Building a river gauge

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MikeS
Posts:34
Joined:Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:34 am
Re: Building a river gauge

Post by MikeS » Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:06 am

Joe,
I've also found this and its quite annoying, at the moment i'm trying to rectify it. As far as i know there are a few different things that can cause this (Daithi can correct me if i'm wrong)
1) The resistor at R4 controls the voltage to the phone, in the older versions of the board it was set to 120K try replacing this to 100K as it increases the voltage to the phone slightly.

2) Dunno if you unlocked the phone you have or if you were messing with the software on it but i've read that sometimes the battery management files (software) can get corrupted. Therefore i think it reads an incorrect voltage and keeps thinking the battery is dying, you can reload this file. Of course the easiest way to test if this is your problem is to try use the phone with a charge battery (its own phone battery), if it works fine well then its probably a voltage problem coming from your board. I've tried this only the other day but have yet to test it. If it solves my problem i'll let you know.

Also you said you were using the 1.2A 12v battery, i might suggest a larger battery as depending on the location of the solar panel it'll probably die during the winter months. The most problesm i've had were power issues, i've finally ended up using a large car battery and i think Daithi and Eoin are doing the same.
If ya have any further questions let me know

Mike
sweeneymike (at) gmail (dot) com
085 7255108

Joec
Posts:9
Joined:Fri Nov 14, 2008 6:10 pm

Re: Building a river gauge

Post by Joec » Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:55 am

Cheers Mike,
I seem to have gotten over the phone powering down problem now - when i connect the power to the board and wait for it to take it's first reading at the 15 min intervals, it stays on ( or maybe its just co-incidence). I haven't modified the phone battery management software.
At the moment im able to text the phone and call it without it drying. I take you point about the larger battery and the modified resistor- will have to do that once it's up and running.

Next question: :?
Im trying to set up the codes via text & calling, but it doesn't seem to be working.
i send the "set up next caller as admin" text, and ring the phone once the text is received. The next time i ring the phone it gives me 1 beep and doesnt send back the info. there is loads of credit on the phone.
I've tried using the 'wipe admin list 'command and re do it, but still no joy. when i ring from a normal landline i also get 1 beep. ( i have got 4 beeps from the system when i've called it in the past)
Any ideas?

eoinor
Posts:10
Joined:Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:18 am

Re: Building a river gauge

Post by eoinor » Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:32 pm

Do Any of the text commands work?
I have a similar problem with the phone in the Annamoe gauge.
I had two phones, One would receive the texts and then do what it was supposed to, but that phone died and when I connected the other one (a different model) it wouldn't read the texts, Daithi thought it might be something to do with where the Phone was storing the texts, try setting the phone to store the texts on the sim or in the phone (which ever one it is not storing them in now).
If you have the cable to connect the phone to your pc you can diagnose the problem more easily.
Your other option is to get a PIC programmer and change the code in the PIC and reflash it.

eoinor

MikeS
Posts:34
Joined:Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:34 am

Re: Building a river gauge

Post by MikeS » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:38 pm

Ummm i've also come across this just yesterday with some new builds (v2.2)
I first thought it was an incorrect pin code not allowing the system to read the messages from the phone. I only have the one phone active at the momnet, once i get a new sim i can try on a different phone. On the siemens m35 etc all SMS are stored on the phone (i think) there is no option to modify this, i've also noticed its not reading my number when i call it. Need to debug some more to find out whats causing this.
Eoin did you solve this issue or did it sort itself when you changed the phone?

Also does anyone that is building a gauge require Pressure Sensors for the underwater module. I'm in the process of trying to source these ( for cheaper than farnell) but most places require a mimimum order.
Let me know.

eoinor
Posts:10
Joined:Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:18 am

Re: Building a river gauge

Post by eoinor » Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:40 pm

It was a C45 that would not read the texts, I can't remember what the other phone was.
I had set up the admin list with the first phone so it didn't matter if the C45 didn't read texts. The C45 is the phone that is running the gauge now.
Daithi said he thought there might be an AT command to change the location that the phone saves messages to.

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