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Build Your Own Data Logger Community / Feed

Welcome to the official group forum for our virtual course, Build Your Own Data Logger. This is your space to engage with course instructors Akiba and Jacinta from Freaklabs, find help and resources for each module, collaborate and chat with your fellow course participants, and share your progress on your own Data Logger project!

Group curators

discussion

Best Temperature/ Humidity Dataloggers

Becky Heath

24 April 2023 1:30pm

I'm after getting 20-25 temperature and humidity dataloggers for deployment in the field. I've considered iButtons and other single-use devices but would rather invest in...

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discussion

Experience with SeeedStudio T1000 as tracker and data logger.  

Salman Faris

4 September 2023 1:42pm

Hi Everyone. Recently, I got a chance to work work the SeeedStudio T1000 tracker and I made a tracker and data logger with it. It comes with a LoRa module to transmit the...

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Rob Appleby

8 September 2023 4:37pm

ooh very cool Salman! Amazing how much tracking devices have come down in price over the years and LoRa/LoRawan is just such a perfect fit for GPS data. Thanks heaps for sharing.

All the best,

Rob

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discussion

Global shortage of Raspberry Pis - What are the alternatives

Tom August

3 November 2022 10:27am

So, there is a global shortage of Raspberry Pis, the open source micro-computer that has been popular amongst open hardware designers and hobbyists alike. Like...

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Devi Hall

28 March 2023 9:37pm

Have you considered Arduinos?

Tom August

29 March 2023 10:13am

UPDATE: The Banana Pi didnt work out for us as it was not possible to track back all the components and ensure that they were responsibly sourced. The Rock board did work for us and we were able to port our system onto this. We will be rolling out units using this over the summer. It also looks like Raspberry Pis are coming back on line and we were able to secure a bulk order for deliver mid-summer

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discussion

Solar panels in the tropics

Tom August

26 January 2023 12:28am

We are deploying automated systems in the topics and hope to use solar panels, but this closed canopy in most places I'm seeing this as a challenge.Past the obvious: 'find a...

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Harold Tay

27 January 2023 1:23pm

Hi Tom,

I'm with Akiba, you have to test.  A collaborator has deployed solar-augmented kit in secondary jungle and some of them got enough light, and others didn't, so it can work.  The open circuit voltage of solar panels doesn't change a whole lot in dim light, but the current drops drastically.  So you would choose an oversize panel of the same voltage (or a bit higher).

Thanks

Brett Muir

27 January 2023 3:56pm

I've been intrigued by this topic. Thinking about ways you could use drones or some kind of launcher to deploy panels above the canopy. Sadly I live in the great white north so I have no way of testing any concepts. Maybe even some kind of solar balloon that could float above the canopy. Interesting design problem.

Netty Cheruto

30 January 2023 10:10am

Hey Tom,
Since the output is dependent on a couple of factors such as the solar irradiance of the place, shading from the canopy, the type of solar panels (mono, poly or amorphous) and orientation of the panels, etc, I'd suggest you use a software to simulate the different parameters to get an almost accurate estimation of the output. You can try PVsyst- it has a free month trial (I haven't used it before but I hear it's great) or any other PV software :)

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careers

Junior Electrical Engineer (Hardware)

Lindsay Starke

9 December 2022 5:04pm

As the FieldKit hardware ecosystem grows, Conservify is seeking a Junior Electrical Engineer to assist with testing, troubleshooting, prototype development, and developing production test fixtures for our growing...

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discussion

Looking for Electronic Design Consultancy in California

Falk Schuetzenmeister

26 November 2022 3:35pm

Hi, We are looking for an affordable electronic design consultancy with experience in outdoor IoT that could help us to improve our design and create a fabricated board for a...

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Isobel Ashbey

28 November 2022 9:52am

Hi, Synapse is a good option if you're looking for professionalism & speed, they're in San Francisco (and Seattle). It's a sister company to the one I work for in the UK so I could put you in touch with the right people if you're interested.

William_Boarman

2 December 2022 7:31pm

You can try Frank G.. He's a fantastically innovative engineer who founded and rubs the Maker's Space at Barstow College in Barstow, Calif. Frank is very familiar with complexities, needs, and budgets of field-based conservation. His email address is: [email protected].

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discussion

Build Your Own Data Logger

Wayne Seldon

24 October 2022 2:40pm

Good DayI was wondering if I could build a Data Logger for collecting data such as hourly consumption, leak and burst alerts from water meters? Thanks.

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Akiba

24 October 2022 3:06pm

HI Wayne. 

Sure. The main thing is selecting and interfacing the sensors that you'd need. If you had a water meter that fed out the data, then you could just timestamp it and log it to the microSD card. Otherwise, for the data you're looking for, it's likely you'd need a water flow sensor and water pressure sensor. Flow would let you know the rate of water flow in a pipe, ie: usage. Pressure would allow you to detect if a leak occurs (slight decrease in average water pressure over time) or burst (sudden large decrease in water pressure). 

