The cheapest I have been able to find, commercially, is the $299 HOBO, but I'm sure a cheaper one can be built with the right sensors, housing, and microcontroller, provided one has the knowledge. Does anyone either know of a cheaper option or had success with a custom apparatus?
For a one or two unit system, definitely an arduino based logger.
If you need a *bunch* of sensors, it is probably worth doing a custom board and having the whole thing fabbed overseas.
I'm looking at a project that needs 10k individual sensor/logger units, and with those kind of numbers, you can get per unit cost (~8 gb per-unit storage) down to around $40 a pop. They're not the worlds greatest loggers, but not terrible. At all.
Agree with Ahemd!
Arduino solutions particularly the data-logger shield from Adafuit is way cheaper data-logger for logging and storing applications.
Alternately you can use only the microcontroller with some sensor and ADC and use GSM modem to relay the data in real-time will even be cheaper and compact solution. Off-course, you will require some programming skills for the micro.
@Ahmed, thanks for providing the link to your project of river level monitoring system.
Best Luck!
-Prasanna Waichal
For a one or two unit system, definitely an arduino based logger.
If you need a *bunch* of sensors, it is probably worth doing a custom board and having the whole thing fabbed overseas.
I'm looking at a project that needs 10k individual sensor/logger units, and with those kind of numbers, you can get per unit cost (~8 gb per-unit storage) down to around $40 a pop. They're not the worlds greatest loggers, but not terrible. At all.
We've been monitoring well water levels with I2C MS5803 pressure sensors on 20m cables (which may not be long enough for your application?)
https://thecavepearlproject.org/2016/09/21/field-report-2016-07-09-i2c-pressure-sensors-work-on-20m-cables/
The Arduino based logger units are reasonably easy to build:
Cave Pearl Data Logger: A Flexible Arduino-Based Logging Platform for Long-Term Monitoring in Harsh Environments
http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/2/530
The 4" loggers show in that first post usually run about $30 USD, and we pay about $20-$25 for the pressure sensors. Of course your build time has to be added to the calculation, and if you've never soldered before the first one can be somewhat intimidating.
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