Mayfly for remote monitoring

Tagged: Cellular tank level monitoring, Remote tank level monitoring, Remote tank monitoring

This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 2017-01-29 at 9:54 PM by Shannon Hicks.

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- 2017-01-28 at 5:48 PM #1971
  Arnoud
  Participant
  Dear all,
  
  I have a maxbotix ultrasoon sensor connected to the mayfly, and energy is coming from battery and small solar panel included in the kit (I will buy a larger battery and solar panel). It functions well, thanks to the help of Shannon. My final objective, however, is to monitoring the water level in several water tanks (>10) in a large area. Ideally, the data should be collected in a PC in 1 central point, made visible there, and also transmitted via wifi connection to the internet.
  
  Distances are relative large, so I guess Xbee is not the way to go? I am considering two options:
  1) First option was Cellular (I already have 1 Particle Electron kit) for remote monitoring anc connection to Thingspeak. I want to do a case-study with one measurement point: how can I integrate it to the Mayfly?
  2) Second option, only discovered recently, is LORA. In particular recent developments, like the thingsnetwork, are very atractive (no dependance on mobile company). Also Adafruit has Lora radios: can these be integrated easily to the Mayfly? Anyone experience with that?
  
  Thanks in advance. Friendly greetings,
  
  Arnoud
- 2017-01-29 at 9:54 PM #1974
  Shannon Hicks
  Moderator
  What kind of distance are you trying to cover with your radios? There are a variety of Xbee options that will work for short distances (several hundred meters), but there are also models for transmitting over a kilometer or more. There are different models for different regions of the world because of frequency regulations and other issues, so I can’t point you directly to a specific model, but I’ve had good luck with the 900MHz USA version of the Pro radios and a small external antenna.
  
  For cellular options, we’ve had really good success with using SODAQ’s GPRSbee (https://shop.sodaq.com/en/gprsbee.html). All you have to do is add a SIM card and plug the GPRSBee into the Mayfly. We’ve also successfully used WifiBee modules with the Mayfly.
  
  SODAQ also sells a LoRaBee (https://shop.sodaq.com/en/lorabee-rn2483.html) module, but I have not used it yet and can’t offer any advice on that, but I think it should work fine with the Mayfly as well.
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