[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

Yes, the IP address for https://data.envirodiy.org and also now https://monitormywatershed.org were changed on January 21 to 50.236.137.123.
This could change again in the future.

You can always find the IP address using a website such as https://ipinfo.info.

Can you really not just use the URL with your wifi XBee module?

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

Sara, thanks for your link to the bug on the XBee3 LTE-M RF Module. That is helpful to know that some of the issues folks have experienced were due to a known hardware bug. Do you know if the hardware fixed modules are available to purchase yet?

Also, regarding your concern about adding a manually soldered capacitor chain, your link describes why it wouldn’t be a good idea using a breadboard, or probably even the SparkFun Breakout Board for XBee Module, because the power traces are undersized to transmit those short bursts of high-amp power. However, it seems that manually soldering capacitors into an appropriately-sized power line would likely work, right?

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

I forgot to mention that YosemiTech also makes a multi-parameter sonde with an optional wiper. http://www.yosemitech.com/en/product-20.html

This is an approach to having a wiper on the DO probe, as none of the stand-alone DO probes have a wiper (unlike Turbidity, Chlorophyl and Blue-Green Algal stand-alone sensors, which have models with built-in brushes).

Also, as with all YosemiTech sensors, you need to power the DO sensors with 6-12 V (5V only works if you have in-line capacitors and no brushes) and you need an RS485-to-TTL serial converter. See https://github.com/EnviroDIY/YosemitechModbus#suggested-setup-with-an-envirodiy-mayfly and https://github.com/EnviroDIY/SensorModbusMaster/tree/master/hardware/Modbus-Mayfly_WingShield for details on that.

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

I highly recommend the YosemiTech DO sensors, which use optical sensing technology for long-term stability. https://www.yosemitech.com/en/product-cat-11.html

They use Modbus communication and can be user-calibrated. Here are their two main models (the Y505 is new and not on their website).

Y504 (standard model):

~$650 each (plus shipping plus 25% new China import tax)
±1%​ DO accuracy
±0.2°C temp accuracy
5 m standard cable length (10 m at additional cost)
10 s response time

Y505 (low-cost, aquaculture model):

~$450 each (plus shipping plus 25% new China import tax)
±3%​ DO accuracy
±0.5°C temp accuracy
10 m standard cable length
40 s response time
no protection cap over sensor surface

For more info, see https://github.com/EnviroDIY/YosemitechModbus/blob/master/doc/Y50X-DO-ProductProfile.pdf

There are a few minor drawbacks to YosemiTech. They require purchasing with a bank transfer rather than a credit card, and their documentation isn’t great. However, we’re trying to help them with the later by reposting manuals and other info at https://github.com/EnviroDIY/YosemitechModbus. Overall, however, I find their sensors to be of excellent quality, and their email response time to questions (and also a warranty repair) have been quite good.

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

@dkalo, The Mafly logger is now fully open source hardware!

We have released the Eagle .brd and .sch files for the latest Mayfly v0.5b board, at
https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/tree/master/hardware

We also packaged things up nicely, including additional documentation from @shicks, into official releases, https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/releases, which we’ve made fully citable: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2572006

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

Yes! The Mafly logger is now fully open source hardware!

We also packaged things up nicely, including additional documentation from @shicks, into official releases, https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/releases, which we’ve made fully citable: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2572006

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

@brandon9, great news! The Mafly logger is now fully open source hardware!

The EAGLE files are now available for the Mayfly v0.5b!
https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/tree/master/hardware

We also packaged things up nicely, including additional documentation, into official releases, https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/releases, which we’ve made fully citable: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2572006

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

@neilh, great news! The Mafly logger is now fully open source hardware!

The EAGLE files are now available for the Mayfly v0.5b!
https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/tree/master/hardware

We also packaged things up nicely into official releases, https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/releases, which we’ve made fully citable: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2572006

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

@srgdamiano, thanks for making it really clear that the issues folks have been facing are primarily on the side of Digi’s LTE-M XBee3 hardware/software, and the work you’ve done with the ModularSensors code are all work-arounds to deal with the instability of Digi’s LTE-M XBee3 hardware/software when running on the Mayfly hardware.

I had failed to clearly convey that message in my previous post. Sorry about that!

[Anthony Aufdenkampe]

@srgdamiano, thanks talking to me on the phone Wednesday afternoon, explaining to me all your recent advances and successes.

All, I just answered that question on GitHub here: https://github.com/EnviroDIY/ModularSensors/issues/162#issuecomment-459879699

Here it is, also pasted below.

From what I understand, to get the Digi XBee3 LTE-M module to work on the Mayfly with Modular Sensors, it is necessary to:

1. Use “Bypass” mode to directly interact with the UBLOX modem chip, bypassing Digi’s chip, rather than using the standard “Transparent” mode, which would cause full freezes (probably due to power instabilities because there isn’t a capacitor chain on the Digi LTE-M module or the Mayfly).
2. Turn off the NBIoT radio to speed up the connection, by setting the network technology (“N#) to 2 (LTE-M only).
3. Turn off Power Saving mode, because this mode interacts with the network regarding when it will wake again, and if that doesn’t match the logging interval that we give it, it becomes impossible to wake up the modem when we need it.

@SRGDamia1 has implemented these changes in the current develop branch:
https://github.com/EnviroDIY/ModularSensors/commits/develop

She’s had it working since her Jan. 29 commit, be9e2eb, but she’s been working on improvements since then.

This solution still isn’t perfectly stable, because of the following hardware issues (which could all be addressed by an Xbee adaptor shield that I would like to build):

• Neither the Digi XBee3 LTE-M module or the Mayfly have the recommenced capacitor chain on the Xbee power line. This is the likely culprit for brownouts.
• Benefit of optionally switching Xbee-Mayfly pin connections for the “status”, depending on radio module
• The Mayfly doesn’t have a means to separately reboot or power-down the Xbee module
• The Mayfly doesn’t set all the unused pins to Ground, which would be ideal for broader radio compatibility, with for example the Nimblelink Skywire.

The new SODAQ SARA UBEE R410M radio module, https://shop.sodaq.com/sodaq-sara-ubee-r410m.html, has the same UBlox SARA-R410M radio chip as the Digi XBee3 LTE-M module​, but it also has a built-in capacitor chain, which could substantially improve the stability when deployed with the Mayfly.

Sara, what did I miss?

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