Protecting algae in examine with a DIY pond monitor

For element14 person christophesky, his backyard’s pond acts as a gathering level for all kinds of animals, together with frogs, birds, and bugs. Nonetheless, sudden algae blooms can flip the once-clean pond right into a toxin-filled pool that’s dangerous to its guests, which is what induced Christopher to consider an answer as a part of element14’s Simply Encase Design Problem. His thought was to float a complete monitoring system on prime of the water, able to taking common readings and letting him know what must be modified.

At a fundamental stage, the pond will comprise a MKR WAN 1300 with a number of sensors that take measurements periodically. From right here, a second MKR WAN 1300 in Christopher’s greenhouse receives the info and passes it alongside to a house server/dashboard for straightforward viewing and evaluation. By way of information assortment, the sender MKR WAN board is linked to sensors for measuring parameters equivalent to whole dissolved solids, pH, and water temperature, all of which may inform lots in regards to the pond’s well being and susceptibility to algae blooms within the close to future. 

After rigging collectively a hoop of PVC pipes for buoyancy and attaching the watertight sensor housing, Christopher gave his gadget the identify “Floaty McTest Face” and positioned it on the pond to start amassing helpful information. As seen in his dashboard, all the pieces was displayed simply as supposed.

You may learn extra in regards to the undertaking, which was named the competition runner-up, right here in its weblog put up.