There is a wealth of simple and cheap consumer grade environmental sensors available. By pairing these sensors, and some creativity, with open source Micro Controllers (Arduinos), you can build fully custom and inexpensive, data logger sensors.  Using these systems, researchers, students and curious individuals can deploy these sensors in a variety of aquatic environments to learn about what is happening above and below the water.  Often, though, it can be difficult to know where to start or how exactly to build these out. The goal of this site is to help you get started building your own DIY sensor systems. 

 

By navigating through the tabs at the top, you can explore a variety of other useful information about power saving techniques, waterproofing sensors, building cases to house these electronics, and some examples of different applications of these sensor systems.

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Everything used is based off of open source code and hardware, and all the electronics are readily available in a variety of online markets. Nothing being done here is particularly new, but rather merges a variety of code, and knowledge, to try and make something useful (code found on GitHub). Since everything is open source, feel free to modify and improve on anything you feel you can. There are likely more efficient and better ways to do everything here, but ultimately if it works, it works.

 

This site purposely is showing 3 different versions (Uno, Nano, Pro Mini), each of which is a 5 v Arduino, using the same basic processor chip (ATmega328P). By keeping the internal voltage and processor chip the same, the hope is to show just how versatile these platforms can be, without changing much.  All the code used is thus also interchangeable if you have the same peripheries (i.e. RTC chip). The Uno will the largest, but simplest. The Nano is a major size improvement on the Uno. And the Pro Mini is the smallest and most power efficient, but most technical to make. 

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This site is intended for aquatic researchers and students alike, who don't have much background in electronics or fabrication. The language used is purposely loose, and not concerned with using overly technical terms, in hopes that it can convey the ideas across without getting lost. Hopefully there is enough here that if you just want to build something quickly, you can do that. Or if you want to go further into the weeds, this can be a starting point for you. 

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NOTE for researchers: 

Feel free to use any of the information or code provided here for your projects / research. You should modify and improve on these designs / code to better suit your needs and to work more efficiently. If you wish to cite this work, use the DOI provided below that links back to the GitHub. 

 

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13152789