Problem Description
Industrial dataloggers are expensive and not very user friendly. The Raspberry Pi (RPi) is cheap and powerful but not a datalogger. There is a need for an easy-to-use datalogger distribution that could be easily installed on the RPi.
Project Goals
- Create a web-based datalogger distribution for the RPi.
- Configuring an RPi datalogger should start online. The user will create a user account where they can manage multiple dataloggers.
- There will be some configuration and the ability to download a system image for each RPi. The image will be saved to SD card and used to booth the RPi with the correct hostname, network configuration, passwords, sensor configuration, etc.
- Once booted, the datalogger functionality should be fully configurable through a web interface served by the RPi. There should be no need to ever plug in a display/keyboard/mouse to the RPi datalogger.
- Data can also be viewed and downloaded through the web interface. Data must be persisted to SD card to minimize data loss.
- Free disk space must be managed so either old data is overwritten or data collection stops when the SD card is full (via a configuration option).
- Sensors can be phidgets or other USB/SPI/I2C sensors (negotiable).
- The RPi should push status/logs back to the web portal for easy management of multiple dataloggers.
Constraints
- Platform is the RPi.
- User friendly, modern, secure, web interface.
- Sensorsneeded: air temperature, water temperature, water Ph, contact closure.
- Nice to have: support ion selective electrode sensors.
Criteria
- Attractive and user friendly (bootstrap.js style admin dashboard).
- Reliable.
Resources
- Team will have access to about 30 RPis, various sensors for testing, and a (linux) server to host the logger management tool.
Licensing
- MIT / GPL
Impact
This system will be put into production and used for my research. Front page material for the Bucknell website. Potential for a scholarly publication. Potential startup opportunity.
Print 
PDF