Building an nRF52840 and Battery-Powered Zigbee Gate Sensor
1 min read
Summary
Glen Akins has created a Zigbee-based smart home system for his back garden that turns on the lights when the gate is opened, and sends a notification to his phone.
The system uses a Hall effect sensor and a lithium coin cell, and in a blog post Akins claims that it has operated for a summer and winter on the original cell.
Akins’ design can be replicated using an MS88SF2 module and a Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 SoC, although a solar cell and energy harvesting chip could also be used.
Such a set-up could also power sensors for UV index, temperature and humidity, which could all be transmitted via a low-energy wireless network such as Nordic Semiconductor.
This would be a more energy-efficient and smarter system than using traditional 433 MHz transmitters, says Akins.
