Shannon Hicks

The AREF pin of the micro on the Mayfly is not tied to anything (except through a capacitor to ground as suggested in the ATmega datasheet), so when you use the standard analogRead(0) command, it uses the default 3.3v reference setting. If a user is more advanced and wants to use an internal reference by using certain commands, or by connecting…[Read more]

That simple Xbee serial printing example doesn’t require any additional libraries installed in you IDE or called by your sketch. All it is doing is printing text to the 2 separate hardware serial ports on the Mayfly.

I have never used the programmable versions of the Xbee 900HP. There are infinite combinations of ways to configure an Xbee…[Read more]

The Mayfly’s bee footprint was originally set up to only power modules that require moderate current supplied to the Vcc pin of the module, such as Xbee RF modules (900Mhz and 2.4Ghz), Bee wifi, and Bee bluetooth. There are even GPS modules with the Bee footprint that work great on the Mayfly. Then when we started using 2G and 3G cellular…[Read more]

We have successfully used dozens of Xbee Pro 900HP radios with Mayfly boards for our logger network here at the Stroud Center and at other locations. You can program the modules to be in “pin-sleep mode”, meaning you can toggle the sleep mode by driving a pin high or low. You can also use cyclic sleep and other “smart” sleep methods if you want…[Read more]

For more than a year now, all boards, either the ones bought separately or as part of the starter kits, are the latest v0.5b. The only difference between the .5 and .5b is the power options for the bee socket via jumper SJ13 to give you the option of powering the bee socket either from 3.3v Vcc of the board (default) or directly from the LiPo…[Read more]

Our Amazon inventory is back up and running again. Some of you have noticed and already ordered some boards and kits. We should be able to keep the storefront stocked unless there are a lot of large purchases. If you know you’re planning to order more than a dozen boards soon, I’d appreciate a heads up so that I can plan our inventory…[Read more]

Are you connecting to the Mayfly directly using the onboard microUSB jack, or a separate FTDI adapter connected to the FTDI jack on the Mayfly? Are any LEDs powered on the Mayfly when you turn it on? I hand-check and program every Mayfly board when it leaves my workshop with a sketch that blinks the red and green LEDs and prints the temperature…[Read more]

Yes, I’ve done it before where the logger sends alerts directly from the station, but it’s usually easier to implement this using a script on whatever server you’re hosting your data on. Because if you want to change the value of the trigger points, or do some filtering of single spikes that occur during low turbidity (like from trash or fish…[Read more]

There are 3G and 4G modules that work just fine with the Mayfly. Are you meaning you want instructions on how to do it, or you’re just looking for the hardware?

Where did you get that code example? It looks like a combination of some older code I used to use plus some newer stuff, but there are several mismatches and missing things so it won’t work properly as written. To transmit on an Xbee module, you should use Serial1. Serial0 is the port you should use for printing to the serial monitor. Your…[Read more]

The code I posted above is for the Arduino/Xbee receiver module. All it does is “visit” a URL that it “hears” on the radio. The Mayfly logger in the field is the unit that actually generates the rest of the URL. I put the beginning of the URL in the receiver code above just for simplicity, but in real life the entire URL is generated on the…[Read more]

There’s a lot of things that could cause your data to now show up in the table, either on the Arduino end or the server/PHP end. Have you tried visiting the URL using your web browser to make sure you’re able to post data to the table using a properly formatted URL? If you can do it with a browser, then you know your PHP code is right and the…[Read more]

As mentioned above, I use lots (100+) of GPRSbee modules, they are available from SODAQ in the Netherlands. They are 2G, so they only work in certain areas, but we find there’s coverage in about 90% of our locations. There are 3G and 4G bee modules available from other companies like Digi, but they cost at least twice as much so we usually just…[Read more]

As for the switched 5-volt supply on the Mayfly, it’s a boost converter that I put on the Mayfly years ago because we use a lot of sensors that require 5-volt excitation, but then they return a 0-2.5v analog signal, which is safe for the Mayfly to read with either the onboad 10-bit ADC, or the auxiliary 16-bit ADC. The 5v boost isn’t needed for…[Read more]

Grove connectors, cables, and sensors are actually quite easy to get. Usually when you buy a Grove sensor, it comes with a free 20-cm cable. Or you can get 5-packs of the cables for around $3. https://www.robotshop.com/en/grove-4-pin-buckled-20cm-cable.html

You can get 10 Grove connectors for $1:…[Read more]