nRFIoT - Easy IoT Sensors

https://hackaday.io/project/6270-nrf24le1-iot-dev-kit/log/19401-wiring-library is my current project that makes use of Nordic's nrf24le1 chip.

I created another project that contains a lot of the work I've been doing with the other Nordic SoC's. Find my other project for more information on it.

Working with these modules had been much easier than I thought. I was able to get everything up and running fairly easily. I even created a wiring.h file to make it look a bit more arduino familiar and easy. I'll post the files and more details when I get a chance.

I have ordered a development kit for the nrf24le1 SoC. I have also begun porting the RF24 library to the 8051 processor with SDCC. If it all works out the whole board will be a tiny little thing. I have also been playing with the idea of expendable sensor boards that connect to each other through I2C.

On another note, if none of the SoC stuff works out, I found some very small nrf24l01 modules. 12x18mm I think, so about 25% of the boards in using now. I will be testing them sooner or later as well.

It should be mostly online. It is a simple front-end for my datalogs.

node.ntdll.net

I ended up with a bunch of sensors and needed a place to store the data. My solution was to get a beaglebone black, install nginx, an MQTT broker, and a quick flask/flask-socket website. The sensors and their data to the bbb which stores the data in an sqlite database and also sends them out over the MQTT broker. The website connects to the broker and displays it all in real-time. 

So I tried to test a TI REG711 33 last night, but didn't have much luck. Three tries and I gave up. I guess I shouldn't try to do these things late at night. 

As I mentioned in my original project description, I decided I couldn't buy my own nrf24 modules and layout a custom board because it would cost significantly more money ontop of being quite a hassle. I have recently done some thinking about it and found it might be easier to make a custom board that holds the uC for at least as much as it costs to buy, but that would give the advantage of much more control and reduce the size considerably. I'm looking into it now. I laid out a pcb that uses a salvaged atmega328p in a the TQFP package size and will be making a test run soon.

I recently thought about making tiny boards using ATTiny AVRs. After looking around and finding the largest one, 8k, I played around a bit with the code and found that while I could get it shrunk down to 8k, I couldnt do anything else. Unless it took a simple analog read value, there was nowhere near enough space left over for any sensors. 

So I did some more playing around with the onboard regulator. The issues I was running into earlier seem to be fixed by using a higher quality wall wart. I had been using a cheap cell phone usb wall wart. Turns out it sucked. I looked at it and the ripple on it was huge. A better wart fixed it. 

This leads to a question though. The parts on my original board cost a couple pennies and clean up the power. A higher quality power supply costs maybe $15. Is an easier board to assemble worth the higher price? I think probably not.