Shannon Hicks

We’ve installed several stations in tidal areas by attaching the sensor to a custom apparatus mounted to docks or piers.  What kind of sensors are you planning to install?

Yes, the update made to the ModularSensors code in in order to fix Hydros 21 is backwards compatible.  I mentioned it last week in this post: https://www.envirodiy.org/topic/hydros-21-decagon-ctd-reading-error/#post-17066

It seems that in the past year Meter Group made some changes to the amount of time the CTD sensors need to take a…[Read more]

When you’re connected to the Mayfly with your computer, open the Arduino IDE’s Serial Monitor and check the settings of the dropdown box in the lower right hand part of the windows next to the baud rate.  It should be set to “No line ending”.  If you have it set to anything else, you’ll usually get an error when setting the address using that s…[Read more]

Yes, it’s just one line (currently line 107) of the MeterHydros21.h file that contains the most important change, which is this line:  #<span class=”pl-k”>define</span> <span class=”pl-en”>HYDROS21_MEASUREMENT_TIME_MS</span> <span class=”pl-c1″>1000</span>

The previous setting was 500 milliseconds but it turns out the new Gen 2 CTD sensors need…[Read more]

We’ve seen this behavior with some of the new CTD sensors as well.  It seems that when you give it a new address using the b_address_change sketch, the sensor needs to be told the new address more than once in order for it to actually make the change.  Meaning, run the sketch and observe the text on the Serial Monitor.  For a new sensor it will sa…[Read more]

Thanks for the followup.  Plugging an EnviroDIY sim7080 LTE bee board into one of the old Digi bee adapter boards will definitely cause problems, since there are different pinouts for the 2 cell modules, as well as different supply voltages provided to the pins, which could damage the sim7080 bee.  Also note that upgrading a Mayfly board from a D…[Read more]

For anyone reading this in 2022, the posts above in this thread are from 2016 to 2019, and the operating voltage and other electrical specification have changed with the Mayfly boards released in the past year.  The older Mayfly v0.5 boards had completely different input voltage limits compared to the new Mayfly v1.0 and v1.1 boards.  So the a…[Read more]

That station appears to be running the older configuration of Mayfly v0.5b and Digi LTE board (with an EnviroDIY LTEBee adapter in between the Digi board and the Mayfly), correct?  There could be several reasons why it’s behaving like that, and it’s difficult to tell unless you start swapping parts or disconnecting things one at a time to see…[Read more]

No estimate yet, I’m still working on the redesign and will then have to get them manufactured once we’ve fully tested them.

DaveG, since you inherited a monitoring station from a previous owner, you didn’t get the full training we give station owners when we teach a workshop and/or install a station for them.  I would suggest looking through all of our EnviroDIY Monitoring Station Manual  since we thoroughly document all of the information about station assembly, i…[Read more]

Are you saying you’ve got a bad cable or a bad Mayfly?  Have you tried a different USB-C cable?  The pins in USB-C connectors and cables are extremely small and are easy to fail.  And when the pins in a cable’s connector get bent or damaged, we’ve seen them inflict damage on brand-new boards, so I’d suggest trying a new cable or two.

Matt, you are correct that it appears the solar panel was connected to the spare LipoBatt JST socket on the Mayfly, which causes the board to see those high levels during the day.  The voltage regulator on the Mayfly can theoretically be damaged if you put more than 6.5v into the board via the LipoBatt jack, so they should definitely fix that as…[Read more]

@aufdenkampe, do you have any information about why certain sites are having this issue of their map marker being gray even though they’re still sending live data, or the issue of sensors not being able to be deleted from sites?

The dipswitches are mainly there to let people know their board is working during initial testing or desktop deployments.  Anytime a board is deployed in the field as a “sleeping” station, power savings are important during the sleep period.  So I put the dipswitches on the new versions of the Mayfly to allow people to deactivated the LEDs.  Th…[Read more]

Powering the Mayfly v1.0 and v1.1 from the solar jack only would not be recommended because the power input circuit was not designed to operate that way.  The most electrically efficient way is to use the 12v-to-5v converter and connect it to the USB-C jack and then deactivate the USB interface circuitry with the dip switch as explained above.  T…[Read more]

That’s great, I’m glad it worked.  Based on your screenshot, I can tell that your station is running a sketch that I programmed onto that Mayfly board in March of 2018.  It’ll still work if you’re using the same CTD and turbidity sensor it originally had on it, and it will save data to the memory card every 5 minutes.  It had the ability to tr…[Read more]

As stated on the Details and Spec page, the Mayfly v1.1 can only source about 100mA from the 12v output, so if your motor draws 400mA, you’ll need to power the motor directly from your 12v source and not from the Mayfly.

That is correct, the Mayfly v1.0 and 1.1 boards do not have a separate external power input for 4v to 12v sources like the v0.5b boards.  This is because the main voltage regulator on the v0.5b board that accepted that wide range of voltage was discontinued by the manufacturer, and the new voltage regulator doesn’t accept that high of an input…[Read more]

The Adafruit CP2104 Friend has the correct 6-pin layout to work perfectly with the FTDI interface header on all Mayfly versions.  The attached photo shows one connected to a Mayfly 1.0 but you can connect it to the Mayfly v0.5b the exact same way. Give that a try and see if you’re able to communicate with the Mayfly board.  If not, it’s possible t…[Read more]