Need Help with my new Project

---

Hallo Leute!
Seit über einem Monat spiel ich mich hier mit Pimatic herum, und komme leider einfach nicht weiter. Mein Englisch scheint nicht so gut zu sein, da ich bei 80% nicht verstehe, was die ganzen Fachausdrücke heißen sollen.

Zur Zeit ist die Verbindung des Arduino mit dem Raspberry fragwürdig.
Laut Anleitung hab ich alles eingetragen, und abgeändert, jedoch hab ich so das Gefühl, als ob mein Arduino noch gar nicht mit dem Pi verbunden ist. Wie kann ich das kontrollieren??

Ich habe noch folgende Hardware, für meine Steuerung:
Kamera
PH Messgerät + Modul für Arduino
Lüftersteuerung über Stufentransformator und Relais über Raspberry Pi
Pumpe
Boden-Hygrometer Feuchtemess-Modul

Noch dazu hab ich nur einen DHT22 Sensor ins Pimatic einfügen können. Meine andere Hardware für eine automatische Gewächshaussteuerung konnte ich leider noch nicht hinzufügen, da ich keine Ahnung von den ganzen Pimatic einstellungen habe.
Gibt es hier irgendwo einen Bereich, wo man Deutsch spricht? Ich konnte leider im anderen Bereich keinen Beitrag erstellen. Bzw kann mir jemand verraten, wo ich am besten nachlesen kann?

LG und Danke

Hi Guys!
For over a month I play around here with Pimatic, and unfortunately just can not continue. My english does not seem to be that good, because at 80% I do not understand what the whole terms should be.

At present, the connection of the Arduino to the Raspberry is questionable.
According to the instructions, I have registered everything, and modified, but I have the feeling that my Arduino is not yet connected to the Pi. How can I control that ??

I still have the following hardware, for my control:
camera
PH meter + module for Arduino
Fan control via tapped transformer and relay via Raspberry Pi
pump
Soil Hygrometer Moisture Measurement Module

In addition, I can only insert a DHT22 sensor into the Pimatic. Unfortunately I could not add my other hardware for an automatic greenhouse control because I have no idea about the whole Pimatic settings.
Is there an area somewhere where you speak German? Unfortunately, I could not create a post in the other area. Or can someone tell me where I can read the best?

Best regards and thank you

You have to be a little bit more concrete.
What is running on the arduino?

@luke147 lsusb displays all your attached usb devices.

Example;
raspberrypi:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 10c4:ea60 Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc. CP210x UART Bridge / myAVR mySmartUSB light
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

When you connect a usb devices, and it works properly, it creates a link in the /dev folder. Running ls /dev should have a “ttyUSBX” device, where x is a number.

Example;

autofs           loop5               ram4       tty18  tty43      ttyUSB0
block            loop6               ram5       tty19  tty44      uhid

If you have a arduino with homeduino on it, you can run cat /dev/ttyUSBX (replace x with the correct number) and if you have a receiver connected, you can now press a button on your remote control and if it is working properly, it should display RF information. You can press CTRL+C to exit the cat command.

Example;
raspberrypi:~# cat /dev/ttyUSB0
ACK
16375397{"buckets":{"0":"295","1":"886","2":"9626","3":"0","4":"0","5":"0","6":"0","7":"0"},"repeats":"7","pulse":"10101010101010101010101010101010101001011001101002","protocol":"switch5","unit":"2","id":"3"}

hi.
I wanted to connect my Arduino with the Pimatic via AtHome/Homeduino
pi@raspberrypi:~/homeduino $ ls /dev/tty*

So i saw, when i take off the USB cable from the PI, that the right one is /dev/ttyACM0
I can also see this at the VNC viewer/@ ArduinoIDE, that i use the /dev/ttyACM0 port. When i test a LED from the VNC Viewer via ArduinoIDE it works.

The connection looks like ok, but it does not work at pimatic. (Log Messenge: Timeout)
error [pimatic]: operation timed out
09:17:14error [pimatic]: operation timed out
09:17:14error [pimatic-homeduino]: [TimeoutError: operation timed out]
09:17:14error [pimatic-homeduino]: TimeoutError: operation timed out
at afterTimeout (/home/pi/pimatic-app/node_modules/pimatic-homeduino/node_modules/homeduino/node_modules/bluebird/js/main/timers.js:11:15)
at null.timeoutTimeout (/home/pi/pimatic-app/node_modules/pimatic-homeduino/node_modules/homeduino/node_modules/bluebird/js/main/timers.js:53:9)
at Timer.listOnTimeout (timers.js:92:15)
09:17:14error [pimatic-homeduino]: Couldn’t connect to homeduino device: operation timed out.

Thanks for help.
Luke

@luke147 sorry but, “test a led” you mean that a led is connected to the pins on the arduino?

