RS485 | Node Network

Sensor-NetworkI’m a huge fan of Arduino, JeeNode, ESP8266. A few of them connected in a network is one of the best solutions to distribute sensors data, relays command and status, LCDs and so on. But what should we use for networking the nodes? Wifi is built into the ESP8266 so that’s a no-brainer. JeeNode has an RF12b working on 868Mhz, but what if you don’t want to use wireless? What if you want to use wired sensors and supply power to them over the same wire? I have looked at RS232 and Ethernet. RS232 is low cost but in its standard form best suited for point to point connections. Ethernet is much better, Ethernet Cards and libraries are easily available for the Arduino. Cost wise, it’s not the best solution, though.

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MQTT | Retrofitted OneWire Weather Station

weatherparts

I have had an AAG OneWire Weather Station lying around for ages. It has been collecting dust in the shed for seven to eight years until I had a ‘what can we hack today’ and remembered that I still had it.

Turns out a have a version 3 which uses a DS18S20 OneWire temperature sensor. A DS2423 OneWire counter for the wind speed and a DS2450 OneWire quad A/D converter for the wind direction. oww-schematicsAll three sensors are supported on an Arduino and it will compile in the Arduino IDE for ESP-8266.

Looking at the schematics it wasn’t hard to figure out how to hack the PCB to make it work without the serial to OneWire adapter.

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MQTT | OLED Controller (The Prototype)

OLED

Working on the prototype stage for the OLED MQTT controller I had to make some decisions. One of them was that the MP121 capacitive touch sensor wasn’t going to cut it.

I just wasn’t convinced that it would be able to work reliable through a few mm’s of plexiglass. So I turned to SketchUp and designed a front a best as I could. Turned out to be quite intuitively and thanks to 3D hubs I had it printed in ABS and on my desk in 2 days.

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