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dan@wachusett

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Viewing 10 posts - 11 through 20 (of 31 total)
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  • in reply to: Keller CTD Sensor #16762
    dan@wachusett
    Participant

      Neil/Anthony,

      I think we will be able to purchase one Keller CTD this year and I will work on getting it going on the Mayfly 1.1 in whatever spare time I can find in my schedule. I appreciate all the input so far and I am looking forward to digging into this in the coming months. I will keep you both posted as I get going… I’m sure there will be lots of questions. Gathering any necessary hardware will be the first step, so I will check out the RS485 driver wing board you mention above. Unfortunately, working for a government agency makes it rather impossible for me to purchase additional sensors for testing/development.

      Regards,

      Dan

       

      in reply to: Keller CTD Sensor #16420
      dan@wachusett
      Participant

        Thanks for the advice Neil, I think you helped me figure out a path forward here. I have a stream with long-term monitoring data that I do not want to interrupt, so my inclination is to use a sensor that I know how to use (Hydros 21) and if budget/free time allows I would purchase the Keller CTD without being under any time constraints to get it deployed. From the input that you and Anthony provided I am fairly confident that the Keller CTD sensor could work with the Mayfly… I just need to figure out if I can realistically dedicate the time needed to take the lead in figuring it out. It certainly sounds interesting and I know it would be a great learning opportunity.

        in reply to: Keller CTD Sensor #16343
        dan@wachusett
        Participant

          Thanks for the information everyone, I really appreciate it!

          It sounds like RS485 is the way to go if I want to keep it simpler and use methods similar (hopefully) to the Acculevel 0r Nanolevel sensors. The RS485 interface only requires 3.2 V, so does this mean that no voltage booster/level shifter would be required?

          The RS485 version would have 4 wires in the cable (power, ground, RS485A, RS485B)… would I be able to connect this to the Mayfly using the EnviroDIY Multipurpose 6-pin Screw Terminal Grove Adapter?

          At the moment I am a bit hesitant to be the first to try this sensor with the Mayfly given that I only have a very limited understanding of the electronics and communications protocols. If I were to do this I would need a fair amount of assistance along the way, and I have no idea how simple/complicated this would be.

          If there were interest from others and expertise to lend, I could be up for the challenge.

          in reply to: Deep Cycle 12v Battery Recommendations #16305
          dan@wachusett
          Participant

            Thanks for your input Neil and Cal. I pulled my station from the field where the battery was not recharging so I could do some testing. I’ll report back with my testing results to see if anyone has any advice. I would still be interested in the 12 v battery option if anyone out there uses one successfully with their Mayfly board v 0.5.

            dan@wachusett
            Participant

              I am experiencing a similar issue that may be related, although without the RTC issue…

              • Built with Modular sensors v0.30.0
              • Data is saved to SD card when connected to computer via cable. RTC time is correct (or close enough)
              • If I disconnect the board from the computer it fails to wake up or log any data to the SD card
              • Battery voltage is sufficient (3.88 V, tested with multimeter)
              • One of my boards was operating fine using a previous sketch and prior version of modular sensor dependencies, so I don’t think its a hardware issue. I am experiencing the exact same problem on 6 boards.

              I’ve included my sketch below (UUIDs and Tokens have been scrubbed). I have seen sketch examples (DRWI_LTE.ino) where the wake pin is set to 31, whereas I have it set to A7. Perhaps this is the issue? If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions for troubleshooting please let me know.

              Thanks,

              Dan

               

              in reply to: Publish to AWS? #15793
              dan@wachusett
              Participant

                @vogelrnws, thanks for the digi link… this does seem like something that could work very well to send information to AWS from a XBee modem. There are still several steps to figure out in terms of getting a Mayfly program to execute the python code that is on the modem, perhaps like calling a function?, with the sensor data as the message formatted in a JSON string. These details are way beyond my capabilities, so I can’t really pursue this option on my own. I am hoping to come up with a solution that utilizes existing modular sensor libraries with some minor tweaks. Maybe this is unrealistic, but I have neither the time or ability to develop a novel solution from scratch, on my own. I am very thankful to be able to take advantage of all the existing work and know-how in this community.  I will keep researching options and report back if I find a solution that is within my technological reach.

                in reply to: Publish to AWS? #15777
                dan@wachusett
                Participant

                  @vogelrnws, We are using 4G LTE modems that are recommended by EnviroDIY with the LTE Bee Adapter. Verizon will send us SIM cards once we give them a list of IMEI numbers for the modems. Fortunately, our agency has access (with approval) for certain AWS storage/computing services, so I can take advantage of this since this project is relatively small, data-wise. I will only have 7 sensors sending data at 15 minute increments.

                  The main hurdles I need to address are items 2 and 3 in the original post on this thread. Basically, setting up a publisher script to push to an amazon endpoint, and configuring that endpoint to process the JSON data streams that get sent every 15 minutes.

                  in reply to: Publish to AWS? #15774
                  dan@wachusett
                  Participant

                    Thanks for your input @neilh and @vogelrnws.  I work for a state agency, so I have limited options when it comes to IT related endeavors, especially things that are new (like technology from the last 20 years). I am basically trying to follow pathways that have been lightly trodden, rather than attempt to blaze my own trail.

                    I am in the process of building some new monitoring stations with Mayfly loggers and Hydros-21 sensors pushing data over the cell network with 4G LTE  modems. I have to use our existing Verizon accounts to add data plans using the M2M service, which actually seems pretty reasonably priced. I don’t mind using MMW for real-time data access, however my reason for wanting to push data to AWS is that we can leverage our existing account with ESRI to ingest data files from AWS into GeoEvent Server, which would enable us to make customized dashboards to display our real-time monitoring data. I know there are other options, but I first want to see if I can go the AWS/ESRI route because this workflow already has momentum at another agency in my state, and I can sort of “draft” behind that effort.

                    Personally, I am open to other options (like Thingspeak), however the hurdles in setting up new contracts for IT related services are almost insurmountable. Its not even a matter of cost ($650 a year is a pretty easy sell). However, I basically need to prove that this project will not work with our existing IT tools/products/services before anyone will entertain another option.

                    It took me 18 months just to purchase 1 Mayfly board due to all the bureaucratic and procurement protocols that are in place!

                    Thanks,
                    Dan

                    in reply to: Hydros-21 Depth Temp Compensation #15626
                    dan@wachusett
                    Participant

                      Thanks Shannon, that is sound advice. We have 7 new Gen 2 Hydros-21 sensors and I will be delving in to this more later this summer. I do plan to test them in a controlled environment to make sure that the variation in output is within the accuracy range specified by the manufacturer.

                      in reply to: Hydros-21 Depth Temp Compensation #15614
                      dan@wachusett
                      Participant

                        Thanks @fisherba… I will take a look at the updated sketch. It seems like this correction should be part of the device firmware, but perhaps it was modified at some point and not included. I may try to apply this correction to my previous data downloads and see if fixes the issue. If so, then will update the sketch on the mayfly to perform this correction prior to writing data to the sd card. I’ll update this post with results once I get to it… which might not be until later this summer.

                      Viewing 10 posts - 11 through 20 (of 31 total)