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With debug on I can conform it works just fine. So far I can see all sensors reporting and all actuators respond without any problems. Accept for one, but that radio is in a cage of Faraday and I knew it would need a repeater close by.
Next step making the shield for the rfm69, so that I have one form factor for my Gateways and Repeater(s). But it has to wait until after Eastern. as it's the same for adding an extra decoupler capacitor.
Can't give you a 100% answer. I've noticed with FETS I sometimes have a low leak Voltage. But I've seen Chinese designs that gave a negative voltage when the FET was turned off haha
I still think it's the radio or more precise the decoupling circuit. I have seen simulor behavior on a node. Almost as if the cap is not charging fast enough. If I ever have time all add a 47uf cap in parallel and a 0.1uf. As the last one is not in the regulator circuit. I'm not convinced raising the capacitor value is the solution.
As a software engineer by education - which was a long time ago haha - I'm not fund in adding delays. But if it helps it helps.
Since it works with my PA + LNA antenna on High PA Level, I've decided to take it in production. I've kept my old Gateway just in case. Photo's will follow soon.
PA Level Max might work if you provided a power supply on the DC barrel input. But I will test it later as the Uno requires 7.5V and I'm not sure if my voltage regulator will become hot like it did with a 12V power supply. For Now I'll let the current setup run for a couple of days.
Just curious, still learning. Would a mosfet not draw less power? You could use a Mosfet and use a diode instead of a resistor to pull it high or low. That way it consumes micro amps.
Just a question, maybe @mfalkvidd knows. I turned off MyDebug in a test Gateway and it seems to work. I think it makes sense but I wanted to check. Because the gateway will become faster if the additional debug isn't needed. It saves a log entry per message send/received.
But as I discovered, if i turn off debug the cap on my radio isn't good anymore. It's 100uf tantalum smd cap. When I turn the debug off, nodes have a hard time connecting to the gateway with a lot of errors.
So question number 2, is a 100uf cap good enough for a NRF24L01+ PA LNA? I might investigate any further after Eastern weekend. For now I keep it as a 2nd Gateway and keep testing it. As I don't have the time now to solve issues when I use it as a production Gateway.
Thanx
ps. I guess you'll miss some additional logging info in you're Home Automation system. But is it really needed?
@mfalkvidd do you know the answer to this?
There are also a lot of circuits using 555 timers and some old CMOS or TTL chips that easily create the oscilation you need. It draws a bit more power when the piezo is active. But for me that's worth it, because it gets rid of the complication in the code.
And is you have a bad MySensors radio connection, MySensors will keep executing code that might interrupt code. Which is annoying for applications like this, because it will interfere with your piezo sound. That's why I prefer a hardware solution or an active piezo buzzer. The ones that have a range from 3.3V to 24V are usually very load at 24V. They can be driven with a simple fet.
At least that's how I look at electronics now, don't jump to a software solution when some old skool electronics make your life easier.
But I love the project!
So almost time to create a 3rd gateway? :) I'm switching over to RFM69 for now, due to it's high range. Although it's significantly slower than NRF. So Curious about the performance of CC1101 any stats on power consumption?
I have no experience with inclusion mode as Domoticz doesn't support it (I believe). What happens if you just use a cat < gateway_dev? Does the gateway respond to nodes?
For me personal, because MySensors has much more capabilities that most haven't used yet. So to me, I haven't found an alternative that comes close to MySensors.
The only thing is. For the easy stuff you don't have to program at all when using esp with HA. But that goes over Wifi and to me that is a No-no.
Not sure why but when I checked it it had limitations. And I don't want my sensors and such running over a Wifi network.
@monte thank you for that one. Although almost 2.5 times the price it's cheaper than other European options.
@nschurando I don't understand why they do it for inexpensive parts as well. Allthough they said it was a measurements against shops like Aliexpress that are too competive for the EU shops.
It won't help as Aliexpress will find a way to bypass the rules. They will built some centers in Europe.
For shops like PCBWays and JLPCB I don't see that happen. So it's sad for us makers.
Not sure if you need to erase the eeprom from the node. As the key is stored within the encryption chip when you sign it - this is somewhat of a guess, based upon my understanding of signing.
Erasing the GW eeprom wouldn't be a bad idea. Because that's where the administration probably is stored. As far as I know other nodes are not influenced event when they are repeaters. As repeaters don't even know wetter the other nodes are signed.
Hope my 50 cents help out.