At the moment, we're not actively selling the WildLogger since the chip shortage made inventory more precious. But if you email, we can arrange one if you were curious to try the course. 

Akiba 

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discussion

Water leakage in aquatic tags at deeper depths

Hari

12 October 2022 12:37pm

Hi FolksDoes anyone have experience building their own aquatic tags? We are building a GPS-LoRa telemetry system. Although all the functions are working properly, we are having...

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Thomas Gray

21 October 2022 4:12pm

I'll add -  avoid fast curing resins/epoxies for, at least, two reasons: 

1. The exothermic reaction between the two compounds can cause sensor issues (ie: heat).

2. Air bubbles will form (and cure) more easily in fast curing compounds.

Hari

23 October 2022 2:51pm

Thanks Thomas!! We do use slow curing resins with no heat generation

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discussion

Rainforest SigFox available for use

Roland Kays

26 August 2022 6:09pm

Hi EveryoneJust FYI that right now we now have a SigFox gateway running to create an IoT network at the Los Amigos field station in lowland Peruvian Amazon.  Amazing forest,...

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Carly Batist

26 September 2022 10:20pm

Hi Roland,

This is really amazing, great to hear about your set-up! I'm just wondering what the overall cost was to set up this system? Just thinking in terms of setting up something similar in other parks and what they should expect with regard to price. Would also be great to hear about the overall effort, e.g., hours/team members required. It would be great to have this act as a blueprint for other organizations/research stations wishing to deploy a similar system within their respective national parks/areas/etc.! 

Antoine Ede

10 October 2022 8:33am

Hi Rolland,

Interested too, but why did you choose SigFox (a private network) rather than LoRa (open network)? 

Sigfox currently has some financial troubles that, don't know what it will become in the long term.

Roland Kays

18 October 2022 11:55am

Hi Everyone,

We chose sigfox becuase it seems to have better range and is plug-play, whereas LoRa requires more custom programming and updating.  Getting a gateway cost us $2000 for a year's lease + deposit. We covered solar power.  There are also some 'minigateways' you can purchase but I don't know how they compare in range (plan to test).  So far we are happy with the performance, in that it has worked consistency with no outages  (once we stabilized the power supply).  I think the annual costs are about $10 per tag.  We are working on a paper that will describe this in more detail.  So far just using for tracking tags but also looking at a trap sensor.

cheers

Roland

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discussion

Avian nest box monitoring 

jasonsali

14 September 2022 2:30pm

Hi. I’m hoping there’s a guru out there who can advise on tech for monitoring conditions inside avian nest boxes? Links to data loggers and endoscopes they’ve used successfully...

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jasonsali

14 September 2022 3:08pm

Maybe this is a starting point. Any idea if this product would work inside the box. Kestrel DROP D3 Wireless Temperature, Humidity & Pressure Data Logger https://amzn.eu/d/5VdQwtA  

Colin Cook

23 September 2022 12:34pm

I'd be interested in any camera monitoring setups that can be used inside a nest box. Most camera traps are too bulky for this purpose. All the devices I've looked at either need a wired connection or a wifi network to transmit images. I want one that can store all info to an SD card and preferably be solar powered. Obviously infrared or starlight sensitivity. Sound recording would be a bonus for some bird monitoring I want to do.

Nigel Butcher

23 September 2022 1:16pm

Done lots of this over the years and it depends on the species really. If you want incubation behaviour  and hence success or otherwise using temperature then the Thermocron IButton DS1921G is perfect. The new Blue Maestro is an option I became aware of this year but I haven't tested at scale.

In terms of cameras and endoscopes I've tailored many off the shelf products and built a few from scratch. When I get chance I'll have a look around and see what is still available.

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Link

How To Use An Arduino – Beginners Guide

Ellie Warren

1 September 2022 10:02pm

For anyone interested in WILDLABS' Build Your Own Data Logger course, this beginner's guide to Arduino may be a valuable resource! This page also includes links to other relevant resources on Arduino language and getting started with Arduino software for the first time.

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article

Module 8: In the Field

Akiba

22 October 2021 12:00am

Welcome to the eighth and final module of our Build Your Own Data Logger virtual course. We’ve built, coded and tested our data logger. Now we’re taking it into the field. 

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article

Module 6: Ruggedising Devices

Akiba

6 September 2021 12:00am

Welcome to the sixth module of our Build Your Own Data Logger virtual course. In these videos, we’ll discuss ways to protect devices from water, dust and animals. Then we assemble the WildLogger using cable glands so...

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article

Module 7: Testing and Piloting

Akiba

6 September 2021 12:00am

Welcome to the seventh module of our Build Your Own Data Logger virtual course. In this module, we take our fully assembled system into the lab, sandbox and pilot test environments. 

