App

App

Network Status

The Mesh connection will give you a colored value. You would want to see a GREEN. This indicates the strength is over -90db. If it is less, then the connections to the nodes are not optimum and tweaking with placement, elevation or adding nodes will help. Yellow is -90 to -99 medium mesh network status, but you may get reliable data Red is < -100. Poor network status you probably will not get data or it will be spotty.

Cell Connection

This is an indication of the connection to the CELL TOWER. GOOD will be a value of > 9 You should have good consistent data. A value of 5 to 9 will be a mediocre connection and may be spotty. Try moving or raising the gateway. Red will indicate poor cell connection. This may be caused by a temporary cell outage, wait and see if it recovers, or contact support for an update. Try moving the unit, and again, raising the device. Make there are not pieces of equipment that may be creating EFI or other interference.

Gateway Power

The battery indicate should be GREEN. This means you have a good strong battery and you should be fine to run for several weeks if the sun down not come out. If the battery indicator is YELLOW, that indicates a weak battery. The device could be in a state where the battery has been draining due to lack of solar. Check the panel, has there been cloud cover for a few days? Check connections from the solar to the charging board and the battery connections. If it is RED, then the battery is in a LOW voltage state. This is below 5.75. You unit will be subject to dropping of line if the battery is not recharged. Check the solar panels for any shadows, during the main part of the day. Shadows are one of the biggest causes for poor charging.

Next, you can start adding NODES.

You need to have the NODES and the GATEWAY either above or below the canopy. For the best distance it should be ABOVE the canopy by a good SEVERAL feet. The MATURE canopy should be taken into consideration. IF you place the device 2 feet above the canopy and then the crop grows 3 feet, you would be buried in the canopy and your coverage would be non-existent.

If your coverage is very weak, raise the devices. For best penetration, about 8-10 feet above the canopy is best. You can also stretch the distance by adding more nodes to use as repeaters.

If you are having issues with the NODES, there are several issue that could occur.

First is no connection or an intermittent connection.

You have some tools on your phone app that can help you with these issues. There are also tools on the NODE. When you open the door, the lights should light up. The follow will give you indications of the connection and other issues.

There are two lights the BLUE (BLE and the one to its right which is a TRICOLOR LED

The Tricolor is SOLID green means it is connected to a PARENT.

Solid Amber means it is connected to the parent but the batteries are low. Make sure all of the D Cell are fully seated and then the voltage on the lithium is over 5.6

A blinking green is that the node is not connecting to a parent. Raise the unit or move it closer to another device and see if it connects.

A blinking amber is that the node is not connecting to a parent. And the batteries are low.

Solid RED is that the device is not configured in the APP. Please use the app to configure.

The BLE light will flash when the BLUETOOTH can connect but is not currently connected. Us the Phone to connect to the device.

Solid Blue indicated the phone is ready and connected to the node and you can configure as needed.

The NODE also has some phone tools and they can help trouble shoot. The NODE Network status has 3 reading we are primarily concerned with: RSSI, ETX and Rank.

RSSI

RSSI is the power of the signal. The reading should be GREEN and in the range of >-90 This will give you good solid reading though out. Yellow is indicating that the RSSI is compromised and is in the range of -90 to -99 Red is poor. It is for a range of <-100. Issues that affect RSSI are distance, height and interference

ETX

ETX is the value that references how well it is connecting though a multi hop network. This should be a low value. Green Anything under < 1000 is good . Yellow is OK, and is 1000-1499 Red is over 1500. If you have poor numbers, you can try adding a node as a repeater or moving the nodes around so that you may have a more optimum “mesh” pattern. Those should be so that one device can reach other devices. A very poor example would be having all device in a straight line.

Rank

Rank should be Green and should be < 1000.
Yellow is 1000-1499. Red is over 1500.

Node Power

NODE POWER will indicate the node D cell battery voltage. GREEN is > 4.8V Yellow is between 4.2 and 4.8 Red is below 4.2 volts. One issue to watch out for it the tilt of the D Cell batteries. Sometimes if the unit get jarred or knocked these batteries may come dislodged. If you see this happening, please contact Davis Instruments for a solution.

Adding Sensors

If you have the NODE all set up and all the values look good on the phone app, then you should be able to add the sensors. You need to ensure you are using sensors that are supported. The latest sensor list can be found here: https://www.davisinstruments.com/product_documents/weather/EM-sensors.pdf

The phone app will have the correct wiring for the sensors. If you have issues with the sensors, you typically will find the issue that the wires are not fully seated, the insulation is not removed enough for the screws to bite the bare wires. They are not tight, or they are mis-wired. Please check these items very thoroughly.

On the Rain gauge, you MUST use the BARE WIRES and NOT use the Phone jack. This will be documented in the phone app as you are adding the rain collector.