Reply To: SDI-12 sniffer based on Raspberry Pi

Thank you for feedback.

I didn’t think about publishing it on GitHub at first as I felt like there are just two small pieces of Python program and it is all already available in that post. But maybe it is good idea anyway for possible issues reporting and improvements…

I have never used Mayfly logger. When I found out about that project it was impossible to ship it to Europe. I thought I will build it myself and I still have somewhere few Mayfly PCBs, but I just didn’t have time for it in the end. I am not 100% sure, but it seems that Amazon now ships it to Europe so I am thinking about ordering one.

Well, the sensors do not have to respond to 3.3V logic signal, right? Everything between 1 and 3.5 V is undefined state according to SDI-12 spec.

The TekBox converter does not report packets which are out of electrical specification. It just listens to communication and that is it. It might have its issues too, but I haven’t noticed any. It definately helped so far with debugging less reliable SDI-12 devices and it captured  communication from sensors which (problematic) datalogger was not able to catch. It showed that the logger didn’t catch the sensor sesponse to D0! command and instead of repeating D0! command after timeout, it just continued with next sensor.

The most expensive TekBox converter can also automaticaly test sensor if it is made according to SDI-12 protocol. But I think it just tests which commands are supported and their timing. I think it is really cool for sensor development. These converters are unfortunately all really expensive in my opinion.