Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Ready for run 3...

We worked hard on the presentation today and will continue that tomorrow during run 3.

Alumni visitor!



Monday, July 17, 2017

Recorded run 2

Today was the day of our second recording. We started the day by setting the Arduino to trigger at 1 cm and 8 cm, however, that resulted in almost no change from the previous recorded run. The previous had been set to 2 cm and 9 cm. This is just another problem stemming from the sensor readings, which we don't have a solution ready for.

To correct for this problem, we reset the triggers to be at 0.5 cm and 7 cm. This resulted in nearly 2.5 cm of difference at the high head in real life, and a slight change int he low head. That's not great, but at least it's different from the last experiment.

I spent the remainder of the day putting assembling the frames from the last experiment into a dramatically sped up video, set at a rate of 1 minute per second. It looks nice, but I have started recompiling the video, as the video player included with Windows is bad, and won't play it. We'll see if that's sorted out now tomorrow.

Ethan spent the day working on a Matlab program to read the water level off of each frame of the video footage we have. It's a formidable task, and will take time. Related to that task, I put more thought and work into how to detect and represent the parts of the sand that turn red from each frame of the footage we have.

I'm not sure if we'll have enough time to complete either program before we present on Friday (our last day), but we'll see.

I'm not completely certain about what Sheiny did today. She kept busy, but is currently at her job, so she is unavailable to ask.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Today we did lots of coding working on trying to find the line of the water for every picture. This has been successful for the water that had red in it, however for the clear water we are still having problems. We also started programming red dye detection in the sand.  And we measured the volumetric discharge of our pump and the volumes of our system.
This is what the computer calculated for head differences. 

Day 21: Cookout today

We had nice lunch today, and got updates from all other groups. We are now currently running tap water to flossy to hopefully flush all the red dye out. Hopefully if it all flushed out, we won't have to remove all of the sand and wash it.

We got the result from yesterday's run and we got a really nice curvy dip that signify each oscillation. We didn't spill to the floor today, which is good. 
Our successful run
Tap water to flush Flossy

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

The day Before the Storm

Today we have just been prepping for the first official test. This includes getting the buckets with pumps in them around flossy as well as mixing the solutions. We also might have gone on our last trip to Menards. We are all very excited for tomorrow.

Flossy ready for her first run.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Day 19: More Preparations

No injuries!

This morning Ethan put sand back into Flossy. It's a process that takes hours, as it's important to sprinkle the sand into water, layer by layer. This is to keep the sand more homogeneous than having dumped all of the sand in at once, and to keep air pockets out of the sand. He also started 3D printing the square dividers that will be used later. The square dividers are meant to allow for sediments of different compositions to be placed inside of Flossy.

Sheiny spent hours today cleaning the red dye out of the sand from the previous trial runs. This is very time consuming, yet she also found time to mess with the EC meter some more.

I came in late, as I had a previous commitment this morning. I took another set of data points in our calibration set up, using our new method of gathering the data. Once again, there is significant binning happening. I set up the bucket experiment I had last time to see if it made nice triangles the way it did last Friday, and those triangles were still there. It's hard to understand what's happening with this Arduino and its sensors. At this point, I think we've given up on it gather nice, clean data.

To pass the time today, the group solved 4 or 5 cases of mysterious deaths, and helped a group of gnomes figure out hat colors. All in a day's work.

I might be killed for not having labeled the axes. But this is the nice part lines from the testing in buckets.


Friday, July 7, 2017

Day 18 I think...

Today the main challenge of the day was to find out why the man ate albatross and then killed himself after. We  also cleaned out our tank and silicon-ed the middle divider to try and stop what we think is rust. We looked at the oscilloscope to try and find out what was wrong with our sensors. later we found a way for the pressure sensors to not create binned data by making it take 4 extra readings per loop and it has been working. We also did calibration test and put the data into excel to see how the sensors are working. We have also screwed Flossy's stand to a shelf  that's about three feet high to have the Arduino sit without moving. We also polyurethaned the shelf and flossy's stand.
More calibration tests

Dr. Prosise working with the oscilloscope to try and figure out whats wrong with sensors. 

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Augustana Research Get Together and Group Picture!


Image may contain: 4 people, people smiling, people standing and outdoor






Image may contain: 4 people, people smiling, table and indoor


Image may contain: food

Day 17: 2 more weeks to go

So today is a short day, we did our short presentation to Kristen Kruger (thank you!) upstairs as a trial run in the morning.

