Quirky

Quirky it's a new word for me. It has the same meaning of "crazy" but with a positive value. Or, better, it's like a disruptive force that choose not to follow the middle mind and decide to generate a new way to do the things.

This is my personal interpretation of the first 60 pages I've read up to now.

This book is something that a visionary cannot wait to read. The life (and not only) of: Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, Dean Kamen and Steve Jobs.

I would call this book this way: "The revenge of nerds" like a famous movie from the 80s that I saw as a child.

NOAA weather satellite image signal capture (part II)

Building the antenna

Now we have everything to build our antenna. So, we take a couple of axis made of wood. Indeed, our antenna needs of a wooden support on which to place the cables.

You have to cut a pair of copper of 53 cm longer wires and connect them through an electrict connector to the coaxial cable.

Our antenna

Now, we have to connect the other end to the receiver:

Connection done!

This is a picture referred to the simple antenna made up of two crossed woden axis (at 120°):

Project design (handmade!)

And the antenna realised, I suggest placing it in a free obstacle zone:

V-antenna!

No obstacles near there

120° angle between the two axises

The way in which the couple of wires as conjuncted to the antenna cable

Obtaining a single piece of this electric junction is very simple: you can cut the original strip in the single piece you need.

The final relization in all of its length

continue...

NOAA weather satellite image signal capture (part I)

Here is my last experiment, partially completed. I said "partially" because I recived not a perfect result as I'd would prefer.

Start!

There are three NOAA satellites that spread their signal all over the world in broadcast without any form of cryptography: I can simply obtain this signal using an antenna, a receiver and a PC.

Receipt

What do I need? This is the necessary hardware list:

• a couple of cupper wires;
• antenna cable (including the two end points);
• paper adhesive tape (or made of another neutral material);
• A DAB + SDR + FM RTL2832U + R820T2 receiver (you can purchase it  right here: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B013Q94CT6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1);

Receiver (you have to plug it in the PC).

• an adapter DVB-T DVBT coaxial RF MCX Antenna TV via cavo (you can purchase it right here: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00H3CS4BK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1);

Use this cable to connect you receiver to the antenna cable.

• a PC.

...continue!

Pen and Paper (Evolution)

This is the second versione of the previous projest regarding the "Air Pollution Experiment".

Soon the realization...stay tuned!

New versione of the project for the "Air Pollution Experiment"

Pen & Paper

Come back to the origins... or better: how to design something starting from pen and paper.

"Modern" design

Recipe:

1. plexiglass
2. hot glue
3. hot glue gun
4. Arduino UNO
5. PPD42NS
6. bredboard
7. wires

continue...

Weather Station improvement

In these days, I though about the possibility to add another sensor to my personal weather station: the UV sensor: more useful for human skin especially in areas where I actually live (South-Italy: sunny most of the year).

Further specifications can be found at the following link:
https://cdn.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/LightImaging/ML8511_3-8-13.pdf

A picture of the sensor

Weather Station Update

Here it is!
Yep, it's my personal weather station which is working up on my balcony in Lecce!

You can note the presence of the polystyrene cover as a thermal insulator.

Some results...

My name on Mars

My name will be sent to Mars by the rover MARS 2020 thanks to a NASA's initiative.

The launch window available is provided between 27 of july and 5th june 2020 from Cape Canaveral (Florida).
The rover will arrive on Mars on 18 july 2021, in the Jezero crater.
Mission will take a martian year (about 687 terrestrial days).

You can sen you name writing it on the following link:
https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/

This is mine:


Happy journey!

ESPertino and the PPD42NS (indoor experiment)

Capturing PM2.5
I started this new experiment using ESPertino coupled with the PPD42NS indoor (at home). Two tests were made: for the first I left opened the window in front of the sensor for the second one I follow the advice to close the in-front-of window in a way not to negatively affect the light intercepted by the detector.

PPD42NS with opened window

The experiment took about 1 hour and half and in the following charts I reported the results:






These three charts are relative to three different value obtained through as many formulas:

• Ratio: % of the signal at LOW level (in which the device senses the presence of particles - PM2.5 in this case);
• Weight:  ug / m^3 obtained from the follwing formula that relatesthe previous ratio with the  weight on m^3:

y = 3.5x + 4.75

where y is the weight on m^3 that we want to obtain x is the Ratio (as previously obtained).
This formula is taken from a scientific article:
https://www.academia.edu/6046777/Field_calibrations_of_a_low-cost_aerosol_sensor_at_a_regulatory_monitoring_site_in_California?email_work_card=title
In particular from this final chart that relates the % of occupancy of the LOW level in PPD42NS with the ug/m^3 (PM2.5) values of a reference instrument (see the following chart):

If someone is able to obtain a better version of this formula, I will thank her/him!!

• Particles: as the name itself says, is the number of particles on 0.01 cf (cube feet). This is also achieved by a formula:

y=1.1*x^3-3.8*x^2+520*x+0.62

where y is the value we want to obtain and x is the Ratio.

This formula is obtained from a code written here: http://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Dust_Sensor/#jump and the references to the PM2.5 are the particles contained in a cigarette's smoke:

At first glance it can be appreciated a wide variation between the first part and the last part of data. Anyway, back to us we can notice the different results between the three charts obtained with the open little window and the following obtained covering it:





Yep, a greater uniformity is suddenly visible in this second part of the experiment! Many fewer zeroes values and not so obvious overhangs.

PPD42NS with covered window

This is the only way in which the particles can access

Conclusion
It's clear that in the first part we have a lot of values out of average of an unpolluted room. (A lot more than the norm: more than 60 ug/m^3!!).
In the second case the values doesn't exceed the max value permitted as a peak of 20 ug/m^3.

Note
The peak for the first test could be derived from cooking, strange movements of the device, etc. Although I would believe in all of them only for a short time and sporadic situations (not for so long time, 5/7 mins continuously).

What do you think about it?

Next steps
Possible next steps are:

• adding a fan to force the air through the device
• take outdoor tests

...continue!!