Properties are created even if nodes not instantiated

[ivanfmartinez]

I'm using Arduino IDE, and the behaviour is to compile all classes and include in the binary .

As the ESP have enough memory this is not a big problem.

But the properties are being defined and show for every device during the configuration :

https://github.com/luebbe/homie-node-collection/blob/master/src/AdcNode.cpp#L18

I propose to use a beforeHomeSetup() method in this classes to create this property definitions on demand using "new" to instantiate the objects.

Please look in this code and check if you think this method can be used in the other classes :

https://github.com/ivanfmartinez/homie-node-collection/commit/18b90f9b984bbd605f0a98f4e7afde7de0c0caaf#diff-f817ca7fed45d85f6e3067b00c9499a2L15

[luebbe]

Yes, that's nice. One suggestion concerning the "reverse" logic in your relaynode implementation. Why don't you make relayOnValue and relayOffValue uint8_t variables and set them in the constructor? You would get rid of the two functions.

[ivanfmartinez]

I have changed the logic to use the variables.

[luebbe]

Hi @ivanfmartinez , what is your intention behind the timeout implementation? How is it supposed to work? You didn't document anything and from looking at it and my current testing, it's buggy.

[ivanfmartinez]

The timeout is working in my devices.

The timeout define maximum time (in seconds) the relay will stay active.

The timeout attribute in the class will have the time when the relay should be deactivated.

The timeout property receives number of seconds to keep the relay active.

The loop method is responsible to check with uptime object to control this.

[luebbe]

Maybe it's working for you as you intended, but from the implementation it is not clear how it is supposed to work. ;)

Some points are not clear to me:

• When you send a value to timeout/set, is the relay supposed to turn on for timeout seconds immediately or not at all? Is this value going to be used when you send true to on/set?
• When you send true to on/set, is the relay supposed to turn on for timeout seconds or until you send false?
• When you send a numeric value to on/set, is this going to turn on the relay and set the new timeout value?
• You can send negative values to timeout/set and on/set and your implementation accepts them.
• The relay will turn off after timeout seconds, but the timeout value posted to mqtt topic contains a value relative to the current uptime of the relay. What use does this value have for other nodes (whatever)?

I'd like to to document the timeout feature and the settings in readme.md, but the description has to be correct.

[ivanfmartinez]

If you send an integer greather than zero for "timeout" property and the relay is on it will change the time for the relay be in on state for the number of seconds received (5 will keep the relay on for 5 seconds since the message is received) https://github.com/ivanfmartinez/homie-node-collection/blob/18b90f9b984bbd605f0a98f4e7afde7de0c0caaf/src/RelayNode.cpp#L65

If you send true for "on" property it will go on and use the relayOnLimit or globalOnLimit if defined with values greather than zero. If you send integer for "on" property it will go on and use the integer received as the time in seconds to keep relay on (since message was received). https://github.com/ivanfmartinez/homie-node-collection/blob/18b90f9b984bbd605f0a98f4e7afde7de0c0caaf/src/RelayNode.cpp#L51

The current implementation does no check for negative values, considering the current logic using negative numbers will make the timeout to expire and the relay will be turned off..

[luebbe]

Done using a slightly different approach in ac38d3b1f8e16385a7dd693f0ed4ed23ce05220c