Hello NeverDie,
nice that you're interested in my project. I've also planned some other MySensors devices like an easy-to-use Raspberry Pi Gateway or battery-powered temperature and windows sensors.

To your questions:

I have written instructions on how to solder the adapter cables for ISP and Serial programming. They can be found on my website (https://thdev.org/?Projects___misc___micro_JST). There is a link in the building instructions, too.

I've purchased the 8pin connectors and cables from AliExpress. Here are the links to the offers. I have bad experience putting these in the BOM since AliExpress offers often expire quickly but these are still online.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10PCS-1-25mm-Connector-Horizontal-Type-Straight-Pin-Female-JST-Socket-2-3-4-5-6/32787273682.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-Set-1-25mm-Pitch-Male-Connector-Wire-15CM-Long-28AWG-2-3-4-5-6/32787305004.html
If these should expire, just search for "jst 1.25", "smd jst 1.25mm" or similar.

Hope that I could answer your questions
ThetaDev

@krisztian
Hi krisztian,
the singleLED board - as its name suggests - features only one LED output. If you want to have a setup with multiple LED strips you need to design a board with multiple outputs. I have already designed a board with 4 outputs, but I haven't built it.

In terms of software you need to register multiple sensors in your program like this:

#define numCh 4 //the number of outputs

const byte ledPins[] = {9,6,5,3};
byte ledLevel[numCh];
boolean ledDimWay[numCh];

//in the setup function request the dim levels from the gateway
for(byte i=0; i<numCh; i++) request(i, V_DIMMER);

//in the presentation function register multiple lights
for(byte i=0; i<numCh; i++) present(i, S_DIMMER);

//if you receive a signal, you need to check for the sensor id
setLED(message.sensor, requestedLevel);

//to set the LED level (function: setLED) you need to use the sensor id to determine brightness and pin
//Fade LED to set level
  int delta = (level - ledLevel[child]) < 0 ? -1 : 1;
//Write to LED
analogWrite(ledPins[child], map(ledLevel[child],0,100,0,255));

I will probably publish the whole code once I have built and tested the 4LED controller (i call it "MySensors rainbowLED")

Hope I could help you
ThetaDev

Hello NeverDie,
nice that you're interested in my project. I've also planned some other MySensors devices like an easy-to-use Raspberry Pi Gateway or battery-powered temperature and windows sensors.

To your questions:

I have written instructions on how to solder the adapter cables for ISP and Serial programming. They can be found on my website (https://thdev.org/?Projects___misc___micro_JST). There is a link in the building instructions, too.

I've purchased the 8pin connectors and cables from AliExpress. Here are the links to the offers. I have bad experience putting these in the BOM since AliExpress offers often expire quickly but these are still online.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10PCS-1-25mm-Connector-Horizontal-Type-Straight-Pin-Female-JST-Socket-2-3-4-5-6/32787273682.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-Set-1-25mm-Pitch-Male-Connector-Wire-15CM-Long-28AWG-2-3-4-5-6/32787305004.html
If these should expire, just search for "jst 1.25", "smd jst 1.25mm" or similar.

Hope that I could answer your questions
ThetaDev

Do you really need an external voltage regulator for this module? I mean the Arduino Pro Mini has its linear regulator already built in. You can only draw about 100ma from it, but wouldn't that be sufficient for the micro, radio and the mosfet gates?

There are two types of waterproof LED strips available:

• the ones with some clear and flexible gunk on the top side covering the LEDs
• the ones with clear silicone tubing all around them

The first type can be heatsinked pretty easily by just sticking it on top of an aluminum profile, which can conduct some of the heat away

The second type however is thermally isolated by the tube, so the only way of keeping it cool is not to operate it in a hot environment. To further reduce the heat you can of course use one with less LEDs per meter or PWM-dim the strip.

Personally I have never had heat problems with LED strips and mine are just glued to an aluminum profile and then screwed onto my furniture.
What would be your use case for the strips?

So what would be the microcontroller of choice for MySensors V3?

Using an ESP or NRF5 would be useless if you dont need WIFI or bluetooth (which isnt much use for home automation anyway, because bluetooth has a low range and wifi is a power hog).

Maybe the new 32bit ARM stuff?

I have had the same problem when first trying out MySensors.

The MySensors gateway doesnt work without a controller. Just download MyController for testing purposes (it is small and can run on your pc) and connect the serial gateway to it.

If you have proved everything working, you can switch to a Raspi or other controller device with a more powerful software to run 24/7

Hi there,

I have recently studied the MySensors signing library and found it quite interesting. It might be helpful to build a secure, remote controlled garage door opener (the old one suffers from lack of RF range).

However I dont know if I should buy one of these ATSHA chips or just use the software library.
As far as I understood, the advantage of the ATSHA is, that it provides a secure vault for the private key, as well as a unique serial number and hardware RNG. Plus all the SHA operations are executed on the chip, so the private key never leaves the ATSHA during operation.

So if nobody gets access to the MySensor device without breaking into my property, nobody can stole the private key anyway, even if it is stored unencrypted on an AVR EEPROM and could simply be dumped by an attacker. Thus an ATSHA would be pointless, if the device is operated in a safe location, am I right?

Then lets talk about MySensor nodes that might get stolen, for example a remote control for the above mentioned garage door.
If an attacker gets one of these nodes with the private key stored inside, he could steal it and create his own signed messages for my network. However, even if this remote would have an ATSHA inside, he could still make use of that chip and sign messages with it
This could of course be prohibited with node whitelisting, but that would work with the Soft Signing method as well - just remove the serial number of the lost node from the gateway and an attacker cant do anything with the stolen key.
The only attack I can think of, that can be prohibited by the ATSHA, is the brute-forcing of serial numbers with a known private key. But that would probably take a very long time. Plus if you change both the serial number and private key in your system after a lost device, that wouldnt work, too.

So my question is whether using an ATSHA chip is worth the effort and really gives you extra security.

Thanks for your answers
ThetaDev