Did not here about that one yet. Is it supported in zigbee2mqtt? Could you provide a link.
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Hi @h4nc,
so after some research and some tests I can tell you adding an external antenna to WIFI also extend BLE range.
By how much I do not know but I had some MiFlora which, with standard ESP built in antenna were not reachable while with external one they were.
This:
LINK
is an example of ESP 32 board based on WROOM-32U which is built for Ipex antenna.
A simple 2.4Ghz antenna with SMA connector works perfectly (and also boost WiFi signal).
It would be really nice if you could add this option too your RF/BLE gateway: I would buy it straight away!
Thanks for sharing your experience. So you uses the board in the link and added an antenna to the connector right?
If I add this option, I will post it in this thread.
exactly
I added something like this: Link
you can find a ton of different shape also internal ones: Link
should be an easy add-on to your project!
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I finished the IR Versions of the OpenMqttgateway.
I made two versions:
OMG ESP32 IR/RF/BLE/LED
OMG ESP8266 IR/RF/LED
This is how they look:
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Oh My God, nicely done! Looks more like a consumer device than DIY.
How far will the IR reach?
Would it be possible to run Esphome on them (pros/cons)?
Thank you very much, that’s very nice.
I did some tests with an IR bulb to figure out the range.
I worked reliable within a diameter of 6m around the device (so 3m from the OMG with transparent case on top to the bulb in all directions). It worked up to 10 m around the device but not a 100% reliable.
The transparent print takes a little bit of the range (maybe around 0,5m), but it looks way nicer with the cover.
Users could also try to point all leds in their needed position to make the range better.
About ESPhome. I don’t have experience with that, but I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t work with it. The pins that are uses are directly marked on the pcb.
Hi @h4nc and thank you for this amazing work!
I’d like to order a stick (or two), could you PM me the price and details (as I cannot yet since I just registered).
Thanks
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Hi @h4nc.
Do you still sell the zigbee sticks? I have sent you an email with questions.
Best regards
Petter
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Hi,
I made another new device: The Milight Hub
See: https://github.com/sidoh/esp8266_milight_hub
And this is how it looks:
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Thanks to h4nc for the fast and uncomplicated handling!
My stick arrived after a few days and works as it should.
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I’m now also able to flash the Sonoff RF Bridge with OpenMqttGateway.
You may ask yourself why I want to offer flashed Sonoff RF Bridges when I already have the DIY OMG IR/RF/BLE/Led device.
Well first of all if someone only wants RF (in an industrial case) the Sonoff RF may be the better choice. And because I only need to flash it and save a lot of time soldering and making the device it will be cheaper.
So I think it’s nice to have this option too.
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Hi all, Hi @h4nc!
I am happy customer and bought RF/BLE/Led device (a bit bespoke, with external wifi antenna, thanks Hans) and Zigbee stuff.
All looks great.
Still need to put my hands on Zigbee stuff: for now played only with the RF/BLE/Led device.
This I straight away flashed with EspHome (thanks again Hans for support, to flash no need to keep pressed boot while connecting to USB port).
Why using EspHome? I like to keep full control and never used OMG hence…it was easier for me.
It was very straight to program and if someone is interested I can share my code.
The only think is the board has 4Mbyte Flash hence a bit limited.
My EspHome firmware uses 92% of it and, as a result, Api and OTA do no work: I need to ask @OttoWinter if this is normal.
Shrinking down the firmware removing functions (52% used) is perfectly fine.
Issue is with EspHome I am not able to pack together:
-
BLE (this uses really a lot of space) (tracker + 2 MiFlora)
-
RF receiver / transmitter
-
usual wifi signal/status/restart/LED
it is not an HW issue (as with OMG all works!) but probably EspHome is more resource hungry?
I am not a programmer hence can’t judge properly.
Anyway: quickly tested RF coverage and looks good (with cheap door/window sensors)
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Thanks for your feedback.
Did the external antenna help regarding the range of your BLE devices?
Thought maybe you tested it with OMG before switching to ESPhome. I don’t have experience with ESPhome. Hope someone is able to help you with that, so that you can enable all modules.
Keep us updated, others may be interested in this as well.
seems something is moving:
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I receive yesterday my ready2use Zigbee2mqtt-Stick and RFlink mini.
Thanks h4nc for quality of the devices and your response time to follow order and delivery!
I installed the two devices immediately yesterday.
For the RFlink mini I just installed my old config with my previous DIY version and it works immediately.
The installation and use of Zigbee2mqtt-Stick was also straight forward. Now need to setup all my devices.
The second Zigbee2mqtt-Stick will be used for debug/sniffing.
Thanks again h4nc.
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Just received the usb stick, i swapped it over from my non arial model, all connected fine after a while, but there was a issue with some bulbs not reacting to home assistant on / off button ? this happened before the last time i unpaired and paired my lights due to some network issue.
What i did which worked last time was to repair the non working bulbs back to the hue bridge then deleted them from the hue app, i then paired the bulbs back to zigbee2mqtt and all is working fine.
Now to pair my Aqua thermostat / humidity sensors which also arrived today, these sensors were picked up straight away with the zigbee2mqtt network with no issues.
By the way the signal in the zigbee map looks great with the devices mesh - ing as they should, loads better than before and working like a champ so far, cheers to h4nc for the arial mod and the nicely designed case.
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