Andrew is still working on the code, trying to work out with the precision problem. Ethan is bound and determined to build a shelf for the arduino and electrical power source, since it keeps going out of place. My experiment with the metals in the salt solution continues with trial 4.

Today we are going to present with Augustana students, hopefully, it will go well, but today's lunch was lovely!

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Day 16: Preparations

Day 16: Preparations

Today we spent our morning putting together slides for tomorrow, when groups from Augustana will be visiting. For my part, I looked at the data we gathered from Flossy last Friday, so I could have some nice plots to show. This led to the unfortunate revelation that the precision problem with our pressure transducers are worse than we had thought. Rather than giving use smooth, exponential decays in our data, we're being given saw teeth, where the transducers seem to be binning their readings in 2.5 cm chunks.



Ethan cut the PVC pipe for Flossy in an attempt to get the red dyed water to mix better. We've also added a small pump in the tank to assist in mixing the dyed water with the clear water. Ethan's slides cover the things he's built for Flossy, including the middle divide, and the gutters. Sheiny's slides were about her EC investigation that goes along with the final experiment.


To close out the day, we started another test run. We had a tense moment when we watched the water level creep toward the overflow gutter, but that tension was cut when the water pump shut off, and the water level slowly fell. On the second run though, the water level rose to a similar height, but the sand shifted enough to allow the water to quickly flush through Flossy, creating a great red mess all over the lab.

TO DO: ACQUIRE MOP AND BUCKET FOR FUTURE EXPERIMENTS.

On a good note, no injuries!

Friday, June 30, 2017

First Day Adding Dye!

We worked hard on lighting...

With reflections
Optimized for no reflections in the sand
We learned that our solution on the high side did not have enough flow to become well-mixed quickly.  We'll be working on that next week.  Marbles to reduce water in side column? a pump in the tube?  More holes in the PVC? a spinny toy?  It's looking promising....

No injuries today? 

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Day 14: almost there!

Day without accident: zero

Sheiny: 3, Andrew: 2, Ethan: 2 (most epic!), and Dr. Stonedahl: 0.
We went to Menards to get more supplies and duct tape before lunch. Then we had a nice lunch with all of the other students and it seems like all of the groups have made very nice progress.

Ethan is almost done with the flossy. He attached the pressure sensor to the support, which holds it to the glass wall, and he also attached the arduino and the power outlet to the wall.

Since Andrew is now done with the small system and got the pump working wonderfully, he is now creating more program to average hundred pressure readings to come up with shift value, so our sensors, both A and B, will hopefully match!

We found a paper about the "wall effect", basically the probe cannot be to close to a wall of any container. The paper was testing it on a metal container which is the opposite of the effect in glass and plastic. Now that we have seen the effect of it in glass and plastic (and we have a really nice graph), next Sheiny will focus on the metal and the sand if it will react with the salt solution for long period of time.

This is fun!
Making a bed for the arduino
Ethan the sand master
Got the arduino safe and sound!
What a beauty!
Serious time
If you look closely you can see metal on the left has more flare (react with the solution)


Update: We tried running the pump on flossy and we found after about 20cm in height, the water pressure was too much and started shifting the sand in the middle. It was like an avalanche, all we got to say was "WOAA"!

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Goals/tomorrow's to-do list

1) can be done immediately, 2) depends on some #1 task or ranks lower than other #1 tasks

1) Andrew:  Reattach the lose wire from the sensor
2) Andrew: Get a threshhold code ready, which uses both sensors in Flossy
3) Andrew: Look at Calibration Data from today and make a decision about size of moving average (1,3,5...) and shift (or shift function).

1)  Ethan: Get the red dye out of Flossy, rinse with tap water
2) Ethan:  Figure out how to secure Arduino, extra outlet, etc.  Where it can reach Flossy and won't get wet or fall
2) Ethan: Fill about a quarter full with water, then SLOWLY scoop sand into Flossy's sand compartment.
3) Ethan: Secure sensors to holders
4) Set-up Over flow funnel

1) Sheiny:  We need the buckets your solution is in for Flossy, probably tomorrow. Get solutions into other buckets.  Reattach the pieces you took off those buckets, hopefully you remember how they were attached before.
2) Sheiny: Help Ethan or Andrew if either needs help with anything.
3) Sheiny: Work on the salt water metal/silicone/sand measurements.

