NodeMCU - wow!

[Conrad_Turbo]

I just got these in from China after waiting almost 3 months for them. Glad I ordered 4 as I set up one on a breadboard with a few LED's, a relay and a PIR sensor to test inputs and outputs... I easily set up the configuration within the plugin, programmed the NodeMCU (this was probably the hardest part), and once that was done wrote a few dummy events to test inputs and outputs. The fact that you can plug in a device anywhere in range of your wifi network and have it control outputs or transmit the status of inputs for $4-5/ea...absolutely insane!

For example I have a MimoLite that cost nearly $80 in my shed on a solar/battery setup that controls a LED strip as well as has a DSC motion sensor as an input. That way I can have quality lighting in my shed when I need it (Homeseer limits it to 30 minutes of use a day, so I don't overly discharge the battery) and the motion sensor for security of contents in my shed. All for the low price of $80 + $15 for the motion sensor. Now I can do so much more with NodeMCU ($4-5) and a relay board for ($10) than a MimoLite ever could!

Will there be the possibility for PWM control for RGB LED's with this module? Bandwidth limitation? I had one neat application that I would like to use it for but if it isn't possible it's not that big of a deal.

[jhirschhorn]

Glad to hear. I just ordered a couple to play around with. How do you get the ModeMCU on wifi? Is that handled by the plugin? I only thought I saw a place to enter an IP. Where do I enter the SSID and password to get it connected? Do you set a static IP? Is that all that configuration addressed in the sketch?

I'm sure it will become clearer once I get the boards and start experimenting.

Thanks

[logbuilder]

Glad to hear. I just ordered a couple to play around with. How do you get the ModeMCU on wifi? Is that handled by the plugin? I only thought I saw a place to enter an IP. Where do I enter the SSID and password to get it connected? Do you set a static IP? Is that all that configuration addressed in the sketch?

I'm sure it will become clearer once I get the boards and start experimenting.

Thanks

Have you worked with the Arduino before? Done other bread boarding with sensors?

[fvhemert]

Not entirely on topic but worth mentioning (i think &#128512

I have a similar setup with the motion detector and when I first did the lab setup it worked fine. The moment I built the final setup the Arduino input connected to the sensor was triggered randomly without the sensor detecting movement.

It took some time to figure out what was causing the random triggering but I am pretty sure I found the cause because I can reproduce the problem.

The difference between the lab and final build was the distance between the sensor and the NodeMCU board, if too close there will be interference that triggers the input.

Be warned and use some kind of shielding....

[jmmorgan]

Do not get to excited about these units. When they work they are great, but they have a lot of stability issues. I have lot of trouble connecting to the WiFi consistently and the firmware seems to get corrupted frequently. This requires a total reset. I have two units and both act the same.

[Conrad_Turbo]

Glad to hear. I just ordered a couple to play around with. How do you get the ModeMCU on wifi? Is that handled by the plugin? I only thought I saw a place to enter an IP. Where do I enter the SSID and password to get it connected? Do you set a static IP? Is that all that configuration addressed in the sketch?

I'm sure it will become clearer once I get the boards and start experimenting.

Thanks

It's all in the Arduino plugin, which sets up the IP, Port, Subnet, Gateway and MAC. Then you enter in the SSID you want it to connect to and the password. When you generate the sketch to download to the board, all this info is loaded from the plugin. You can open the sketch and see the populated info prior to downloading to the board. It's all virtually the same as a regular Arduino in regards to setup except for the SSID and password (and loading the appropriate NodeMCU libraries).

Do not get to excited about these units. When they work they are great, but they have a lot of stability issues. I have lot of trouble connecting to the WiFi consistently and the firmware seems to get corrupted frequently. This requires a total reset. I have two units and both act the same.

Hmmm...I have one set up for the last few days, no issues so far...crosses fingers. How soon did you see issues crop up?

I thought a neat application for this would be to finally tie it to our roombas in the house.
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub...-device-56970d
https://www.irobotweb.com/-/media/Ma...rial.pdf?la=en

This is probaly the best example to go with.
https://www.maredana.nl/roomba-control-esp8266/

Maybe something to consider adding to the plugin to populate the sketch with code to work with controlling a Roomba only for the NodeMCU option?

[logbuilder]

Do not get to excited about these units. When they work they are great, but they have a lot of stability issues. I have lot of trouble connecting to the WiFi consistently and the firmware seems to get corrupted frequently. This requires a total reset. I have two units and both act the same.

