm confident I can keep the height of the case around or a bit above 250 mm - 1 inch.

The compacter I can get it the more happier I will be, because I'm planning on mounting all my Home Automation stuff in a server rack so that I can all hook it up to a decent UPS.

Now I have to wait for my PCB to arrive. I already discovered my screw holes are a bit off, but I fixed it. So I need to order a revision. But first I will wait for the one I ordered to arrive, so I can check if I got the pin header spacing's correct.