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Low-cost automatic temperature monitoring system with alerts for laboratory rearing units.

ABSTRACT: Monitoring accurately temperature is a key issue in biological studies involving living experimental material. It is especially true for insects which body temperature is mostly controlled by environmental temperature, with profound consequences of a few degrees variation on most physiological processes such as survival, development, fecundity, and mobility. If programmable rearing units can be purchased, it remains important to monitor and store temperature information acquired inside the rearing unit to ensure that observed phenomena are not the result of unintended and not scarily noticeable changes in temperature, and to account for the effect of temperature variation in statistical analysis. As most laboratories involved in insect rearing dispose of a large number of rearing units, the technical solution should meet the monitoring needs while being affordable and adaptable to various experimental designs. For that purpose, we designed a low cost (below 100€) and open source automatic temperature monitoring system for rearing units in laboratory. Key features providing advantage over pre-existing methods include: •Highly configurable temperature monitoring and life-time storage capacity•Email alerts based on configurable user-defined threshold•Automatic configurable reports in the form of dashboards.

SUBMITTER: Rebaudo F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6812373 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Low-cost automatic temperature monitoring system with alerts for laboratory rearing units.

Rebaudo François F Benoist Romain R

MethodsX 20190913

Monitoring accurately temperature is a key issue in biological studies involving living experimental material. It is especially true for insects which body temperature is mostly controlled by environmental temperature, with profound consequences of a few degrees variation on most physiological processes such as survival, development, fecundity, and mobility. If programmable rearing units can be purchased, it remains important to monitor and store temperature information acquired inside the reari ...[more]

PMID: 31667111

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Project description:Soil volumetric water content ( V W C ) is a vital parameter to understand several ecohydrological and environmental processes. Its cost-effective measurement can potentially drive various technological tools to promote data-driven sustainable agriculture through supplemental irrigation solutions, the lack of which has contributed to severe agricultural distress, particularly for smallholder farmers. The cost of commercially available V W C sensors varies over four orders of magnitude. A laboratory study characterizing and testing sensors from this wide range of cost categories, which is a prerequisite to explore their applicability for irrigation management, has not been conducted. Within this context, two low-cost capacitive sensors-SMEC300 and SM100-manufactured by Spectrum Technologies Inc. (Aurora, IL, USA), and two very low-cost resistive sensors-the Soil Hygrometer Detection Module Soil Moisture Sensor (YL100) by Electronicfans and the Generic Soil Moisture Sensor Module (YL69) by KitsGuru-were tested for performance in laboratory conditions. Each sensor was calibrated in different repacked soils, and tested to evaluate accuracy, precision and sensitivity to variations in temperature and salinity. The capacitive sensors were additionally tested for their performance in liquids of known dielectric constants, and a comparative analysis of the calibration equations developed in-house and provided by the manufacturer was carried out. The value for money of the sensors is reflected in their precision performance, i.e., the precision performance largely follows sensor costs. The other aspects of sensor performance do not necessarily follow sensor costs. The low-cost capacitive sensors were more accurate than manufacturer specifications, and could match the performance of the secondary standard sensor, after soil specific calibration. SMEC300 is accurate ( M A E , R M S E , and R A E of 2.12%, 2.88% and 0.28 respectively), precise, and performed well considering its price as well as multi-purpose sensing capabilities. The less-expensive SM100 sensor had a better accuracy ( M A E , R M S E , and R A E of 1.67%, 2.36% and 0.21 respectively) but poorer precision than the SMEC300. However, it was established as a robust, field ready, low-cost sensor due to its more consistent performance in soils (particularly the field soil) and superior performance in fluids. Both the capacitive sensors responded reasonably to variations in temperature and salinity conditions. Though the resistive sensors were less accurate and precise compared to the capacitive sensors, they performed well considering their cost category. The YL100 was more accurate ( M A E , R M S E , and R A E of 3.51%, 5.21% and 0.37 respectively) than YL69 ( M A E , R M S E , and R A E of 4.13%, 5.54%, and 0.41, respectively). However, YL69 outperformed YL100 in terms of precision, and response to temperature and salinity variations, to emerge as a more robust resistive sensor. These very low-cost sensors may be used in combination with more accurate sensors to better characterize the spatiotemporal variability of field scale soil moisture. The laboratory characterization conducted in this study is a prerequisite to estimate the effect of low- and very low-cost sensor measurements on the efficiency of soil moisture based irrigation scheduling systems.

Dataset Information

Low-cost automatic temperature monitoring system with alerts for laboratory rearing units.

Publications

Low-cost automatic temperature monitoring system with alerts for laboratory rearing units.

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