I've been thinking of going this route lately. All the talk of river gauges costing E600 and shit loads of time and effort why not spend the money differently!
Buy a Linutop computer (http://www.linutop.com/linutop2/index.en.html) for E280. They run on minimal power (compared to other computers) about 8W.
Plug and play a USB pressure sensor like this http://www.uaviation.com/4200usb.htm or http://www.futek.com/USBpressuresensors.aspx
Plug in a USB GSM modem (approx E50): I have a 3mobile one - http://www.three.ie/broadband/paymonthly.htm
Power as before or combine solar power with hydro power (it will be beside a river after all): for example http://www.bitterrootsolar.com/hydro/wi ... erator.htm (seen these things on sailing boats before) or even build your own http://www.ihowd.com/how-to-build-a-hydro-generator
Have a small script running that will send the data to the net!
Hey presto, a river gauge. You could even plug in a web cam if u wanted to.
Does anyone think there is any merit to this idea?
Gauge alternative
Re: Gauge alternative
Funny you should say,
I was actually thinking about this lately, I was thinking even a PDA or phone running S60 would be able to handle it.It all just seemed very straight froward.? As I'm far from a computer whiz I reckoned the lads knew more than me and they had the best route...
If it was I'd almost give it a go myself.
But as Tiernan said is there another way?
Adrian
I was actually thinking about this lately, I was thinking even a PDA or phone running S60 would be able to handle it.It all just seemed very straight froward.? As I'm far from a computer whiz I reckoned the lads knew more than me and they had the best route...
If it was I'd almost give it a go myself.
But as Tiernan said is there another way?
Adrian
Re: Gauge alternative
Hey,
I think people are jumping the gun alittle, i don't have correct figures right now but approx price for actual river gauges built is less than €200 excluding time etc, most expensive parts being pressure sensor and solar panel.
The solar panel is optional, at the moment the glens gauge is running on battery alone, no charging facility, theres not enough light out there, its been running for over a month and a half already just on battery so thats not too bad.
Next week when i'm finished college stuff here, i'll update some stuff on Seanies Wiki page with more accurate costs, time, best practices etc.
People are more than welcome to think of new ideas or designs but remember these things don't happen overnight, how are you going to power all that stuff? how are you going to waterproof it and designing software that runs without many glitches can sometimes be difficult?
Just with the river gauges i've seen simple glitches cause problems, thats why you often see them left in buckets for a few weeks on test where these glitches can be ironed out so that they can hopefully run trouble free.
Laters
Mike
I think people are jumping the gun alittle, i don't have correct figures right now but approx price for actual river gauges built is less than €200 excluding time etc, most expensive parts being pressure sensor and solar panel.
The solar panel is optional, at the moment the glens gauge is running on battery alone, no charging facility, theres not enough light out there, its been running for over a month and a half already just on battery so thats not too bad.
Next week when i'm finished college stuff here, i'll update some stuff on Seanies Wiki page with more accurate costs, time, best practices etc.
People are more than welcome to think of new ideas or designs but remember these things don't happen overnight, how are you going to power all that stuff? how are you going to waterproof it and designing software that runs without many glitches can sometimes be difficult?
Just with the river gauges i've seen simple glitches cause problems, thats why you often see them left in buckets for a few weeks on test where these glitches can be ironed out so that they can hopefully run trouble free.
Laters
Mike
Re: Gauge alternative
now who is jumping the gun??? It was mearly a question that if these componants existed already, and came in at approximatly the same price as the Riverspies (based on previous message board chatter saying a gauge costed E600) would it be simpler and easier just to go that route? I'm not gonna be the one to pioneer one of these, I was just creating some discussion on a discussion board.People are more than welcome to think of new ideas or designs but remember these things don't happen overnight, how are you going to power all that stuff? how are you going to waterproof it and designing software that runs without many glitches can sometimes be difficult?
Its all just food for thought.
I'm no engineer, mechanic, electrician or computer expert but i'd say some computer software to compile and send the data would be needed, i'd also say that it would need to be housed in something with a moderate level of waterproofing. With regards the power element, i realised that there are problems with solar power so thats why I looked up hydro generators. I've used these on sail boats many times and they work very well. one in situe with sufficient water flow can charge several 12V batteries.