Heron Island Sensor Relay Pole 2 (RP2)

A series of six 6m steel poles have been installed in the lagoon of Heron Island as part of the sensor network deployment at Heron Island. The poles serve two purposes; their primary purpose is to form the backbone of a wireless network that covers the entire lagoon system and secondly they themselves support a range of sensors mounted onto the pole or leading away from the pole. One pole (RP5) also supports a Vaisala WXT520 weather station.

This record is for Sensor Relay Pole 2. The pole is solar powered and routes data from the Sensor Floats and other Sensor Relay Poles back to the Base Station located on Heron Island. The system uses the Campbell Scientific CR1000 loggers and RF411 Spread-Spectrum radios to process and route the data. The poles also can support a range of sensors, this pole also has a simple bottom mounted thermistor using the MEA thermistors.

The unit will be serviced every six months and will be used in the future for attaching new sets of sensors.

The pole works primarily as a network repeater, it collects data from other poles and the Sensor Floats and routes it back to the Base Station either directly or via another pole. The poles are spaced approximately every two kilometers with the exception of those closest to the island, the base station on the island is on a 19M tower and so a greater range was found for the first set of poles.

Each pole therefore provides a wireless data network in a two kilometer radius, the combination of the six poles provides coverage for the entire lagoon. The height of the base station gives around a five kilometre range around the island itself.

The poles are 6M in height constructed from galvanized steel with a solar powered instrument top consisting of a battery unit powered from the solar panels, Campbell CR1000 logger and Campbell RF411 radio. The logger can support a range of interfaces and is suitable for connection to a range of instruments.

The initial instrumentation is just a single base mounted MEA thermistor, the intention is to add more instruments as time and opportunity allow.

Power Supply
Battery Backed (1 x 33Ahr AGM with Solar Regulator), 4 x 5W Solar Panel Supply.

Logger Settings -
Pakbus Address - 120
Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)
CSDC7 comms board rate set at 34K
SDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 180
SDC7 Beacon: 3600

Over-Reef RF Network -
RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the logger

Radio Settings -
Active Interface - Datalogger CSDC
SDC Address 7
Protocol: Pakbus aware
Radio Net Address - 0
Hop Sequence - 0
Power mode - < 2mA 1 Second
Retry level - Low