Shannon Hicks

Here’s some sample code that I just put together to demonstrate the code for waking and sleeping the Xbee. You’ll notice it’s a little more complicated than just setting the D23 pin high or low. That’s because the pin should be pulled high when you want to sleep the Xbee (like I mentioned in my previous post), and if you want to sleep the Mayfly…[Read more]

We had a big run on boards and kits the past couple weeks, I guess it’s the spring monitoring season again. I usually try to keep the Amazon store well-stocked, but we sold more in the past few weeks than we did the previous 2 months, so I’m working on replenishing the Amazon inventory ASAP. I sent some boards to Amazon last week which should be…[Read more]

To address your points:
1. Any power source connected to the 2 pins labeled “Ext 12v” will power the Mayfly but will not charge any LiPo batteries connected to the two LiPo jacks.
2. The solar panel connected to the JST jack labeled “SOLAR” should never exceed 6 volts. The charging circuity on the Mayfly uses a small chip that has a 6v…[Read more]

Yes, it is possible for a Mayfly logger to read data from a Sontek SL sensor. Several years ago when we first started using the Mayfly, we connected it to Sontek IQ+ units, which have basically the same power and data interface requirements that the Sontek SL units do. The sensors need 12 volts DC to operate, which the Mayfly can’t provide…[Read more]

I bought some of the Xbee3 LTE-M modules a few weeks ago and they had hardware version D printed on them, so they appear to be the latest version. I also updated their firmware to a version that came out a few weeks ago which supposedly has some improvements too. Digi also states in the manual several time (including with big warning symbols)…[Read more]

For small orders, we only sell through our Amazon storefront. But since you need a large order, it’s best to contact us directly to see what we can do for you. You can send me an email at mayfly@envirodiy.org and we can continue the discussion there.

The Grove 6-pin screw terminal adapter board is now available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PVKQVH8

The OBS sensor comes a with bare-wire cable with 6 leads. Three of them need to be connected to the Mayfly ground (sensor power ground, sensor signal ground, and sensor shield). Then the 3 other sensor wires get connected to the remaining 3 pins of a Grove terminal (note, you have to use one of the two Aux A/D Grove inputs only). Seeedstudio…[Read more]

We currently don’t sell the screw terminal adapter, but I’m working on getting them to Amazon this week. I’ll post an update here when they are available.

The Mayfly can handle up to 16v input without risk of blowing anything up. I designed it that way so people can power it with a 12v battery that’s also attached to a charger, so their battery sees up to 15v sometimes, but still won’t hurt the Mayfly.

The cable I usually use for the ultrasonic sensors is this McMaster-Carr part number: 8233T32

It’s a CMR rated 4-conductor, stranded, shielded, 22ga cable. It also happens to have a CMX rating which makes it sunlight resistant and suitable for outdoor and wet locations. Most other mult-conductor cables (like the kind you can find at the local…[Read more]

Yes, that cable option should be fine. I’ve made my own waterproof housing for the sensor end using a threaded PVC coupler and a cable gland since that’s cheaper. You won’t need a 6-pin screw terminal since there’s only 3 wires to connect (power, ground, and data). You can connect a 4th line to the start/stop pin of the sensor if you want to…[Read more]

I had one project recently that required more than 30 Mayfly boards where each would interface with one SDI-12 soil moisture sensor array that requires 9v excitation. So I drew up this little custom PCB (not in Eagle), had it printed, and assembled the boards myself. It’s essentially one channel of the Sparkfun level converter board mentioned…[Read more]

For those interested in the Eagle files for the full Mayfly board, we have released the Eagle .brd and .sch files for the latest Mayfly v0.5b board.
https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/tree/master/hardware

We’ve used a Mayfly successfully with a variety of SDI-12 sensors from different manufacturers, including ones that require 9v or 12v excitation. I usually use a custom simple logic level converter with most of them, similar to the Sparkfun item Greg mentioned above. However the only ones that gave us problems were the YSI 6-series sondes, so I…[Read more]

It might be an error in how the file was downloaded from Github. Try downloading this zip file that contains both the sch and brd file. Click on the gray “Download” button on the top right to download the zip file.
https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/blob/master/hardware/protoshield/protoshield_mayfly_v1_zip.zip

Digi makes a variety of gateway modules, for bridging an Xbee network to Wifi, Ethernet, or cellular.
https://www.digi.com/products/networking/gateways/xbee-gateway

Or you could build your own and have full control over it and guaranteed compatibility with whatever Xbee modules you’re using. I haven’t needed to build a wifi one yet since the…[Read more]

I just posted the Eagle files for the protoshield: https://github.com/EnviroDIY/EnviroDIY_Mayfly_Logger/tree/master/hardware/protoshield

Is that sufficient for what you need for making your own shield?

Edit: I also added the Eagle files for the basic outline of the full Mayfly board showing the headers and the mounting screw…[Read more]

What sketch are you running? Is it a sample from this forum, or from our Github repo, or something you wrote?