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Maintenance and Troubleshooting
The system is built to require as little maintenance as possible. It is good practice to review the latest logs once a month. And do physical checks on the sensor nodes every two months. The sensor module enclosure is designed in such a way that it can be easily disassembled and moved from its position for any repairs.
Most of the components of the sensor modules are protected inside its weatherproof enclosure but the only component that is most susceptible to damage overtime is the soil moisture sensor which is half buried in the ground and is exposed to all the elements.
The sensor modules are designed to consume as little power as possible. Hence the sensor modules are able run on battery for around two months without any recharging by the solar panels. This property will allow the sensor modules to survive long rainy seasons without running out of battery.
The hot glue seals used on the sensor module can weaken over time. Check and refill if you spot any gaps in the seals.
The command line interface provided via the serial monitor presents a very useful troubleshooting tool.
The command line allows the users to access the logs.
These log files can be used for:
Message Reception Tracking:
- The log shows successful message receptions with details like timestamp, node ID, sequence number, wake time, and RSSI.
- This helps verify that nodes are communicating as expected.
Sequence Number Analysis:
- By examining the sequence numbers, you can detect if any messages were missed.
- For example, if you see gaps in the sequence (like from 251 to 253), it indicates a lost message.
Timing Patterns:
- The timestamps allow you to analyze the frequency of messages from each node.
- You can identify if nodes are sending data at expected intervals.
Signal Strength Monitoring:
- RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) values are logged for each message.
- This helps in assessing the quality of the radio link and identifying potential interference issues.
Error Detection:
- The log includes entries for discarded messages due to invalid formats.
- The log includes entries for messages discarded due to checksum mismatches.
- This helps in identifying issues with message formatting or corruption during transmission.
Node Performance:
- By focusing on a specific node ID (Ex: 13623), you can assess the performance of individual nodes.
Wake Time Analysis:
- The wake time values can be used to verify if a sensor node is rebooted for some reason.
Time-based Issues:
- You can correlate message reception or errors with specific times of day to identify any time-dependent issues.
Long-term Trends:
- By analyzing logs over extended periods, you can identify gradual changes in performance or emerging issues.
To make the most of this log for troubleshooting:
- Look for patterns in errors or signal strength changes.
- Check for consistency in message intervals.
- Investigate any gaps in sequence numbers.
- Analyze RSSI values to identify potential positioning or interference problems.
- Correlate error messages with specific times or conditions to isolate issues.
This is a project by Watchdog Sri Lanka (team-watchdog). Watchdog is a multidisciplinary team of journalists, researchers and software engineers, operating under the Appendix umbrella. We hunt misinformation, investigate matters of public welfare, and build software tools.
We began in April 2019, days after the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, as a group of concerned citizens trying to counter misinformation. We did this amidst government crackdowns on freedom of expression and mass hysteria caused by fake news and rumors, building a mobile app that was used by over 200,000 people to verify information and counteract rumors in their own networks.
We've been called an “open-source intelligence research collective”, and that's fairly accurate. We use a lot of OSINT techniques - a combination of data scraping, analysis of publicly available documents and datasets, paired with old-school boots-on-the-ground journalism.