@tomasmcguinness

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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 very important! How does Zigbee…

  • My F.A.R.T. Sensor PCBs arrived today!

    A quick look at v0.1 of my F.A.R.T. Sensor boards!

  • 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 J1 P0.04 AIN3 K2 P0.05…

  • 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.

  • 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 Modes Like the Nordic nRF62840,…

  • 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 that down to around 300µA.…

  • Getting lower power consumption on the XIAO nRF52840

    Following on the heels of the success with my nRF52840DK power consumption, I moved to my XIAO nRF52840 board. This was the board I wanted to run my Zigbee F.A.R.T, sensor on. I used the same arrangement as before, with the Nordic Power Profiler Kit (PPK) supplying 3.3v. I soldered a connector to the battery…

  • Reducing power consumption in my nRF52840 Zigbee sensor with the help of a Nordic Semiconductors’ Power Profiler Kit

    As part of tinkering on my Matter and Zigbee projects, I want to support battery power. Specifically, I want my Zigbee FART sensor to run for a few months on a battery. I’d love to box it up and hide away all the wires. My wife would love that too. Supporting battery power is far…

  • Switching my Temperature Sensor from BLE to Zigbee (Part #2)

    In Part #1, I started trying to convert my simple two probe temperature sensor from BLE to Zigbee. I got off to a slow start, dealing with compilation issues and incorrect behaviour. When I finished the previous post, I was waiting to hear back from Nordic’s support. I’m writing this second post as I heard…

  • Building a Matter powered “under-the-counter” light switch for my kitchen worktop

    Light switches are great, but when paired with ordinary bulbs, they have their limitations. Smart light bulbs are better, but require a different approach! My main problem with light switches is that they aren’t always beside you when you need to flick them. 99% of the time it’s not a problem as you flick the…

  • Switching my Temperature Sensor from BLE to Zigbee (Part #1)

    Having had a lot of success with a Matter device project, I started thinking about my twin probe temperature sensor. I wondered if was possible to convert from my dodgy BLE mesh to Zigbee. My BLE Mesh wasn’t behaving itself, so perhaps going to Zigbee would help improve my radiator temp capturing. I was against…

  • Does low temperature heating actually use more gas?

    With the first cold weather snap behind me, I wanted to share the results of a little experiment I ran to answer this question: Does having your heating on low and slow use more gas than having it hot with short bursts? This is the question I often get asked when I’m discussing low temperature…