Week 2 Day 1

We are back and refreshed from the weekend. We have a lot to get done this week and we are off to a great start. Last week we managed to build and test sensor setups for the temperature and pH. This morning we completed the cycle by putting together a DO sensor.

I got lucky and mine worked on the first go. Took a bit to get the thing calibrated but nothing major. The rest of the team spent a little more time working with theirs to get them functioning properly. They did manage to get there but the road was dark and winding. 

While Deliah and Mike were working the kinks out of their DO sensors I was next door slapping together a basic sensor cluster.

 It doesn't look very pretty but I was not especially worried about aesthetics since I already know this one isn't going to work right. "But wait!", you say, "Why, Zac, would you build something you know doesn't work?" Great question. I'm not going to tell you. Yet. It will be an opportunity for discovery learning for the team to figure out why just adding all of our circuit designs on to one board will not work. Those of you playing at home... you could cheat and look back to last years blog. The link is on the home page. That seems unsatisfying, though. I recommend you try and figure it out from looking at the pictures below. I promise to give you the answer later.

The afternoon we spent listening to a seminar on wireless sensor networks from Dr. Fu. That seemed pretty topical considering our project. It was mostly theory, though. Dr. Acevedo followed up Dr. Fu's presentation with an application of a wireless sensor cluster that is actually in use monitoring weather and UV exposure in the area around Denton County.