Announcement: ESPimaticRF coming soon

---

you need a homeduino esp and a node esp

I finally got it working.
Somehow this did the trick: https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/42/tip-homeduino-usb

Hi Koffie et al.,

I’m again trying to get ESPimaticRF on a NodeMCU. Yesterday, after some tweaking I managed to get ESPimatic working on an NodeMCU module. Today I’m trying to get ESPimaticRF on my NodeMCU. As, was the case last year, I keep running into compile errors where the Arduino 1.6.5 IDE says, ‘can not find SerialCommand.h’ or ‘can not find rfcontrol_command.h’ or the sorts. I am using Arduine 1.6.5 IDE with boardmanager 2.3.0 and with the correct board selected (all the same settings as which got my ESPimatic running). I’m really at a loss here. I can not see what I’m doing wrong.

I have set the sketchbook location to F:/ (to avoid windows issues with virtual paths and so on) and have tried with the files directly under this path (with arduino IDE saying the .ino file must be placed in a folder called ESPimaticRF) and with all files in a subfolder called ESPimaticRF.

The strange thing is it al worked fine with ESPimatic. But not with ESPimaticRF.

In your manual, you state; “Download all the files and place in correct folders”. Maybe this needs some more clarification for me…

I hope you can help me with this, as using your briljant software is something I have wanted to do for a very long time.

Regards,

Ruud

p.s. A respons in dutch works for me if that is easier for you.

@ruudvddries the error is there because the working directory (same dir where you open the .ino project) doesnt include the .h files. As @koffienl mentioned, extract it to a directory, open the .ino from there and in the top it should also load the correct .h files that the script refers to.

In this project,

#include "rfcontrol_command.h"

means that that file has to be in the same directory as the .ino project. Not in a subdirectory (if you extract, it is in the correct place)

For the other one’s:

#include <SerialCommand.h>
#include <RFControl.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiClient.h>
#include <ESP8266WebServer.h>
#include <FS.h>
#include <ArduinoJson.h>
#include <WiFiUdp.h>

These should remain in the Libraries folder, however, i had an issue as my arduino did not load them from sketch so i ALSO placed them into “my documents/arduino/libraries”.

Maybe you could try that.

Hi @gleno0h and @koffienl ,

after some trial and error with what files should be placed where I have been able to upload the sketch to two NodeMCU’s.

Strange thing is that I extracted the zipped archive, downlaoded from Github straight into my Arduino Sketchfolder. Somehow this was not enough. But anyways, I got it working and now I will continue with the next staps. Thanks for your time and effort!

Best regards,

Ruud van den Dries

Hi guys, me again,

I have a working ESPimaticRF connected through USB to my Pi and use it as Master (both). It works for several minutes and than fails to send any RF-signals.
It is connected to /ttyUSB0/ and thus as such configured (default within homeduino plugin).

What could I try to resolve this? I see no errors in the pimatic log for homeduino.

Regards,

Ruud

@ruudvddries both as master? One on usb is master, the rest should be slave’s (node’s).

Master sends to ALL nodes while master can also send (if enabled).

I did notice that sometimes it stops working, probably due to wifi dropping.

Well, currently I just have one Master ESPimaticRF node as replacement of my Arduino nano RF hardware which I used before with homeduino. I haven’t installed a slave node just yet.

Anyways, the odd thing is that my Google Home Mini aka Google assistant can switch my lights where at the same moment (well almost the some give or take a few seconds) I cannot via the GUI. It times out. After restarting pimatic it works again. I think that is strange (and thus not a WiFi dropping issue) but it could explain the ‘empty’ log.

So still open for ideas. Tomorrow I will install a esp slave node. Maybe that resolves the issue in some magical way.

Regards,

Ruud

@ruudvddries did you increase “UDP repeat”?

@Gleno0h Don’t think so. It’s set at 1.

@ruudvddries got almost the same issues here, this is what I’ve done so far:

Done the following to test and debug:

flashed v0.0.6 to both nodeMCU’s, connected the master to pimatic and set it in homeduino mode, connected to MQTT, both receiver and transmitter are connected and working. master receive action send to pimatic, master transmit action set to both.

The second nodeMCU is hanging somewhere else in the house, set as node, MQTT mode and also connected to both rx and tx hardware. on this one receive action is set to send to pimatic, transmit action set to send to local RF.

as a test I’ve disabled the master send and receive settings to see if data from and to the second nodeMCU is being sent and received. this succeeded so communication between the master, the node and pimatic (and the rx/tx modules) is working.

But still communication to pimatic crashes occasionally resulting in a time-out when trying to flip a switch. It looks like this is mostly happening when using a dimmer device (HomeduinoRF Dimmer 1). after one command is executed the second command almost always results in a time-out. only way to restore the connection is to reboot pimatic.

I’ve read somewhere this was due to UDP being kinda buggy but it also happens on MQTT.
Is this a software issue or is it just a limitation from the system/ESPimaticRF/Pimatic?

@djmvt i am indeed getting the same. Didnt even notice it.

Could it be that when the device loses its wifi, it unmounts from the usb port? Could one of you check that the next time?

@gleno0h I don’t think so because that would result in an error in the log, Pimatic wouldn’t be able to reach the (fake) arduino if it got unmounted I guess? But I could be wrong here, a lot of what I do is trial and error haha.

@djmvt true, but if not initialized, it cant output anything. I could be totally wrong. If @koffienl could clarify, that would be great. He’s absent for 10 days, but he will respond soon i might test it today by simply rebooting my modem and see what happens. Ill report later.

Ha you got a point there
I’m working all day and since Christmas is coming I won’t be able to test things the next days but I’m sure when @koffienl is back we will get this tackled haha

Merry Christmas!

@djmvt can confirm wifi dropping is not the issue. Rebooted 5 times but it reconnects fine. Then it could maybe be a distance issue.

@Gleno0h do you also have this issue with a dimmer device? I’ve got a pir sensor and a switch at the same distance that don’t seem to give problems. It looks like it is going wrong with the dimmer device only.

There are 2 problems here:

• Pimatic homeduino wil never reconnect when serial link between homeduino/ESP and plugin drops. This is a limitation / bug in the plugin itself. If you would disconnect the ESP from the USB port, Pimatic would loose the connection and you have to restart pimatic

• When Pimatic tells the ESP to send some RF, it is busy for a moment of time. Doing a double tap on the GUI to send 2 seperate commands might cause the ESP to respond to slow with a ACK and Pimatic will think the homeduino isn’t there. In a rare situation a few doubletaps repeated could crash the ESP (see the first problem )

I would really recommend the developper version with MQTT instead of the master with UDP Mqtt is much faster and more reliable.
I use homeduino rfdimmer1 on daily basis with ESPimaticRF without any issues.

Hi guys,

I experience the issue with switches and dimmers.
I have changed the power supply for pimatic. But I still have homeduino connection losses.
Before I used an arduino nano. It remember it was connected on grounds to the raspberry pi. Is this also needed for a nodeMCU?

Any thoughts are welcome!

Regards,

Ruud

Did you enabled debuging in the homeduino plugin? Could you see what happens on the console when it stops responding?
Easiest way to debug : enable debug in the plugin, SSH to your pi and do a tail -f pimatic-daemon.log