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Battery terminals. Are you positive that’s the right way?
When designing the PCB for my F.A.R.T. sensor, I had to decide which way the +/- terminals went. I had some wired connectors, which looked like this: I designed my PCB with this orientation of positive and negative and thought no more of it. However, when I tried to connect… Read ⇢
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Zigbee F.A.R.T. Sensor code now available!
It’s taken a long time to get here, but my Zigbee Flow and Return Temperature sensor code is on Github! https://github.com/tomasmcguinness/zigbee-nrf-flow-and-return-temperature-sensor Next Steps There is a small design flaw in my PCB, which needs to be resolved. I also need to confirm the sensor’s reliability i.e. it stays connected for… Read ⇢
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F.A.R.T. Sensor PCB mistake
After all the excitement of getting the PCBs for my F.A.R.T. Sensor delivered, I discovered that I had made a mistake! Let me show you what went wrong. If you look at the top right, you’ll see SW1. These pads are for a small push switch, which will act as… Read ⇢
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Added Battery measurement to my Zigbee F.A.R.T. Sensor
Whilst I waited for the arrival of my new PCBs from Aisler.net, I continued to work on the code for my Zigbee Sensor. Next item on my list was the addition of battery reporting. When running a device on battery, giving the user some idea of remaining battery life is… Read ⇢
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My F.A.R.T. Sensor PCBs arrived today!
A quick look at v0.1 of my F.A.R.T. Sensor boards! Read ⇢
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nRF52840 ADC Pin Mappings
I find myself struggling to remember the Analog to Digital converter PIN mappings on the nRF52840. To help, I created this simple table. This is for the aQFN73 variant, which comes on the Seeed XIAO nRF52840 I use the most. ADC PIN Name AIN0 A12 P0.02 AIN1 B13 P0.03 AIN2… Read ⇢
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Switching my Temperature Sensor from BLE to Zigbee (Part #3)
In Part 3 of my series on making a Temperature sensor using Zigbee, I discuss issues with connectivity and finally getting good battery life. I run through some of the PCB design changes before talking about what is outstanding. Read ⇢
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Lowering Matter device power consumption in ESP32-C6
Whilst I wait to take delivery of the PCBs for my Zigbee F.A.R.T. sensor project, I returned my attention to my Matter switch project. I had great success reducing the power consumption of my Zigbee sensor. I now wanted to see what I what was possible with the ESP32-C6. Sleep… Read ⇢
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More successful adventures in reducing nRF52840 power consumption
As I get closer to finishing v0.1 of my Zigbee F.A.R.T. sensor, I continue to look at power consumption. This is my first post of 2025, so Happy New Year! I thought I was doing okay! My initial testing had the sensor sipping an average 400µA. Some more tinkering got… Read ⇢
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