Article on Arduino-based underwater data loggers published!

[EKMallon]

A lot of research ends up behind a journal pay-wall, accessible only by those with deep pockets. Since our project builds upon the work of so many others in the Arduino community, we felt that publishing in an open access journal was one way to pay it forward:

A Flexible Arduino-Based Logging Platform for Long-Term Monitoring in Harsh Environments
http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/2/530 (free PDF download)

If you are new to programming Arduino, the UNO logger code at:
https://github.com/EKMallon/UNO-Breadboard-Datalogger
works well on the ProMini loggers described in the paper, and is very easy to understand - just over 100 lines after the comments are removed.



And there is deployment video at: https://vimeo.com/239390509

[Oldsirhippy]

Thank you for making your research available to all. It is refreshing that you have chosen to do so.

[EKMallon]

It's chunk of change, since the researcher has to pay out of their own pocket up front in open access publishing. But the thing about that is, the big name "closed" journals are now charging significant fees per image, per length, etc. though they then charge everyone to access the pub later. Several of our colleges have ended up paying many thousands for those closed journal publications. Quite frankly, it has all become a bit of a racket...

[fryslan76]

Hi,
I have read several of your blog posts in the past. Enjoyed reading them, also because of your choice to use common plumbing materials.

[EKMallon]

Thanks fryslan!

I've posted a few more photos in an Imgur album https://imgur.com/a/Vz0ZH

We've had good luck with loctite e30cl epoxy withstanding long marine exposures, and the critters don't seem to burrow into it too much (or into the PVC - though it's much softer) But the stuff does flex under pressure. I'd recommend potting to at least 1cm epoxy depth to protect sensors from this flexing.

[EKMallon]

Three years of classroom experience with the 2016 datalogger motivated a redesign to accommodate a wider range of student projects wwhile keeping within the time constraints of a lab schedule. The rugged PVC housing from the older build has been replaced with an inexpensive pre-made box suitable for "light duty" deployments.

https://thecavepearlproject.org/2019/01 ... on-2-2019/

Please pass this along to any educators you know who want to add Arduino-based experiments to their portfolio of science activities.

[EKMallon]

Just a quick note that we've updated the basic classroom logger to compartmentalize the soldering steps:
https://thecavepearlproject.org/2020/10 ... 20-update/

and adding dual OLED screens to that base configuration is pretty easy:
https://thecavepearlproject.org/2020/11 ... o-library/