LED weather station with NTP clock and calendar

What coverage do you get on ESP 12 with ESP NOW? Does ESP NOW have any RRSI checking function?

The range is similar to working via wifi. Somewhere I read that it is supposed to be bigger by ESP-Now, but somehow I didn't notice it. Instead of Rssi in the measurement module, I used the out of range signaling on the LED. There is a button which, when pressed, sends data to the receiver. If the module is within range of the station or the repeater, the diode is off. If it flashes, the module is out of range.

I tested the idea of my colleague krzbor with connecting the Master to the wifi network for a while to save the settings. Everything works fine but after disconnecting the power, ESP does not remember the settings, or at least the channel. Maybe someone knows if there is a channel number in the ESP8266 network credentials? Because it looks like not.

So you still have to cheat the Master with the non-existent access point to change this unfortunate channel ..

This Master probably originated as jargon for Controller mode, but Slave is used in the ESP-NOW documentation. There is also Combo, a combination of Conroller and Slave.
https://www.espressif.com/sites/default/files/documentation/esp-now_user_guide_en.pdf

Master, i.e. transmitter and Slave, i.e. receiver, Combo - a mix of the two.

efi222 wrote:

I tested the idea of my colleague krzbor with connecting the Master to the wifi network for a while to save the settings. Everything works fine but after disconnecting the power, ESP does not remember the settings, or at least the channel. Maybe someone knows if there is a channel number in the ESP8266 network credentials? Because it looks like not.

Somewhere on the electrode there was something about a quick connection to deep sleep - it was about remembering all the necessary parameters for communication over WiFi in order to maximize the length of battery life.

khoam wrote:

efi222 wrote:

Master, i.e. transmitter and Slave, i.e. receiver, Combo - a mix of the two.

So be it Although the term "peer" is used in newer documentation, and this one can transmit and receive, both are always available.

Well, I didn't make it up
esp_now_set_self_role (ESP_NOW_ROLE_CONTROLLER); // set the transmitter
esp_now_set_self_role (ESP_NOW_ROLE_SLAVE); // set the receiver
esp_now_set_self_role (ESP_NOW_ROLE_COMBO); // transmitter and receiver

At least that's the case for ESP8266. And I have not met anyone else configuring. What you are writing about is probably for ESP32, and I didn't do that :)

khoam wrote:

If Master is a transmitter, what access point is it?

Well, the idea was not to combine with a fictitious network to change the channel in the transmitter, but to connect to the wifi network for a while to save the network credentials. It did nothing, because the credentials do not include the wifi channel.

Found this article. This was the link from the electrode: Link The author saves the data in the RTC memory. In your case it is enough to write WiFi.channel () in EEPROM (simulated in ESP);

krzbor wrote:

Found this article. This was the link from the electrode: Link The author saves the data in the RTC memory. In your case it is enough to write WiFi.channel () in EEPROM (simulated in ESP);

Thanks for this link. You can read very interesting things there.

krzbor wrote:

Found this article. This was the link from the electrode: Link The author saves the data in the RTC memory. In your case it is enough to write WiFi.channel () in EEPROM (simulated in ESP);

The article is very interesting, only that if I understand correctly the settings "disappear" after disconnecting the power supply.
I have used the WiFi.channel () function before, but I did not go in that direction. I scanned WiFi networks. A little pointless. And as it turned out, the function without parameters returns the channel of the network to which the ESP is connected.
It was straight ahead. Just not to enter the network credentials in the transmitter configuration, I connect to the AP running in the ESP_NOW receiver. These settings are hard in the receiver code. The condition is that the station must be connected to the WiFi network. Next, configurations of measuring modules.
In the screenshots, the configuration of the sensor module of the earlier version and the new one.



