[Shannon Hicks]

All of our stations that are using our new sim7089 EnviroDIY LTEbee made the changeover automatically.  The majority of our stations that still have the Digi Xbee LTE module have been offline since the server change, however a few random ones seemed to be fine and were online immediately after the changeover.  The rest of the stations with Digi boards have required visiting the station and cycling the power to get them back online.  Luckily we’re in the process of upgrading most of our stations to the sim7080 boards, so we have fewer Digi boards deployed that we did a few months ago.

[Shannon Hicks]

These modules are new enough that I think everyone who has bought one so far is using the same Hologram SIM cards that we use in all of ours.  I’ve deployed over 50 of them in the past couple months with Hologram cards, and according to our dashboard page that shows connection information, they are active on all the major carriers including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.  I haven’t used a specific Verizon SIM card, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t work.

[Shannon Hicks]

It’s not really an error, it’s just an artifact of the Eagle Cad schematic component since the original part in my library was for the ADS1015/1115, since both parts share the same footprint and schematic shape, but there’s no way to easily change the name displayed without editing the device.  I had to manually update that on previous Mayfly version schematics but when I redesigned the board for the Mayfly 1.0, I grabbed the original Eagle library component and didn’t update the label for the schematic.  Rest assured that the board was assembled with the ADS1115, I’ll update the online images accordingly.  In the future, issues like this are best reported on Github at https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/issues

[Shannon Hicks]

There is no benefit in turning off the USB dipswitch if your board will be deployed with only a Lipo for power.  The switch is there solely for the purpose of deactivating the USB interface chip in case you are powering the Mayfly via the USB jack and want to save power, because the CP2102 chip can draw up to 10ma when idle, so turning it off can be useful.

[Shannon Hicks]

I’ve never experienced this problem with any of the Mayfly boards on any of the various PCs I’ve used them on, but I do have a colleague who has a similar problem with another CP2102-based board.  I think his solution was that sometimes it takes plugging and unplugging the device a few times before Windows finally recognizes it and assigns a com port.  Various people report similar issues on SiliconLabs support forums, and there’s never been a consensus on what the best solution is.  Make sure you’re using the same high-quality USB cable that you first had success with, make sure the USB dip switch is in the ON position.  Use Windows Device Manager to look at your USB devices to see if it is even registering that an unknown device is connected.  Some users report that using an older version of the drivers from SiLabs is more reliable with Windows 10 and fixes this issue.

[Shannon Hicks]

Sara is the person who wrote that PCSync program, so she’ll have to be the one to comment on why it’s not working.  I’m assuming it’s just looking for the FT232RL device of the older Mayfly boards and isn’t programmed to see the CP2102 of the Mayfly 1.0 as a viable device.  In the meantime, you can just use the the DS3231/adjust.ino sketch to manually set the clock until she’s able to update the PCSync program.

[Shannon Hicks]

I added a sketch called “DRWI_sim7080LTE.ino” to our Github repository.  You can find it here https://github.com/EnviroDIY/ModularSensors/tree/master/examples/DRWI_sim7080LTE along with a brief summary.

We’re still working out the bugs in the libraries that were cause by an update to an external library that is included in our bundled files (the AOsong DHT library).  So anyone downloading the libraries right now might get some errors, especially if you’re using PlatformIO, but hopefully that will be resolved soon.

The only main difference between the sketch for the sim7080 and the sketch for the Digi LTE boards is that there are 2 sections in the code that configure the logger for using the cell module (lines 85-117 and 349-364 in the sim7080 sketch).  I also cleaned up the section with the UUIDs to make it match the MMW website.  This example sketch is also written for the new Mayfly v1.0, so there’s code on line 101 and line 325 for proper operation with the Mayfly v1.0 board.  The sim7080 LTE module has been successfully tested on the Mayfly v0.5b board, so putting “-1” in line 101 instead of “18” will let you use it on the older Mayfly board.  There are commented notes in the sketch on those lines.  More descriptive tutorials and manuals are currently being made and will be published as soon as we can finish them.

And as mentioned in the Github readme, here’s some info about antennas for the sim7080module:

The EnviroDIY LTE sim7080 module includes 2 antennas in the package. The small thin one is the cellular antenna, and should be connected to the socket labeled “CELL”. The thicker block is the GPS antenna, and should be connected to the “GPS” socket, but only if you intend to use the GPS functionality of the module. ModularSensors does not currently suport GPS functionality, but other libraries such as TinyGPS can work with the sim7080 module.

The included cell antenna works best in high-signal-strength areas. For most remote areas and logger deployments, we suggest a larger LTE antenna, like the W3907B0100 from PulseLarsen (Digikey 1837-1003-ND or Mouser 673-W3907B0100)

[Shannon Hicks]

I’ve been trying to resolve an issue with a sensor library file that is currently causing an error when users compile any sketches using ModularSensors.  Sara and I worked on it this afternoon and will hopefully have it resolved soon.  In the meantime, I’m working on an instructional page for the sim7080 module as well as posting example sketches that use that module with our most common water sensors (Hydros 21 CTD sensor and OBS3+ turbidity sensor).  I hope to publish that page later tonight.

[Shannon Hicks]

The Mayfly v1.0 boards use a new USB interface chip called the CP2102 instead of the old FT232RL that was found on earlier Mayfly boards.  When you first connect it to your computer, your operating system should recognize it and install the necessary drivers.  I connected each new Mayfly to 3 different computers (2 PCs and one Mac) before shipping them out, so there shouldn’t be any hardware problems with the board. You’ll also want to make sure the small DIP switches next to the main power switch are both in the ON position, otherwise the CP2102 will not be powered if the bottom switch is off.

I haven’t had to manually install any drivers for the CP2102 on any of the dozens of Windows computers I’ve used CP2102 devices on.  But if you’re having trouble with it, you could try manually doing it following the instructions from SiliconLabs for the CP210x: https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers

[Shannon Hicks]

The same Hologram SIM cards we’ve been using for the past year in the Digi boards work just fine in the new EnviroDIY LTE boards.

The new EnviroDIY LTE bee works in the old Mayfly 0.5b boards, and no LTEbee adapter is needed.  The LTEbee adapter is only needed when using Digi boards with Mayfly 0.5b boards.

Digi LTE CAT M1 boards work directly with the Mayfly v1.0 board with no LTEbee adapter needed anymore.  I added new solder jumpers on the back of the new Mayfly (SJ16, SJ17, SJ19, SJ20, & SJ21) to allow users to make the necessary changes to pin connections to account for the difference between the Digi line of Xbee products and other bee-footprint devices.  I’m in the process of writing all of these procedures up, but shifted our focus to getting all the products prepped and available in our shop and on Amazon recently because of all the requests to purchase even before the documentation was finished.

I’ve added the Eagle board and schematic files to Github and will be adding various code example sketches for the new Mayfly v1.0 in the next day or so.

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