Here are a few design internals insight for the GAIA A12 monitoring stations:
Mechanical Design Gaia external mechanical enclosure is specially designed, with a vent cap, which protects the sensors from direct wind and rain. The enclosure is made of UV-proof ABS plastic.
GAIA A12 external mechanical design
Maintainability The GAIA station is very easy to be maintained - specifically, change the internal sensor can be done by anyone - you just need a standard screw driver.
GAIA A12 internal design:
Reliability Gaia uses 3 redundant dust sensors: The reason for using 3 redundant sensors is that, when one sensors fails, it is possible to know which one. For stations with only two sensors, when a sensor fails, it is not possible to know which sensor is reporting correct data vs incorrect data.
Life Cycle The GAIA station uses 25% duty cycle for dust sensors (active 90 seconds every 6 minutes). This make it possible to operate the GAIA station for several years without need to maintenance.
Data Quality For each sample interval (1 minute), GAIA provides the minimum, maximum, standard deviation, average and median for for interval. All this information is needed to extract reliable information about the sensor data quality.
Cost Effective Gaia station cost $200, and for this price, you get 2x5 meters water proof power cable and the power supply.
