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turbidity-sensor

Quickstart (Hardware)

In this page, a quickstart guide on how to use all turbidity sensors are provided with distinct points highlighting a specific implementation where applicable:

  1. If enough power is stored on the battery, press the button as shown in the figure, it should light up in blue initially as the device sets up, initiates and will then blink every 5 mins to indicate data is stored on the SD card.

  2. To access data stored on the SD card, switch off the device and then remove the SD card located in the image below.

  3. The exception with the SMS module is the logic pin 1 as seen below is connected to Ground pin (GND pin) via a jumper cable (orange wire) after powering up of the devices. This is done to send a text message of the turbidity box to the dedicated numbers as shown in other documentations.

The above points conclude a very quick and non-software approach to correctly using the device. A separate page dedicated to detailed use with mobile application and wifi interaction with the device is provided on a separate page within this documentataion.

SMS Only:

This section highlights the differences in operation for SMS based turbidity modules

  • As mentioned above, the most clear distinction for identifying the sms module is the presence of a jumper wire and an NB-IoT antenna. Also, when starting up the module via the LED button switch, the LED indicator on the button and Arduino MKR 1500 will flash for a moment and then only flash every specified time frame as per the above data logging indication.

  • If any parameters for the device would require any changes like sensor identfication, listing of recognised phone numbers for status update, including alert limit updates. First ensure device is switched off and SD card is removed and accessable through a PC, the SD card should contain information as below:

    • params: the params file is responsible for identifying the device over SMS followed by the value indicating the time period between data logged to SD card, the examples show the “turbidity-test” as device id and “300000” is the millisecond value of 300 seconds which is 5 mins recording period.

    • alarms: the alarms file is responsible for setting the limits for the turbid sensor to report to the user via SMS if the values are outside of the desired operating ranges. It is in the format of max,min, etc.. separated with commas and no spaces in between them. For each sensor reading the max and min valuesliits are in order of Temperature (in °C), Nephelo in NTU and FNU units respectively and lastly TU in mg/L unit. Also it is important to have the last comma present at End Of File.

    • phones: this file is responsible for adding in the phone numbers that will be assigned to the request and reporting of turbid values over SMS. The examples shows 3 numbers added to the list and this ensures that no outside number can communicate with the sensors. The cursor is emphasised in the image below to indicate that no trailing spaces must be present for the numbers to work on the texting system. Also, the cursor must be present on the line below the last number to indicate the End of File is not present in the last digit of the last number but below the number for it to work. This shows how sensitive the files are to errors. If all parameters are done correctly, the desired numbers after switching on the modules will receive a status update on the devices to indicate they are running and able to communicate via SMS.

Wifi Only:

  • For Wifi based turbidity implementation, the module functions similarly to sms with the exception of changing device related information without going through the SD card, instead the device ID can be changed remotely through a customised application, where other parameters can be manipulated in a similar fashion.

  • At startup, the LED on the button switch flashes repeatedly for 10 seconds indicating the system is trying to connect to wifi. After successful connection, the led on the switch and MKR 1010 unit will flash periodically based on the interval set in relation to data being logged to SD card.