A system capable of reliably detecting catastrophic landslides and centimeter movement in land mass could save lives and offers landowners valuable information about gradual changes in soil displacement on their land. With precise acceleration and relative positioning data collected from an accelerometer and a set of GPS receivers, a system can be designed to detect subtle changes in sensor position due to land movement. With the rapid production of new microprocessors and greater memory storage capabilities the limits of microcontroller systems are continually expanding. The Slide Sentinel project offers landowners a low-cost alternative to commercial equipment consisting of a network of remote low power sensors that detect fast linear slides and eventually lower soil movements such as creep. Long range low-power (LoRa) radio connections on these sensor nodes wirelessly transmit three-dimensional acceleration, Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS coordinates, and sudden shift alerts to a common base station where they are exported to an online spreadsheet to be processed remotely.

Sap flux probes have been used to study sap velocity since the early 20th century and have progressively improved in accuracy and usability. Advances are also being made in making these devices cheaper via open-sourced projects; however, these solutions require extensive time and skill to construct a reliable device. When our lab tried to replicate Miner’s results, only two of the first ten probes built passed rudimentary testing. We therefore redesigned the system in a PCB-based design that simplifies construction, and presents opportunity for automated mass manufacturability at a scale not possible with existing designs. New designs for both the Thermal Dissipation Method (TDM) and the Heat Ratio Method (HRM) techniques were tested. We present our open-source designs for wireless sap flux probes that communicate over 2km using the LoRa protocol through canopy to an internet hub, where data is logged in near-real-time and accessible online.

The Smart Rock is a submersible sensor suite that monitors temperature, pressure (water depth), turbidity, and electrical conductivity. The sensor suite can be deployed in streams for 3-6 months at a time taking data every 20 minutes. The frequency of data collection can be changed which will affect battery life. Smart Rock assembly has been streamlined to make assembly and programming as accessible as possible. We want water sensing to be affordable and accessible to water scientists around the world. Our goal with the Smart Rock remains to develop an affordable, user friendly, low cost, and accessible for our different users needs. For those familiar with previous versions of the Smart Rock let me cover what has changed with this latest revision. We have designed our own electrical conductivity sensor with increased control for the user to change the range and resolution of the sensor. The enclosure has shrunk with a new selection of batteries doubling the capacity of the previous version’s battery. We worked on stabilizing the code and simplifying the operation. You can now control the unit’s settings via a config file on the SD card. No more Arduino reprogramming to change settings.