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Continous HAB monitoring

Home Forums Mayfly Data Logger Continous HAB monitoring

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    • #18562
      nick
      Participant

        Hi,

        Has anyone setup their Mayfly data logger to monitor HABs in ponds/lakes? Right now, we are manually collecting the samples and trying to see if doing continuous monitoring would be beneficial.

        Thank you.

      • #18573
        Scott Ensign
        Participant

          Yes, the Stroud Center has a Campbell Scientific phycocyanin sensor deployed on a Mayfly Data Logger. @shicks might be able to share code with you.

        • #18574
          Shannon Hicks
          Moderator

            They are actually Turner Designs Cyclops-7F sensors that we use for measuring chlorophyll and phycocyanin  (https://www.turnerdesigns.com/cyclops-7f-submersible-fluorometer).  They are supported by the ModularSensors library and there’s more information about them here:  https://envirodiy.github.io/ModularSensors/group__sensor__cyclops.html

          • #18711
            nick
            Participant

              Hi Shannon,

              I ordered a C-FLOUR not realizing that the modular sensor library only has compatibility with the Cyclops-7F, even though you mentioned the Cyclops in your earlier post.

              Based on what a rep has told me, Turner is starting to phase out their Cyclops-7F sensors and replacing them with the C-FLUOR sensors, since parts are getting harder to source.  They said the C-FLUOR units are backwards compatible since the hardware is very similar. https://docs.turnerdesigns.com/t2/doc/comparison-guides/S-0245.pdf Based on that PDF it looks like C-FLOUR is more accurate (for Phycocyanin), faster, and calibrated.

              Is there any chance the C-FLOUR can be added to the library? And possibly add an example code too?

              Thank you!

              • #18712
                Shannon Hicks
                Moderator

                  The two sensor models perform exactly the same.  We’ve used a couple in the field with existing loggers when replacing some old broken Cyclops 7f sensors.  All we did was swap the sensors and redo the calibration and edit the appropriate 2 lines in the code for the voltage measured in the standard and the blank (nanopure water).  The C-FLUOR sensors do come with a calibration voltage on a datasheet in the package, but we prefer to do our own, plus we recalibrate them in the field periodically once deployed.  We use a rhodamine standard we purchased from Turner.   So you can just use the existing ModularSensors Turner Cyclops library.   Keep in mind that the sensors output a 0-5v analog signal, so you’ll need to use a resistor-divider to read them properly with a Mayfly logger.  Our new multipurpose screw terminal board has that option if you add your own resistors and change the solder jumpers on the back of the board.

              • #18719
                nick
                Participant

                  Shannon,

                  I attached a picture of how I am connecting the C-FLOUR to the multipurpose screw terminal board. Can you let me know if this is the correct wiring and resistor amount, type, and location?

                  Thank you.

                   

                • #18725
                  Shannon Hicks
                  Moderator

                    That all looks correct.  I usually put the Mayfly’s analog Grove jack voltage selector jumper to the 5v position because the old sensors required 5v for excitation, but supposedly these newer ones are happy with 3v to 15v, but we still use them at 5v and calibrate them with that excitation voltage.  If you connect the 6-pin screw terminal board shown in your photo to the Mayfly’s upper aux analog jack (AA0-AA1), then your sensor will be connected to the A0 pin, so make sure that’s what you’ve entered on the line of your sketch that looks like this:

                    const int8_t cyclopsChloroADSChannel = 0; // ADS channel

                    We’ve only used the C-FLUOR sensors for phycocyanin but I would assume their operation and performance would be the same for the chlorophyll model.  Which one are you using?     The ModularSensors library for the Cyclops sensors assumes you’ll be entering the two voltages of the sensor output (blanking voltage and standard concentration voltage), and the concentration of the standard.  So for my station, it looks like this:

                    These voltages were obtained by placing the sensor (with power applied) in nanopure water (or distilled if that’s all you’ve got) in a large dark contained (a black opaque 1-liter bottle) and measuring the output voltage of the sensor.  Then we repeat it with 1 liter of the standard (the Rhodamine standard purchased from Turner).  If you’re measuring the voltage with an external voltmeter, remember that you’ll need to divide the voltmeter voltage by 2 because you’ve got that resistor-divider circuit on your screw terminal board.  So if you put the sensor in the standard and get 2.2 volts, you would then enter 1.1 volts into the sketch.  Same thing for the blanking voltage (although it’s usually a really small number closer to zero.)  We usually measure the voltage out to 5 decimal places using the Mayfly to measure the analog voltage 100 times (20 milliseconds apart) and take an average, then do that at least 50 more times, and take an average of all those measurements.

                    If you’ll be entering the data from the sensor’s calibration sheet instead, you’ll need to enter blanking voltage from the sheet (again, dividing by 2 because of the res-div).   So let’s pretend the datasheet says the blanking offset is 0.02 volts, so divide that by 2 and get 0.01.   And then the sheet gives you the calibration coefficient as ppb per volt (parts per billion per volt).  So pretend a sensor’s datasheet said 1035.4234 ppb/v.  So you could enter that number in the concentration line and 0.5v for the voltage (because that’s half of one volt), like this:

                     

                  • #18732
                    nick
                    Participant

                      Shannon,

                      Thank you for the confirmation and write up for the sketch setup. I just have the phycocyanin C-FLUOR. This is my first time soldering, so I’m practicing on another board before I commit on the MP screw terminal board.

                      Have you notice big differences between the calibration sheet versus your manual calibration? And for the manual calibration on the mayfly, is there a specific sketch you use to get the voltages?

                       

                      • #18737
                        Shannon Hicks
                        Moderator

                          The calibration sheet from Turner was very accurate for the new sensor, so if you don’t want to buy expensive rhodamine standard right now, you’re probably fine to use the data from the sheet.  But we’ve found that the sensors tend to drift over time so we do quarterly recalibrations of the sensors to make sure they’re still accurate.

                          Here’s a simple sketch to take 100 analog readings quickly and average them, then constantly repeat that, and printing all data to the serial port.  Then I just copy/paste the text from the serial port into Excel so I can do an analysis and overall average.

                           

                      • #18794
                        nick
                        Participant

                          Thank you for that info.

                          I need to tap another hole for the Turner device and was wondering if you have a size recommendation for a drill tap and waterproof cable gland.

                           

                        • #18796
                          Shannon Hicks
                          Moderator

                            There’s information on this page, in Section 6.2 about the holes for the cable glands: https://www.envirodiy.org/knowledge-base/building-an-envirodiy-monitoring-station/

                            As mentioned on that page, the 1/2″ NPT cable glands require you to drill a 23/32” hole and tap it with a 1/2″ NPT tap.  I don’t know what the diameter of the cable for your sensor is, but it’s probably between 0.2″ and 0.35″ so you can probably use McMaster-Carr part number 69915K54.   The larger gland that comes with the EnviroDIY kit is for cables 0.24″ to 0.47″ (part number 69915K53)  because of the rubber molded 3.5mm stereo plug on the end of the CTD cables.  If your Turner cable is larger than 0.35″ you’ll need to use the larger size.

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