Bob, should we go fishing ?

thingiverse

This is a fun little weather station that I built after reading an article by a biologist who discussed a fish's metabolism and how water temperature determines when it will eat. The basic idea is that if the water is warming up, the fish will also warm up, its metabolism will increase, and the food in its system won't sustain it, so it will eat aggressively. If the water temperature remains steady, the fish will have a stable metabolism rate and eat some but not as aggressively. If the water cools down, the fish's metabolism will slow down, and whatever is in its system will sustain it almost indefinitely, so it won't eat. I thought it would be useful to build a buoy that measures air and water temperature with the idea that warm air will slowly warm the water and cooler air will slowly cool the water. After measuring and tracking the temperatures, it flashes a series of colored LEDs to notify us of the conditions so we can define our fishing strategies and approaches. Since this initial conception, I've been expanding the project exponentially and thought I should share an early version in case anyone has a similar use but different approach. The version that I have pictures of now measures air and water temperature only, then sends that information to Thingspeak channels so I can monitor environmental details on my phone. When we catch fish, I can mark timing and successful strategies so when similar weather conditions occur, Bob can notify us as to which lure and approach to use for which kinds of fish. I'm currently adding a light variable resistor to measure brightness, a wind speed meter, a way to measure current, and a meter to measure water clarity. As soon as I finalize all these bits, I'll be sure to add them to the post. One problem that I have in the bottom print is two thin spots that I had to coat with marine epoxy so Bob wouldn't take on water, which won't be an issue if you're adding outriggers. Bob is very top-heavy and will roll on his side, so you'll need to ensure that you add sand or washers in the bottom for balance. I did this intentionally so if I increase the battery packs, he won't be too heavy to float. I used an Arduino Nano and sensors for my circuitry but can upload my program later. I will put together an Instructable and post the link, but if you message me, I can email you the code as I have it written now. I completed the code to take measurements of air and water temperature, brightness above and below the water where I can calculate water clarity and wind speed, then post all the data to Thingspeak. I used https://electronics-project-hub.com/send-data-to-thingspeak-using-esp8266/ for inspiration on how to do this but made sure to run ESP8266 on 3.3 volts from an external power supply to not burn up the WiFi board. I'm including my adjustments for Bob as the second program to load on ESP8266 using his methods. I can get the numbers there so when I catch a fish with a technique, I'll have the info. The temperatures you'll need to add the decimal in and then I had to put the wind speed tacked onto water clarity as the last two digits, but the Arduino has all these values in correct form so as you develop your algorithms, it should be effective. When testing Bob on calm waters, he did great, but when I put him into a current, the water pressure forced water through PLA and led to his filling up and the boards shorting out. Packed him in some rice and he has made a full recovery, but you'll need to spray paint the PLA with clear coat or something. I also started gluing hollow printed turtles onto him to act as swimmies and they work great and are kind of fun, may have gotten carried away. I updated the schematic, I forgot to include the 4.7K pull-up resistor on the DS18B20.