G W Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Wireless Sensor Tag Outdoor Probe Now Shipping This product is *finally* available for purchase. The long delay was caused in part by Many prototyping iterations to find the best PCB antenna shape and matching circuit for the best range. In the end, we were very pleased to measure a 5~10dB higher signal strength than regular tags. We could have used the same off-the-shelf coil antenna used in Reed or PIR KumoSensor, instead we opted to design our own PCB antenna for better range, lower power loss (no balun) and smaller area so we can put a large battery and thermocouple connector inside the IP68 enclosure. Fixing issues discovered in IP68 testing with redone, tighter fitting threads in plastic housing Many weeks of testing of a new circuit for measuring and monitoring Wood Moisture Equivalent using high resolution 16-bit Texas Instruments ADC instead of inaccurate analog circuitry used in other moisture meters in under $50 price range Completing FCC part 15 certification (FCCID: ZGW11) after many back and forths due to bureaucracy involving separate testing lab and certification body Our decision to use the new generation of Microcontroller (PIC16F1574, released in 2016, all of our other sensors/tags use PIC16F72x, released in 2010) for better everything MCU, like higher resolution battery voltage measurement (10-bit vs. 8-bit), lower power consumption, and higher reliability using brown out reset, A very long firmware internal testing period of 6+ months (since March) with firmware built on the proven Wireless Tags platform. Many bugs mostly related to subtle difference of the new MCU were found and fixed during this time. The product is priced higher accordingly starting at $49, because of all the development involved, and that it uses better components (not only the microcontroller, but small but important things like gold plated battery holder, genuine thermocouple connector, 16-bit ADC from Texas Instruments, Nylon cable gland and thick walled plastic enclosure which costs 4x to make than a regular tag enclosure) for higher reliability than any of our other sensors or tags. Our experience from customer support over the last several years has been that the Ethernet Tag Manager itself is rock solid, and 99% of the problem is caused by the sensor tag. With the boost of reliability in this new product, you can literally set it up and forget about it and it will keep running for years, as long as you keep the cap on both end screwed tight to seal off water and moisture. For this reason, the warranty period for Outdoor Probe is 3 years (vs. 1 year for Wireless Tags and Kumo Sensors). See it in action for yourself; try these today. We have limited time offer until end of November: $15 off each using discount code TRYPROBE. We cannot sustain this price and it will go back to normal price after December. https://store.wirelesstag.net/collections/outdoor Best Regards,Wireless Sensor Tags Team Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.