Hi all.
I've been tinkering around with Moteinos for a few weeks now as I'm wanting to create a battery operated temperature sensor based on a DS18B20 waterproof sensor but to be honest I'm struggling getting any kind of realistic battery life - hence the 'cry for help'
Key points:
- Must be able to run on a battery / batteries for over 12 months (batteries that are available in general stores) - using as little power as possible and going to sleep when not in use
- Must take a temperature (Celsius) reading every 30 mins and send to Pi Gateway as 'TIMESTAMP, NODE_ID, TEMP_READING'
- Will use Moteino R6 with RFM69HCW 433Mhz transciever and 4Mbit Flash - may look at a customised PCB design in future with easier connections for battery / sensor.
- With the Flash chip, the ability for wireless programming in future would be useful.
- I'm not sure if the Pi Gateway sends an acknowledgement once it receives data from a node but this would be useful if the Flash chip on sensor node stores the values until it receives acknowledgement from Pi Gateway - preventing readings from being lost in the event of radio problem.
I realise that there are a few projects out there that already do this. I've tried playing around with them but struggling to get a realistic battery life and first few readings from sensors are incorrect - I'm learning Arduino / Moteino code and still at the beginner level
Thanks for taking the time to read this post and I look forward to hearing from anybody who may be interested.