Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Remote water and air temp monitoring

I wonder how many people would be interested in being able to read air and water temperatures up to 4000ft from their computer. Keep in mind, that once the data is in your computer, you can store it for example every hour, and later compare years to one another on a graph. You can tell how quickly water temperature reacts to hot or cold front, where the thermocline is, if the water turned, if the fish are spawning, if it is time to stock Tilapia or if they are dying, etc. You can also dial into that computer, or put it on the internet, and look at the data from anywhere in the world. (or 70 miles away, like my pond) Our device will read up to 8 temperatures to start with, and 32 of these devices can be put on the same cable. The prototype hardware has been running for a month, now we are looking for shareware drivers to make it work easier. This is not new technology, but we wanted to get there for around $100. (computer not included) I am planning to run my prototype system from around the end of February, so I can post the data as the temperatures rise.

Ed,

Sign me up. Also if you know of a camera system that will operate similarly, sign me up for that also. I'm assuming you are talking wireless.

I may be interested in several...i.e. readings from multiple ponds feed to the same computer. Can you handle that as well? If so, sign me up for that too.

Ed, I would be interested in the details of this equipment too, Ted

I'm extremely interested. What else could be measured besides temperature? My brother-in-law works for a company called ISCO and they make water sampling devices which will call your cell phone if you exceed a particular measured value. They are made for municipalities, so they are way too expensive for a private pond owner, but I'd be interested to know if a DO meter could be hooked up.

Gents,

this is on a 2 pair cable, one pair for power, one for data. It uses Modbus protocol over RS485 line. But the technology to make it wireless is on the shelves today. I would have to research it a little, but I remember seeing all the pieces in catalogs. You can search for multi-spectrum radios. They don't require FCC licence. Prices are going to be all over the place, because many have to be explosion proof for the oil industry. The advantages of going wired are: No solar panel or battery required for the sensor, works beyond line of sight (over the hill, through a forest, around a house, etc.)
The disadvantage is, that you have to pull a cable that may cost more than the equipment.

Dialing out when value exceeds certain limit is no problem, but I haven't programmed anything to do that in over 10 yrs, so I am not sure if that capability is now included in the operating system or if it is still add on.

Other variables that can be measured? Right now only temperature, soon discrete values, like position of a switch (rain gauge). Our priority will be to get the device reliable, figure out if it dies for any reason, how will lightning affect it, etc. For myself, I will want to know sunup and sundown, and after that digital output. That way I could feed at those times, and maybe in between if the water temperature is high enough.

One nice thing about this is, that you can use pretty old computer to do it.

Meadowlark,

I thought about making a water level gauge for a long time. In the end I decided just to stick a board in the bank, with gauge painted on it, and point a camera at it. I would like to get that going this year. I plan on buying the camera at Fries, or some other discount store. The limiting factor for me, is the bandwidth. I only have a phone line out there, so I don't think that I will be able to view live video. I am going to have to set mine up to take a snapshot every so often, and look at the pictures one at a time. I can't spend the $50/month or so to keep high speed internet connection out there, so I didn't really look into the video performance that would give me.

Windows XP now includes Remote Desktop Connection software, that you used to have to buy separetely. When you connect your home computer to the remote one, with the camera connected to it, it will be as if you were sitting in front of the remote computer, just slower. This capability is not enabled by default, but any computer savvy friend can help you set it up. If you don't know anyone, I will gladly help you.

The technology available today at reasonable prices is truly amazing. But we are cheap, and in our case it didn't do exactly what we wanted. That is why we are doing this. That, and to learn how to do it.

I forgot to mention another limitation - temperature of the computer. I don't have heat, and I don't normally run the A/C when I am not there. The temperatures in the shed exceed limitations of office computers quite a bit. I have seen some computers that are made for cars, for about $600, that should be able to handle wider temperature range.

Ed,

Don't know if you have thought about, being able to transfer in some weather data, either from the web or a weather station onsite. This would be great to input alongside each of your timed readings so you can see what happens when a front enters or leaves, etc.

ceadmin,

I am planning to use weather station onsite, feeding into the same computer. I know they come with logging software, and I assume that you can export the data into Excel. That would make it possible to plot the weather station data with the temperatures.

I looked at the webcams this weekend, and for little over $100, you can get a really nice one. Continuous feed is kept low res, to make it easy to view remotely, but when you take a picture, you get better than 1024x768 resolution.
I wanted to put a phone # of my computer here for anyone interested in looking at it, but I revived an old P2 255 MHz and I ran out of HD space. So I am loading a new HD. Windows XP really makes this easy with the Remote Desktop.

Guys

I have a weather station at my house and use a great piece of software to collect, store, and publish the data on the internet. The software is Weather Display. It has tons of graphs and charts, keeps records for the month, year, etc. It also has the capability to capture web cam images and upload them. There is a VERY active web board with users all over the world. The software designer is a farmer from New Zealand who provided EXCELLENT support and is constantly enhancing the software.

The software supports many many kinds of weather stations from expensive like the Davis to inexpensive 1-wire devices.

You may see my weather data at http://www.frankpinkston.com/weather/wx_index.htm

I would be glad to assist anyone with this software or try to answer any questions.

I would love to do a station at a farm I have in a remote location but I don't have internet connection there.

Ed please give me some info on the computers that can take the temp range you discussed.

Frank