Moteino-Based Wireless Data Transfer for Environmental Monitoring

Data acquisition through wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has enormous potential for scalable, distributed, real-time observations of monitored environmental parameters. Despite increasing versatility and functionalities, one critical factor that affects the operation of WSNs is limited power. WSN sensor nodes are usually battery powered, and therefore the long-term operation of the WSN greatly depends on battery capacity and the node's power consumption rate. This thesis focuses on WSN node design to reduce power consumption in order to achieve sustainable power supply. For this purpose, this thesis proposes a Moteino-based WSN node and an energy efficient duty cycle that reduces current consumption in standby mode using an enhanced watchdog timer. The nodes perform radio communication at 915 MHz, for short intervals (180ms) every 10 minutes, and consume 6.8 mA at -14dBm. For testing, the WSN node monitored a low-power combined air temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure sensor, together with a typical soil moisture sensor that consumes more power. Laboratory tests indicated average current consumption of ~30µA using these short radio transmission intervals. After transmission tests, field deployment of a star-configured network of nine of these nodes and one gateway node provides a long-term platform for testing under rigorous conditions. A webserver running on a Raspberry Pi connected serially to the gateway node provides real-time access to this WSN