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Jonathan Fookes
Public Documents
1
A PCB Based Sap Flux Sensor for Increased Manufacturability and Lower Cost
Brett Stoddard
and 7 more
March 18, 2019
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.