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    Triyng To Understand Arduino

    Ok,
    So I have been searching and reading and getting a better understanding on the whole Arduino process, my problem is I cant for the life of me figure out how it all fits together.

    I would like to start with a basic question then from there I am sure I will have more.

    1) Do I need to have an arduino board for each device that I build? My idea here is wireless temp/humidity sensors. Wireless soil moisture sensors. Wireless vibration sensors. Wireless distance sensors, ect. Really leaning towards the wireless side of things. I would like to tie all these various devices back into homeseer.

    My ramblings would think that an Arduino board (eg. UNO) would be integrated with an RF unit and attached to the PC via USB. A second uno would be integrated with a vibration sensor, RF unit, battery unit and could be placed remotely. The vibration sensor would then communicate back to the main UNO which would communicate with the Ardiuno plugin and finally integrated into homeseer.

    Am I lost in my thinking? Thanks for any suggestions and corrections!

    #2
    I'm not that far a head of you...I too am just getting into Arduion, but have been reading into it off and on for a few months.

    My understanding is that you can hook up more than one device( input/output) to even an Uno. I think it has 14 digital input/outputs, 6 analog inputs.
    The best bang for the buck seems to be the Mega 2560. It has 54 digital input/outputs and 16 analog inputs.
    For both boards get the R3 version(latest) and buy only the original Arduino boards to be safe. Some clones work, but others give problems I've read. A lot of clones on newegg, ebay and amazon even try to look like the original Arduino boards so you need to buy from one of the listed Arduino resellers.

    That's all I have. Hope others can fill in the rest and correct me if I'm wrong.
    Tom
    baby steps...starting again with HS3
    HS3Pro: Z-NET & 80 Z wave Devices,
    HSTouch: 4 Joggler (Android Kitkat), 2 iPhone, 3 iPads
    Whole House Audio: 5 SqueezePlay Jogglers w Bose Speakers
    In The Works: 10 Cameras Geovision, new Adecmo/Envisalink Alarm, Arduinos
    System: XP on Fanless Mini-ITX w/ SSD

    Comment


      #3
      Also I have read good reviews of sainsmart boards but not sure if any one here has used them. The SainSmart is made in Italy( not china) and Sainsmart Mega clone is like $20 and the original Arduino Mega is $45.
      Tom
      baby steps...starting again with HS3
      HS3Pro: Z-NET & 80 Z wave Devices,
      HSTouch: 4 Joggler (Android Kitkat), 2 iPhone, 3 iPads
      Whole House Audio: 5 SqueezePlay Jogglers w Bose Speakers
      In The Works: 10 Cameras Geovision, new Adecmo/Envisalink Alarm, Arduinos
      System: XP on Fanless Mini-ITX w/ SSD

      Comment


        #4
        Your basically onto it.

        Go to mysensors.org and browse through that website. There is a mysensors arduino plugin available specifically for using the mysensors libraries. It uses predominantly $4 Nanos and Pro Minis with $1 2.4GHz wireless chips.

        It really is a piece of cake. I bought some gear and had a 4 way 240v relay board built and working with homeseer in 2 days. You need a single arduino nano for the gateway (bit that connects via usb to homeseer pc), and then either a nano or pro mini for each peripheral device. You can have more than one 'sensor' per board but most of the examples in the mysensors.org website have one sensor per board.

        I suggest but some parts, then make yourself a gateway using the provided code and build a (wireless) single button device as your first device. Once you've done this you'll be well on your way.

        I've just spent the last week smashing out some stuff for the house. I just built a garage sensor - it has a limit switch for open and a limit switch for closed. It calculates the open/opening/closed/closing/stuck status from this and reports to homeseer. It also has a motion sensor attached to it. I would have added a relay to control the door but I'd already implemented this though my DSC alarm system so didn't need to. I've also built a single motion sensor, a wireless button and the 4 way relay board mentioned above. I'm just getting started. Its like the poor-man's z-wave but better and 100% customisable.

        Comment


          #5
          +1 to what Mattyjee said. One point of clarification, you can use any kind of Arduino. It does not need to be a Nano or Pro Mini. If interfacing with a Vera, you must use a Nano. For HS, you can use any kind of Arduino for the Gateway and connect via USB. For the remote sensors I use Uno's, Mega's, Pro Mini's, Nano's and some custom Arduino's.

          Cheers
          Al
          HS 4.2.8.0: 2134 Devices 1252 Events
          Z-Wave 3.0.10.0: 133 Nodes on one Z-Net

          Comment


            #6
            You may also want to look into the ESP8266, it is a $7 (or so) micro controller that has built-Wifi and can run on a battery.


            Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by sparkman View Post
              For the remote sensors I use Uno's, Mega's, Pro Mini's, Nano's and some custom Arduino's.
              Hey Al,

              What stuff have you set up so far?

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Mattyjee View Post
                Hey Al,

                What stuff have you set up so far?
                Since this section of the board is for EnigmaTheatre's Arduino plugin, I'll respond in the MySensors plugin thread.

                Cheers
                Al
                HS 4.2.8.0: 2134 Devices 1252 Events
                Z-Wave 3.0.10.0: 133 Nodes on one Z-Net

                Comment

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