A thought around the physical design and thus a possible improvement consideration.
The screw locations stick out a bit from the battery compartment, this means that soil eventually gets put on top of these, this eventually means when you need to remove the device these tabs pull on the surrounding dirt and disturb the ability to re-insert the device cleanly…
So considering this scenario, you need to replace the batteries eventually, when you pull the device out, the tabs are fully covered by dirt and you create a lot disturbance pulling the device out while those tabs have to bring up all the dirt covering them.
Would a more optimal design not be to have the screw tabs run the full length, so when you pull up the device there is no significant dirt being disturbed and the same location can be re-used?
Asked and viewed another way, does GeoDrop predict the same location can be re-used when a battery eventually needs to be replaced?
The opposing consideration is do those tabs help then keep the device firmly in the ground and prevent them from popping up in anyway… I can see that as a benefit.
I would hope for rechargeable batteries and a Qi charger that can be placed on top of the device while it charges the battery… don’t want to remove the sensor
Sure, there are some other reasons one may be adjusting the device that an optimal design would help with.
Not sure we need Qi for something on a yearly charge cycle, a QI enabled charging brick of some sort, as I definitely don’t want to be dragging around an electrical cord. What would one do with QI in non-sunny days if you ran low on battery, Qi charger needs to be weather proof. If all of that exists, for a decent price point.
First, the “side battery screw tabs” are actually designed to help lock the device in place (similar to the small circular holes in the sensor probes).
We actually shrunk its size from the Beta Production design to the Final Production design because we realized it was a bit too hard to pull out in hard clay soil. The current “Specs Page” on the website (where you grabbed the screenshot) is actually showing the slightly outdated Beta Production design, so you can see how we shrunk the size of the tab.
Next, when you replace the batteries, it’s actually NOT recommended to put it into the same location. The App actually suggests that you move the device approx 6in (or 15cm) away from the previous installed location. Reason is that it takes approx 1-2 weeks for the soil to properly settle if you install the device in an “undisturbed soil”, compared to approx ~1 month for the soil to settle and seal if you re-install it into the same spot.
Lastly, thanks for the suggestion about rechargeable batteries, we’ll keep that in mind! Another idea that had been floating around is potentially larger battery that last for 3-5 years.
(ps - once we have the GeoDrops Station, changing from WiFi to Long-Range Bluetooth actually drops the battery usage by around 2x or so, so it’s possible we can get close to 2 years of battery life once this happens… Details TBD. )
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