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Automation Program Plugins and Wizard Scripting => Raspberry Pi GPIO/SPI/I2C => Topic started by: HGexperimenter on November 02, 2016, 03:35:00 AM

Title: RFM69 (433 Mhz, 833 MHz secure and Moteino to RPi and remote low power sensors
Post by: HGexperimenter on November 02, 2016, 03:35:00 AM

In case anyone is interested.  I have been using remote battery operated sensors with the Moteino - Arduino with secure radio (cost $13).   Connects to Rpi with a serial interface then on to HG via a MQTT message. (Using mosquitto software)

Works great and the sensor can have anything an Arduino hooks to:  temp, humidity, light, motion etc.

Battery on the sensors, which are low power and last for > 1 year.

Here's the link to Moteino: https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/moteino/ (https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/moteino/)

The great thing about the Radio/Arduino is that it is NOT 2.4GHz so better range at lower Freq. and can be good distance at low Tx rates.

Title: Re: RFM69 (433 Mhz, 833 MHz secure and Moteino to RPi and remote low power sensors
Post by: bkenobi on November 02, 2016, 05:26:34 PM

I opted for a similar setup with a network connection so I could install the receiver in a convenient location.  But, my LAN is not truly convenient so I want to go WiFi.  My ideal solution is

Sensor (433MHz) -> ESP8266 + RFM69 -> WiFi (MQTT) -> RPi + HG

I've been stuck on getting RFM69 working on ESP8266 for months (shelved the project).  I'm open to other concepts so this is an intriguing approach.  I'd personally rather not have the receiver located directly on the RPi due to potential range issues.  Thanks for posting.

Title: Re: RFM69 (433 Mhz, 833 MHz secure and Moteino to RPi and remote low power sensors
Post by: HGexperimenter on November 03, 2016, 07:34:00 PM

Yes - the RFM69 is a bit tricky to interface (timing, setup all the options etc.)  The Moteino is all setup with a library that does all that.  Here is a link that would help:
https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/moteino-programming (https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/moteino-programming)

Maybe the library would work with the ESP8266??

The Moteino 433MHz RFM69HW (high power) with ATMega328P microcontroller mounted is $20

Else, the setup that would work for you (skip the WiFi and get better in house range):
Sensor(s) w/ Moteino @433MHz -> Receiver w/ Moteino @433MHz -> Serial to Rpi + HG

Title: Re: RFM69 (433 Mhz, 833 MHz secure and Moteino to RPi and remote low power sensors
Post by: bkenobi on November 03, 2016, 10:47:34 PM

Interfacing to the RFM69 is a pain anyway since they opted to use a rather unique layout.  It really requires a custom board to mount to unless you want to solder to all those small pins and have a birds nest of wires to potentially break.  I've seen some projects that provide a board to solder to, but I wanted to test things in a dirty but working config prior to ordering a bunch of parts.  The real issue is that the library I was working with would not compile in the ArduinoIDE I had set up for the ESP8266 boards I was trying.  Others claimed it worked, but I never got off the ground.  There were a few projects I found that suggested they were trying to accomplish exactly my goal (ESP8266 + RFM69 + MQTT) but none published code and seem to have died.