Before closing the cases, I then called Tim Kratz
at the Trout Lake station by cell phone (the Motorola's would not
reach it through the dense woods) and he then ran the test from
the NT server. It worked first time! He reported not only the connection
messages, but watched data flow. He repeated this several times.
We could observe the change in status lights on the Freewave. We
then closed up the cases, padlocked them, and came back in. Later
we ran several repeated tests on it, to be sure it was still operating
OK.
And we called Paul Hanson, in Madison, for him
to test it by his 'PC Anywhere' method - wherein, over the Internet,
he logs into the NT Server at Trout Station, and PC Anywhere software
grabs control of the NT computer. So he then runs PC208W and commands
it to fetch the data from Sparkling Lake data logger by issuing
the same commands on his screen that we are seeing and sending.
We could even see his cursor move around the screen. So he was seeing
exactly what we were seeing.
He too had no problem with fetching the data
through the radios.
Next will be the task of getting the whole process
automated, so that the data is fetched automatically on some schedule,
then the retrieved data added to some data base, which itself is
accessible by the web.
That work must be done in Madison, and not at
Trout Lake, which is the main repository for the data bases for
all LTER data collection efforts.
The Sparkling Lake radio was still operating
fine, with real data being logged at the station, at the late end
of the last day I was there.
World Wireless
Experiments
I left a pair of very small 100mw, 19.2 speed,
serial-access spread spectrum 902- 928 World Wireless 'Hopper 900'
radios, in special waterproof cases, and with external antenna connectors
at the Station. So that Paul Hanson can experiment with the technique
of connecting up the temporarily deployed 'small buoys' that he
puts out in the summer and fall, by these radios which cost closer
to $300 each, (rather than the $1,500 for Freewaves) to a laptop
running PC208W software, from a car next to the shore. If they work
properly we can report big progress in 'scaling' with wireless.
5 Hopper 900s configured for the price of 1 Freewave. Where data
rates are low - 9,600 - and ranges required are short - a mile or
less.
The Trout Lake
Big Buoy Radio Project
While there I got very familiar with the efforts
of Paul Hanson, and two graduate students this project partly paid
for, working under his supervision during the summer, connecting
up the Big Buoy, reported on in Report 13.
On the Buoy is a device fabricated in Madison
that connects up the RUSS Buoy (Remote Underwater Sampling Station)
special data logger made by Apprise Technologies, to a PCMIA PC
card carrier, with an Aironet PC 4500 (2 Mbps)radio. And a mast
antenna.
Then, at the Trout Lake station is an Aironet
BR100 (2mbps) radio and roof antenna, that connects to the University
wide Internet network. The server for collecting the data is now
at Madison, in a Linux system, running Apache web software.
While eventually it is planned that the incoming
data flow automatically, and be available on the LTER Web site,
for now anyone can 'read the data' being currently connected by
using a web browser to
ftp://198.150.174.249/russdata
On Tim Kratz request, I attempted to get the
data by putting the BR100 on the garage at the base of the 120 foot
antenna tower, an AP4800 one-mac address Aironet in the Center,
connected to the net, via the Ethernet connection, and thus communicate
with the radio on the buoy and the data behind it, through one Aironet
in the Center, to a relay Aironet acting as repeater, then to the
PCMIA Card Aironet on the Buoy.
It did not work, even though the radios talked
to each other and the IP addresses pinged fine. And the 'association'
diagnostics showed all radios were talking properly to each other.
Efforts to run the ftp command failed, however.
Since Hanson, on the phone, reported some timing
problems that they were encountering trying to feed the data to
a web site, I suspect that is the problem also here.
This can eventually work however, opening the
door to wider ranging 2.4ghz, much faster - than 115Kbps Freewaves
- wireless LAN radios.
SUMMARY
With the primary Sparkling Lake data being fetched
wirelessly, and the Big Buoy Trout Lake data coming in, with Trout
Lake Station technical staff now able to install radios on their
own, Tim Kratz and I discussed future wireless projects that are
essentially different from the ones we have accomplished. One promising
one is to rig 7 water depth sensors in the 7 lakes of the LTER Study
area, attached to special small and cheap radios, and then link
all of those, simultaneously readable, back to Trout Lake Station
and the net. In this case Muskie Tower could come into play. We
will pursue that next trip.