You need to flash homeduino sketch to the arduino in order to use it for 433mhz radio frequency based devices.

So it can not work? Yes i have tested a LED at the Arduino GPIO Pin13(+) und GND(-)
And i wanted to switch via HomeduinoSwitch. So i need some radio frequency based devices? Can it works with some wires??
I also tested a DHT22 Sensor, but this also dont worked, because of this, that i have no LCD Display. Can i use it with wires, for getting the measuring data to the Pimatic?

Or does it work only with the radio frequency based devices?

Homeduino is for 433mhz devices.
But you can connect your LED to the raspberry GPIO´s. The DHT22 too.
You don´t need an arduino for it

Yes i know this. But somtimes i wanted to test my PH gauge, and this only run at the Arduino.
At this time, for my glasshouse i want to use:
2x DHT22 (in and out)
5x metering pump (for plants)
4x Soil Moisture Sensor
3 or 4 step ventilation via relais
Light and circulating air also via relais

I also have a Raspi Cam2 and a Touchscreen 5´´ for the pi.

in an other forum, some people sayed, that i should use an Arduino, for a better managment. What do you think?

Thanks.

If you have enough GPIO´s for your project, Pimatic should handle it.
What kind of moisture sensor are you using? Simple two wires, with electronic or wireless. I don´t know if there is a plugin for this kind of sensor.
Xiaomi MiFlora would be easy.
Maybe Jonny-Five can handle the Sensors.

Xiaomi MiFlora i have already found, during a google session.
I use this soil moisture sensor:
[https://www.ebay.at/itm/Boden-Hygrometer-Feuchtemess-Modul-Boden-Feuchtigkeits-Sensor/272268978049?hash=item3f647ee781:g:vlIAAOSwbYZXexOq](link url)

At this time, i have no RF Transmitter or RF Receiver.

When i want to use pimatic homeduino, how many RF Transmitter and RF Receiver did i need? Needs every soil moisture sensor a transmitter, and the arduino needs 1 RF Receiver?

@luke147 said in Need Help with my new Project:

Xiaomi MiFlora i have already found, during a google session.
I use this soil moisture sensor:
[https://www.ebay.at/itm/Boden-Hygrometer-Feuchtemess-Modul-Boden-Feuchtigkeits-Sensor/272268978049?hash=item3f647ee781:g:vlIAAOSwbYZXexOq](link url)

At this time, i have no RF Transmitter or RF Receiver.

When i want to use pimatic homeduino, how many RF Transmitter and RF Receiver did i need? Needs every soil moisture sensor a transmitter, and the arduino needs 1 RF Receiver?

You might want to read the product specifications of what you want to use. Xiaomi works with bluetooth, so you need a raspberry pi3 (it has bluetooth) or a bluetooth dongle. No need for 433mhz rf, so no need to use a receiver/transmitter. Im not sure about using multiple sensors, i think you need a bluetooth dongle for every sensor.

As for the ebay sensor, it looks to me it works through the GPIO pins. Also, no need for bluetooth and no need for rf.

The xiaomi works wireless, the ebay one needs to be wired to your pi. I would choose the xiaomi. You can search the forum for tutorial.

Homeduino only needs one set, so a receiver and a transmitter.

ok. i will read this about the Xiaomi.

1 soil moisture sensor i have connected to my pi3. It works. When the plant is wet, then i can read @ pimatic, that the plant is “wet”.
But the problem is, that there is no numeric number. Only 1 and 0. So i think, i have to use the sensor about the arduino, then i can use a number. for example: 100=wet, 500=dry

Thanks for your help.

basically our homeduino is a software running on an arduino to control different things. commonly it is used for rf based communication on 433 MHz frequency. you are able to connect one transmitter and one receiver. with this hardwar for example you can switch power outlets, receive weather data from weather stations, receive on / off signals from PIR sensors and so on. for that, these devices all have to run on 433MHz already. Homeduino is not directly able to receive data from selfmade sensors, unless you are running them on 433MHz and build a software to communicate with homeduino.

the homeduino device (mostly an arduino nano) is able to control the analoge and digital inputs and outputs on the arduino, so you are able to connect your sensors directly via cable to the arduino. that’s very handy if you are running out of gpios on the raspberry AND if you read out analoge sensors as your soil sensor.
but if you want to control sensors via cable you do not really need arduino, you can do this directly on the gpios of the pi.

regarding your soil sensor, you need either an arduino with an analog input as you already experienced, or on the pi an ADC (analoge digital converter) like an mcp3008

check here for the analoge sensor example on the homeduino github readme
https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic-homeduino#analogsensor-example
so flash the homduino software as described and then build an analoge sensor for homeduino, this should do the trick, and with some nice rules you can even let pimatic tell you if the plant needs water - for example via pushover or other messaging services we have - or if you like to, with a textbases variables device and some rules that read out the soil status and convert it into clear text.