What’s Happening

Okay so it has been a little while since our last update but the wireless dendrometer is going strong and a lot has happened. We have successfully installed 9 dendrometers at Teatown Lake Preserve and worked with their very talented educators on their phenology, sugar maple and forest dynamics classes. Currently we are in the midst of installing a dendrometer network at Tenafly Nature Center along with an all-in-one weather station from Meter Group. We are also in the early stages of a joint project with the NYC Department of Education, NYC Parks Department and the LES Ecology Center to bring citizen science to teachers and their students!

Future scientists enjoyed another successful Summer Science Camp at Black Rock Forest. In the Make: Nature! workshop, students followed the scientific method to construct and deploy their wireless dendrometers on two more trees!

On The Technical Side

Roving Networks has decided to stop producing the Wifly WIFI module. To get around this, we have switched to the WIFI module from Digi. Digi is a well established maker of communication products and should be a great supplier. In addition to upgrading the WIFI radio, we have also moved to create custom printed circuit boards and a higher quality enclosure. This means that users have options when it comes to how they make the best use of their wireless dendrometer. We can accommodate those interested in fully constructing their device or those who would like to simply deploy the dendrometer with minimal setup.

We are still working on mini SD card support and anticipate it will be completed this year. This will allow users to more easily configure their device as well as have log data locally.

Finally, all wireless dendrometer data is logged to the cloud platform, EcoSensorNetwork.com. Some dendrometer data streams have been marked as public, meaning anyone can view the data. Be sure to create an account and check out some of the data.