www.mysensors.org

There are some great projects on the website. I am curious if anyone has any feedback on the RF interconnect performance. It looks like the devices are using the ISM band at 2.4GHz. This will be a completely separate network from the Z-Wave and will not be meshed. Therefore, devices further away from the central receiver will be susceptible to range issues.

As an aside, I looked on the Nordic Semiconductor website and noticed they have a transceiver for the sub 1GHz ISM band which has sensitivity of -100 dbM. [url=http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Sub-1-GHz-RF/nRF9E5]http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Sub-1-GHz-RF/nRF9E5[/url] The best sensitivity for the 2.4 GHz transceiver is -94dBm (at 250 Kbps). The 6 dB improvement of the sub 1 GHz chip translates into 4 times improvement of the distance in range versus the 2.4GHz device.

Any node can act as a relay back to the gateway so range, has not been a problem - http://www.mysensors.org/build/network.

Most use an amplified NRF24L01+ for the gateway that purportedly has better range.

I find that the radio/node performance is very responsive for LED light dimming.

Fantastic. Great source for getting started in Arduino and sensors all in one place. Thanks!

This is a general question, I guess this is a good place to post it…

I am looking to use arduino to check the water level on my pool. I’ve been testing the Ultrasonic Module HC-SR04 positioned over the skimmer and it has proven to be very accurate and there is plenty of room for the electronics underneath the cover. I tested the radio too and that seems to work well, it’s only a few meters from the gateway. I also checked to see that water won’t splash against the cover when the pool is being used, that’s OK too. Being that the transducers are made out of aluminum, I’ll pot the whole thing in silicone (up to the top surface where the little screens are) as I am worried about the corrosive aspect of chlorine. I’ll deal with that with my first life test, I guess.

So, rather than continuously measure the level, I’d like the sensor to wake up once a day at 3:00am every few days and take a measurement. I’ll use Vera to open a valve for a fixed period of time if the distance is greater than (what I now know is about) 18cm.

I know I’ll probably need to look into a Real Time Clock, I was just wondering if there was anyone out there doing anything like this already, or is there an easier way to do this. I like 3:00am because the pool is motionless at that time (unless there is rain, which I can handle that with PLEG).

I may be better off just waking it up once every 30 minutes and taking the reading that fits into say a 1 hour time bracket, but the technical challenge is more fun.

But if you use PLEG … you can use a continuous sensor … say once every minute.

Turn on the water if greater than a certain distance for say 5 minute.
Turn off the water if less than a certain distance for say 5 minute.
Put a little hysteresis in the settings …that should handle swimming or any other water motion.

yeah, the only problem with that is that I know how to do it already. ;D

I bought the 2 RTC’s. I am actually building a clock with the first one. It is ethernet connected, with LEDs to display time and gives a visual weather forecast, indoor/outdoor temp and email notification. It is a longish project because it has a lot of work in the housing.

I was looking for something a bit simpler for the 2nd and I thought the clock would help with the battery life of the sensor. Probably overkill…

Plus you know PLEG is always the first tool out of the box. :wink:

I also listed a more robust and waterproof version of the distance sensor (DYP-ME007Y).

But you can buy a few HC-SR02 for the same price. :slight_smile:

thanks. The three meter cable is nice, too. I’ll see how long my current sensor lasts…

I have a similar situation in that I have a cabin in the woods on the shore of a small pond - about 6,400 hectares with a large hydroelectric dam on one end. The water level fluctuates as the faucet is turned on and off and I want to monitor the water level at the dock over time. If it gets too low, I know I won’t be fishing out of my john boat which will be above dry land until the water level rises again. Should have picked a deeper pond. :slight_smile:

I bought a Solar Powered 16 LED PIR Motion Sensor Stairway Outdoor Garden Path Wall Light from my favorite shopping mall (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BZ0IR2/), took out the LED array and connected the 3.3 Pro Mini Arduino circuit to it instead, drilled two holes in the plastic diffuser to hold a US-100 ultrasonic sensor (a bit more expensive, but it is temperature compensating), and used Hek’s sketch with a 60 second interval. It’s mounted on the dock, reporting back the distance to the water, and when the 3.7v 800 mAh battery finally gives up the ghost, I’ll replace it.

