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Marion

  • Marion posted a new activity comment 4 years, 11 months ago

    Sara: <My responses re your comments:

    a. The fluoropolymer grease used was Krytox. It is very expensive, but a very small amount is required to coat a sensor face. The advantage vs normal hydrocarbon based greases (such as Vaseline) is that this polymer is very resistant to oxidation and/ or evaporation of volatile components which leads to…[Read more]

  • We just finished the last of a series of tests of the Maxbotix. With the changes which Sara suggested (close the serial port after each log interval and restart it for each new consectutive interval), the sleep code does work if the sensor is continuously powered.

    Setup: Maxbotix 7389 sensor with the target either stream water or a fixed/flat…[Read more]

    • Sara: <My responses re your comments:

      a. The fluoropolymer grease used was Krytox. It is very expensive, but a very small amount is required to coat a sensor face. The advantage vs normal hydrocarbon based greases (such as Vaseline) is that this polymer is very resistant to oxidation and/ or evaporation of volatile components which leads to…[Read more]

  • Marion posted a new activity comment 5 years ago

    We have not tested that part of the data collection yet. Instead, we are first testing the approach in your suggestion as to powering up the sensor then opening the serial port, taking fresh reading, and then closing the serial port resulting in dumping all old data from the buffer. There is evidence in our previous data to support your idea…[Read more]

  • #include <SoftwareSerial_PCINT12.h>

    #include <Sodaq_PcInt_PCINT0.h>

    //sketch to log sonar data on Mayfly
    //this one uses either board power or a battery pack to continuously power Maxbotix
    #include <Wire.h>
    #include <avr/sleep.h>
    #include <avr/wdt.h>

    #include <SPI.h>
    #include <SdFat.h>
    SdFat SD;

    #include <RTCTimer.h>
    #include…[Read more]

  • Sensor works much better in open air suspended over water on a boom. We are now testing taking 10 separate reads at each time interval- for trouble shooting information. Although occasional intervals give 300 for all 10 reads, most of the time bad data occurs in only the first 2 or 3 reads at any interval. We are seeing intervals with some bad…[Read more]

  • We have a project which requires only reading a Maxbotix 7389 and using the result to trigger taking a water sample.

    With cold weather we have started getting bad (300 mm) data values sometimes. We were using pin 18 to supply the Maxbotix power and pin 19 to read. Sleep code worked fine. But, we would like to test supplying power to sensor…[Read more]

  • Marion posted an update 5 years ago

    I am looking for the Sodaq_PCint_PCint0 library. Long ago I installed Sodaq_PCint_Mod in my Mayfly libraries folder. I have not been able to find the _PCint0 library in the latest libraries on Github. Was the Sodaq_PCint library updated to a version the same as _PCint0?

  • Does anyone have any experience with the ISE nitrate electrodes for continuous monitoring directly in a stream? These appear to be the only “affordable” option for nitrate monitoring. The manufacturers’ literature seem to indicate that these may have a short lifetime before replacing the modules. However, there was a paper for work done in…[Read more]

  • Can the Mayfly be powered by a 4.5 volt alkaline battery pack? For a monitoring station under a bridge or in deep shade this would be an low cost option to supply power for long term logging where solar recharging is not feasible. The borad schematic shows a voltage regulator (SPX 3819) connected to the LiPo battery connectors which appears to…[Read more]

  • Marion posted an update 8 years, 1 months ago

    Is there any data available for estimated power drain from Mayfly logging 2-4 sensors once every 5 to 10 minutes- running only on the LiPo battery and without solar recharging?

    • Hi Marion. If you haven’t received an answer for this yet, you could repost it in the Mayfly forum (http://envirodiy.org/forum/dataloggers/mayfly/). It will reach more people that way, as it will go out in the RSS email.

    • It really depends on what sensors you’re using. The board uses very little power while sleeping, so all of the power drain you should be concerned about is related to the sensors and how much they draw, how frequently you sample, and how many seconds you have to leave them on in order to take a measurement.

  • The software section for the Mayfly shows some sample sketches which should be very useful in building user specific sketches. Can these be made available in a library somewhere so that they may be downloaded and used without having to retype the code? This would save considerable time and effort.

    Thanks

  • The software section for the Mayfly shows some sample sketches which should be very useful in building user specific sketches. Can these be made available in a library somewhere so that they may be downloaded and used without having to retype the code? This would save considerable time and effort.

    Thanks

  • As suggested by Paul, once I had loaded IDE version 1.6.5 the communication problem was resolved. I was able to complete the installation and start up the Mayfly without any other issues.

    Thanks

  • I am running Windows 10 running 64 bit. The Arduino IDE downloads, installs and starts up. However, when I plug the Mayfly into a USB port and then go to the IDE Board Manager to select the board under “Contributed”, it does not appear and at the bottom of the IDE screen the error message appears: “error downloading:…[Read more]

  • I am running Windows 10 running 64 bit. The Arduino IDE downloads, installs and starts up. However, when I plug the Mayfly into a USB port and then go to the IDE Board Manager to select the board under “Contributed”, it does not appear and at the bottom of the IDE screen the error message appears: “error downloading:…[Read more]

  • Marion became a registered member 8 years, 2 months ago