SOMEONE: get ready to talk at Lunch, not Andrew's turn this week.
EVERYONE: trip to menards, probably, unless I get enough of the items on my way in tomorrow... We need buckets and a C clamp before much can happen...

I'm really excited, hoping we can see some fluctuating flow tomorrow.... (which might mean we could try a real dye experiment Friday (except stuff will probably go wrong).


Day 13: Quick addition!

Regarding the coding problems, I wanted to give some details.

After working with Dr. Forrest Stonedahl today, a solution for getting other machines to work with the Arduino we're using (which is a BottleLogger v2.0.0) was found. We took copies of the Arduino installation in Program Files(x86)\Arduino, and everything in appdata\local\Arduino15 from Dr. Susa Stonedahl's computer, and placed them on the machines we want to use with the Arduino. Previously, we hadn't copied the appdata folders, but this seems to have cracked the problem.

There was an additional complication, where the first laptop we tested this solution on continued having problems getting the Arduino to do what it was programmed to do. It's been determined that the laptop has an issue powering the Arduino, however, it compiled and uploaded the program to the Arduino without any major issues. A possible solution to this problem is to use a powered USB hub while using that laptop. Then the hub provides the power, and not the laptop.

Another issue we came across, although it may be related to that laptop's electrical problem, is that when things power on on the same circuit as the Arduino, an error occurs when communicating over the serial port. It is believed that using a strong surge protector (which is a good idea to use in any case) might be a sufficient solution for this problem.

The great news is that I am now able to use my own machine for compiling code and uploading to the Arduino, and (hopefully) all future deals with this particular Arduino can be managed with whatever (Windows 7+) machine is needed.

One last technical issue before we closed out the day: One of the pressure transducers came loose from the Arduino. I'll need to bring my small electronics toolkit with me tomorrow to reattach it.

Day 13:

Today we got the pleasure of working with Mr. Dr. Stonedahl. He helped us with some coding/computer problems. We also took apart the middle divider on the antfarm (the old sand vessel) because it did not silicone properly in place. We cleaned Flossy(the new sand vessel) and put some more silicone on the bottom part of the middle divide because it seemed to be loose. We were also able to find a way to hold the pumps on flossy with out them moving. To solve the siphoning problem we took a 2 inch piece of PVC pipe to have the pump flow into. We also cut four small holes in the bottom to try and let the water out at the botton in a controlled way constant speed and wont allow disturbance in the water. We also improved the safety of flossy by duct-taping all of the sharp edges. We also made a new divide for the antfarm so we can hopefully get it working soon.
Dr. Stonedahl helping with our code.

Getting the pumps put in place so they cant move.

EC meters are giving exciting results.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

day 12: exciting...

So, there's a discrepancy in the USRI calendar, some information is missing from the calendar. We are scheduled for a hike tomorrow, but it seems like there's going to be rain so Dr. Stonedahl, Ethan, and Andrew planned another hike to Credit Island today at 7pm.

We wrote a blog post for the USRI blog.

Ethan is done with the tank divider, and now working on the sand grid maker. Andrew did some debugging on the library code, and the good news is that it seems to be working perfectly. The bad news is it only works on Dr. Stonedahl computer and won't upload from any other machine. Sheiny got a beautiful graph from her experiment that shows it doesn't matter if plastic or glass medium is being used. And more importantly that there's a consistent fraction creating error at each diameter.  She'll try the saltiest solution tomorrow, but it looks promising so far. We found that after approximately 7 cm, the readings are accurate.


Working hard
working pump!
waiting for the tank to cure!
testing the sand dripping with the dye!

Monday, June 26, 2017

Day 11

Today I started working on the  divider as well as the overflow gutters for the main sand vessel. First the gutters got sealed with silicone to the tank and, held by clamps to let dry. Later I began constructing the middle divider out of sheet metal. The metal we got at the store is to large to use with the saw, so I used an electric cut off saw to cut the metal. Right before lunch we got to silicone the middle divider on as well as work on the other two dividers that will be used for extra support. We also found out that the tank was not quite put together properly, so now I am working on making another sand divider to better fit our tank. I am making this in solid works and should be able to 3D print it tomorrow.

Day 11: A day of troubleshooting

I spent today troubleshooting the BottleLogger v2. I started with running the Trujillo demonstration code that I thought worked, confirming that it worked, even without any delays. After an hour of running, there were no errors on the SD card, and all of the data logged like expected.

