[Shannon Hicks]

They’re spring-loaded quick connect jacks.  The wires go in the round holes not the rectangular ones.  If you tug on them and they don’t come loose, then they should be connected properly.  If they pop out, then you’ve just got to insert them further.  I usually use my fingers, but you could also use something like needle-nose pliers to push one wire at a time into the hole until you feel it securely click into place.  If you need to release them, put a small pointed tool like a tiny flat-blade screwdriver or some really pointy tweezers into the small rectangular hole next to the round one, and it will release the spring and allow you to remove the wire to try again.

[Shannon Hicks]

A description of the operation of the LEDs on the Mayfly board can be found here:  https://www.envirodiy.org/mayfly/hardware/details-and-specs/

For the one you asked about, it’s under part C:

C- Power LEDs and DIP switches:  LEDs indicate board power (green) and USB power (orange).  Useful for easily seeing if the board is on and if USB power is connected.  Green LED will be lit anytime the board has power and the power switch is in the ON position.  Orange LED will be lit anytime power is being supplied through the USB or FTDI connectors.  If Mayfly board is deployed in a sleeping logger station, it is recommended to set both DIP switches to the OFF position in order to save battery power.  Use a small pointed object to gently slide the small white squares of the DIP switch either to the ON or OFF positions.

Have you tried replacing the battery back on the station with a fully charged one?  Sometimes the Lipo packs won’t take a charge or charge properly and just need to be replaced with a new one.

[Shannon Hicks]

The Yosemitech Y-511A needs 12v to operate, so it won’t be happy if you modify the Mayfly jumper to set the 12v output to 9v.  I’m not familiar with the operation of the modbus wing you’re using so I can’t comment on its operation, but we have a new modbus adapter board with it’s own beefy 12v-boost Grove adapter board that will be available in the shop in a few weeks, so I think that might be something for you to try.  I can send you an email about it, and we’ll be posting examples here once they’re ready for release.

[Shannon Hicks]

There should be little adjustment screws or stops that allow you to calibrate the sensor to tip at exactly one millimeter of rainfall (which is 5.0 ml of water).  Did you try adjusting them and doing the calibration procedure before deployment?  You also have to ensure that the sensor is installed completely level and that it is mounted to a firm pole or mount that doesn’t move.  If any tipping bucket rain sensor is installed unlevel, it can cause accuracy issues and improper operation.  We’ve also encountered spiders that make webs during dry periods that can cause them to not tip properly during rain events (I don’t think that’s your current issue, but it’s something to watch out for on long deployments.)

[Shannon Hicks]

Can you share the model number and manufacturer of the rain gage, or attach a picture of it that shows the tipping mechanism?

[Shannon Hicks]

It sounds like things aren’t connected to the Mayfly board properly.  The 3.7v Lipo battery gets connected to only one of the JST jacks labeled LIPO BATT on the Mayfly board, then a 6v solar panel gets connected to only one of the jacks labeled either SOLAR1 or SOLAR2, and not both.  Are you using one of the old style glossy 3.5w panels, or one of the newer 5W ETFE panels with the textured matte finish?  They are in stock:  https://voltaicsystems.com/5-watt-panel-etfe/

What happens if you unplug the solar panel from the Mayfly board, what kind of reading to you get?  And have you tried swapping the battery pack for another one?

[Shannon Hicks]

The very bottom-left corner of the schematic for board v1.1 mentions the two charge rates, which you can control using solder jumper SJ15.  Here’s the description of that jumper from the Jumper Settings page:

SJ15:  Lipo battery charge rate:  500mA (default) or 1A.  This jumper allows you to select the maximum charger output current of the onboard Lipo charger.  Default setting is 500mA (solder jumper open).  Add a solder bridge to increase the rate to 1A.  Note that you’ll also need to close jumper SJ14 (set input limit to 1A) in order to get 1A charger output.  This setting should only be changed if your input power source can supply more than 500mA.  Setting the rate to 1A also causes the bq24074 charger chip to get extremely hot during charging, so use caution.

There are 2 solar panel jacks on the Mayfly v1.0 and v1.1. This was done to provide backwards-compatibility for older existing stations that still have the white JST plug soldered to the end of the solar panel extension cable.  Since most people don’t want to have to solder things when assembling their kits, we switched to using the black quick-connect jack in 2021 so that people could simply insert the bare leads of the solar panel extension cable into the plug without having to solder anything.  Only one solar panel jack should be used on a deployed station though.  The 2 options are there just for convenience.  Likewise, there are still 2 JST jacks labeled LIPO BATT, but users should only connect one battery at a time.  The second jack is a legacy feature from many years ago when we used cellular boards that required a direct connection to the battery using a little double-ended JST cable.  It will likely be removed from future Mayfly versions to eliminate confusion.

[Shannon Hicks]

If your sample/transmission rate is set to 15 minutes and you were getting that poor of a battery life out of your stations, then they definitely aren’t going into sleep mode, so I’d suggest investigating the code that’s running on the Mayfly to learn more about its behavior.

[Shannon Hicks]

James, your station seems to be using power at a rate much higher than a usual CTD station.  Our Mayfly v1.1 boards with EnviroDIY sim7080 LTE board and a CTD sensor will see a decrease in the battery voltage overnight of 0.045v during a 12 hour period with absolutely no sunlight, and transmitting the data to the portal every 5 minutes.  Your station seems to use at least 0.15v overnight, so that’s indicates the board is probably not sleeping or has some other thing that is drawing more power than the solar panel can replace the next day.  And if your Mayfly’s clock is wrong, it sounds like the CR1220 coin cell on the board is dead or installed incorrectly.  It should retain the proper time for multiple years, even if the main external lipo drops out due to bad charging.  When a new, charged battery is connected to your Mayfly, is the green LED next to the power switch turned on constantly?  For logger deployments, it should be deactivated by turning off the small DIP switch next to the LED as described in the EnviroDIY monitoring station manual.  And if there’s something incorrect with the Arduino code of the logger, it can prevent the board from going into sleep mode between readings, at that could be the reason for your excessive power usage.  It looks like all of the stations in Spokane are behaving the same way and using more power than normal.

[Shannon Hicks]

What version of Mayfly board do you have?  And what brand of cellular board?  There are a lot of combinations of hardware on EnviroDIY stations, and some are much more efficient than others.  Also, do you have a spare Lipo battery that you can fully charge separately in your office and then put it into the station?  If your logger is only working when there’s sunlight, then it’s pretty likely that your battery is faulty and won’t charge, that’s why it’s not providing power overnight.

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