Board choice for my project coming from waspmote

Hi everyone,

I am considering switching to arduino from what I am currently using (Waspmote) as for the nth time I need to use a new sensor (Lidar) and waspmote (although similar to arduino) has a its own libraries etc and I am not good enough to dig deep down and adjust things to work with it. On top of that their forum / support is lacking and they never want to help when you use sensors that they don't sell.

So arduino would be a much better because of the great community behind first of all.

I initially chose waspmote because of the great power consumption they advertised although I am not sure how it would compare to some arduino boards.

My project requires:

  • to be as power efficient as possible
  • in some instances it needs to be working in "cold" env. (-20/-25 Celsius) although I have a setup with enclosures that helps a little shielding the board and avoid condensation, etc
  • One or more sensors connected to the same board (with this new laser sensor via I2C), else via Digital Pin (ultrasonic sensor)
  • A GPRS module to send data to my server periodically

This is for a project I am about to start charging my customers for and if it picks up I was considering getting my own pcb done, however in the start I would want something that would work fairly right off the bat.

I have 2 use cases:

  1. Indoor (therefore less cold) and maybe with access to power so battery consumption wouldn't be a concern but I can assume it will always be available so I'd rather have the most universal solution possible but I am ready to use different boards for different use cases.
    Working cycle: Sleep most of the time and wake up minimum 2 time a day (up until 8 times a day), read from the laser sensor, send the data with GSM module to my server and back to sleep.

  2. Outdoor (again with a bigger MAYBE chance of having power plug near it) and possibility to use solar panels.
    Working cycle: Wake up every 10 minutes to observe if what there's a large deviation in what I am measuring and if there is not, back to sleep, else send a SMS. On top of this send the data to my server once a day.

Could you guys from your experience suggest me what board is most suited for my needs?

I would really appreciate and would love to join this great platform / community.

Also to clarify things I am fairly ignorant hardware wise and I am purely a software engineer, that is why I wanted to avoid having to "tweek" things too much.

I am not sure that the board choice makes the biggest difference as much as operation methodology.

It would seem that the largest power draw would be the GPRS unit so limiting the number of length of the messages would be the first place to focus design energy. When you wake the system up to make measurements do not power up the cell unit only have it powered up when you need to send a message. GPRS units usually draw about 1.5 A so it will be run off a separate power supply instead of just drawing power from the Arduino.

I would put the GPRS power supply on a MOSFET so it could be turned on only when needed, this and developing methods do only send data when it is needed and then only send the data that has changed. Then putting the unit to sleep between measurement sessions will probably get you close to WaspMote's specs.

wade

thanks brown appreciate it!

I just purchased the Fio with the GPRSBee, looks like a nice combo! We shall see :slight_smile:

And yes I agree, operation and proper programming probably makes the biggest difference!

I will run some tests at home to observe how it behaves simulating various reporting time etc.

PS: In my setup the GPRS is connected directly to my Battery pack (currently with my waspmote I have a 13000mAh rechargeable battery pack, which is pretty ok for ensuring good life span :slight_smile: ).