While the Trujillo demonstration ran, I looked at and modified the sinewave program that we really need. I viewed more example code from Northern Widget's website, and so that they use goToSleep_if_needed() rather than sleep(), so I slotted that into my program. Their example programs also sandwiched sensor readings between logger.startAnalog() and logger.endAnalog(), so I rearranged some lines of code, and made sure to read pressures and temperature between those two lines of code. Other than adjusting scalars and constants for today's water temperature and air pressure, those were the only significant changes I made.

Once I ran the modified sinewave program, immediately the outlet started to make clicking sounds, and it did not work. Removing logger.endAnalog() (while keeping logger.startAnalog()) fixed this issue. I'm not sure what effect that has on the BottleLogger v2, but I will look into it. For now, it's staying out, because it's clearly breaking the program.

After 15 minutes of running sinewave_testing (with an additional 2 second delay between iterations), there were no issues, the SD card remained error free, and all of the data logged like expected. So I removed the 2 second delay and let it run for another 30 minutes, ending with the same results. A fairly positive result. Unfortunately, looking at the time stamps on the data collected, goToSleep_if_needed() adds a 3 seconds delay between iterations in the program.

Tomorrow's tasks are:
* Look at what goToSleep_if_needed() does, and try to cut down the delay.
* Install and test the Arduino software on more computers.

I'm sure more tasks will come up, should I complete those quickly.

Day 11: time sure does fly

Day without accident: 2

Today we all did a different thing. Today I tested the theory by comparing if the glass container and plastic container will have a difference in EC reading. Guess what, it's not! We are happy with the result, it really does make a good graph and it also proves the neither plastic nor the glass does anything to EC meter whatsoever.


We tested using 9 different diameters container of plastic materials and 7 different diameters of glass materials. Test with the meter while the water level is close to the surface and we got pretty consistent reads. We also mixed some salt solutions to be used tomorrow.


Plastic graduated cylinder with different diameters. 

Tap water measured with different containers



Day 10: Late update!

Last Friday

At the end of the day, we hit a snag. My agenda for the day was simple enough:

* pick a new scalar for the PSI to cm conversion based on water density by temperature
* Turn program into several programs, one for each function
* Comment the code
* Shorten the loop to 1 sec if possible

In terms of modifying the code, all of these tasks were complete by 11 AM. Even further, with the help of Dr. Stonedahl, I simplified parts of the code that are expected to be modified in the future in a way that anyone could manage to make small changes without breaking the program.

//CHANGE THESE NUMBERS FOR DIFFERENT SINE FUNCTIONS
float amplitude = 5; // cm
int period = 120; // sec
float shift_up = 2; // cm
//STOP CHANGING

//CHANGE THESE NUMBERS FOR DIFFERENT MEASUREMENT CONSTANTS
double water_density = 997.608; // kg / m^3 at 22 celcius
double gravity = 9.8061579; // m / sec^2 at 177 m altitude
float sensor_shift_up = 0; // cm
//STOP CHANGING

We wanted the code to be tested and debugged before running tests on Monday, so we loaded up the sinewave program, removed the delay at the end of the code, and let it run. Without the delay, the code is iterated through quickly, as a result the outlet for the water pumps rapidly switch on and off to follow the curve. Along with the rapid switching, the Arduino eventually stops printing to the console we're running, and corrupts data on the SD card.

Both printing to the console and writing to the SD card use the Serial class. My best guess is that something is happening with the Serial class, causing the both problems. Our list of possible sources of this issue are as follows:

* There may be too many computations between iterations, so reduce computations where possible.
* The delay might be required for proper functioning, so play around with different delay values.
* The rapid state change on the output pin to the power outlet might be changing too rapidly, so also play around with larger margins of error if adding a delay isn't enough

Continuing the debugging, we stuck a 2 second delay back in the code, however, eventually we'd run into the same issue. We were left to revert to the code for the Trujillo presentation. That ran without issues, but it still had a 2 second delay. I don't recall if removing the delay led to any issues, so I currently have the Trujillo demonstration code running without delays now.

Unlike the sinewave program, the Trujillo demonstration uses constants as thresholds for changing the on-off states of the outlet. If the water level is at 10 cm or below, turn on the pump, else if the water level is at 20 cm or higher, turn off the pump. So, if it runs without issue, without any delay, that may strengthen the hypothesis that the rapid state change of the output pin is related to the issue, and not simply iterating through the program without delays.

