Need Advice - DIY Sea Turtle Nest Temperature Logger

Thanks for all the support guys. I really appreciate the contribution y'all are making by at least with regards to brainstorming.

Great concept Tim, but it might be a little bit more advance to what I would like to accomplish.

With direct response to Michael, I do have some experience with breadboarding and soldering. So that in itself wouldn't be an issue. I've never really had a hand in coding, but I do have some potential resources around me that might be willing to help out.

I'm still working out the kinks to the whole project design, but my projected budget that the university is willing to provide is US$500. That severely limits my options, but I am willing to personally contribute to this research to ensure it gets completed. If I could get 50 data loggers at US$10 a pop, I would be ecstatic. Realistically, I'm thinking that 20-25 data loggers will suffice, and I will have to utilise each data logger twice to get a decent enough sample size.

The film canisters are a great idea, as I don't want to disrupt the sea turtle nest in itself while collecting these measurements.

vsluiter:

From what I understand, most of these devices use a coin cell battery, which should be able to power the device at least 6 months, using 1 minute intervals. I would be collecting these measurements at 1-4 hour intervals; it hasn't been decided yet. This is in turn would increase the length of the battery life.

The temperature collected would be around 28-30 degrees C, which is 82-86 degrees F.

Hi Diverdan,

Nice project... If you want it to succeed, think about what you need first (sample rate, needed accuracy, how to get data off the device), and then start developing. Changing specs along the way is a surefire way to go outside space / time / money budget.

By the looks of your numbers you want to have useful data between 28 and 30 degrees; with 0.5° resolution, that would only give 5 values. Do you need a larger range, or a more precise sensor? I've once made a circuit that was measuring within 0.1° Celsius over a range of -5 to 40°C, and in hindsight I think I could better have bought one of these sensors: http://www.ist-usadivision.com/sensors/temperature/tsic-sensors.php

The reason I warn about battery usage is that it's very hard to get to low power usage if you don't take it into consideration from the start of your product design. You can easily get this started while not paying attention to it, but it'll be much harder to get to a lower consumption from that point, than it is to first start at very low power consumption, and gradually add features. Then you'll also be able to see what feature is affecting the current consumption.

Read this: Making the Arduino sleep the long sleep and this: https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/309 for more info on making Atmels sleep.

Good luck with your design, it would be nice if you kept us posted!

Hi Diverdan,

Nice project... If you want it to succeed, think about what you need first (sample rate, needed accuracy, how to get data off the device), and then start developing. Changing specs along the way is a surefire way to go outside space / time / money budget.

By the looks of your numbers you want to have useful data between 28 and 30 degrees; with 0.5° resolution, that would only give 5 values. Do you need a larger range, or a more precise sensor? I've once made a circuit that was measuring within 0.1° Celsius over a range of -5 to 40°C, and in hindsight I think I could better have bought one of these sensors: http://www.ist-usadivision.com/sensors/temperature/tsic-sensors.php

The reason I warn about battery usage is that it's very hard to get to low power usage if you don't take it into consideration from the start of your product design. You can easily get this started while not paying attention to it, but it'll be much harder to get to a lower consumption from that point, than it is to first start at very low power consumption, and gradually add features. Then you'll also be able to see what feature is affecting the current consumption.

Read this: Making the Arduino sleep the long sleep and this: https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/309 for more info on making Atmels sleep.

Good luck with your design, it would be nice if you kept us posted!