I have 4 nodeMCUs installed in my 'production' environment. The wifi is relatively stable and I've never had a problem that required reloading the firmware/app. I have an event that monitors each of the nodes in terms of connection status. The event has only fired once on one node in the last 11 days. The node recovered nicely. And the one unit that triggered is quite a long distance from the router.

[fvhemert]

Do not get to excited about these units. When they work they are great, but they have a lot of stability issues. I have lot of trouble connecting to the WiFi consistently and the firmware seems to get corrupted frequently. This requires a total reset. I have two units and both act the same.

I can confirm WiFi connectivity can be an issue, every now and then I have disconnects but it automatically reconnects and only cause a short interruption. I have never seen the firmware corruption.

[jhirschhorn]

Have you worked with the Arduino before? Done other bread boarding with sensors?

I've done some bread boarding a long time ago, and have used the Arduino with MySensors back in my VERA days. I was never able to get MySensors to work in HS, so I abandoned it, but am now looking to revisit it with the Arduino plugin, now that I know Wifi is an option.

[jhirschhorn]

It's all in the Arduino plugin, which sets up the IP, Port, Subnet, Gateway and MAC. Then you enter in the SSID you want it to connect to and the password. When you generate the sketch to download to the board, all this info is loaded from the plugin. You can open the sketch and see the populated info prior to downloading to the board. It's all virtually the same as a regular Arduino in regards to setup except for the SSID and password (and loading the appropriate NodeMCU libraries).



Hmmm...I have one set up for the last few days, no issues so far...crosses fingers. How soon did you see issues crop up?

I thought a neat application for this would be to finally tie it to our roombas in the house.
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub...-device-56970d
https://www.irobotweb.com/-/media/Ma...rial.pdf?la=en

This is probaly the best example to go with.
https://www.maredana.nl/roomba-control-esp8266/

Maybe something to consider adding to the plugin to populate the sketch with code to work with controlling a Roomba only for the NodeMCU option?

Thanks for the reply, and glad to hear its all handled in the plugin. I'm sure it will become clearer once I actually see the plugin. I didn't want to start my trial of it until I had these boards in my possession.

Now you've also got me thinking about messing with my Roomba too. LOL

[logbuilder]

I've done some bread boarding a long time ago, and have used the Arduino with MySensors back in my VERA days. I was never able to get MySensors to work in HS, so I abandoned it, but am now looking to revisit it with the Arduino plugin, now that I know Wifi is an option.

I too tried to get MySensors to work but never was successful. I still follow their thread and apparently they are still struggling. I'm happy with this plugin.

[Conrad_Turbo]

Thanks for the reply, and glad to hear its all handled in the plugin. I'm sure it will become clearer once I actually see the plugin. I didn't want to start my trial of it until I had these boards in my possession.

Now you've also got me thinking about messing with my Roomba too. LOL

Yep the plugin is awesome. The only PITA is when the version updates and you have to reupload the the latest sketch to avoid a version mismatch within HS. However that's a small con when the latest plugin just has more features or is more stable.

It'd be neat to have a virtual device that would trigger the NodeMCU to start the roomba cleaning or to dock it. For $5/ea...and a bit of work man that'd be slick! This plugin has huge potential and making that wireless hurdle makes it that much more capable.

[logbuilder]

It'd be neat to have a virtual device that would trigger the NodeMCU to start the roomba cleaning or to dock it. For $5/ea...and a bit of work man that'd be slick! This plugin has huge potential and making that wireless hurdle makes it that much more capable.

I've been seriously considering a Roomba. I'm curious, why would you want to control it? I thought it had a schedule it would follow. Which model do you have?

[jmmorgan]

[Conrad_Turbo]

I've been seriously considering a Roomba. I'm curious, why would you want to control it? I thought it had a schedule it would follow. Which model do you have?

Mine is a cheaper model (500 series IIRC), it does have a scheduler but I'd rather it kick in when we're not home. All I'd need is to have an event tell the NodeMCU to then trigger the roomba to begin cleaning and another to trigger it to dock. I don't need much else in terms of features, battery capacity, if it's stuck etc...I could care less about. I'm using PHLocation and BLLAN for occupancy, once I get the DSC motions sensors up and tied to a mega then I can monitor the status of the door and if there is any motion in the house as well to toggle motion occupancy. That way if my phone goes dead and I enter the house after unlocking the door it'll know that I'm home.

This arduino plugin could take a bite into Roomba control quite easily.