Second update on the new SDI-12 USB adapter

May 18, 2018 Leave a comment

I found sometime to assemble a batch of the new boards. I populated the 12-pole terminal block on top and a row of headers on this one board for firmware development. Since not everyone will need these new features, the 12-pole block and the header for extension board or UART serial port will be optional and you can specify with your order that you need them. Adding these components adds more cost due to parts cost, assembly, and testing time. You could solder these headers yourself if you have some basic soldering skills. The UART serial port header is soldered on the underside of the board with a right-angle header to avoid the extension board and keep wires tidy.

If you need to use these boards over UART serial port such as connecting them to an Arduino or MicroPython board, please let me know with your order. I will place a solder blob between two pins on the USB serial IC so that it is placed in RESET mode to not interfere with UART serial communication with your microcontroller off board.

Here is the high-precision analog input extension board:

I assembled two extension boards, stacked them on top of the adapter, and set them to address 0 and address 1. These extension boards with come with a stacking header soldered on and four M3 standoffs, washers, and nuts. This ensures the proper spacing between boards to prevent short circuiting. I also need to trimming 20 pins on the underside of the board so that the underside of one extension board won’t touch the top side of another extension board below it. If you want, you can buy a set of 4 3-pole terminal blocks and populate them on the extension board to connect to more SDI-12 sensors, although I don’t recommend more than about 8 SDI-12 sensors from any vendor on the same adapter and extension board. A basic test running the SDI-12 + Analog USB adapter firmware on this adapter and extension board was successful, which was how I tested the extension board’s assembling quality.

My next steps are:

Extension board:

  • Expend the firmware to talk to as many as 4 such extension boards for a total of 16 high-precision analog inputs
  • Test address-setting jumpers (don’t expect any issues)
  • Populate SDI-12 headers on one extension board and test it (don’t expect any issues)

With one extension board and its address set to 0, getting high-precision analog readings is the same as using the SDI-12 + Analog USB adapter, by sending zM! and zM1! (differential reading), then using zD0! to retrieve data. With more extension boards, reading the 4 channels on board with address 1 will be zM2! and zM3! (differential reading) then the same zD0! to retrieve data. Board address 2 will have zM4! and zM5!, while board address 3 will have zM6! and zM7!. Then zM8! is reserved for the on-board basic analog channel read, while zM9! retrieves number of pulses from these channels.

Main adapter:

  • Develop firmware to read analog channels on the adapter itself (for basic analog signals at around 5mV precision).
  • Develop firmware to read pulses from the analog channels on the adapter itself (for rain gauges, flow meters etc. that output pulses).

Then I’ll test everything with a test rig. Stay tuned!

Filed under Announcements, data logging, Gadgets, SDI-12, Sensors Tagged with

Upgrades to the SDI-12 USB adapter

May 2, 2018 Leave a comment

I have been working on some updates to the SDI-12 USB adapter so that it would add more features to a data logging system. So far, I’ve updated the PCB (left board) to include additional connectors. The top of the board will have 4 analog channels. This is not as accurate as the red SDI-12 + Analog USB adapter boards. The SDI-12 + Analog USB adapter has practical accuracy of 20 microvolts and has differential input channels. The 4 channels on the basic SDI-12 USB adapter have accuracy of about 5 millivolts. Also there is not a voltage reference so the measurement will be affected by the USB voltage, which is only nominally 5V. Nevertheless, if there are some sensors that output voltages in 0-5V range you want to log with moderate accuracy, such as a potentiometer, or a thermistor for approximate temperature calculation, you can use these channels. The breakout looks the same as the SDI-12 + Analog USB adapter. There are no serial resistors so you have to add yours if you want to convert resistance to voltage.

I will release a new firmware version on these newer boards. At the same time, I am considering adding digital counting features to these analog channels so if someone wants to count pulses such as flow meters or rain gauges, they can use these channels for such purpose. I plan to develop this part in the summer.

Another connector (bottom one on left board) I have added will connect the adapter to an analog extension board (right board), which sports the same 20 microvolt accuracy as the SDI-12 + Analog USB adapter, in case you want to add these channels say for pyronometers or other low voltage and high precision measurements after initially getting the basic adapter. You can stack up to 4 such analog extension boards. Each board has an address jumper (right board, white rectangle) for one of the four addresses the analog-to-digital converter supports. That gives you a total of 16 high-precision analog input channels. Each extension board also comes with a few additional connectors for SDI-12 sensors as an option. You can more easily wire up more SDI-12 sensors to the adapter. I don’t recommend wiring up more than 6-8 SDI-12 sensors to the same adapter. Some sensors come with strong pull-down resistors. When too many of them are wired to the same adapter, they may prevent some other sensors from correctly communicating on the bus.

The last connector (left board middle) I have added will help developers using MicroPython platforms easily connect to it via serial ports, since most MicroPython boards don’t have USB hosts. I will start shipping these newer SDI-12 USB adapter boards soon although new firmware that makes use of these features will have to wait until later.

Will this affect your existing projects? Very unlikely. The new adapter has all the features of the old adapter. The SDI-12 + Analog adapter will still be around since it is a nice compact form factor. The new SDI-12 adapter plus the analog extension board will be approximately the same price as as the SDI-12 + Analog adapter.

Filed under Announcements, data logging, SDI-12

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