In the new version, you do not need to know and enter the WiFi channel of the network. Just run the transmitter configuration, set the number and interval and save everything. The message on the module configuration page is just an example. You can do it any way you like. For example, display the channel number again. The new transmitter code is attached. Many thanks to my colleagues krzbor and khoam for inspiration

Mercy..... . I don't have the strength anymore ... 40 software downloads. People must have read these codes. It is strange that no one reports amendments, etc. Maybe someone is willing to do it OTA and will implement it in the code . On the other hand, the Atmegi has to be programmed over the cable anyway. (unless there's something I don't know ..)

efi222 wrote:

Mercy..... . I don't have the strength anymore ... 40 software downloads. People must have read these codes. It is strange that no one reports amendments, etc. Maybe someone is willing to do it OTA and will implement it in the code . On the other hand, the Atmegi has to be programmed over the cable anyway. (unless there's something I don't know ..)

I thought so too, but all OTA support in ESP is one (really) line of code (and including the library). It is easier to make an OTA in ESP than to turn off WiFi Anyway, when I did it, I wondered why it was so late Now I am uploading the new version to the server and ESP is downloading it - no more cables!

Added after 11 [hours] 2 [minutes]:

pier wrote:

krzbor wrote:

Found this article. This was the link from the electrode: Link The author saves the data in the RTC memory. In your case it is enough to write WiFi.channel () in EEPROM (simulated in ESP);

Thanks for this link. You can read very interesting things there.

It is worth reading the entire cycle (3 parts). In addition to the description and code, we have interesting charts there. To make it easier, I collected these links:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Supplement

I read this tutorial once. Very interesting. But I decided to broadcast ESP-NOW. It's just faster. And with battery power, however, it has a significant impact on the battery life. I also made an oscillogram of the transmitter's operation (current consumption). You can see that the sending itself takes about 20ms. The rest of the time is waking up, taking measurements and falling asleep. I also tested the ESP8285. With this module you can save about 50ms. The module has an integrated flash with the MCU.



And here is the effect of the capacitor on the ESP8266 power supply. Interestingly, I did not notice any changes in the range.

It's not about power consumption, but about waking up, measuring and sleeping. Integrated memory probably speeds up data exchange. I compared both modules with a similar configuration.
There is ESP 8266 in the oscillograms.

This is the transmitter code snippet from this project. I personally checked all the sleep options. The former works the fastest.

ESP.deepSleepInstant (SLEEP_TIME * inter, WAKE_NO_RFCAL);
// ESP.deepSleepInstant (SLEEP_TIME * inter, WAKE_RFCAL);
//ESP.deepSleepInstant(SLEEP_TIME * inter, RF_NO_CAL);
//ESP.deepSleepInstant(SLEEP_TIME * inter, WAKE_RF_DEFAULT);
//ESP.deepSleep(SLEEP TIME * inter);

Measurement module oscillograms. Differences in the way ESP8266 sleeps. These aren't big differences, but still.

WAKE_NO_RFCAL - 220 ms


WAKE_RFCAL - 260 ms


RF_NO_CAL - 230 ms


WAKE_RF_DEFAULT - 250 ms


DeepSleep without options - 360 ms


Interestingly, manual wake-up - module reset with the button, introduces an additional boot delay for all modes, approx. 120 ms
DeepSleep without options - manual reset - 480 ms


When waking ESP from the timer by GPIO16 it looks like in the waveforms above.

khoam wrote:

efi222 wrote:

Interestingly, manual wake-up - module reset with the button, introduces an additional boot delay for all modes, approx. 120 ms

Decide with a timer or external wake-up?

Well, GPIO16 is physically connected to the Reset input. This is not a timer wake up?

khoam wrote:

Generally, these times are a bit long. What is the benchmark for recognizing that ESP has awakened?

The point of reference is the current consumption. And the times are long, because the module has to take measurements from the sensors after waking up, send them and go back to sleep.

khoam wrote:

efi222 wrote:

Well, GPIO16 is physically connected to the Reset input. This is not a timer wake up?

Yes, this is a wake-up timer, and external wake-up in the case of ESP8266 is by pressing reset when ESP.deepSleep (0) is set

Well, I did not mention the external wake-up
I think I got lost ...

khoam wrote:

efi222 wrote:

The point of reference is the current consumption. And the times are long, because the module has to take measurements from the sensors after waking up, send them and go back to sleep.

You can, of course, take such a benchmark, but the results will not be very objective.

I'm sorry, I don't know any other way ...

A very nice project, a definite plus from me.