Finding things to make into cases is fun. Here is my raspberry pi.

@ŕähûł-śïñģh if you are successful you'll be rich. There are simple detectors like pir, and complex like cameras with computer vision software. Im working with amg8832 chips with 8x8 grid of temp sensors, essentially a low res camera. I looked at radar "pir" modules and thought modulating the voltage would give data that can be processed, again complex, combining pir and ir door sensors has been suggested. None of this is my original idea, im just trying to piece something together.

Most important:
Community is helpful and enthusiatic
Open source/hardware
Doesnt use the cloud (unless you choose to)

Nice to have:
Mature enough to be usable
Wide hardware support, with ability add new
Uses inexpensive commodity hardware

Siesmometer?
http://www.instructables.com/id/This-Seismometer-is-no-toy/step2/Seismometer-seismograph-System-Components/

https://www.sparkfun.com/news/2074

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/235

The idea is good, but I have seen posts from at least 3 continents, so getting people online at the same time is difficult. IRC^h^h^hslack has a nice immediate quality, forums are less ephemeral, and easier to search and understand later, and for newcomers.

There is good in both, if you really want a chat like forum, it will take more time and effort. Maybe work with the creator of mysensors (that is @hek, right?) to see if there is a slack plugin for the website, or try some events in slack, etc.

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/148

Here is maxim's guide on wiring for 1-wire. There are a few things to note, one is the "weight" of each sensor's cable. Read that section closely. Another is hubs. Hubs are basically a 1 wire switch that connects each segement of the network 1 at a time, so you can essentially walk though each ray of your star. The third is the suggestion above to use multiple pins on the arduino and just make several simpler networks.

Some things about the direction sensor, your magnet/reed switch is exactly what is in the old dallas 1-wire weather station and it worked well giving 16 positions,

the led/photodiode method mentioed by gohan is interesting, if you used analog inputs you could use the value across 3 of them at a time to interpolate a pretty high resolution answer, multiplexing could make it so you dont need 8 analog inputs.

Another thing is a rotary encoder, ive seen them used to measure the angles of telescope mounts, i believe they can be had with good enough resolution for your needs.

I didnt read the whole thread, apologies if i am repeating ideas, or if you have decided on a solution.

In the days of analog tv/radio dead spots and multipath were easy to detect. Digital isnt as susceptable to multipath, but isn't completely immune either. An rf field meter might help. Directional antennas probably will help. If these nrf devices can measure rssi it may be good to hook up and led as a signal quality indicator of some sort. It sounds like you have a strong signal near the problem, could be overloading the receiver, could be IM ( intermodulation, not instant messaging). It could be an rf shield on all but the antenna may help.

My sensors may have some of this already, if so ignore me, Im using rs485.

Note to self, check if "myactuators.org" is available.

Filter caps on the actuators? I think someone mentioned this, they can be a source of noise in the power, or rf hashing.

An rtl_sdr sort of device might be a cheap rf signal analyser.

Is it any 5th temp sensor? In other words could it be a bad temp sensor? Also 1-wire doesnt like 'star' wiring, are all the sensors wired with short connections to the main cable? More like ,, and less |_| and for sure not |/

@Samuel235 here is a link to the video. It was impressive. Im not going to advertise for the company, but you can find them withnsome simple searches.

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/how-to/future-house-smarter-home-electrical-metering

How about a sealed tube with 2 copper strips down the inside, then measure capacitance?

Kind of like this:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Capacitive-Fluid-Level-Sensor/

Hmmm. Looking up scintillometers, I see they are advertised as "large aperture", so you may need an array of photo[diodes,cells], which adds a lot of complexity, matching, summing etc,but maybe you could get away with a condenser lens.

Wikipedia has some clues. A scintillometer which measures fluctuations in refractive index of air, just add math.

Satellite imagery +math

Lysimeter - measure the weight of a column of soil, im guessing dry soil is lighter.

All of thoose sound like lots of money.

A scintillometer seems doable as diy. For an area like a tree, I'd start with a laser diode ( i dont know which frequency, but as a complete guess id try infrared, possibly red, and stay away from green and blue), the other end would be either a phototransistor or a photocell. A low noise (probably high gain) amplifier and a quality anolog to digital converter (maybe a 24 bit sound card, probably a pi zero attached not an arduine or esp)

This is all very speculative(pun intended) on my part, it could be completely wrong, i am guessing based on the few words in wikipedia.

Wikipedia

I know WAF is not a joking matter, but I immediately heard Greg Kihn sing, " my WAf's in jeopardy, baby".

Mycroft has some of that. www.mycroft.ai

@naty6458 no need to be sorry. I keep hoping there is a better answer than what I found, and each time it is asked I learn something, so there is at least one person that is happy you asked.

My plan is optocouplers, maybe a rechargeable coin cell to help power them. I want to connect to the pins for the rf receiver. I should be able to send the same code the remote uses to turn it on and off. Since I wont be sending codes often the coin cell should be fully charged most of the time, so the low capacity (~23mah) shouldn't cause a problem, unless someone flicks the lights on and off repeatedly.

I'll power the arduino/rs485 module separately.

This is the $64,000 question. I've seen discussions about it, but no solution. You could build a separate power supply that floats on the ac like the built in one, they work by leaking a small amount of current and can cause flickering, especially with LED lights. Two supplies double the chance of flickering.

If your arduino can spend most of its time sleeping, you might be able to charge a battery or supercap to run it.

There is a lot out there on lowering power consumption on arduinos, remove LEDs, lower clock speed, etc. Maybe a bare bones chip, with just the connections you need.

Or

Use optocouplers to connect the arduino to the livolo, and use a normal power supply for the arduino.

If any of my old x10 gear looked that good I would just make new pcbs and relabel the buttons.

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/148

Here is maxim's guide on wiring for 1-wire. There are a few things to note, one is the "weight" of each sensor's cable. Read that section closely. Another is hubs. Hubs are basically a 1 wire switch that connects each segement of the network 1 at a time, so you can essentially walk though each ray of your star. The third is the suggestion above to use multiple pins on the arduino and just make several simpler networks.

Is it any 5th temp sensor? In other words could it be a bad temp sensor? Also 1-wire doesnt like 'star' wiring, are all the sensors wired with short connections to the main cable? More like ,, and less |_| and for sure not |/