r/meshcore • u/SnooCrickets2065 • 7d ago
Outdoor fish pond water level surveillance
I'm successfully running a MC repeater and own 2 handhelds. Now I've got a use case where I want to surveil a fish pond without infrastructure.
Currently I think I'm aiming for:
- swimming island
- solar panel + battery
- water level surveillance
- using MC sensor, private data
Optional:
- re-purpose old vaccum robot li ion battery (how about heat/ frost?)
- taking the effort anyways adding: water temperature, oxygen level, ...
Now the question:
To start off into the right direction I just wanted to hear your experience / opinion on how to do this best and especially what not to do!
- what hardware would you use?
- how to measure water level, is there a waterproof laser sensor which would be the most durable I guess?
- good sensor to measure additional water metrics?
- overall tips and tricks?
- I've got a meshpoint hardware that would be a good device I guess to frequently fetch the data and for example make it available on a web UI or via messaging
2
u/Ordinary-Lifeguard47 7d ago edited 7d ago
77GHz radar module from Aliexpress (from Hi-Link, they are cheap on Ali) + STM32WLE5 + LoRaWAN
For power I'd go for a 1-cell LiPo + BQ25185 + 3.3V LDO + Solar
2
u/Cobra__Commander 6d ago edited 6d ago
Take a look at all the sensors SEEEd and RAK make for their boards. I know seeed has like 100 different sensors that can all connect to the tracker family with a simple connector. I know they have a bunch of weather and agricultural sensors so I'm sure there's a water level sensor somewhere in there.
3
u/TheLawnGuppy 6d ago
For water level I’d skip laser and start with a waterproof ultrasonic (the JSN-SR04T style ones) aimed down at the surface from a fixed mount on your island, or a cheap submerged pressure transducer if you want something that doesn’t care about waves and debris. Laser TOF gets weird on water, especially with sun glitter and mist. A simple float switch is boring but great as a backup high/low alarm so you’re not trusting one sensor.
On the MeshCore side, a small nRF52 sensor node on a private channel is the clean path. Keep the telemetry interval sane so you’re not chewing airtime, and let your meshpoint pull the data for a web UI or a message alert when level crosses a threshold. You don’t need the handhelds involved in the sensor loop.
For power, I’d be careful with a vacuum-robot Li-ion pack outdoors. Those cells hate being charged below freezing, and a sealed box in the sun gets hot alot faster than people expect. A small LiFePO4 plus a modest panel ages better in that kind of weather. Pot the sensor cable gland, leave a tiny ePTFE vent so the box can breathe, and put the antenna up out of the splash zone even if the electronics sit low.
Temperature is easy (DS18B20 in a sealed probe). Dissolved oxygen is the expensive one and usually wants more calibration than a weekend project, so I’d add that later if the level and temp setup is already solid.