Shannon Hicks

Where did you get that code example? It looks like a combination of some older code I used to use plus some newer stuff, but there are several mismatches and missing things so it won’t work properly as written. To transmit on an Xbee module, you should use Serial1. Serial0 is the port you should use for printing to the serial monitor. Your…[Read more]

The code I posted above is for the Arduino/Xbee receiver module. All it does is “visit” a URL that it “hears” on the radio. The Mayfly logger in the field is the unit that actually generates the rest of the URL. I put the beginning of the URL in the receiver code above just for simplicity, but in real life the entire URL is generated on the…[Read more]

There’s a lot of things that could cause your data to now show up in the table, either on the Arduino end or the server/PHP end. Have you tried visiting the URL using your web browser to make sure you’re able to post data to the table using a properly formatted URL? If you can do it with a browser, then you know your PHP code is right and the…[Read more]

As mentioned above, I use lots (100+) of GPRSbee modules, they are available from SODAQ in the Netherlands. They are 2G, so they only work in certain areas, but we find there’s coverage in about 90% of our locations. There are 3G and 4G bee modules available from other companies like Digi, but they cost at least twice as much so we usually just…[Read more]

As for the switched 5-volt supply on the Mayfly, it’s a boost converter that I put on the Mayfly years ago because we use a lot of sensors that require 5-volt excitation, but then they return a 0-2.5v analog signal, which is safe for the Mayfly to read with either the onboad 10-bit ADC, or the auxiliary 16-bit ADC. The 5v boost isn’t needed for…[Read more]

Grove connectors, cables, and sensors are actually quite easy to get. Usually when you buy a Grove sensor, it comes with a free 20-cm cable. Or you can get 5-packs of the cables for around $3. https://www.robotshop.com/en/grove-4-pin-buckled-20cm-cable.html

You can get 10 Grove connectors for $1:…[Read more]

On most of our Mayfly sensor stations, We use the 3.5W panel from Voltaic, and it’ll charge a brand new battery just a few hours in full sun. When you buy a new Lipo, it should already be at least 50% charged, so you won’t be starting from zero. And you should avoid totally discharge a battery because that will damage it and shorten it’s…[Read more]

Here’s the code running on the UnoEthernet/Xbee shown above, but with the URL and IP addresses removed. I based this all from some examples I found about 6 years ago, so there’s probably better ways to do this nowadays.

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Feb 18, 2013

With Xbee radio attached to pins 2 and 3, and ethernet shield connected to Arduino (or use Uno…

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Here’s a couple photos of the UnoEthernet/Xbee receiver I built a long time ago. I has been running non-stop since February 2013 and receives about 4500 transmissions per day. With an average of 10 parameters per transmission, that’s 16.5 million parameters per year, so this little box has passed over 80 million parameters into my simple…[Read more]

The Mayfly has an ADS1115 16-bit A/D converter on it. To use it, you can use the Adafruit ADS1x15 library and follow the tutorial on this page: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-4-channel-adc-breakouts?view=all

The library comes with examples for single-ended and differential measurements. So you can follow the differential example to take a…[Read more]

I don’t know of anyone who has used that particular sensor with a Mayfly, but it could be theoretically possible. That sensor works by sending it an excitation voltage and then measuring the differential voltage it returns. The Mayfly has an auxiliary A/D converter that allows you to do differential measurements. You’d also have to buy the A547…[Read more]

The easiest way build a base station for relaying data heard via Xbee is to use an Uno Ethernet board (it’s like an Uno but has built-in ethernet hardware, so no separate shield is needed). Then connect the Xbee to the Uno Ethernet and write a script to capture all the incoming Xbee data and send it to the appropriate web site URL. I built…[Read more]

Xbee modules plugged in to the Mayfly’s Bee headers communicate directly with the ATmega1284P processor’s secondary hardware serial port. So if you want to see any Bee traffic on your serial monitor, you’ll need to have a sketch running on the Mayfly that captures anything heard on “Serial1” and then print it to the monitor via Serial.…[Read more]

I got that connector from All Electronics: https://www.allelectronics.com/item/con-242/2-pin-connector-w/header-.10/1.html

Any 2-pin header with standard 0.1″ (2.5mm) spacing will work, though I prefer the ones from AllElectronics because they’re polarized and come with the prewired matching cable with 8″ leads. They’re made specifically for…[Read more]

This wouldn’t be possible using the built-in solar chargers on the Mayfly board. But it would be possible to have one separate main 6v-12v battery and solar panel (with appropriate external solar charge controller), and then you could just connect both Mayfly boards to that one battery via the Mayfly’s “External 4-12v” jack. Something like a 6v…[Read more]

We just received a big shipment of new Mayfly boards from the manufacturer yesterday, I tested a bunch today and boxed them up, so they’ll be on their way to Amazon tomorrow. You should see the boards available on Amazon next week sometime, with the kits available the week after that. We had a lot of orders right before the holidays that drained…[Read more]

After a Mayfly workshop earlier this week, I helped 2 people install the IDE and Mayfly drivers on their Macs, using the latest Arduino IDE and by following the directions on this site, and it went smoothly with no issues. Are you just not seeing the EnviroDIY boards listed when you choose “Contributed”? If you’ve pasted the URL properly into…[Read more]

What version of the Mayfly board do you have? The newer boards have a different regulator than earlier versions, so make sure you’re looking at the right datasheet and resistors.

If you’re comfortable removing and reinstalling SMT resistors, then it is possible to remove that resistor and replace it with another one to achieve different output…[Read more]