[Shannon Hicks]

Have you had any luck getting it to work?  If not, have you tried opening the Arduino Serial Monitor to see what the Mayfly prints to your computer when the Mayfly starts up and after each attempted sensor reading?  You can also email your sketch to me at mayfly@envirodiy.edu if you’d like me to take a look at it to see if it’s possibly a code issue.

[Shannon Hicks]

It’s been a while since we’ve used Xbee modules with our Mayfly boards, so I don’t remember all the tricks to configuring the routers and coordinators, but your Mayfly code looks correct to me.  Have you tried removing the wake and sleep commands and just leave the Xbee module constantly powered to see if that helps?  Are you using the Mayfly v.05b board for all your tests?  There were some significant design changes when we migrated to the v1.0 board, some of which affect how the Mayfly’s Xbee socket behaves.

[Shannon Hicks]

If you’re talking about the external solar panels that we ship with the EnviroDIY Monitoring Station Kit, they are made by Voltaic Systems, and they offer a variety of extension cables for placing the panel further from the logger.  The connector is a basic 3.5×1.1 mm barrel jack, but it has a unique waterproof design that is better for outdoor use than standard barrel jack/plug combos.  We’ve used the 4-foot and 10-foot extensions before with good results.  You can find their extension cables here:  https://voltaicsystems.com/connectors-extensions/

[Shannon Hicks]

Sensor readings of -9999 mean the Mayfly logger isn’t receiving valid data from the CTD sensor.  If this is a brand new sensor, then it’s probably because the sensor SDI-12 channel number is set to the default channel of 0 (zero) and the Mayfly needs the sensor to be something other than that (because for Meter Group sensors, channel 0 means the sensor is in serial-TTL data output mode and isn’t prepared to communicate with SDI-12 protocol loggers, like what the Mayfly does in our example code).   So you’ll need to change the sensor channel number, and if you’re using one of our sample sketches, we usually use channel 1 for the CTD sensor.  In the EnviroDIY Monitoring Station Manual in section 6.3 there’s a description of the steps needed for connecting a CTD sensor to the Mayfly logger, including a link to the Github page where there are instructions for how to use the SDI-12 address change example sketch to change the sensor address.

If you’ve already changed the sensor channel, then other reasons for the -9999 signal are usually because the sensor isn’t connected securely into the Grove headphone jack board (if you bought a sensor with a 3.5mm stereo plug on it), or if you’re using a bare-wire sensor, then the wires are in the wrong terminals.  Or the Grove cable connecting your sensors adapter board to the Mayfly is plugged into a Grove port other than one of the two jacks labeled SDI-12.

[Shannon Hicks]

It depends on what you mean by communicate.  Are you wanting to transmit data wirelessly between a Mayfly and another Arduino-compatible device?  Or are you meaning a direct cable connection between the two devices?  Either way is possible, but it really depends on a lot of factors, like what sort of data are you transferring, how often, and why.

As stated in the first post on this thread:  This is the forum thread to ask general technical question about the Mayfly v1.1 board.  If you’ve got a basic question such as what are the board’s features or how it differs from previous versions, this is the place to ask.  If you’ve got a more complicated question or issue, then it is probably best to start your own thread.  The goal of this thread is to be a great information resource for basic questions about the new v1.1 board that are common to all users.

So I’d suggest creating a new topic in the Mayfly forum for your question.

[Shannon Hicks]

If you’re using an external FTDI or CP2102 interface board to program your Mayfly via the Mayfly’s FTDI socket, then the Mayfly dipswitch labeled USB should be turned off before connecting the external interface to the Mayfly, and it should stay off the entire time.

What version of the Arduino IDE are you using?  From your screenshot, it looks like you might be using one of the newer versions.  On our software instructions page here:  https://www.envirodiy.org/mayfly/software/    we recommend that you use the Legacy v1.8.x version since there are some quirks about the newer v2.0 and web-based Arduino IDE’s that can cause issues with the Mayfly.

When you plug your CP2102 Friend into your computer’s USB port, what does Windows Device Manager say?  Does a “Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COMx)” show up under the “Ports (COM & LPT)” list, or is it shown under an Unknown Device tab with a yellow triangle?

[Shannon Hicks]

You are correct, if you’re using the USB jack to power a v1.0 or v1.1 Mayfly using a 12v source, then there’s no way to interface the Mayfly with a PC for programming or viewing serial output.  However, all Mayfly boards include an FTDI jack that allows you to connect a variety of FTDI cables or adapters in order to communicate with the board in the event of a broken or otherwise occupied USB jack.