For the $13 USD I spent on the light, I got a solar panel, a Li-Poly battery, a charging circuit with over- and under-charging protection, and a weatherproof project box with mounting bracket, all with two-day shipping thanks to my Prime membership. I had to make a few mods to the circuit in the light (disable the PIR and the day/night sensing), but it works like I want.

Gotta blame it on a Hek. Before he started this, I didn’t know how to spell R-Dweeno, let alone how to build electronic circuits and program micro-controllers. This is way too much fun.

Sal

[quote=“Salmoides, post:29, topic:180340”]I have a similar situation in that I have a cabin in the woods on the shore of a small pond - about 6,400 hectares with a large hydroelectric dam on one end. The water level fluctuates as the faucet is turned on and off and I want to monitor the water level at the dock over time. If it gets too low, I know I won’t be fishing out of my john boat which will be above dry land until the water level rises again. Should have picked a deeper pond. :slight_smile:

I bought a Solar Powered 16 LED PIR Motion Sensor Stairway Outdoor Garden Path Wall Light from my favorite shopping mall (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BZ0IR2/), took out the LED array and connected the 3.3 Pro Mini Arduino circuit to it instead, drilled two holes in the plastic diffuser to hold a US-100 ultrasonic sensor (a bit more expensive, but it is temperature compensating), and used Hek’s sketch with a 60 second interval. It’s mounted on the dock, reporting back the distance to the water, and when the 3.7v 800 mAh battery finally gives up the ghost, I’ll replace it.

For the $13 USD I spent on the light, I got a solar panel, a Li-Poly battery, a charging circuit with over- and under-charging protection, and a weatherproof project box with mounting bracket, all with two-day shipping thanks to my Prime membership. I had to make a few mods to the circuit in the light (disable the PIR and the day/night sensing), but it works like I want.

Gotta blame it on a Hek. Before he started this, I didn’t know how to spell R-Dweeno, let alone how to build electronic circuits and program micro-controllers. This is way too much fun.[/quote]

I would be really happy if you could describe your project on forum.mysensors.org. Pictures is much appreciated!

Regards
Henrik

http://www.mysensors.org seems to be down?

It isnt, it was my addblocker.

[quote=“clandmeter, post:31, topic:180340”]http://www.mysensors.org seems to be down?

It isnt, it was my addblocker.[/quote]

It’s working for me…

Absolutely fabulous !!! Well done !!

502 bad gateway?

We’re reconfiguring the infrastructure. Should be up soon again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Show off your MySensor project and win!

See rules here:
http://www.mysensors.org/contest2014

:slight_smile:

Hi Hek,
Currently getting a 504 Gateway timeout to mysensors.org

I noticed this because the nice little chip icon on my node devices went AWOL!
It seems we load this icon from mysensors.org

Wouldnt it be better for us to upload this into our own vera’s? to serve?
i see other icons seem to live in /skins/default/icons.

Thanks mate.

Greg

I prefer having the icons online. This way they also show up when connecting through mios portal.

(that is when the doc-server is up. :-\ )

I just replied to another related thread… MySensors is awesome… got my first gateway/device working today with NO prior experience… WOW! Love it. great brain food.

Thank you!

@HEK

I think you have problems with your Plugin … You have all of the actions defined as RUN (as opposed to JOB).
As a result if a burst of actions are sent to your device it can cause an overrun restart.
With a RUN you are running on the stack (Thread) of the person that called you … and if to many people call you at one time … it will restart Vera.
With a JOB each call gets queued any a thread assigned to your plugin will process the requests sequentially.