Freaklabs
Hi everyone.
We're starting an open source datalogger project (yet another) for general purpose sensing and data collection we do here at hackerfarm. It will be used for animal population surveys as well as collecting data on how much sunlight and the intensity certain areas get. The main purpose for this datalogger is to be networked so there will be wireless communications and also an optional GPS for location information and to correct the real time clock at specific intervals. A rough feature list is:
- Arduino compatible
- Low power
- Solar w/rechargeable batteries
- SD card
- Real time clock
- Optional GPS
- Precision voltage reference
- Grove connectors
- Waterproof IP65/67 enclosure
- 900 MHz Wireless radio (802.15.4)
- Communication range of 1-5 km
Some options we're on the fence about are:
- Supporting other frequency ranges (2.4 GHz, 433 MHz)
- LoRA support
- External high precision Analog Digital Converter, ie: 12 or 16-bit or even possibly 24- bit
- External programmable gain amplifier
Since we're going to design it from scratch anyways, if there's interest in spinning something specifically for wildlife conservation and required features needed for that, let us know. It would be great to contribute some open source conservation tech to the community. Any suggestions, ideas, comments, or feedback are welcome.
Akiba
1 April 2019 5:51pm
Great to see more and more projects emerging.
I have been working on an open source data logger for quite a while now.
I have a working prototype of an arduino-based logger with a RTC, temperature and barometric pressure sensor, light sensor, and microSD card slot.
There is also an optional GPS integration with a low-power uBlox GPS and a LoRa radio (with an option of using anoher HOPE-RF radio, e.g. RFM69). It has I/O pins to connect any peripheral sensor with a serial protocol.
The logger has been designed to work in 2 ways - as a base station/logger and as an animal-borne logger (a GPS collar/backpack). It required some serious trade-offs but simplifies the desgn, programming and reduces the cost.
It ticks most of the boxes you mentioned above and I thing it would be good to join our efforts. I was going to share the desing when it's a bit more mature but got overwhelmed by the PhD-related work so the logger has been on a back burner for last 1.5 years.
2 April 2019 12:35am
Hi MichalSmielak.
Thanks for the input. Do you have a link to it? I wouldn't mind checking it out.
Akiba
2 April 2019 10:52pm
Hi Akiba,
One additional consideration is to, as best as possible, keep the size of the PCB small for animal-borne applications, or, perhaps have two versions: one for animal-borne applications and another for other applications. I know single sided boards tend be cheaper and easier to make so that could be good for applications other than animal-borne ones. Double sided, multilayered boards might help keep the size down for animal-borne applications.
Also, if it's of any use, we have a 2.4GHz (and 433MHz) active RFID tag and data logging system we are keen to release to open source. You can read more about it here: https://www.wildspy.com.au/WIDs.php
And I can post design files etc., to GitHub.
Cheers and best of luck with this great project.
Rob
2 April 2019 11:00pm
and love your work MichalSmielak! Looks like a very nice design indeed.
MichalSmielak