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Page alert
12/27/2016 at 17:00 • 0 commentsAnother option named page alert is now functional in firmware 1.7.5. What it does, it takes telephone number and ring it for 15 seconds, then hangs up. It is efficient way to inform you about urgent alerts along with SMS, or as separate alert. But it is meant only for high importance alerts, since it needs to wait for GSM modem to dial, ring and hang up. It is processed at last in alerting thread, but stop processing of alerts for long time, especially when there are more then one telephone number to page/call.
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Gateway setup
12/16/2016 at 11:14 • 0 commentsJust created new section on blog called How to start and Gateway setup describing what hardware you would need to get started with OHS. And later first configuration of gateway.
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Email alerting
12/11/2016 at 14:25 • 0 commentsSome time ago email alerting was added, along to SMS, to send email to predefined contacts. I have been thinking what would be easy to achieve for me but also for other users, and although I have small server running at home, I have opted for service available for free online. I have found nice service offered by smtp2go.com, they have free plan service for 1,000 emails per month or 25 emails maximum per hour. That would be sufficient for any even heavy usage for a single gateway. Service is available on port 2525 and they ask for user credential encoded by base64. Simple enough to add into existing alerting thread. Just fill email user and email password in Global section and choose which type of alert is to be send via email. No fancy text is sent through email, just subject with same info as for SMS, and it is send to all recipient that match as single email. It works fast enough and seems efficient for alerts that have less importance. More on blog.
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Timers
12/02/2016 at 09:43 • 0 commentsTimers are new feature present on gateway firmware 1.7.4. As name suggest it allows you to manage remote nodes relays or any outputs by time schedule.
I was inspired to add timers to GW by repetitive resets of my stand alone digital timer outlet bought in hobby supermarket. This nice looking power outlet with relay and display is able to create 8 different schedules based on time and day of week. But sadly it randomly reset it self every 1~2 months, and leaves me to re-program it by its little buttons. After year or so I toss it away, and soldered another wireless node with relay output and started to add the scheduler to GW.
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More on blog.
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Triggers
11/08/2016 at 09:54 • 0 commentsAfter some playing with gateway functions and Home Automation Systems, I have realized that I often need to pass some data from one sensor to another. Either periodically every time there is new value or just when there is a condition met. These conditions mostly rather simple, like voltage on battery powered node is reaching low level, or turn on light then there is a person in front of PIR alarm sensor. Having a gateway, I can collect the data. Pass it through Ethernet to MQTT, then to some automation server like NodeRed, process the state and send the result all the way back to another remote sensor or relay. I thought this can be a bit overkill and always require a running computer or at least a Raspberry Pi, so the triggers were born.
Triggers is new section in firmware 1.7.3, it offers as the name suggest, triggering events on sensors or zones. More on blog ...
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Schematics for new boards
11/07/2016 at 12:14 • 0 commentsJust small maintenance update for today. I have just uploaded current versions for gateway version 1.7. and remote node 1.2. to my Google Drive account and linked them in blog. PCB's or complete boards are on sale in my online shop.
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MQTT functions
11/05/2016 at 09:38 • 0 commentsThe MQTT portion of gateway is now supporting following:
- Publish of any sensor that is connected to it.
- Subscribe and pass messages to any input.
- Subscribe to send SMS messages to contacts listed in contact list.
There is simple panel, screenshot on picture, allowing you to set the MQTT server IP address and it's port, and enable or disable this function globally.
This means that if you have a MQTT gateway running, you can setup further any automation you like. There can be:
- Domoticz or any Home Automation System connected, all of them allows MQTT.
- Any mobile device gateway for MQTT like MQTT dashboard on Android. Where you can in minutes create buttons, dials, or switches to trigger actions on your nodes, like in the picture.
- NodeRed an excellent piece of software for more advanced automation system. I use it for logging sensor values to database.
MQTT topic for subscribe is: OHS/#
And gateway listens on: OHS/In/#
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Gateway 1.7. ready
10/21/2016 at 10:05 • 0 commentsHere it is fully functional and ready. I'm happy man :)
This is actual look of new and fully assembled board, except expansion connector. I have components to build few of these and final price is around 70EUR ~ 75USD without antennas and pigtails. Buy it in my online store.
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Gateway 1.7. pre-order
10/04/2016 at 14:10 • 0 commentsGateway PCB is in fabrication, and I'm hoping for the best that there
will be no errors on PCB. It will have following parameters:
- MCU ATmega1284P, 16KB RAM, 128KB Flash.
- 8 analogue inputs for balanced PIR sensors.
- 4 digital inputs for simple sensors, like door/window reed switches.
- 1 box tamper input.
- TWI/I2S expansion connector for up to 4 additional 8 channel analog inputs.
- 2 relay outputs with selectable 12V power out.
- RS485 protected interface for wired nodes.
- RFM69HW for wireless nodes and sensors, pigtail and rubber antenna.
- W5500 10/100Mbps Ethernet for web interface and MQTT.
- SIM900 GSM modem for SMS alerting, pigtail and rubber antenna.
- RTC clock with separate battery backup with NTP synchronization.
- 512kb EEPROM as logger
- Power Off and Empty battery inputs.
- Standard FTDI Arduino programming interface.
I have been so bold that I put it on pre-order in the BUY section for 72EUR or 79USD.
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Fun with timers
10/02/2016 at 08:17 • 0 commentsSetting 4 timers on gateway web interface with double the start and stop time for each one. Then adding 4-channel relay board to node. And here is result, nice binary counter :)