Remote Programming of MayFly Data Logger

This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 2020-08-20 at 9:42 PM by Shannon Hicks.

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- 2020-08-19 at 11:17 AM #14499
  Tom Schanandore
  Participant
  Hello,
  
  I am curious if any developments have been made on creating a way of programming the MayFly data logger remotely, without having to go out to the site to physically re-program? I am new to the MayFly data logger, so I apologize if this has already been developed or already has the capability, but to my knowledge and research it does not. I am currently researching ways to add additional hardware to provide remote programming capability and any direction would be great appreciated.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Tom Schanandore
- 2020-08-19 at 12:46 PM #14508
  Shannon Hicks
  Moderator
  I don’t know of anyone successfully programming a Mayfly board remotely. We didn’t design the board with that capability in mind, but we’re investigating that option for future board versions.
- 2020-08-19 at 1:00 PM #14509
  Tom Schanandore
  Participant
  That would be awesome, as the ability to re-program and trouble shoot would be beneficial.
  
  Since the boards were not designed to have that capability, do you think it would be impossible to attempt to develop a way to add in a secondary board with a cellular modem that would act as the receiver and uploader for programming remotely? I have come across some Xbee 3 shields which are designed to send and receive cellular data between each other. Do you foresee some major difficulties with attempting to do this. Keep in mind I am new to all this and have minimal experience with open source technology. Just trying to determine the best avenue to take here.
  
  Thanks,
- 2020-08-20 at 2:46 PM #14513
  neilh20
  Participant
  Interesting idea for a secondary board, perhaps linked into the USB. I have heard it done before via the JTAG, but I don’t believe this is available for Mayfly.
  Possibly the biggest question on issues like this is power budget. If there was a reliable power budget for a linux SBC (beaglebone.org) it would be relatively easy.
  
  One area to track this new feature request could be
  https://github.com/EnviroDIY/ModularSensors/issues/220
  
  Just a thought, another potential would be to look at the value of a next generation board, with that capability built into the chip. Since that ticket @220, where I’ve identified a method on issues/220 on how it could then be upgraded, I’ve been keeping a lookout for methods. I personally like the SAMD51 of which there is a lot of software support, and has the port capability for managing halfduplex comms which is the core of SDI-12.
- 2020-08-20 at 9:42 PM #14515
  Shannon Hicks
  Moderator
  Remote programming a datalogger has never been a priority for the type of deployments we usually do, because our monitoring stations require frequent maintenance visits to clean the sensors or perform other tasks at the station. The most common reason for reprogramming a board would be if you’re adding or removing a sensor, or recalibrating one, and for all of those tasks, you’re going to be there onsite with a laptop, so there’s no sense in adding expensive or complicated hardware for remote reprogramming. Also, our loggers are basically one-way portals, they take a reading, send it, then sleep until it’s time for the next reading. If you want to be able to remotely connect to the board, you’ll have to wait until it’s awake and connected to the network, which is only for a few short moments before it goes back to sleep. Or you can change how (and for how long) the board connects to a network to make it available for remote connections, but that will require excessive battery power, which is already a precious commodity in some stations with lots of sensors and limited sunshine.
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