P.E.R.A. Water Data Collection System

P.E.R.A. (Ponent Exploration & Research in Aerospace) is a LleidaDrone / Liquid Galaxy project for collecting water and atmosphere readings from a water-rocket payload. An Arduino drives an ESP8266, which uploads each reading with an HTTP GET into a PHP/MySQL dashboard used to review the logs.

This repository holds the pitch, the dashboard, and the uploader sketch. It is a student-era prototype: the dashboard UI is an admin template, and the firmware ships in demo mode.

Architecture

sensors (or demo stubs)
        |
        v
Arduino sketch (LG_Water_Data_Uploader.ino)
        |  AT commands over SoftwareSerial
        v
ESP8266 ---- HTTP GET ----> upload-waterdata.php
                                    |
                                    v
                              MySQL `water-records`
                                    |
                                    v
                         PHP dashboard (login + tables)

1. The sketch builds one reading (buildTelemetryRequest()). With DEMO_MODE left at its default (true), values are simulated. Set it to false and fill in the sensor stubs for hardware.
2. The ESP8266 joins Wi-Fi and sends GET /upload-waterdata.php with the parameter names the PHP endpoint expects: sea, lon, lat, stemp, atemp, hum, slp, ph, tds, rkt.
3. dashboard/upload-waterdata.php validates those parameters and inserts a row with a prepared statement.
4. Signed-in users review rows on table-waterrecords.php. Login and registration use prepared statements and password_hash.

The upload URL is not behind the dashboard login. Treat it as a device endpoint and do not expose it on an open network without additional controls.

Repository layout

Path	Role
Pitch PDF	Project objectives and system description
Prototype video	Hardware and dashboard demo
dashboard/	PHP/MySQL UI: login, registration, water-data table
dashboard/schema.sql	Inferred MySQL schema (none was committed originally)
LG_Water_Data_Uploader.ino	Arduino + ESP8266 uploader
.env.example	Dummy database settings. Copy to .env locally

dashboard/icons/ and dashboard/plugins/ are leftovers from the admin template (icon fonts, chart libraries, editors). They are still referenced by the pages, so they stay in the tree. See CLEANUP.md.

Setup

Requirements: PHP 7.4+ (8.x works) with mysqli, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB, and a web server whose document root is dashboard/ (or adjust UPLOAD_PATH in the sketch). Arduino IDE with SoftwareSerial (built in) for the firmware.

Dashboard

1. Create a database and load the inferred schema:

   mysql -u root -p < dashboard/schema.sql

   Column types and the timestamp column name recorded_at are inferred. Details and the users / water-records columns are in CONTRIBUTING.md and dashboard/schema.sql. If a live database already exists, compare names before importing.

2. Configure credentials outside git:

   cp .env.example .env

   Set DB_SERVER, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_NAME. Process environment variables override .env. If nothing is set, the app falls back to localhost / root / an empty password / lg-dashboard for a local demo only.

3. Point the vhost at dashboard/ and open login.php. Register the first account at register.php (open registration is unchanged from the original app).

4. Confirm an insert. From the dashboard host:

   curl -sS "http://localhost/upload-waterdata.php?sea=Bay%20of%20Bengal&lon=88E&lat=21N&stemp=293K&atemp=301K&hum=82%25&slp=101325Pa&ph=7.8&tds=740mgl&rkt=LG%20Rocket%202FA"

   A valid row returns Success!. Empty or malformed parameters return HTTP 400.

Firmware

1. Open LG_Water_Data_Uploader.ino in the Arduino IDE.
2. Edit the block marked network configuration: HOST, WIFI_SSID, WIFI_PASS, and UPLOAD_PATH if the dashboard is not at the web root.
3. Leave DEMO_MODE as true until real sensors are connected. The stubs in readLongitude(), readLatitude(), and the other read*() functions are the plug-in points.
4. Wire ESP8266 RX/TX to pins 2 and 3 (SoftwareSerial) and match ESP_BAUD to the AT firmware baud rate.
5. Flash the board. The serial monitor at 9600 baud prints each AT command (AT, AT+CWMODE=1, AT+CWJAP, AT+CIPMUX=0, then CIPSTART / CIPSEND / CIPCLOSE per reading).

Security

Database credentials used to be hardcoded in dashboard/config.php and are in the git history of this repository. Rotate that password on any live MySQL host that used it, then set the new password only in the environment or a local .env file. Do not commit the new value.

.env and .DS_Store are gitignored.

About P.E.R.A.

The Ponent Exploration & Research in Aerospace initiative, by the LleidaDrone Association, looks past the altitude range of typical drones and involves engineering students in atmospheric and space work.

P.E.R.A. on Liquid Galaxy

Contributing

Setup details, PHP/MySQL notes, and firmware configuration are in CONTRIBUTING.md.