An integrated solution of software and hardware for environmental monitoring

With the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), several monitoring solutions are available in the market. However, most solutions use proprietary software, which is costly and do not provide online monitoring, hampering data access and hindering preventive actions. This article presents LimnoStation, a low-cost integrated hardware and software solution that employs IoT concepts with LoRaWan, whose main objective is to monitor environmental and oceanographic data from surface and submerged sensors, which can be accessed online and has low-power consumption. Long-distance transmission tests were performed analyzing battery consumption and readings taken by the LimnoStation sensors. The results show that the average error of sensor readings was 0.51%, with a battery life of more than 2900 days and costing about 100 times less compared to commercial sensors. The evaluation of the LimnoStation showed that it is viable not only for academic use, but also as a replacement for presenting lower cost, high reliability, greater integration, and more functionality than most solutions found on the market.