[LittleManistee]

I’ve got a lot of my prototype wires and headers at SparkFun and Adafruit.  They both have pages and pages of connectors for the final product.

I have been buying a couple of each of the Mayfly add-ons when I see them in stock so I have them when I need them.  I have two mayfly proto boards and will probably just need one.  Let me know if you get in a bind.

SparkFun has all kinds of headers since most of their products come minus headers.  The soldering was a little intimidating at first.  Once you learn to time the heat up of each connection (I just count) they come out pretty good.  I have a 10x loupe from my engineering days that I go over them with under a good light for quality control.  That has saved me a lot of head scratching.

[LittleManistee]

I’ve been experiencing exactly the same thing Matt described.  Atom and Platform IO quit working for me, gave the same compile error.  I uninstalled them and then they would not reinstall.  So I loaded VSC  and Platform IO and got the same compile error.  Matt sent me instructions on how and where to manually put the libraries in my project files in VSC and that got me going again.  I vaguely remember Platform IO doing some updates before things quit.

I’m going to install the older version as Matt describes and see what happens.

[LittleManistee]

I’ve attached two of my files from earlier today.  The file with 08-20 is the raw data file created yesterday right from the Mayfly, and the 08-21 is the upload file created today as I described earlier.  I have been unable to upload the 08-21 file as of now.  I tried three times earlier this morning and twice this afternoon.  The third file, 08-19_20 is the one I uploaded successfully yesterday, but I went back and formatted the date/time column manually when I added the data for the second day.  It almost seems like the system is looking for a change flag somewhere once an upload fails because if I go in and do redo something, like reformat the date/time just like it was, it will upload.

My C programming skills back in April when I loaded the program were not such that I was capable of modifying the output file.  I was thrilled when I got it to do what is is.  I’ve advanced some since and could maybe get in there and do it.  The Excel template and macros seemed like the way to go while I figured out the radios and automatic upload.  I’ve got the xbee’s working now and am working through the ethernet and web connection, I haven’t got to the upload file formatting part yet…

Attachments:

1. 190363_Armas_2020-08-21.csv
2. 190363_Armas_2020-08-20.csv
3. 190363_Armas_2020-08-19_20.csv

[LittleManistee]

I have been having similar problems uploading to the internet.  They seem to have become worse the last few months.

I make it a point not to change the original data file, I open it but don’t save it before closing.

I use an Excel template to create an upload file.  The template contains the first 8 rows of the upload file.  All I have to do to those rows is cut and paste in the Data Logger File name from the data file.  This gives me exactly the same first 8 rows every time, except the file name.

I then copy and paste in the data from the original .csv file at row 9.

I have an Excel Macro that deletes the SampNum data col for 1,000 rows below row 9 in the upload file and shifts the cells left so my data is now in the right columns and all the header information correct.

I have a second Excel Macro that formats the Date and Time column for 1,000 rows below row 9.

I’ve been using the Excel template since April.  The macros are relatively new.

My upload failure rate has steadily got worse over time.  Lately it is successful maybe 10% to 20% of the time.

I upload daily so my upload files are about 60 rows long.  That is unless I am not successful uploading a days data.  In that case  I add the additional days data below the previous days and try to upload all.  Right now I have a file with 3 days data I have been unable to upload after about 20 tries at various times throughout the days.  I am well below the 1,000 rows I’ve been hearing is the maybe the limit.

The reason for our watershed group funding these stations was to get baseline data on our river.  A major justification for our station was for the fishermen in our watershed group and others to have data on river conditions so they know whether or not to make the trip up to fish on their holidays and weekends.  About 75% of the residences in the watershed are not owner occupied, they are vacation homes people drive to, very commonly 2 to 4 hours.  So we need timely data and since we have NO reliable cell service at this location I am working on an xbee radio link for it and using this method during the long learning curve.  My intent is to use a mesh network to establish a base for upload where we have solid internet.  Without timely data I risk losing support for the project.

We are in a fairly remote area and satellite internet is the only available option and it may play into this with latency or other issues.  The Covid pandemic has put an additional load on the internet and is certainly not helping things.  I also have a Wilson cell booster system in my house so I have cell service (well, most of the time) and the results using a mobile hot spot connection are about the same.

I am pretty sure my upload files are consistent and correct and there is a problem in the upload process and not my files.  I would really appreciate it if you could get it prioritized to be fixed/upgraded.  It appears to be a very common problem.

[LittleManistee]

Hello Everyone,

I am part of the Little Manistee Watershed Conservation Council here in North West Michigan. We are in the early stages of implementing a series of up to six monitoring stations along 72 river miles on the Little Manistee River. All stations will have CTD and at least one will have a Turbidity sensor. This conversation caught my attention because cell coverage in this area is very unreliable and I believe to make the Mayfly stations upload reliably the only choice is the xbee radio and not cell.

My plan for the first unit is to use xbee radio from the monitoring station to a base station in my house that will connect to the internet via an ethernet connection to my router and satellite. I expect the satellite system to be problematic, but it is my only choice here in the forest. The future additional units will either use the same configuration at other citizen scientists homes or connect as second or third nodes to existing base stations.

I am in the process of purchasing materials for the first unit. I was hoping for suggestions on the base station configuration and the radio modules.

For the base station it would appear an Uno with Ethernet and Xbee shields would serve the purpose with some programming. The Arduino Ethernet Shannon refers to in the link above shows it is retired with no newer version I can find. I have not been able to find a better alternative and am wondering if any of you have?

There are so many xbee radio modules out there it is overwhelming. We are in dense pine and oak forest and the monitoring stations will be in river valleys so the 900 MHZ xbee modules with external antennas are probably the place to start. Some monitors will be close to base stations, others will not. From reading the conversation above it sounds like I should use a non programmable radio module. Can any of you tell me what specific modules you have had success with and other parameters I should be considering based on your experience?

[Author]

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