[neilh20]

Hi Cal, great to hear you’ve got your problem solved.

Believe me that is part of the process, learning how the libs go together. They can be amazing to pull in,  – but its part of the programming paradigm of how to reference and track them.

Sometimes better to post a new thread when asking a question, and for programming its getting the focus on the right level of detail to be able to get thoughts on what is causing an issue.

[neilh20]

Hi Cal, its good if you could include the compile errors, even perhaps as an attachment. In your current form you are making anybody wanting to help do a lot more work.

As you are posting in this old thread on Yosemite-library I’m guessing its something to do with that.

I had a similar problem with Yosemitech Lib described here- https://github.com/EnviroDIY/YosemitechModbus/issues/32  I think its an AnthonyA issue with the Yosemitech Lib not being labeled.

If it is about Yosemitech Lib issue, you might trying pull from the (master) and I don’t think its an issue there, as it references an earlier Yosemitech Lib

[neilh20]

While browsing something else, I came across this ISCO 3700 references – no idea if its workable

https://github.com/EnviroDIY/Trigger

https://github.com/EnviroDIY/Trigger/tree/master/hardware/ISCO-Mayfly-Trigger

[neilh20]

@khaase great to hear  – do you have a pn for the cap – be interested see what the internal ESR is.

Seems to me a way to monitor the battery for maximum life is to read the voltage unloaded, and then again when it is loaded.  The capacitor moderates the voltage reading, but still droops. So it would be how much droop (lack of charging from high impedance   battery) can tell you something, and how much accuracy do you need from the ADC to be able to effectively detect a significant droop.

BTW here are some observation on the battery voltage measurement.

https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/issues/36 ~ I implemented an algorithm to reduce the noise.

https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/issues/32 ~ discussion across different Mayfly versions

and if you have anything to add to this https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/issues/29

Some real world, with two monitoring sources,  one a resistor divider to 12bit ADC, and the other the internal method, https://monitormywatershed.org/sites/TUCA-Na13/ –

https://monitormywatershed.org/tsv/TUCA_PO03/ – battery V with inter Vbat and external  STC3100 to read battery V & Est battery capacity – however turns out to be hard problem to calculate

[neilh20]

@vogelrnws I had been looking at porting it to another processor and been using it and digging into the code. I’ve looked at some of the RP2040, but I’m cautious about its ability to go into low power – but haven’t looked at it in depth.

The SDI-12 lib uses a software based UART – running at 1200Baud, so 1200Baud is pretty slow and it does handle it. It needs to have a timer generated to be able to look for the changes in the data stream.

Unfortunately, IMHO, I’ve found it to be quite fragile.   Also the software timing has made debugging fragile.  In 2021 I had also found it worked with some Insitu LT500 sensors and not others. I tried to put a “test station” together, against a traceable SDI-12 test setup using https://www.vegetronix.com/Products/SDI-12 and it failed on the basic physical test.

So I’m thinking about how to 1) +5V buffer  possibly this solution https://github.com/EnviroDIY/Arduino-SDI-12/issues/87

2) hardware timing. Possibly emulate the UART with with either DMA or Timer/Capture.

So maybe the hardware interface could be done with a simple 4 wire Seeed plugin with an off-board buffer and boost to +12V, and software modified.

So just IMHO a heads up on some of the possible issues to consider.

[neilh20]

@hannahlb if I understand you – you have 4 geographically distributed ISCO samplers (say more than 100m apart) and you would like to trigger them  when a threshold is exceeded from a Solinst level sensor.  The trigger would be communicated via messages on the telemetry NB-iot?

Probably the best way to think about it is in stages

1) figure if this can be just done from one controller – both Solinst and ISCO

2) Then when you have got it working with one controller, can you communicate that through an mqtt message over NBIot to a remote server

3) then have the three or four other remotes subscribe through mqtt NB Iot  to the notification.

While this could be sketched on a whiteboard quite easily – ModularSensors only does north bound (one way into the cloud) comms through an mqtt host.

However, looking at the ISCO 6712 manual, the issue may be how to trigger the ISCO 6712 to start.  If there is an external connection it could work. Or program it to run just once when powered up – and then manage the power application as the trigger.  Another way might be to stimulate an SDI-12 instrument – create a dummy instrument as a trigger method.   All of it is probably a lot of software work, which can take a lot of time and also trial and error having extra equipment.

 

 

[neilh20]

@khaase  interesting getting the LiSOCL2  activated.

My 2Cents is it would be good to characterize the 350mA  pulse – and isolate it from the mega1284’s  high impedance LiSOCL2.   That could mean that for the “high impedance” (for a battery)  LiSOCL2,   the current draw has to be kept below a threshold, treated as a constant current source.

Then the issue is also how to detect when the LiSOCL2 is running out of energy, and can’t take more high current pulses, can it gracefully manage the power situation.  Unfortunately its not a trivial problem.

 

[neilh20]

Mostly the cables we put in are armored –  3/4″ flexible and can be joined easly – something like https://www.lowes.com/pd/HydroMaxx-3-4-in-x-50-ft-Black-Flexible-PVC-Pipe/1002884464

Also seen cables chewed by squirrels .

[neilh20]

Hi @khaase I haven’t figured out what the source of the reset is, as the AVR1284 Arduino code discards it – very frustrating.

I have used low ESR capacitors – something like Digikey 732-9079-1-ND CAP ALUM 680UF 20% 10V THRU HOLE LOW ESR

Whenever I have longer wires, a power switch, or current measurement, with the LiIon battery, I get some resets. I’ve also standardized on using 4400mAh LiIon battery.

My EC circuit has low dynamic power demand.  Are you looking to add larger dynamic power demand with radios?  The LiSoCL2  has a relative high impedance,

Managing power demand is challenging, not taking too much power when its not available. Using Vbat to estimate power is tricky. Vbat measurement is noisy and is referenced to the Vcc, and is only theoretically  accurate when Vcc=3.3V . So the LiSoCl2 3.6V is pretty close to the design limits of the regulators (though far improved than the Mayfly 0.5 regulators)

[neilh20]

Maybe of interest https://www.envirodiy.org/topic/primary-powering-in-cold-settings/

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