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Need Advice - DIY Sea Turtle Nest Temperature Logger

Former Member

Hey y'all,

 

I'm hoping the title caught your attention. I'm a graduate student looking to assemble temperature data loggers, which will be buried in the sand for approximately 2 months. They run about $40 from established companies, but I would not have the funding to buy enough. I figured the DIY approach could produce the same results.

 

Standalone Temperature/Voltage Logger « insideGadgets

This is essentially what I'm looking to produce. Although with this kit I would need to improve the thermistor to one that has an error of 0.5 degrees Celsius.

 

The data logger would need to be weather-proofed, as it's going to be coated in sand, with the possibility of water. However, I do need to access the data later.

 

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Parents

  • You'll have to do some calculations on current consumption vs. battery needed, and wat the temperature is you want to measure. The photo film canisters are a great idea (also for later data extraction!), but you might want to stick the sensor to the outside wall to get faster temperature transients.

    Some hints on components if you want to design yourself:

    - Use FRAM; although a bit more expensive than EEPROM, you have very short access time, and thus longer battery life. Although it's called FRAM, it's non-volatile.

    - If you're going to do microcontroller development take a good look at all power off modes. In general, you'll want to do a measurement, store the result, and power off until the next measurement. Choose a microcontroller that has features for this. MSP430, or EnergyMicro are specializing at this and offer many feautures / documentation to accomplish your goals.

     

    On the cost issue: how many would you need? And will your hours be for free? If you need a great lot of them, assembling will cost you a lot of time....

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  • You'll have to do some calculations on current consumption vs. battery needed, and wat the temperature is you want to measure. The photo film canisters are a great idea (also for later data extraction!), but you might want to stick the sensor to the outside wall to get faster temperature transients.

    Some hints on components if you want to design yourself:

    - Use FRAM; although a bit more expensive than EEPROM, you have very short access time, and thus longer battery life. Although it's called FRAM, it's non-volatile.

    - If you're going to do microcontroller development take a good look at all power off modes. In general, you'll want to do a measurement, store the result, and power off until the next measurement. Choose a microcontroller that has features for this. MSP430, or EnergyMicro are specializing at this and offer many feautures / documentation to accomplish your goals.

     

    On the cost issue: how many would you need? And will your hours be for free? If you need a great lot of them, assembling will cost you a lot of time....

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