Relocating Data Loggers to new Sites

If you are physically relocating a monitoring station that reports to MonitorMyWatershed (MMW) then it’s best to create a new site instance on MMW for the new station.  That way all the old data that was collected at the original location will still show up on the map at the original location.  If you edit the MMW location for an existing site, the the marker on the map will move to the new site, but all the historic data will be associated with the new location, which is probably not what you want.  So it’s best to think about relocating a site the same as you would for creating a brand new site with new hardware.  The Monitoring Station Manual on our website walks you through the whole process of registering a site on MMW and programming your Mayfly board.  You’ll get new UUIDs from MMW to paste into the Arduino sketch that you’ll program onto the Mayfly boards to bring them up to date.  You will also need to activate your cellular SIM card and install them into the logger’s cell module after you’ve updated your Mayfly with the new logging sketch.

If a Mayfly board has been in storage awhile or with a dead main Lipo battery, the onboard coin cell battery will likely be dead and you’ll need to replace it in order for the RealTimeClock (RTC) to retain the date/time whenever the main battery is disconnected.  The current Mayfly boards use CR1220 3v batteries, which can be ordered online or found at most pharmacies.  Be sure to insert it into the battery holder on the Mayfly board properly because inserting it upside-down will permanently damage the clock module.   There’s instructions and photos in the Manual about how to properly install the battery.  Once you’ve got a good battery in the socket and you power up the logger with cell module (with antenna) with a SIM card with an active cell plan and adequate cell reception, the board will attempt to connect to the online time server and set the RTC.  Sometimes when you’re using a brand new, freshly activated SIM card, it can take several minutes or several tries (of cycling the power after 2 minutes and trying again) for the cell network to recognize the new card and give the board a connection.  So that’s why in the manual it mentions watching the Mayfly’s serial output on the IDE’s Serial Monitor to keep an eye on the status.

It would also help to know what hardware versions of the Mayfly and cell module you have.  We’ve released 7 versions of Mayfly boards over the past decade and several different cell modules, so the Arduino sketch you upload to the board is extremely dependent on which version of the hardware you’re using.  The latest Mayfly version is v1.1 and the latest cell board is the EnviroDIY LTEbee (https://www.envirodiy.org/product/envirodiy-lte-bee/).