Howto Pimatic ... discussion threat

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Well, you may have seen the new forum Howto Pimatic. The Howto forum is write disabled to stay clearly arranged.
Here’s the discussion threat where you can post your wishes, improvements or anything that might have to do with Howto Pimatic.
I will update the howto from time to time so that there will be some kind of research / guidance for Pimatic. So if anyone asks “How can I …?” Just point him to the Howtos

Hope this will become a nice and prosper project.

Cheers
Chris

A great start! Especially for beginners. Phase 2 would be something like a homeduino installation?

For the more advanced users, a ‘noob’ how-to decode new 433mhz devices and how to add them would be great.

Currently i’m working on a homemade motion detector with a 433mhz transmitter, attiny45/85 and a pir. And its working. Don’t know about the rest, but I or some1 else could write a tutorial about home-made devices with attiny’s or arduino’s.

think i will first explain the pimatic gui in step 2.
after that i’ll go on with editing the config.json and adding the first devices.
then homeduino

@sweetpi, as i went through the installation steps i was thinking of wouldn’t it be better to set a default password for admin, like admin or pimatic?
there are some questions about pimatic not running 'cause of no admin password set in the config.
pimatic would be running by default. later on, the password can be set. or maybe a notice will come up to force a password change or something like that.

Database and rules should be the next topics.

currently im stuck on searching how to add a “fake device”… something like a switch with different options to make different szenarios…
for example

Device “TV” has options “normal” “cinema” “off”

option “normal” will start other devices… like “if it is off, turn htpc on”, “if it is off, turn audio receiver on” and "if it is off, flatscreen on"
option “cinema” will start option “normal” + “if it is on, room light off”, “if they´re open, close curtains”, etc…
option “off” will turn back to state before “clicked” on “normal” or “cinema”…

a tutorial on this will manage rules AND “special” devices…

my target-szenario is much more simple… but i don´t know how to realise it.
i´ve got severel devices at my aquariums… switches for light, heating and pump… and for my weekly waterchange i want ONE button to turn off pump and heating… starting 5 minutes reminder (maybe audio-signal) to alarm me, if i forget to turn them back on… etc… etc…
later there will be more devices like a fan, some probes, refill-pump, and so on…

ok i’ guess i’ll go over at step 6 to rules, variables and devices. this is a very large topic.

@demlak please open a new threat at the Rules and Scripts Forum to get help on that since it’s a very specific question and the howto’s are more common.
Meanwhile have a a look at the buttons device or a dummy switch.
this threat here contains some helpful information https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic/issues/293

@leader21
it seems your link helped me a lot… thx!
if there will be more questions, i will start anew thread in the correct subforum.

@leader21: Thanks for this how to in http://forum.pimatic.org/topic/202/4-homeduino-433-mhz-sending-receiving-and-even-more .
One thing I would like to discuss is the 3.3 V for the receiver you use in 2.) Homeduino on Raspberry Pi (without Arduino Nano). for the receiver.
My experience showed that it isbetter to use the 5V supply. Then the sensivity of the receiver is much better.
On the output I transformed I used a voltage divider to come down to 3.3V level.

yes that’s surely a good option! I’ll add this to the Howto asap.

edit : done! @Heizelmann could you please doublecheck?

@leader21 : With voltage divider I meant only two simple resistors. Look here as an example:
https://a.pololu-files.com/picture/0J1423.1200.png?c6193ca7f72d8d180802b6e8ec7aa643

ah ok. well, the logic level shifter is more wire work
ok, will add this too

Helpfull Links that maybe got info for some “howto’s”:

HowTo rename On- and OffLabel of a switching device: https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic/issues/294
HowTo add security question to switching devices https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic/issues/294
HowTo help by editing the pimatic-guide https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic/issues/223#issuecomment-78484645
HowTo add Dummy Devices https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic/issues/293#issuecomment-58761906
HowTo use current date/time as a variable http://forum.pimatic.org/topic/221/getting-current-system-time-predicate/2

Might be usufull to add to the description of the flashing process that pimatic should be stopped before flashing.
A previously installed and running version blocks the serial port.

http://forum.pimatic.org/topic/202/4-homeduino-433-mhz-sending-receiving-and-even-more
2.) Homeduino on Raspberry Pi (without Arduino Nano)
“This method has a disadvantage - the cpu load will raise, since the Pi needs to do the RF computing all for itself. There were users reporting cpu loads of approx 40 to 50%, other users said it wouldn’t be that much.”

@leader21 I actually get very good results with my Raspberry Pi 2 from 19:15 when i activated the device by adding the homeduino device.
CPU raised from 0,5% to 5% average the 30% peaks are moments when restarting pimatic service for adding the HomeduinoRFSwitch devices.

Before 18:20 a high CPU for a while (i had wrong homeduino receiverPin and transmitterPin device numbers)

Thanks for your information!
Well i guess the pi 2 isn’t that much busy with a quad core anymore then the first pi has been😆

A suggestion; a HowTo clean the db-file of Pimatic. Somewhere on this forum this item was discussed.