The original MonaLisa board firmware (see thread below) is for a USB-powered always on zigbee "router / repeater". It uses about 20-40mA and won't last more than a few days on batteries.
I've now developed a firmware (for the same board) that works as a battery powered device (and not a repeater). It polls the digital and analog inputs every 60 seconds, and updates the hub if anything has changed. There is also a digital interrupt button you can press / trigger to force a poll for changes immediately. The rest of the time, the board is sleeping.
My measurements of the power consumption show the board should last about 5 years or so on a pair of AA batteries.
Please let me know your thoughts, and if you'd like to try it out!
Hi, I would definitely want to try this firmware. I've been hoping there would be some way to do this as I have several projects on the "back burner" waiting for such a capability.
I clicked the dropbox link but was asked to create an account. Did I do that correctly?
I had problems with the link also, I have an account but when I tried the Dropbox link and signed in it said the path didn't exist and showed my files.
Oh, you'll need to remove the 6 resistors on the top of the board above the Zigbee module, as well as the voltage regulator to the right of the usb plug, in order to remove the standby power use.
You power the board from battery by attaching the battery to the 3V3 and gnd holes.
This is what the new, battery powered board looks like. I added op-amp buffers for the analog inputs. It works great for soil moisture sensor, water leak detector, temperature sensor, etc. And the digital inputs can wake up the board - good for magnetic contact sensor, motion detector, etc. It'll last for years on a single CR2450 battery!
Here's a new eBay listing for it...
Some info has been added to the MonaLisa documentation / guide as well.
I am interested in making some solar/battery powered solar lights, so I can control them from central motion sensor. Do you think this could be used in this situation. Could it control RGBW LEDs?
Not sure how to best answer your question but.......
The basic board is capable of controlling digital outputs and reading digital inputs. Using these "built-in" capabilities you can connect it to anything your imagination and electrical capability supports.
Right, the battery one is not good for controlling outputs, because the outputs are not kept in their state while the board is sleeping, and it takes a minute to wake up and respond to commands. It's really meant for sensors.
The original, always on, one would work fine for solar lights though, since it can be powered by the solar battery system. It only draws 50mW or so. Just hook up a relay to one of the digital outputs to control the lights. Be a little careful if how you him up the relay though. If it's a 5V relay then hook up the 5V to the INPUT 5V power to the MonaLisa, gnd to gnd, and the signal input on the relay to the digital output of the MonaLisa. That should work, despite the MonaLisa only having 3.3V digital output.
Or, hook up an arduino to the MonaLisa and use any of the many available rgbw led driver libraries for arduino.
Another side question... For the external antenna resistor.. Any tips on moving that guy? The smd resistor is SO tiny. For an old guy I find it really hard to de-solder and move something of that size.
It's a zero ohm resistor, aka a wire. So you could just remove the old one (a hot air soldering gun is best, but an iron can work), and then connect the external antenna side with a glob of solder bridging the two pads.
This sounds like the perfect board for using some magnetic contact sensors and a few DS18B20 temp sensors and making them Zigbee which I prefer over wifi. I had pieced together enough code to have a garage monitor running on raspberrypi with two temp sensors and three contact sensors several years ago and would like to convert that functionality over to the Hubitat now.
I am a little confused on the connections though with your statement of the temp sensor after talking about analog inputs and the contact sensor after the digital inputs. How many DS18B20s could I connect to one Monalisa? How many contact sensors could I connect to one Monalisa?
You could connect up to 4 contact sensors, one for each digital input.
The MonaLisa doesn't support digital temp sensors. A protocol and library (as in the Arduino) is needed. But you can use an analog ntc temperature sensor easily like this:
DROK 5Pcs 10k B3950 Temperature Probe, -25 to 125 Degree Celsius Temp Sensor, 3 Meters 9.8 Feet Sensitive Stainless Steel NTC Temperature Sensor Probe https://a.co/d/0ZdDeBl
You could have up to 4 of those, one per each analog input.
