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Mayfly v.1.1 – Clarivue Turbidity Sensor

Home › Forums › Mayfly Data Logger › Mayfly v.1.1 – Clarivue Turbidity Sensor

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    • 2023-05-18 at 6:48 PM #17830
      EMayerRHA
      Participant

        Hello,

        We installed the new v.1.1 boards with a CTD sensor and also added the Clarivue Turbidity sensor. On the MMW platform it shows the turbidity sensor as reporting with a green background for the graph display, but the readings show as -9999.99 (which usually means its an error). Though when a large rainstorm comes through, it does report numbers or does occasionally report numbers I believe when it is detecting turbidity in the river. However, I’m confused because the graph is green and not red (whenever a sensor is reporting incorrectly or an error its red). So my questions are:

        • Does the clarivue 10 report -9999.99 when no turbidity is detected? Is this something in the code I could change manually?
        • Is this a battery or voltage issue? Based on my understanding, the newer boards (v. 1.1) should have resolved this issue. Or do we need a more powerful battery to power this additional sensor? (note: we have not had any power issues with the CTD sensor)

        Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advanced.

      • 2023-05-19 at 10:57 AM #17831
        Shannon Hicks
        Moderator

          -9999  is not an actual reading from the sensor, it’s what the Mayfly stores as the value when it doesn’t actually get a valid number from the sensor.  You’d see the same thing is no sensor was attached to the Mayfly at all.  What is the MMW station name or URL?

        • 2023-05-19 at 11:14 AM #17832
          EMayerRHA
          Participant

            https://monitormywatershed.org/sites/RHA03/

            Again, there are readings sometimes throughout the day, but then not. So I’m not sure what is going on here.

          • 2023-05-22 at 4:31 PM #17835
            Shannon Hicks
            Moderator

              Is it a Mayfly 1.1 revB board?  or a revA?  That station seems to not have the usual 4.3v during the day that most v1.1revB boards get, and is more similar to the voltage one sees on a v1.0 or v1.1revA board.  What solar panel do you have on that station, and is it in a very shady location, or is the panel pointed north?

              All that being said, did you modify the board for 9v output as I described in this post:  https://www.envirodiy.org/topic/need-help-with-clarivue10-turbidity-sensors/#post-17638

              We found that the ClariVue sensors work fine with 9v power and the Mayfly can produce a higher current at 9v than it does at 12v, so until we have a better workaround for generating high current 12v supply for the sensor, modifying the Mayfly to output 9v should give you consistent results.

            • 2023-05-23 at 11:47 AM #17838
              EMayerRHA
              Participant

                For clarification, 9 volts is stable – which requires de-soldering the 12 volt bridge and re-soldering the 9 volt bridge correct ? In the event all 3 soldering points are connected by accident what will the results be? Is there voltage protection or will it burn out the board?

                • 2023-05-23 at 6:20 PM #17839
                  Shannon Hicks
                  Moderator

                    There’s nothing to unsolder.  Solder Jumper SJ25 has 2 small pads.  By default, they are separated and not connected at all, and that makes the on-board boost circuitry output 12 volts.  By putting a solder blob on SJ25 and connecting the 2 pads, you add some extra resistance to the circuitry that controls the voltage and it’ll output 9 volts instead.  So there’s no chance you can do it wrong, as long as you’re adding solder only to SJ25.  Once done, you can verify your success by putting a voltmeter on the SW12 pin of the headers and when the switched power output is on (as indicated by the red LED in the lower left corner of the Mayfly), you should see 9v there, and on any Grove jack Vcc pin if you adjusted the pin jumper next to that particular Grove jack (as demonstrated about halfway down on the Jumper Settings page.)

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