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discussion

Module 5: Optimising your application

Stephanie O'Donnell

25 May 2021 12:00pm

Hi everyone,  Module 5 is now available! Please use this thread to ask any questions that pop up as you work your way through this module.  In Module 5 we...

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Jose Luis Albarracin de la Torre

26 May 2021 10:13am

Hurray !, we were waiting impatiently for it, now we can put our babys to sleep and let them only work what is necessary!
I've started to see a bit of the content, and as always, it's exceeding my expectations.
Congratulations on your excellent work!

Robin Sandfort

1 June 2021 8:25am

Thanks a lot for the new module!
It now keeps logging and logging and logging....

Greetings from Austria,
Robin

Akiba

1 June 2021 1:47pm

Glad to hear it's working! We're now working on the last couple modules which is more mechanical and assembly. Hoping to get those out soon. We're feeling a bit of pandemic fatigue so progress is slower than usual. Ha ha ha.

Akiba

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article

Module 5: Optimising Your Application

Akiba

25 May 2021 12:00am

Welcome to the fifth module of our Build Your Own Data Logger virtual course. In these videos, we’ll optimise our data logger application, and add the finishing touches to application code so it’s ready for deployment. 

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discussion

Wildlogger for freshwater monitoring

Nigel Cartmell

15 April 2021 2:00am

Hi Akiba, Jacinta, and wildlogger group. We're proposing to trial Wildloggers for monitoring freshwater [streams], starting with water temperature and dissolved...

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Akiba

15 April 2021 10:34am

Hi Nigel.

At the moment, I don't know of any other groups doing water monitoring. @JAL is doing a cave monitoring project. The DS18B20 is a nice sensor. It was the original sensor I was going to use for the Wildlogger kit before switching to the DHT11. One thing is that you may need to test how waterproof it actually is. When I took them apart, there was just a heat shrink tubing seal to the DS18B20 with exposed pins inside the stainless steel tube.  
I haven't had the chance to play with a DO sensor yet, but definitely hoping for more info once you deploy. It sounds like a fascinating project.

Akiba

Harold Tay

17 April 2021 2:46am

Hi Nigel,

Are you interested in attended or unattended monitoring?  You can take inspiration from openctd, also the cave pearl project which has a few variants.  IMO the atlas instruments are probably the safest way to go.  Water quality sensors are frightfully expensive, and even Atlas sensors are spendy in my book.

I heard there was a chap calibrating DS18B20 units (NIST traceable) for USD20 or so, that would partially remove the accuracy issue (the 18B20 is accurate to 0.5degC only).  The 18B20 can come already waterproofed which is convenient.

 

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discussion

BLE connection problems

Jose Luis Albarracin de la Torre

5 April 2021 7:12am

Hello Akiba and Jacinta, I am doing connection tests of the Wildlogger through the BLE HM-10 module and I have a problem for which I can not find a solution I have connected the...

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Akiba

10 April 2021 7:47am

Hi Jose.

I somehow missed this post. I can't fully understand the issue you're running into. Can you post the code you're using? Also if you can, perhaps a rough diagram of how you're interfacing the BLE HM-10 to the Wildlogger? It sounds like you somehow have it connected to the USB dongle interface? And then the other side of the Bluetooth connection is connected to the PC? It sounds like an interesting application.

Thanks.

Akiba

Jose Luis Albarracin de la Torre

13 April 2021 6:43am

Hi Akiba,
It seems to me that I have not explained myself well, as it is a somewhat special topic, if you think I will answer you in private. These days I'm a bit busy, but I hope I can answer you soon
Best regards,

Akiba

13 April 2021 7:43am

Hi JAL. 

No problem. Feel free to email directly or private message through Wildlabs on the specifics. No rush either. I think it's interesting that there seems to be interest in adding a BLE interface to the system. It's the second time hearing about it :)

Akiba

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discussion

Mid Course Check-In

Jacinta Plucinski

24 February 2021 4:55am

Hey Everyone, We're halfway through the course, whoop!  Congratulations on making it this far.  We've covered a lot, and though the...

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Akiba

6 April 2021 12:14am

Hi Egil. 
I think we're seeing the benefits of dropping the whole series binge watch style versus trickling them out on a schedule. I think we all learned a lot on how to manage a workshop series like this. Ha ha ha. Future ones will be more compact and released as a set. That said, this first one is important because it sets the foundation of concepts that future series will build on. Almost all conservation technology revolves around data collection in some form so the data logger concepts will keep on popping up in more sophisticated devices as well, but with fancier bells and whistles :)

 Akiba

Egil Droge

7 April 2021 6:36pm

I think this whole series is a very valuable tool and will open up a vast amount of possibilities for people to collect data for their projects, so useful to have such a workshop here all in one place.

Akiba

8 April 2021 2:28am

Thanks! We think it will be useful, especially if it can serve as a building block for courses with more sophisticated devices. I think it will be really interesting to see where this goes and what comes kinds of devices and projects come out of it.

Akiba

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