Using AQE on the mountains

[petrapan]

Hi AQE-community,

I'm planing to use the AQE in mountainous regions, but there are several unclarities.

Does any of you have any experiences using the AQE in areas with a mobile power supply (like a power bank for mobile phones)?

I also wonder if the data can be safe internal in the AQE when there is no WiFi.

I hope you can help me with those questions!
Thanks!

[Dirk Swart]

Hi petrapan,

I have used the Version 2 Air Quality Egg in a similar way:

1- The v2 Egg includes a compensation factor for altitude. It you plan to use it above a few hundred meters, I recommend using this feature.

2- For offline data logging, you can open the egg and install a micro SD card. The egg shell is just held together with pressure, so you can gently pull it apart and snap it back together when you are done.

Use the following commands from the terminal once you have installed the card:

restore defaults
altitude <altitude in meters>
opmode offline
exit

The "opmode offline" status will send the data BOTH to the Micro SD card and down the serial connection, if you have a laptop connected. If not, don't worry, it won't affect operation.

3- I have used both a Voltaic V72 and an Asuka "Power bank" to power the eggs. The Asuka unit has less power, but has two USB outputs, so you can power two eggs at once. I'm sure that any large battery will USB out will work fine.

4-If you are using the RTC module, you will also need to set the time as well before proceeding. If you don't have this unit installed, all times in the data log will start from the Unix epoch. Make sure to note down the time the unit powers up, so that you can correct the data later.

All the best

Dirk

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[petrapan]

Hi Dirk,

thanks for the useful information. I will test that as soon as possible!

All the best,
petrapan

[petrapan]

Both of our eggs are working offline now thanks to your instructions! :-)

Regarding the data I have one final question:

Is it possible that the logged data is shown in the display during offline mode. At the moment it just says: "Logging data to SD card". I couldn't find a suitable command in the help...

thanks again for helping!
All the best,
petrapan

[Victor Aprea]

Hi, that's really cool! 

On the display question, it's not possible right now (as of version 2.0.5), but it should be possible (or even default behavior) when I release version 2.0.6. There's actually an issue on Git-Hub right now to track the feature request, and you can read some discussion on the topic there. Do you think it's important that there be a way to tell the difference 'at a glance' from the display between the Egg being in 'online' or 'offline' mode? Maybe I'm over-thinking it and it doesn't really matter that much?

Kind Regards,

Vic

Victor Aprea // Wicked Device

victor...@wickeddevice.com

T: @vicatcu

[petrapan]

Hi Vic,

thanks for the fast response!

I think if the the main aim of the AQE is collecting data, I instantly want to see this data and don't want to wait until I'm back to the computer and can download the data. When I'm collecting data outside, I would appreciate instant information about my environment! In my opinion the data itself is more important than the information about the status of the egg.

All the best,
petrapan

[Neşet M]

Hi Petrapan,
I am using AQE offline mode. However, it is not easy to open the box, plug-unplug the sdcard.
I want to copy data files from Sdcard (which is in AQE) to computer via USB. Is it possible.

Thanks.

[Victor Aprea]

Hi Neşet M,

Thanks for your email, it's encouraging to hear of people using the operational flexibility we've built into the Egg. You shouldn't have to remove the SD card to get the offline mode data out of the Egg. You just need to get into Config mode by typing "aqe" into a terminal program (e.g. PuTTY) during startup and then using the "download" command. Type "help download" for some usage reminders, but the gist of it is:

"download date1 date2" will dump the contents of any files between two dates inclusive to the screen where you can capture them (e.g. PuTTY can be configured to log all session output to a file on your computer. In the command, date1 and date2 are formatted as YYMMDDHH and date1 should come before date2 chronologically. 

The dates are in direct correspondence to file names on the SD card. If you have the RTC option and the date has been properly set on the unit (or you have an internet connection and network time is enabled), then the dates should be based in reality. Otherwise "time zero" will be the start of the Unix epoch, January 1, 1970 (i.e. 70010100 will be the first date). If you're in that situation, note that offline mode stored data will be appended to previously existing date files on the SD card (i.e. files will not be overwritten). 

To help with cleanup of the SD card, there's also "delete" command that works the same way as the "download" command (i.e. delete date1 date2). For your interest there is also a "list files" command that displays the files on the SD card, "help" lists all available commands, and "help" followed by a listed command will display some usage details.

Does that make sense? Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,

Vic

Side note for anyone else reading this thread, the Egg doesn't come with a microSD card installed unless you get the Offline Data Logging package (which also includes the a battery-backed Real Time Clock), or of course you can open the Egg and install a microSD card yourself.

Victor Aprea // Wicked Device

victor...@wickeddevice.com

T: @vicatcu

[Neşet M]

Thanks, it is not exactly what I want but, it works fine for 35 minutes data. I cannot copy all the data about 1 hour.

[vicatcu]

No problem, can you elaborate on what why you can't copy all the data? Maybe I can help.

Kind Regards,

Vic

[Neşet M]

The 70010100.csv file collected 1 hour data, however I can only copy minutes between 26 and 59.
I recorded screen, published via youtube.

https://youtu.be/0GlcqmmtDoY

[vicatcu]

Neşet,

I see, you are just running into the limitations of the web-based Serial Monitor on airqualityegg.com. For using the offline mode / download commands, you would be much better served by using a more full-featured Terminal program. I generally recommend using PuTTY for this purpose, which you can download here (or install using your favorite package manager).  There are many other alternatives as well (Tera Term, Real Term, Termite, etc)

With such a program, you can typically ask it to save to file "all session output" which gets you a text file with everything you that was displayed. You just have to set it up to listen to the right Serial port at the right baud rate (e.g. COM3, 115200) and get to the point where you can type in the download commands. Then you can clean up the output afterwards to delete the superfluous leading and trailing content (e.g. using a text editor or other program), and you should be left with just the CSV data from all the files.  

I should do a screen-cast on how to use PuTTY to interact with an Air Quality Egg. It's a versatile little tool, and if you can get over the hump of running another program on your computer, I think it makes for a more enjoyable command-line experience with the Egg than what the web-based terminal can realistically provide. Let me know if that makes sense or if I can clarify anything.

Kind Regards,

Vic