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Whenever we install a sensor in the field, it’s always helpful to make sure it is reading properly before connecting it to the datalogger. Having a display to show the live data from a sensor is also helpful when doing calibration and testing of the sensor in the lab. We use a variety of sensors from Decagon Devices. Their high-quality, research grade sensors output the data in two formats – serial TTL and SDI-12. It is very simple to read the serial TTL data using an Arduino board. If you want to connect multiple sensors to the same pins, then you’ll want to switch to the SDI-12 format, because it allows you to assign a unique address to each sensor so you can have multiple sensors connected to the same pins. (see the SDI-12 library post – link).
Utilizing the SDI-12 library in the Arduino code, I built a handy sensor display box using an LCD display and a Sparkfun ArduinoPro board. The board captures the SDI-12 string from the sensor, recognizes the type of sensor (each type Decagon sensor sends a unique model number on SDI-12 initialization) and displays the data on the LCD. The data is updated whenever the user presses the button on the end of the enclosure.
This is brilliant. Is there a “how to build this” for dummies you might link to?
We will post the Arduino code on our Github site soon along with a simple block diagram of the wiring. I could also do a tutorial on the hardware assembly, but it’s actually quite simple. I will update this post when the instructions are published.
Any idea when your Github site will be up and running?
Our Github site is already active, you can see it here: https://github.com/StroudCenter
But I haven’t written up a tutorial for this sensor display project yet. If you’re good with code and the LCD hardware, take a look at the SDI-12 library examples and you should be able to replicate it pretty easily.
+1 from me for a “how to build for dummies”, would be really appreciated
Do you have some sketches or schematics available of the hardware? I wonder how you wired SDI to the Arduino.
Wiring the sensor to the Arduino board is fairly simple, just connect the SDI12 sensor data line to a free data pin (like D7), connect the sensor power wire to Vcc, and sensor ground to GND. Then just use the sample code provided with the SDI12 library to poll the sensor for data and/or change the channel number. To use a pushbutton on the box for triggering a sample, just have the code sit in a loop looking for a button press, then when it sees the button press, enter the SDI12 sample function that’s shown in the example code.
If you want to avoid the SDI12 stuff altogether, for Decagon sensors you can just set the sensor to channel 0 and it will output a serial TTL string each time the sensor is powered up, so you can just use the momentary button press to power the sensor, capture that string and parse it.
Either method should work fine. I can provide example code for either if you’re interested.
Shannon, I would love a copy of your example code for both SDI12 and serial for the Decagon sensors. I’ve got several CTD-10’s that I”m including in a wireless sensor network and would like to use them with an Arduino Mega, but we haven’t worked with SDI12 yet. Thus the code would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Stephanie
If you’re using CTD-10 sensors, you’ll need a way to connect their 3.5mm stereo plug to your Mega. Once you’ve done that, the code is pretty straightforward. I recently posted an example sketch (http://envirodiy.org/topic/arduino-datalogger/#post-1834) that polls 6 different Decagon 5TM soil moisture sensors that are all connected to the same SDI12 data pin. To use the code with CTD sensors instead of 5TM sensors, you can just change out the one 5TM sampling function for a CTD sampling function. Have a look at that example and see if that’s the kind of functionality you’re looking for, and if so I can post a version that’s specific to the CTD sensors. That example sketch doesn’t do any logging or saving the data, it just grabs the data from the sensors and prints it to the serial monitor every minute. If you want to timestamp your data and/or write it to a memory card and/or transmit it via a telemetry module, then something like the Mayfly would be a good option.
Dear Shannon,
is there a small tutorial (with parts, wiring and code) for this nice project? It would save me lots of efforts if I could just jump into this without going through all the initial research and trials. So far, I could not find it here and neither on GitHub.
Thank you so much.
Cheers. Conrad
I originally built this in 2011 using an Arduino Pro board from Sparkfun and a standard 2×16 LCD with a LCD-SPI backpack interface from Adafruit. I used a clear enclosure because we wanted to be able to show people what’s inside, but the case isn’t waterproof so using it in the field isn’t a good idea. Now I make them using the Mayfly and a the waterproof enclosure that comes with the starter kit. I also use a different display that connects right to the Grove ports on the Mayfly, so the whole thing only requires: a Mayfly, battery, enclosure, display, 3.5mm stereo jack, and a momentary pushbutton. The code for interacting with a SDI-12 sensor can be found on our Github repo: https://github.com/EnviroDIY/Arduino-SDI-12
Shannon, I am currently testing the SDI-12 code to connect a Decagon CTD-10 to an Mbili board. According to their specs, they use the same processor (ATmega1284p) and clock speed (8 MHz) as the Mayfly. Using only a “carriage return”, when I hit “send” I get the following back in the serial monitor:
0M!
00013
0D0!
00+192+23.5+136
However, when I hit “send” a second time, I get the following:
0M!
00+192+23.5+13600013
0D0!
00+209+23.4+135
As you know, the “00013” at the end of the second line should be return on a line of its own, without all the data (i.e., 00+192+23.5+136) in front of it. Note that the returned data is the same as the previous measurement (00+192+23.5+136). I’ve tried all the different configurations of “new line, carriage return”, “new line”, “carriage return” with the serial monitor, and both “carriage return” AND “new line” returns the data listed above on the second time I hit send and any subsequent sends. Only the first send returns the correct data. It’s like the serial buffer isn’t flushing from the last 0DO! (“request data from address 0”) sent.
Looking at the code, it does appear that the mySDI12.flush is included after both the “take measurement” request (0MO!) and 0DO! (data request) so I’m not sure what is going on. As I mentioned, the clock speed and microprocessors are the same between the Mayfly and Mbili. I did manage to get the code to work correctly on an Arduino Uno.
Do I need to increase the “delay” time or something? Can you please advise?
Thanks!
Stephanie
Try changing your CTD address to “1” or anything other than 0. The sensors sometimes give slightly different outputs when they are configured as channel “0”. If that doesn’t fix it, I can send post some sample code that I use for interacting with the CTD sensors. However, we are currently in the process of rewriting most of our libraries in order to implement a new modular sensor method, so some of my previous examples might be broken now unless you use the older libraries.
Dear Shannon,
I am going to build this using Raspberry Pi, MPS-2 (SDI12 sensor) but without using any SDI12 adapter. I could not find any code for programming and how to establish the connection anywhere. Will you please help me to do this?
Thank you so much.