Check out this post I wrote last year describing how to connect a small board called the Adafruit CP2104 Friend to a Mayfly:  https://www.envirodiy.org/topic/pc-and-mac-unable-to-communicate-with-mayfly-ver-0-5b/#post-16736

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of that thread to see the photo I posted showing how you’ll need to solder some right-angle header pins to the end of the Adafruit board in order to plug it into the Mayfly.  Adafruit has since updated and renamed the board the CP2102 Friend but it can be used the same way.

If you don’t want to have to solder something, then you can purchase the older FTDI Friend model that is shipped with long double-ended male pins to let you connect it to the Mayfly with no soldering required.  I wrote about it here:  https://www.envirodiy.org/topic/com-ports-not-connecting-to-logger/#post-15418

The older FTDI model uses a different chip than what is used on the newer Mayfly boards, so you might have to install some drivers if you use that one, I mention this in that post along with a photo of the correct way to connect the board to a Mayfly.  You could also use an FTDI cable, though I don’t know if it comes with the long pin headers so you might have to buy those separately.

Another thing to note, there is a CP2102 USB interface chip built into every Mayfly v1.0 or v1.1.  That’s what allows you to communicate with a PC via the USB jack.  If you connect a separate computer interface board via the FTDI jack, like any of the boards mentioned above, it’s a good idea to disable the Mayfly’s onboard CP2102 chip to avoid hardware conflicts and errors when uploading a sketch.  The small brown block next to the Mayfly’s power switch contains 2 small dip switches.  Here’s a description of them from the Hardware Details page:

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.

So if you’re powering your Mayfly with the USB jack, you’ll be wasting a lot of power keeping the LEDs on and also powering the onboard USB converter chip.  I would recommend turning both switches to OFF during your deployment, but you’ll need to remember to turn the USB switch back on if you ever want to reprogram the Mayfly via it’s onboard USB jack in the future.  Here’s something I wrote on the technical discussion thread last year:

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.  The dipswitch for the green LED only cuts power to the green LED and nothing else, but it will save you about 2 mA.  The orange LED is only on if power is being supplied through the USB jack, like when connected to a computer or when powering from the USB jack like what that converter will do.  Whenever the USB jack is powered and the USB dipswitch is on, the LED is on plus the USB converter chip, which draws some not-insignificant power, so turning off the USB dipswitch will save power and prevent the USB converter from being on constantly.  However, you’ll just have to remember to turn that dipswitch on again in the future if you ever decide to reprogram that Mayfly or want to connect to the Serial Monitor to see some output.

[Shannon Hicks]

It’s still in the prototype and testing phase, but the good news is the the chips that were unavailable for the past 18 months are finally available again.  If you or anyone else have specific RS485 sensors that you’re hoping to use, it would be helpful if you email me at mayfly@envirodiy.org with your sensor model information so we can make sure we produce an adapter that works with a many different sensors as possible.

[Shannon Hicks]

The only differences between the v1.1 revA and revB are this:

The ICSP jack was a 2×3, 0.5″ pitch male pin header on Mayfly v1.1 revA.
The ICSP jack is now uses Tag-Connect pads for use with Pogo pins for ICSP programming for the Mayfly v1.1 revB.

And with the revA boards, there was a circuit design change after manufacturing that required me to hand-solder a small jumper wire to bypass solder jumper SJ26.  It is noted on the schematic.  That change was incorporated into the production run of the revB boards, so electrically, revA and revB boards are the same, except there’s a physical wire on revA and a board trace on revB.  There’s also a dab of conformal coating covering SJ26 on all revA boards to prevent it from being used.  This is noted on the Jumper Settings page if you scroll about halfway down.

As for the schematics, they are available for all version numbers via the links on the Hardware page you linked.  Click on the name of the desired schematic version, it’ll take you to a preview page.  The schematic shown on that page can appear fuzzy or low-res depending on your web browser and monitor size/resolution.  But simply click on that image of the schematic and you’ll be taken to the actual pdf file which is a high-res 11×17 pdf that can be printed or zoomed in on, allowing you to see all the details.

[Shannon Hicks]

If you’ve got 4 heated sensors that require constant 12 volts, then I don’t think the Mayfly and the standard “battery/solar panel combo” is going to be sufficient.  It would be a struggle for the Mayfly to supply the necessary continuous 100ma at 12v for the heaters, in addition to powering the various sensors intermittently.  You could have a separate 12v battery with it’s own 12v solar panel and charge controller to power the sensor heaters, and then use a 12v-to-5v converter to power the Mayfly via the USB jack.  Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the smaller Mayfly battery and solar panel, and the bigger battery/panel combination should be sufficient for powering your whole setup.

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