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Smart Rock - Low Cost Water Monitoring
  • +4
  • Colin Hale-Brown,
  • Brenda Fasse,
  • Annika Sundstorm,
  • Cameron Whitlow,
  • Cara Walter,
  • Chet Udell,
  • John Selker
Colin Hale-Brown
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab

Corresponding Author:halebroc@oregonstate.edu

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Brenda Fasse
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab
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Annika Sundstorm
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab
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Cameron Whitlow
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab
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Cara Walter
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab
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Chet Udell
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab
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John Selker
Oregon State University - OPEnS Lab
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Abstract

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.