ESPEasy P2P Networking with Deepsleep sensors

[JosD]

Hello All,

I'm working a long time with ESPEASY. I'm using NodeMCU (8266, 4MB, with latest build 20240414) for my temp sensors sending data to Domoticz. This is a very cool en stable function.

Now I want to extend this with an extra NodeMCU with SDD1306 OLED display to show all sensor info from all other NodeMCU's, without the need to open webbrowser.

I wanted to use ESPEasy "P2P Networking" function to collect all data to this extra display NodeMCU. This is working correctly !

But when I put all NodeMCU sensors in deepsleep, with wake time 5 secs. The extra NodeMCU with display sees the sensor nodes in main- page but not the sensor data in Device-page. The Display NodeMCU never goes in deepsleep in this setup.

QUESTION: Is it possible to use ESPEasy P2P Networking in this Deepsleep configuration. If yes, what could be wrong with my config.

Thanks in advance.

[TD-er]

Right now it is not yet possible but I recently made some changes (in upcoming build, and already available here) which do send the p2p announcement packets a lot more efficient.
I can make it so that the node will immediately announce itself when an IP is obtained.
This will be a relatively easy step.

N.B. this also adds new events which you can use in rules when a new node is made available.
However a node is 'forgotten' after 10 minutes since its last announcement packet, so if you sleep for less than 10 minutes this feature may not be useful for you.

So to summarize:
- Changes to immediately announce need to be added
- Changes to receive events when new nodes announce themselves are already included in the latest test builds.

[JosD]

Thanks TD-er,

This is very helpful! Luckely it was not an user error.

I will test the new build.

I sleep for 20 min, so I need to the "keep-alive" rule on the display NodeMCU to keep all nodes alive. Can you help me with the rule code for this, I do not really understand the rules logic. Can i put the lines into tap "Rules" or is it not so easy an must I reduce sleep-time to 9 min for all nodes ?

Thanks in advance.

[TD-er]

In order to receive an event when a new p2p node has announced, you need to have the sleep mode set to > 10 minutes.
But whether or not a node is 'known' only has an effect on the list shown on the root page.
In these 'p2p events' you also get the node name, so you could show them on your display purely based on these events.
We can of course help you with that.

However I still need to make some changes to make sure the sleeping nodes will have enough time to announce themselves when they wake up.

N.B. another nice idea you can think of is that you can act on these announcement events by immediately sending some command to this node to do something (e.g. trigger some GPIO pin or keep awake)

[JosD]

Thanks for the info.

I'm not an expert with regards to the use of EspEasy. Possible other people can use your info who to get things working. I can only use the menu options of EspEasy. I have loaded the new build ver 20240812 on Display and sensor NodeMCU (8266,4M). There is a new field in this version, when you create new device. This field is called Data Source. I got is working without Deepsleep, with this new field.

But with deep sleep setting (Sleep awake time : 30 sec and sleep time 700 sec of 100sec) it does not work.

I know that you and other people are working on this issue an hopefully have get it working in the future, I will check releasnote on future release.

Untill then, I wil try to get info on the Display NodeMCU for my Domoticz server.

Thanks for your support

Cheers,

jos

[Ath]

There is a new field in this version, when you create new device. This field is called Data Source. I got is working without Deepsleep, with this new field.

This field was in the past only shown when the task was receiving data from a remote unit. This is planned to get some changes/improvements, and 1 step already implemented is to always show this field.

[JosD]

With the new release of Espeasy "mega-20240822" in my case running no a ESP8266 NodeMCU with 4M memory, I have got the P2P networking function working with Deepsleep temp (DHT22) sensors. As mentioned in the previous post by the moderators there are improvements made on de P2P networking functions of Espeasy.

With the latest release this has resultated in a working setting, when configured correctly !

Setup to let P2P networking work with DeepSleep sensors in my case:

Settings in Config TAB
- The NodeMCU of the DHT22 sensor is set "Sleep time" to 20min (in may case). You may change it to your liking
- The NodeMCU of the DHT22 sensor is set "Sleep awake time" to 3 sec. This is the minimum value with this software. Can be set to larger values, if needed for your project.

Settings in Devices TAB
- Set DHT22 (in may case) must be set to "interval" to 1 sec.

This configuration results in a broadcast of the data over the P2P network in the 3 seconds that the NodeMCU is awake !!!

The plan now is to have 1 NodeMCU awake all the time with a LCD display (SSD1306) which receives all sensor data from the sleeping nodes and Displays them !

Thanks developers for the improvements made with this latest build !