Hello. I made a simple Weather station and also have 2 waterproof thermos to take different water temps. I suck the data into node-red and do other things from there (openweathermap, NOAA, UV index).
I tested it via breadboard and it ran rock-solid for a week straight outdoors so I got some proto board to make it more of a prototype and reduce the size/wiring to put it into a temporary Wx box.
When I soldered up the proto-board last night I followed the .fzz file and tried to make some shortcuts (piggyback connections) and also had to change some things since I am not powering a breadboard rail anymore. The sensor would not work, and I am sure it is my wiring “shortcuts” I tried creating.
Before I dig in to solve the problem, I was hoping for some tips/critique of my layout and how I have things connected. – I might as well make it the best I can right now if I am going to re-do some wiring.
Am I wiring this for best power consumption/operation? I am using Deep.sleep and was surprised that my powerbank ran it for only a week before dying. I only take measurements every 15 min. Maybe that 280 and the temp sensors are not powering off during deep sleep?
I have 18650’s, holders and charging chips to use, but could never get the 8266 to boot via battery, so I figured I would just swap out the powerbank once in a while. I have a small solar cell I was willing to incorporate too, but the project was all working, so I wanted to take the “W” while I had it in hand. Why can’t I just add the 18650 to this setup?
Your sketch appears wrong. GND on the DS18B20s is connected to 3.3V and VDD to GND. While VDD to GND would be correct for “parasite power” mode, ground should be on ground not 3.3V. For your power issue, I would suggest putting an ammeter in series with the power supply and see how much current the circuit draws when it is supposed to be in sleep mode. Then on the breadboard version try disconnecting the DS18B20s (leaving only the BME280 connected) and measure the current again. Now reconnect the DS18B20s and disconnect the BME280 and measure the current. If there is a change in the current during any of these connections (especially when both the DS18B20s and BME280 are connected, then you know were to look for power savings. It is possible the BME280 and the DS18B20s are interfering with each other and causing a current draw during what should be sleep mode (or that the Node MCU is not sleeping correctly.) In addition the pcb section of your sketch is incomplete. The resistor is off the edge of the pcb and one wire is not connected so the DS18B20s have no pullup on the data pin. It is possible to use perfboard in breadboard view to document wiring, although many people prefer to use pcb view to do so.
While I haven’t played with node mcus, I don’t see a difference between booting from a power source and booting from battery. Surely the battery provides power to the chip and it then boots?
Thanks for replying, and thank you the tip on the apparent connections in frizting. I had no idea I could see which was which on the component in fritzing until I moused over to check. I assure you that I had them connected properly on the project, and they were working fine until I went to protoboard.
I’m thinking I might have fried the 280 when trying to de-solder some pins to make for a better orientation in the project box. I just got a new one and will test that tonight.
Re: the resistor: I know I had to pay attention to the orientation of resistors when building my IR headtracker, so perhaps the orientation of my resistor is an issue here as well?