News Update: The Network Grows

What’s Happening

Today we added four new reporting units to the network. This includes one more red maple, to make five, and three new birches. Two more birch trees will be added in the days to come. This will round out the network to five red maples and five birches. While these units are reporting data, the actual dendrometer sensor has not yet been attached. What does this mean? Just that the units are up and running, but sending us useless data for now.

On The Technical Side

There continues to be a stability problem with the logging unit (the unit that the dendrometers send their data to that uploads to ecosensornetwork.com) and is responsible for the gap in data on the site. This seems to have been resolved at Lamont with the addition of an external battery. The same will be done at Black Rock.

Work still continues on power consumption, though, the 4,000 mAh batteries from Voltaic Systems have been replaced with 10,000 mAh rechargeable D-Cell batteries. This has prolonged the life of the units from 6 days to about 13.

Maintenance Update

Location: Black Rock Forest/Red Maple SSC

All units reporting as expected. Replaced the standard Voltaic Systems 4,000 mAh battery in “The Super Stars” reporter with 3 D Cell batteries, hoping to lease double longevity of the unit. Initial voltage of the battery pack was 4.8v.