Environmental Monitoring
Scope
An ultra versatile and flexible shield, providing support for multiple SDI-12, Modbus-RTU, Analogue/4-20mA and Pulse output sensors. It is mainly applicable to Agriculture, Environmental and Industrial Monitoring applications.
General Information
| Host board | insigh.io main board |
| Version | v1.1.1 |
| Supported Digital Interfaces | 1 x SDI-12 & 1 x Modbus-RTU & 4 x Analogue 16-bit / 4-20mA & 2 x Pulse Counter |
| Sensor Headers | Fixed terminal block screw connection with wire protector |
| 2x6-pin (SDI-12/Pulse Counter & Modbus-RTU/Pulse Counter) & 1x12-pin (Analogue 0-3.3V / 4-20mA) | |
| Dimensions (L x W) | 75.57 x 51.94 mm |
| Weight | 16 g |
| Software Support | To use this shield you need insighioNode firmware v3 |
| Deep Sleep Current | 100 uA (typical) |
Example Applications
- Precision agriculture
- Soil moisture, Electrical Conductivity, Volumetric Water Content, Temperature
- Weather monitoring
- Wind direction/speed, Rain, Solar radiation
- Environmental monitoring
- Water flow, water quality, air quality
Sensors Support (Hardware & Software)
Power Supply Features
| Supply Voltage | 5V/9V/12V DC (selected via jumper) |
| Operation Modes | Jumper J1 for controlling the board power mode (“REG ON”) |
| Jumper J2 for controlling supply voltage level (5V/9V/12V) | |
| Jumpers J3,J4,J5 for controlling the sensor power mode for SDI-12/Modbus-RTU/Analogue independently (“Always on/On demand”) | |
| Jumper J12 for controlling the analog sensor operation mode between Analog and 4-20mA operation (Leave open for Analog operation, Use jumper for 4-20mA) | |
| Maximum Drawn Current | 300 mA |
SDI-12 Interface
| Number of Sensors | 1 x Physical Port with 3 pins (VIN,OUT,GND) |
| Up to 10 sensors with external combiner | |
| Sensors Software Support | SDI-12 Commands Implementations: Measurement (C, M, R), Verification (V), Extended (X) and additional (e.g. M1, C1) |
| Example Tested Sensors | TEROS-12 (METER), TDR-315H (ACCLIMA), Sap Flow (IMPLEXX), LI-710 (LI-COR), Shandong Renke Weather (Weather), ATMOS 41 (METER), Aquatroll Water Sensor (In situ) |
Modbus-RTU Interface
| Number of Sensors | 1 x Physical Port with 4 pins (VIN,A,B,GND) |
| Multiple Slaves with external combiner | |
| Sensors Software Support | Configurable System Settings: Baud rate, Data bits, Stop bits, Parity |
| Configurable Slave(s) Settings: Address, Register, Register Type (Holding/Input), Data Format (Integer, Float), Measurement Precision | |
| Example Tested Devices | Shandong Renke Weather (Weather), Air Quality (PMBsense), IDEC (Industrial PLC) |
Analogue/4-20mA Interface
| Number of Sensors | 4 x Physical Ports with 3 pins each (VIN,OUT,GND), where VIN is common across all ports |
| Sensors Software Support | Configurable Dedicated ADS 16-bit Voltage Range: 0:256mV, 0:512mV, 0:1.024V, 0:2.048V, 0:3.3V |
| Configurable operation between Analog and 4-20mA per port through J12 4-20mA selector. (Leave open for Analog operation, Use jumper for 4-20mA) | |
| Option for transformation formula (e.g. when an external resistor is used to transform 4-20mA current sensing to voltage input) | |
| Example Tested Devices | Edinburgh Guardian NG (Gas) |
Pulse Counter Interface
| Number of Supported Sensors | 2 x Physical Ports with 2 pins each (OUT, GND) |
| Implementation | Dry Contact (Pulled Up) |
| Usage | Pulse Counter: Ultra-Low Power Operation Option for background pulse recording |
| Max Pulse Frequency | 5 kHz |
| Example Tested Sensors | Rain Gauge (Pronamic) |
Operation Modes
Sensors supply voltage
- The shield supports 3 different DC supply voltages to power sensors: 5V, 9V, and 12V.
- Voltage level is selected via the J2 jumpers set (“blue jumpers”). By default (if no jumper is set) the board provides 5V.
- A single voltage level can be selected across SDI-12/Modbus-RTU/Analogue sensors.
- Use the lowest possible voltage to conserve energy.
Board Power mode
There are 2 “power"supply modes for the shield controlled via the J1 jumper. These modes are applied over all sensors.
- “Continuous power mode” : It applies continuous DC voltage (5V/9V/12V) even at deep sleep. This is required by some sensors for condensation avoidance (e.g. Oxygen Sensor SO-411 from Apogee) or special measurement procedure (e.g. Evapotranspiration Sensor which requires 30 min averaging or ATMOS41). To enable this, place the J1 jumper mode to “REG_ON” position.
- “Low-power” mode: This is a mode optimized for energy consumption. To enable this place the J1 jumper to the position next to “REG_ON”. In this mode, the sensors are powered only during the micro-controller wake-up periods, which is enabled by the firmware.
Sensor Power mode
In addition, with the use of jumpers the user may control each sensor’s power mode independently.
There are 3 jumper sets:
- J3 controls the SDI-12 Sensor Port
- J4 controls the Modbus-RTU Sensor Port
- J3 controls the Analogue Sensor Ports
These jumpers control the following 2 modes, where each mode can be set independently for SDI-12, Modbus-RTU and Analogue sensors.
- “Always-on” mode where the sensor data can be accessed continuously during the power cycle .
- “On-demand” mode where the sensor data can be accessed only during the measurement cycle.
Remarks:
- “On-demand” mode is the most energy-efficient one and used in most of the cases.
- “Always-on” makes sense when used with “Continuous power mode” enabled.
Pulse Counter Ultra Low Power Operation Mode
- Many devices, like rain gauges or water flow sensors generate one or more pulses when certain liquid volume has been observed.
- This is different from typical SDI-12/Modbus-RTU/Analogue measurement scenarios, where we need to periodically wake up our IoT device (e.g. once per our hour), take a measurement and then go to deep sleep.
- Instead, with pulse generating sensors we need to continuously “capture” the pulses while not exhausting battery life.
- For this purpose we use a special operating mode called ULP, which hosts the pulse counting measurement into an ultra-low processor drawing less than 400uA for up to 5kHz pulse frequencies.
Marking
| CE | under way |
| FCC | under way |
| RoHS | under way |
Custom designs
The existing boards are highly configurable and expandable so if the existing boards do not fit your need, get in contact with us and we will tailor a solution for you with your customizations.