Shannon Hicks

Marion, if you haven’t already found it, there’s a repository on the EnviroDIY GitHub page where you can download all of the sample sketches that are currently listed on EnviroDIY, as well as some sample sketches for some workshops we did that use Grove sensors. I’m working hard to post some additional code online this…[Read more]

This topic got answered in another thread, but I’ll post the answer here since it’s important:

After extensive testing with 8 of the latest versions of the IDE, I can confirm that the EnviroDIY board configuration file that is currently posted on Github will work with Arduino IDE versions 1.6.5 through 1.6.12.

There was an update done to the IDE…[Read more]

After extensive testing with 8 of the latest versions of the IDE, I can confirm that the EnviroDIY board configuration file that is currently posted on Github will work with Arduino IDE versions 1.6.5 through 1.6.12.

There was an update done to the IDE starting with version 1.6.11 that caused an incompatibility with the Mayfly configuration…[Read more]

Which ones are you interested in? I was hoping to get some feedback from other users on what type of prototype shields they might like or what features and pin breakouts they might like to see.

This is interesting, thanks for the information Paul. I haven’t encountered this problem with any of the recent Aruino IDE builds as of a few months ago, but I’ll try it with the latest one and see if I can resolve the issue.

That looks like a great sensor. Powering the sensor from the Mayfly battery is probably possible, but at 100ma, it’s toward the upper end of the max operating current of the 5-volt boost circuitry, but it looks like you could power it from either the constant 3.3v rail or using the 3.3v switching circuitry. The bigger issue would be if you…[Read more]

When a Mayfly board is asleep, it draws around 0.27mA. If you have a microSD card in the socket, the card draws a little current on its own, so then the Mayfly draws around 0.43mA when sleeping with a card.

When the Mayfly is awake and idle, it draws 6.5mA.

Battery life in a deployment would depend on the size of the battery and what…[Read more]

I would highly recommend the GPRSbee Rev 6. It has a much easier (and more reliable!) method for waking and sleeping the GPRSbee than the Rev 4 board. Plus the Rev 6 has a u.fl antenna connector instead of the SMA that the Rev4 has, so it’s much easier to fit it inside the Mayfly enclosure. I’m deployed 6 Mayfly loggers with GPRSbee’s last week…[Read more]

What version of the GPRSbee do you have? The latest hardware version uses different code commands for toggling it on and off. I’ve successfully used the latest 3 versions of the GPRSbee with the Mayfly so I can send you the appropriate code for your model.

We have been using a homemade database system that I developed a few years ago, and it’s not ready for widespread release just yet. So in the meantime, you can probably use Thingspeak, but I also know of some people who have successfully used Sparkfun’s data portal (https://data.sparkfun.com/) for streaming Mayfly data from either a wifi bee or a…[Read more]

For most of my loggers, I use a 1200mah or 2500mah battery, depending on how much power the external sensors draw, what size solar panel I’m using, and how shady the deployment site might be.

I’m optimizing and documenting the sleeping logger Arduino code and will post it as soon as it is ready.

Do you have board version 0.3 or o.4? There may be a very small number of the v0.3 boards that have a bad connection in the power switch where it provides power to the FTDI chip, so the Mayfly will not be seen by the computer as having a valid serial port. Does the Mayfly at least blink the red and green LEDs when it’s plugged in to either a USB…[Read more]

I haven’t had a chance to make a table of all of the power usage data from my tests, but here are some of the more important measurements:

Mayfly current when board is powered and idle: 6.5 mA
Mayfly current when MCU put to sleep: 0.27 mA (or 270 uA)
Current when asleep with microSD card in the socket: 0.43 mA (or 430 uA)

Check out this ultrasonic sensor example I just posted. It shows how to read the serial output of a Maxbotix sensor. I like to use the MB7386 and MB7389 sensors because they have the TTL output that can be read directly by the Mayfly. The MB7360 you mentioned only has RS232 output, so you’ll need a RS232-to-TTL converter between the sensor and…[Read more]

We have had very good results with the GPRSbee module from SODAQ. It’s a 2G board and SODAQ also has a new 3G board with the same Bee footprint so it could also work with the Mayfly. We have deployed many stations with the GBRSbee board along with a SIM card from a company that offers a low-cost data plan, so the loggers can push data into our…[Read more]

I have done some thorough testing of the battery holders on the original v0.3 boards and the new v0.4 boards and found that it’s the texture of the bottom of the battery that makes the difference. It appears that one brand of battery might have some problems making good contact with the board, but this isn’t limited to the Mayfly. I tested 3…[Read more]

See my latest blog post for information about exchanging the v0.3 Mayfly boards for the new v0.4 boards. I will also be emailing all of the Amazon customers today with information about the exchange.

Pins 10, 11, 12, and 13 on the Stalker are used by the SPIbus, so if you’re want to use the microSD card socket, you can’t use those digital pins for anything else. It’s been awhile since I looked at the specs of the Stalker, but I think there are very few free pins. That’s one of the reasons we stopped using it and created the Mayfly. And the…[Read more]