The Hawk Lite is a rugged and robust IoT datalogger for a wide range of sensor and condition monitoring applications.

Functionally, the Hawk Lite is identical to the Hawk except for the power options.

• The Hawk Lite is only available in the D Cell Housing, and is only compatible with Alkaline D Cell batteries.
• You cannot use the Hawk with the LiPo housing option or with external power like a solar panel.
• For more information, please contact support

Hawk Lite Introduction

[VIDEO COMING SOON]

Key Features:

• Plug-in I/O Interface
• GPS Location
• Powerful task management allows you to schedule tasks or run tasks based on sensor thresholds and events
• Powered by 2 x Alkaline D Cell batteries
  • Digital Matter doesn't supply batteries. For advice on which batteries to choose please see Device Battery Suggestions.
• A variety of Power Out options (SWGND, 3.3V, 5V/12V Vboost) allows the Hawk Lite to provide power to your sensors.
• 2 x Ultra-rugged IP68-rated housing options with or without GORE® vent.
• Currently, the Hawk Lite is only available in LTE-M/NB-IoT connectivity.

It is helpful to understand key concepts around the Hawk Lite.

Hawk Lite PCB

Baseboard/PCB

When we refer to the Hawk Lite, we are referring to the 'baseboard'/'motherboard'/'host'/PCB. Key components of the baseboard are:

• Modem to allow for data upload.
  • Currently LTE-M/NB-IoT.
• Microcontroller + Memory to store and process records
• I/O screw-in terminals
  • Vin, GND and Digital Input 1 are inherent to the baseboard
  • I/O 1 → I/O 9 are used by the plug-in card to connect sensors and other I/Os.

This format allows for flexibility in I/O selection, and which sensors we can connect to. 

Input/Output Cards

Any customer's application could require different sensor types and input combinations. 

For example, someone might require I²C for a temp sensor, SDI-12 for soil moisture, and a digital input for a pulse count. A different application may require 3 x Digital Inputs and RS485. 

New card types are continuously being developed, and can be seen here: Hawk Baseboard + Plug in Cards - Wiring+Pin Out. 

If you require a specific interface or combination of interfaces for an application - it is possible for Digital Matter to produce custom card types. If you're interested in this, please contact support.

Card & Baseboard Communication

The Hawk can request the card to perform actions, such as:

• Sample the Analogue input, and return the value
• Read from the SDI-12 probe and return the values
• Turn on the 3V3, SW Ground or VBoost outputs

The data is returned to the Hawk by setting Hawk Digital Inputs, Analogue values and special data fields (like SDI-12 data field)

Cards can also raise events, such as a digital input change. The Hawk will receive this event and then can be configured to take immediate action (i.e. log and upload the event)

Tasks

The Hawk's parameters are centred around the concept of a 'task'.

A task is a set of actions. A task can be scheduled (e.g. hourly) or run in response to an event (digital input change or analogue threshold).

Actions are shown below - they are either reading a sensor, or turning on an output. 

Tasks are configured with the below key intervals

• Schedule Period - how often we perform the task
• Logging Multiplier - Log every L times the task occurs
• Upload Multiplier - Upload every U logs
• GPS interval - Get a GPS fix every G logs

This allows for options like:

• Sampling a sensor frequently (say every 5 min) - to monitor its value against a threshold and action accordingly, but only logging a record every 15 to reduce data usage and server load
• Setting the GPS interval to 0 or a very large number, to get a fix infrequently or not at all if not required - increasing battery life
• Sample and log a value every 10 min, but upload hourly