NAM browser – outcome of experiment

Recently we did internal experiment with Android apps. First, short clip:

Now, a few words of explanation. I have quite a few NAMs running at home, and not only that. And although they all send data to Influx, some are connected to HomeAssistant, and each device can be checked through its web interface, I needed a convenient way to quickly check a specific value.

So, I created a JSON browser – you enter a URL, the app downloads the JSON and displays a tree – you browse and select a field, name it, and from then on, you have the value from that field displayed on the main screen. You can refresh all entries at once or just one. This isn’t shown in the video because I quickly realized I mainly use NAMs, and when the app recognizes the JSON structure as “NAM-based,” it immediately suggests quick selection fields, which can be selected with a single click.

This way, without having to click around in Grafana, I can quickly see that the fermentation is nearing completion 😉

After using it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a useful tool and that maybe more people would find it useful?

Creating a Google Play store is a bit of a hassle, though, so I’m wondering if anyone would install something like this on their Android (but not iOS, unless Apple allows apps to be built on Linux…).

Let’s summarize – what does the app currently do?

  • You can enter the URL of any JSON file, download it, and select a single value from it. Name it, and it will be displayed on the main screen.
  • It finds NAM devices on the local network and recognizes the JSON structure, allowing for a shortened method of selecting a value (in this variant, it’s resistant to changes in the JSON structure; for example, after a sensor configuration change, it should still provide the correct reading, provided it’s available).
  • You can refresh all values ​​at once or select them individually.

Is this worth developing and making available to a wider audience?

Post service suspended

We have received info from Post, that starting from Jan 1st posts will stop accept small packages sent as registered letters. It was way how we shipped most small orders in Europe. For some countries it was only available shipping method.

Due to this change we have suspended accepting orders with this shipping. That means we service now lower number of countries. We are looking for solution. Post proposes use of parcels instead, but price is about 3 times higher so courier services will be in similar price or even cheaper.

NAMF 47rc2 – new features

Today the binaries for the NAMF-47rc2 version (of course – in the beta update channel) hit the server. It brings quite significant new features. The first, which will be appreciated especially by those who have recuperation in their homes.

If you equip your NAM with the SDS011 restarter, then in the SDS configuration you can set the alarm to go off at a preset PM2.5 or PM10 value.

Then pin 7 (the one closest to the LED and SDS connector) will be set to high (3.3V) when alert value has been exceed. Remember that PCF used in restarter can drive only 400 µA in high state, so You need to use some transistor to drive any load.

If you have mechanical ventilation in the house, you can thus receive information about the need to turn it off when the air is of poor quality. Output this signal to the outside (don’t forget to also “take” GND from the EXT connector or any of the HX connectors) and you can control the device.

You can achieve a similar solution using home automation (whether Home Assistant or Domoticz), there are also ready-made commercial solutions. Here the advantage is simplicity – if you don’t have HA/Domoticz this will also work. Since it works locally, it doesn’t require access to the cloud as some of the solutions you’ll encounter from competitors have.

LoRaWAN

The NAM 0.4 kit, expected by some for a long time, has finally appeared – based on ESP32 and running on LoRaWAN. The kit is still in beta, but if anyone is strongly interested in testing – you are welcome. The NAMF-47rc2 version already allows you to use LoRaWAN – you just need to be in range of The Things Network. The other good news about TTN is that besides being in range you don’t need additional infrastructure – Tomek Rękawek, the author of aqi.eco has added an integration that allows you to send data from TTN to aqi.eco! But about the details, I will write on the Starter Kit, describing the configuration. For now, soldering instructions for the NAM 0.4 kit are available.

DNMS – measure noise

The next big news is support for DNMS! Digital Noise Measurement Sensor is, as the name suggests, a sensor that measures noise intensity. Well, and since version 47rc2 it is already supported by NAM.

To top it off – any day now a soldering kit will be on sale in our shop, which will allow you to build such a sensor

NAMF-2020-46 & 46a

Some time ago there was NAMF-2020-46 stable release. Here are some info about changes:

  • you can reset device to factory settings – press 3 times RST on Wemos with interval about 3-5 seconds between them
  • LCD backlight can be turned off in given hours of day/night
  • BH1750 ambient light sensor is supported in NAMF

There are also some bugs fixed (like not working user/password when sending data InfluxDB)

Two days ago there was release NAMF-2020-46a with one bugfix – there was additional parenthesis marks in Prometheus metrics endpoint. With 46a that was removed, Prometheus endpoint now should work OK.

Next stable release will have a bit different naming scheme – no 2020 in it so it will be just NAMF-47.

NAMF-2020-46rc7

A minor but useful change. From now on, links to configuration help for NAM will appear. Currently, this is represented by a compass symbol, which leads to pages with a brief description. For example, like this one.

Why a compass? Because the icons used by NAMF are based on symbols available in Unicode. And somehow, I couldn’t find a better one. There’s a nice question mark, but white on white is not great, and red doesn’t quite fit.

Help is based on a system of pages that are generated along with the code on GitHub. The advantage is the simplicity of the whole system, and the structure allows for maintaining different language versions. For now, it’s just the structure; I still need to work on the translations (and expanding the list of topics) 🙂

The downside is that since the help files are on GitHub, internet access is required. When configuring NAM for the first time and connected to the AP in NAM, there usually isn’t network access, but this depends on the phone’s settings.

And yes, there will soon be an rc8 version, because I was convinced that rc7 included all the necessary translations/labels for languages, but it didn’t, so rc8 is coming soon. Based on this, there will likely be a stable version.

Other changes – the implementation of the BH1750 light sensor has been completed.

What next?

The next versions will have slightly different numbering. Since there is currently only one line of software, the year 2020 will be dropped from the version number. Thus, after NAMF-2020-46, the next version will be NAMF-47.

Version 47 will primarily focus on completing the ESP32 version with LoRa (and possibly Ethernet, but that’s not the main goal). As for sensors, the initial tests of the Winsen ZE25A are very promising, so I plan to add support for this O3 sensor to NAM.