Fluorometer Control and Readout Using an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense Board

Zechariah B Kitzhaber; Caitlyn M English; Kazi Ragib I Sanim; Michail Kalaitzakis; Bhanuprakash Kosaraju; Michael E Hodgson; Nikolaos Vitzilaios; Tammi L Richardson; Michael L Myrick

doi:10.1177/00037028221128800

Fluorometer Control and Readout Using an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense Board

Appl Spectrosc. 2023 Feb;77(2):220-224. doi: 10.1177/00037028221128800. Epub 2022 Oct 5.

Authors

Zechariah B Kitzhaber¹, Caitlyn M English¹, Kazi Ragib I Sanim², Michail Kalaitzakis², Bhanuprakash Kosaraju², Michael E Hodgson³, Nikolaos Vitzilaios², Tammi L Richardson⁴, Michael L Myrick¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 2629University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2629University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
³ Department of Geography, 2629University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, 2629University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.

PMID: 36197285
DOI: 10.1177/00037028221128800

Abstract

We describe the control and interfacing of a fluorometer designed for aerial drone-based measurements of chlorophyll-a using an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense board. This 64 MHz controller board provided suitable resolution and speed for analog-to-digital (ADC) conversion, processed data, handled communications via the Robot Operating System (ROS) and included a variety of built-in sensors that were used to monitor the fluorometer for vibration, acoustic noise, water leaks and overheating. The fluorometer was integrated into a small Uncrewed Aircraft System (sUAS) for automated water sampling through a Raspberry Pi master computer using the ROS. The average power consumption was 1.1 W. A signal standard deviation of 334 µV was achieved for the fluorescence blank measurement, mainly determined by the input noise equivalent power of the transimpedance amplifier. An ADC precision of 130 µV for 10 Hz chopped measurements was achieved for signals in the input range 0-600 mV.

Keywords: Arduino; Automation; aerial drone; automatic; fluorometer; lightweight; low-cost; low-power; microcontroller; sUAS; sampling; small uncrewed aircraft system; water.