‘Drifting Buoy Project’ Has Been Floating and Transmitting for Nearly Two Months
Update: It’s now March 2017, so you can amend the title to *nearly eight months* – wow! Wayne writes, “the Arduino Drifting Buoy”… “is still functioning! We’re at over 220 days and about 2500 NM from where we started. Only 700 NM to Spain and Portugal. Working on a V3 for deployment this summer, also with a Trinket Pro (3V this time to save power).”
Thanks to Wayne for sending this in – him and his team built a “drifter” floating buoy that transmits data back multiple times a day including lat/long, water temp from 1′ below the surface, speed (knots), tilt angle, and more. Check out a map of the buoy’s movement here, and the full project site is here.
On Sunday 24 July 2016, after months of building and testing, we deployed a small drifting buoy 50 miles off the coast of Virginia. The buoy has a satellite transmitter and sends position and water temperature back to shore.
Here’s a quick video testing the buoy including an intentional upside-down drop to see how the buoy rights itself:
And the deployment video from July 24th, about 50 miles offshore east of Virginia Beach in the Atlantic Ocean:
Adafruit Pro Trinket – 5V 16MHz: Trinket’s got a big sister in town – the Pro Trinket 5V! Pro Trinket combines everything you love about Trinket with the familiarity of the common core Arduino chip, the ATmega328. It’s like an Arduino Pro Mini with more pins and USB tossed in, so delicious. Read more.
Adafruit DS3231 Precision RTC Breakout: The datasheet for the DS3231 explains that this part is an “Extremely Accurate I²C-Integrated RTC/TCXO/Crystal”. And, hey, it does exactly what it says on the tin! This Real Time Clock (RTC) is the most precise you can get in a small, low power package. Read more.
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