Depending on whether there is interest or not, we are planning to make the Termites available to the public. If you are interested in using the Termites, or simply obtaining one for a maker project, please feel free to contact us.
You will notice that when the Termite is running at full-speed the temperature readings will appear 2 to 3 degrees higher. This is perfectly normal.
The temperature sensor on the Termite is very sensitive. So sensitive that even residual heat from the MCU (Micro-Processor) on the PCB contributes to the temperature readings.
Obtaining accurate temperature readings
In order to obtain accurate temperature values the Termite can be put into deep-sleep mode with wake intervals larger than 3 minutes.
The Termite will then wake up report a reading and go back to sleep, allowing the electronics to cool down before taking another reading.
We have put a lot of effort into Termites hibernating routings which save a lot of power. They only use the Wifi network when required. Our standard sampling interval is 10 minutes, unless the Termite is woken up by external forces of course.
A one month research study is definitely possible on Battery power. However, we are wanting to conduct studies over several months if not a full calendar year and longer. This is when you want a reliable USB connection to power the Termites. With current state of the art, batteries are cumbersome for long term deployments and need to be administrated, this defeats the autonomous nature of an environmental sensor.
Despite what people may think, Bluetooth is not truly ubiquitous. It is not always available, requires additional routers on top of Wifi networks adding more unnecessary infrastructure. Wifi allows for low key hardware deployment that is relatively quick.