Panther Buoys

Panther Buoys

_{Miller, T. R., Tarpey, W., Nuese J., Smith M. (2022). Real time monitoring of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms with the Panther Buoy. ACS EST Water 2022, 2, 6, 1099–1110}

Our data buoys are deployed in the Great Lakes, inland lakes, rivers and other water bodies. These buoys, which we call our Panther Buoys, provide real time continuous monitoring data including water quality and weather measurements.

All of our current year buoy data is available at lakestat.com

Panther Logger II
Panther Buoys are built with our custom designed electronics for environmental monitoring applications. At the heart of every Panther Buoy is our Panther Logger board (left). The Panther Logger integrates solar and USB charging with embedded wireless communication including cellular, WiFi, bluetooth and long range radio using a low power microprocessor. Onboard data storage (micro SD), temperature and humidity sensors. Programmed in C/C++ over USB-C with open source software (e.g. Arduino, VS Code), the Panther Logger can read nearly any environmental sensor and send sensor data to the internet and/or save it to onboard memory. See electrorex.io for more information including purchasing options and tutorials on how to use this board for environmental monitoring applications.

Panther T-Chain

This is our digital water temperature chain using OneWire sensors for measuring water temperature at different depths in a water body. We have made these temperature chains to 60 meters so far with up to 61 sensors. They have been deployed on our buoys for multiple years in extremely harsh conditions. The sensor chain outputs data digitally (using RS232 communications) as a comma separated sentence of temperatures at each depth.

Connectors and Sensor Cables

Wet pluggable sensor cables and bulkhead connectors pass sensor wires to the Panther Logger in the buoy dry well. Sensor cables and connectors have been carefully sourced over many years to find the most robust and economic materials.

Installation and Wiring

The Panther Logger is installed in the buoy dry well inside a plastic enclosure. Sensor wires from the bulkhead connectors are routed to the appropriate inputs on the Panther Logger pluggable screw terminals. In the picture to the left is our Tug Lake buoy where a cellular modem is installed on the Panther Logger to send data on NB-IoT or Cat-M1 networks, low power technology designed for the “internet of things” (IoT) devices.

Deployment

Pictured to the left is our Mawikwe Bay buoy ( “Apostle Islands APIS Buoy”) getting ready for deployment by research specialist Jeff Nuese. The Panther Logger integrates all of the required functions for a data buoy in a small package (reading sensors, saving data to onboard memory, sending data to the cloud and battery/solar charging). The payload in a Panther Buoy weighs a mere 2 pounds including the battery pack. As such, the buoy can be small and deployed by one or two people. This buoy features a YSI EXO sonde (conductivity, water temperature, pH, chlorophyll and phycocyanin), our Panther Chain for measurement of temperature at multiple depths, Turner Designs chlorophyll and phycocyanin sensors and the Meter Group’s ATMOS22 anemometer for wind speed and direction. Wind direction is corrected relative to true north by an LSM9DS1 accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer.