Bob, should we go fishing ?
Description
This is a fun little weather station that I had the idea to build after I read an article by a biologist who talks about a fishes metabolism and how the temperature of the water determines how and when a fish will eat. The basic premise is that if the water is warming then the fish will also be warming up and its metabolism will increase and the food in its system will not sustain it so it will eat agresively. If the temperature of the water is remaining steady then the fish will have a stable metabolism rate and will eat some but will not be as agresive. If the water is cooling down the fishes metabolism will slow down and what ever it has in its system will sustain it almost indefinitely so it will not eat. So it occured to me that it would be a useful tool to have a bouy that would measure the temperature of the water and of the air with the idea that warm air will slowly warm the water and cooler air will slowly cool the water. After measuring and tracking the temperature it will flash a series of colored LEDs to notify us of the conditions so we can define our fishing strategies and aproaches. Since this initial conception though I have been expanding the project exponentially and thought I should share an early version in case anyone has a similar use but different aproach. The version that I have pictures of now measures the temp of air and water only but then sends that info to thingspeak channel so I can monitor enviroment details on my phone and then when we catch fish I can mark timing and succsesful strategy so when we aproach similar weather conditions Bob can notify us as to which lure and aproach to use for which kinds of fish. I am currently adding a light variable resistor to measjure brightness, a wind speed meter, a way to measure current and a meter to measure water clarity. As soon as i finalize all of these bits I will be sure to add them onto post. One problem that I have in the bottom print is two thin spots that I had to coat with marine epoxy so that Bob would not take on water which won't be an issue if you are adding the outriggers. Bob is very top heavy and will role on his side so you will need to be sure to add sand or washers in the bottom for balance, I did this intentionaly so if I increase the battery packs he won't be too heavy to float. I used an arduino nano and sensors for my circuitry but can not upload my program on here for some reason, I will put together an instructable and post the link but if you message me I can email you the code as I have it written write now. Sorry for the delay. I have completed the code to take measurements of air and water temperature brightness measurements above and below the water were I can calculate water clarity and wind speed and then post all of the data to thingspeak. I used https://electronics-project-hub.com/send-data-to-thingspeak-using-esp8266/ for my inspiration on how to do this but I did make sure to run esp8266 on 3.3 volts from an external power supply to not burn up the wifi board. I am including my adjustments for bob as the second program to load on esp8266 using his methods. I can not get the information to fill the fields of thingspeak but I got the numbers there so when I catch a fish with a technique I will have the info. The temperatures you will have to add the decimal in and then I had to put the wind speed tacked onto water clarity as the last two digits, but the Arduino has all these values in correct form so as you develop your algorithms it should be effective. Also when testing Bob on calm waters he did great but when I put him into a current the water pressure forced water through the PLA and led to his filling up and the boards shorting out. Packed him in some rice and he has made a full recovery but you will need to spray paint the PLA with clear coat or something. I also started gluing hollow printed turtles onto him to act as swimmies and they work great and are kind of fun, may have gotten carried away. Enjoy and when Trout season starts later this month I will let you know how bob is helping. Sorry I just updated the schematic, I forgot to include the 4.7K pullup resistor on the DS18B20.
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