Troubles with bcf-radio-air-quality-monitor v1.0.3

TOWER
1

I have some problems with Air quality monitor after a few days of running:

  1. Temperature is reported each 2 seconds even if there is no change of value for minutes

  2. Sometimes was reported temperature out of reality, e.g. 354.00 - see in bold bellow
    Such values are making the graph not usable.

    Air quality temperature graph
    Air quality temperature graph1159×358 23.7 KB

  3. Firmware name and version was wrong after a few days:
    {“id”: “15713a16d353”, “alias”: “loznice”, “firmware”: “w\u05b4G”, “version”: “”}
    After reflash was OK again:
    {“id”: “15713a16d353”, “alias”: “loznice”, “firmware”: “air-quality-monitor”, “version”: “v1.0.3”}

It seams to me, that some memory is overwritten where should not be…

Temperature log messages

4.6.2020 8:52:39 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[5]
“22.12”
4.6.2020 8:52:41 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[6]
“354.00”
4.6.2020 8:52:43 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[5]
“22.19”
4.6.2020 8:52:46 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[5]
“22.12”
4.6.2020 8:52:48 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[5]
“22.12”
4.6.2020 8:52:50 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[5]
“22.12”
4.6.2020 8:52:54 node: 74704dc.2c58fb4
node/loznice/thermometer/0:0/temperature : msg.payload : string[5]
“22.12”

2

Hello, thanks for detailed information. I’ll take a look at it with my kit ale let you know what the next steps will be.

3

Can you aswer some questions please?

  • How often do you get wrong temperature values?
  • In what range the wrong values appear? In you graph it seems like there’s reallyyy big number with lot of zeroes, can you show complete value please?
  • Are you using HARDWARIO Playground, or bcg (Bigclown gateway) on Rpi/your server?
4

  • Wrong value is measured about once per two days. Here is the one record from yesterday:

    Air quality temperature graph 2
    Air quality temperature graph 21111×321 17.8 KB

  • I do not know the exact value, I plan to setup Grafana + InfluxDB later. This is screenshot from Node-RED.

  • I am using bcg and nodered on the router Turris Omnia

5

Hi @zdenyv,

I’ve found and fixed the bug that is reporting temperatures every 2 seconds. Please download version 1.1.0 from github https://github.com/bigclownprojects/bcf-radio-air-quality-monitor/releases/tag/v1.1.0
It is also already in the Playground. Check that the latest version is really 1.1.0

The bug caused some RAM issues which could also damage firmware name and temperature values. Please test the firmware and let us know if the extreme temperature values also disappear.

In the new firmware I’ve also removed sending events when buttons are pressed for scrolling the display and added sending radio ovents when left, right or both buttons are pressed for 1 second. This is also confirmed by pulsing the green LCDs on the LCD Module.

6

Hi @hub.martin,
as I see, the 2 seconds interval was fixed and for extreme values I need more days to test.

One more thing: I needed to plug-in usb for power due to the fact, that batteries are after one week on 65% - probably because of VOC sensor consumption. It would be better to have micro USB port on the back side (maybe some additional one). Or would it be possible to change LCD display orientation and have the box with current bottom on top side? FW update is no problem for me, question is if is it supported by SDK.
Update: For sure the display rotation can be changed: https://sdk.hardwario.com/group__bc__module__lcd.html#ga7a17e5bf8f732feda98bf4889c96f0f7

7

The excessive battery discharge was caused by sending temperature over radio every 2 seconds.
VOC-LP is not completely low-power but for now the reason was that firmware bug.

Yes, you can use thhat function to rotate display. Also you can “swap” buttons callbacks.

Also, you can use accelerometer to dynamically rotate the display, you can check similar function in this firmware https://github.com/bigclownprojects/bcf-lcd-clock-with-stopwatch
Project is documented here https://www.hackster.io/hubmartin/clock-with-stopwatch-activated-by-accelerometer-8b7344

Update: my code is using GFX library, but you can call the LCD rotate function bc_module_lcd_set_rotation.

image
image924×535 115 KB

8

You can also consider Battery module for 4xAAA and it could be upgraded with solar panel :slight_smile: