A series of 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 8. 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.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 19 m 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 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 6 m 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.
Power SupplyBattery Backed (1 x 33 Ah AGM with Solar Regulator), 1 x 87 W Solar Panel Supply.Logger Settings - Pakbus Address - 180Logger Setup as router (isRouter = True)CSDC7 comms board rate set at 38400SDC7 neighbours range: 1 - 179SDC7 Beacon: 600Over-Reef RF Network - RF411 attached to the CSIO port of the loggerRadio Settings - Active Interface - Datalogger CSDCSDC Address 7Protocol: Pakbus awareRadio Net Address - 0Hop Sequence - 0Power mode - Retry level - Low
