Once in a while though, something gets into a funk, and the setup stops working. Power off, power on, still the same. Without touching any of the connections at all, left it powered off for multiple days, and then on powering up again, it just starts working again. What would cause this?

I’m relatively new to the world of Arduino and microcontrollers and trying to understand how to setup several sdi12 sensors that measure stream depth (pressure transducers) and one modbus meter in a pipe. The sensor data must be reported to the web using cellular data. The system must be solar powered.in case anyone is wondering this will be used in California to monitor water diverted from a river for agriculture. This is a requirement by the state water board for surface water diversions over a size (I forget the threshold)

That’s the end goal, but I think it’s more realistic to start with a simplified version that includes a single sdi12 pressure transducers. There is a lot of information on this website, but I haven’t seen an overview of how a full setup would be assemble.

questions:

is the LiuDR SDI-12 USB adapter appropriate for this application?

where is the best place to start researching something like this? Is there a beginners guide in the blog somewhere?

Do you have a description of a similar system that I can read about?

Thank you!

in case anyone is interested in my role, I work for a nonprofit that works with agricultural water users to apply management improvements that improve ecological function without hurting production. I use a lot of pressure transducers, and soil moisture sensors. Pulling data from the sensors takes time and sometimes results in error and lost data when loggers are not redeployed properly. I’d like to move toward a fully telemetered system as old sensors need replacement.

I'm interested in your SDI-12 adapter to connect multiple environmental sensors (turbidity, conductivity, oxygen).
My goal is to build an autonomous, battery-powered system (using either LiSOCl₂ or Li-Po batteries) with at least one month of autonomy.

I’m not sure which kind of "computer" or microcontroller would be best suited for your system, since my only requirement is to store data locally on an SD card.
Do you have any recommendations for a compact and low-power platform?
I’m considering options like the Raspberry Pi Zero or a STM32-based board, but low power consumption and small size are essential since the probe will be deployed at sea.

Also, my sensors draw brief current peaks of 500 mA for 2 ms at 12 V.
Do you think your SDI-12 adapter can handle this type of load?

Thank you in advance for your help — and for your great work.

Best regards,
Julia

nunya@bus:~/sdi12 $ python3 sdi_12_config.py
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
SDI-12 Sensor Configuration Tool for Dr. Liu's SDI-12 USB adapter
                Dr. John Liu 2016-02-03 V1.0
                Free software GNU GPL V3.0

Compatible with Windows, Linux PC, and Raspberry Pi

This program requires Python 3.5 and PySerial 3.0 or newer
For assistance with customization, telemetry, etc., contact Dr. Liu.
        https://liudr.wordpress.com/gadget/sdi-12-usb-adapter/

Please only connect one sensor to the adapter to configure its address.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Detected the following serial ports:
0) /dev/ttyAMA10
1) /dev/ttyUSB0

Select port: (0,1,2...): 1
Raw response: b'\x00'
No valid response from sensor. Please check connections and try again.

sdi_12_logger_v1_5_0_2021.py:

nunya@bus:~/sdi12 $ python3 sdi_12_logger_v1_5_0_2021.py
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
SDI-12 Sensor and Analog Sensor Python Data Logger with Telemetry V1.5.0
Designed for Dr. Liu's family of SDI-12 USB adapters (standard,analog,GPS)
        Dr. John Liu Saint Cloud MN USA 2017-11-06
                Free software GNU GPL V3.0

Compatible with Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OSX, and Raspberry PI

This program requires Python 3.4, Pyserial 3.0, and urllib (data upload)

Data is logged to YYYYMMDD.CVS in the Python code's folder

Visit https://thingspeak.com/channels/359964 to inspect or retrive data

For assistance with customization, telemetry etc., contact Dr. Liu.
        https://liudr.wordpress.com/gadget/sdi-12-usb-adapter/
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Detected the following serial ports:
0)      /dev/ttyAMA10   (USB VID=0000)
1)      /dev/ttyUSB0    (USB VID=0403)

Select port from list (0,1,2...). SDI-12 adapter has USB VID=0403:1
Total number of data points:5
Delay between data points (second):5
Time stamps are generated with:
0) GMT/UTC
1) Local

Select time zone.1
Enter all SDI-12 sensor addresses, such as 1234:1
Collect analog inputs (requires SDI12-USB + Analog adapter)? (Y/N)n
Using address: 1
Sensor address: 1  Sensor info: 
Saving to 20240919.csv
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/heron/sdi12/sdi_12_logger_v1_5_0_2021.py", line 131, in <module>
    total_returned_values=int(m.group(0)) # find how many values are returned
                              ^^^^^^^
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

 I get a similar response when trying the sdi_12_reading_v1_0.py file.

Edit: I have tried using minicom to communicate with the sensor using the "?!" command, but hangs and does not give a response. I used baud rate of 9600, and stop bits 7E1.

Thanks!

You must expand your "python scripts don't work" statement into something that someone from a long distance away can understand what you are seeing.

You said the RPI recognizes the adapter, which what I think means you can see the serial port somehow, maybe using thonny or listing resources like ls -l /dev/ttyUSB*

This means the adapter isn't damaged. So what comes next is how you are reading the sensor. The sensor is not simply recognized by the RPI. It is a common understanding that if you wire an adapter to a sensor, data simply voluntarily flow out of a sensor and onto the computer because the physical connection.

The correct understanding is, the adapter simply acts as a bridge between a computer USB interface and a sensor SDI-12 interface, without which there would be no way to transfer the commands or data across these dissimilar interfaces. With this adapter, either a person or a program has to issue proper SDI-12 commands to tell the sensor to measure and then return data.

So the question is, are there any programs running to issue these commands? I have a list of Python programs that can do that:

https://liudresllc.com/gadget/sdi-12-usb-adapter/

Scroll down until you see the code. If you've tried the code, tell me which code and what you see.

Hey there!
I’ve got a quick question for you hoping for some guidance after purchasing your raspberry pi sdi-12 usb adapter a while back.

I can’t seem to get the pi to recognize the sensor I’m trying to use and was wondering if you could confirm its compatibility. It may be that this sensor sends data in an unrecognized format or something. The Pi does recognize the usb device.

My setup: RPi 5, your sdi adapter, connected with a 9V external power source to power this sensor: https://www.apogeeinstruments.com/sil-411-commercial-grade-sdi-12-digital-output-standard-field-of-view-infrared-radiometer-sensor/

The specs are available on that page. Thanks for your time, it’s greatly appreciated!