Shannon Hicks

Your github repo isn’t public so I’m not able to view it.  I’d have to see the sketch to understand what’s going on with the logger code, but I’m guessing there’s a variety of factors involved in the failure.  One is that it looks like your station uses way too much power overnight, so either it’s not sleeping properly or you’ve got some LEDs on o…[Read more]

SDI-12 sensors usually use 12 volts for sensor excitation because that’s what the specification for the protocol dictates.  Fun fact:  the “12” part of “SDI-12” does not refer to the voltage, but rather the baud rate, so the name actually means “serial-digital interface at 1200 baud”).  Back in the days when the protocol was first being used, mo…[Read more]

There’s one 3.3v regulator that’s always powered on the Mayfly (anytime the Mayfly power switch is ON, even if the processor is put to sleep), and that can be found along the top (inward end) of each of the 20-pin headers, helpfully next to the GND pin you’d also need for sending power to an external device.  The three switched power options…[Read more]

We sold the last couple kits last week and I hadn’t updated the status page yet to indicate that, but I just did.  There were some supply issues with some of the parts in the starter kits and full station kits, but that should be resolved soon and the kits back in stock in about a week.  The rest of the custom EnviroDIY electronic items like the b…[Read more]

As long as you’re using the latest Hydros21 library file that has the longer sample time (500ms warmup and 1000ms sample time, as shown here:  https://github.com/EnviroDIY/ModularSensors/blob/master/src/sensors/MeterHydros21.h) then it sounds like maybe a faulty sensor.  Or it could be that the Mayfly isn’t waiting long enough to either warm up o…[Read more]

No exact date yet, but we’ve ordered all of our inventory items and now are just waiting.  I’ll update the Availability page with exact dates if we get more detailed info.

The sensor manufacturer has assured me that the sensors will work at 3.3v, and we’ve had experience with hundreds of them and concur, but they’ll also work just fine with the jumper set to 5v instead, so it’s your choice.

This thread is for overall technical questions about the hardware on the Mayfly v1.1 boards, so if you have other questions…[Read more]

The Mayfly makes 3.3v, 5v, or 12v, as set by the jumpers on the headers next to each Grove socket.  The ClariVue sensors need 9 or 12v, but at lower temperatures (below 5C) we’ve found that some of the sensor will stop working because the Mayfly can’t produce enough current at 12v at low temperatures.  So to fix this issue, you can just change t…[Read more]

There are multiple sources of power on the Mayfly boards.  There’s 3.3v that’s always on, then there’s a separate 3.3v regulator that can be switched on and off by setting pin D22 high or low in your code.  There’s also a separate 5v boost regulator (and on Mayfly v1.x) a 12v boost regulator, both of which are also controlled by D22 in your s…[Read more]

Thanks for the screenshot, that shows the Mayfly board is being seen by the computer, so it’s not a cable or Mayfly issue.  But Windows doesn’t know how to use the Mayfly correctly as a USB device because Windows didn’t automatically install the necessary drivers.  I’m assuming this is the first time you’ve connected a Mayfly v1.x board to this p…[Read more]

We use Android devices for any portable interfaces in the field, along with an FTDI cable attached to the 6-pin FTDI header of the Mayfly.  The Mayfly v1.1 has it’s own CP2102 USB chip on board that works through the USB-C jack on the Mayfly, but Android devices can’t natively use it because they don’t recognize the CP2102.  Plus with the i…[Read more]

If you disconnect your Mayfly board from the computer, does COM3 still show up as an active device on your computer?  I’m guessing that COM3 is actually another com port on your machine, like a bluetooth or other USB device on the motherboard.  If your Windows computer correctly identifies the Mayfly board, it will shows up as “Silicon Labs C…[Read more]

I spent the entire weekend trying to recreate the SDI-12 communication issue with the ClariVue sensors by placing a bunch of Mayfly loggers and turbidity sensors in my freezer and refrigerator in various combinations.  I was able to isolate the problem to the Mayfly v1.1 boards not being able to produce sufficient instantaneous current at 12…[Read more]

We’ve never had any hardware failures of our sim7080 module in the field when using the sketch mentioned above.  With hundreds of them deployed in the past 18 months, the only problem we occasionally see (one or two stations a month) is where they stop responding to the Mayfly board and kind of “lock up” and need to be reset.  This is usually a…[Read more]

Most I2C devices don’t like having the power to the device cut and the reapplied, which is why the Vcc pin of the Mayfly’s I2C Grove jack is constantly powered.  All the other Grove jacks switch the power on or off, but the I2C jack always has 3.3v, even with the Mayfly is asleep.  So if you’re powering your Atlas board from any of the switched s…[Read more]

I think @srgdamiano should be able to help, since she has the best understanding of the libraries and commands used with the sim7080.

How are you connecting the sensor to the Mayfly (what pins for data and power and what jack), and are you putting the Mayfly to sleep between readings?  Is the sensor being powered constantly or are you switching off the power to the sensor between readings?

What Mayfly board version are you using?  The ClariVue10 seems to only work reliably with the Mayfly v1.1 RevB since it produces the most stable 12 volt output.  Also, we’ve found that at room temperature the ClariVue needs about 8 seconds after the switched power is applied before it will respond to any commands, and then needs another 9 s…[Read more]

Without knowing more about what board you’re using for the logger, or the software that runs on it, it’s hard to guess what the problem is with your system.  But I know that when we first used Arduino Uno boards for loggers about 10 years ago, we found that they became unreliable and inaccurate at high temperatures, both in terms of timing and…[Read more]

What board are you using for your datalogger?  And what is your battery and the model of the ESP32 you’re using?