Both the sinewave and the Trujillo demonstration programs access the SD Card to open a file, write a few data points to the file, then close the file with every iteration. Perhaps accessing the SD card so frequently in a short period of time is what's corrupting the SD Card. The only way I can think to rule that out is to run the Trujillo demonstration for a moderately long period of time, then checking the SD card.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Day 10: Ethan

Today I began by working on cleaning the old sand vessel, to try and add the divider I made yesterday. After that I worked on creating the overflow gutters for the new sand vessel. For the second half of the day we got to see the engineering camp kids race their CO2 cars. We also went to the aquarium store to get the new sand vessel. Once back from the aquarium I used silicone to add the middle divider to the old sand vessel.

We finally got the sand vessel!

Day 10: need to go out early


Like it was mentioned before, I am trying to figure out what caused the drop in electrolytic conductivity in previous experiments. By accident today, I found out that the diameter of the container affected the reading on the EC meter. The narrower the container, the bigger the drop. So we put just tap water into 7 containers with different diameters.  We found that the data hit a plateau after it hit more than 5.5 cm. We need to try this again with more containers to fill in the gap and better understand the shape of this curve.



Note to self: aluminum container definitely messed up the reading. (we through out that data point)
We haven't done the experiment with the sand, but we are still interested if the sand or the aluminum play a role in changing the reading in EC meter.

We also want to try the many diameters with a salty solution, closer to what they used in the previous experiments.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Day 9: Some Explaining to do

Days without Injury: 1

The work day started frantically. We had just arrived at work, and we found out another research group was coming to see our work. We had less than 15 minutes to design and implement a demo, so the pressure was on. Buckets were placed, water pumps thrown into place, and a wild rewriting of some functions were underway. 30 minutes later, our demonstration was up and running, and the group coming to see us were later. Lucky break. By the time they arrived, everything was working smoothly.

We took our turns explaining each of our parts of the project, while the sound of water pouring methodically played in the background. On, then off. On, then off. Some time passed, we finished explaining our project, then the other group left to get a demonstration of the other groups' projects.
Dr. Opar doing stuff and things to the "ant farm" with Ethan

Dr. Opar came to our room to help Ethan with putting plastic in the base of the old "ant farm" so that it will no longer seep blue dye around the bottom. Dr. Stonedahl confirmed the SD card is working again. Sheiny measured and diluted the dye, and took "before" weight measurements of the sand as preparations for tomorrow's experiment. I worked on making different versions of our program to make it more usable, without having to worry about commenting and uncommenting sections of code to get the desired results. We then broke for lunch, where all of the SRI groups met to discuss progress on their respective projects with one another, in a formal-but-informal presentation.

Sheiny preparing the dye for tomorrow
After lunch we collected two more sets of data points with our sensors in our glass jar of water. We took care to note the air pressures between measurements on the first run, and we took measurements every cm for the second run. Unlike our previous runs, we did not allow the door to open during our data collection. The door opening causes a change in air pressure in the room, which alters our measurements.

MORE DATA!
Shortly after, the dean stopped in, and we presented our project for the third time in a day. I'd say we have had a lot of practice presenting. That will be useful later on.

We took another field trip to Menards to pick up more supplies for our experiment. Now we should have everything we need to hold our sensors in place in our "ant farm" during the main experiment.
Saving Big Money

That wraps up our day!

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Day 8: Star party is today!



Days since last accident: f̶i̶v̶e̶  zero
It's been a beautiful day! In the afternoon, the temperature dropped from the drizzle we had, and our progress has come along nicely. Our pump is working, and we re-assembled the pressure sensor testing system with the sliding ruler.

We have just finished recording more readings from zero depth to 30 cm depth in water. Andrew has more coding to do tomorrow, but for now he is comfortable with what has been completed so far. Unfortunately, we got unexpected issues with the SD card, but hopefully it can be fixed soon.

Ethan was having a field day cutting metal rods, and making a new sheet metal divider for our second tank. We had a field trip to the Galvin basement to use the workshop, where all the cool pieces of machinery are. As of now, Ethan is still going back and forth to Galvin Hall to cut another 1 square inch piece of sheet metal for tomorrow's experiment.

You guessed it folk, today's accident was experienced by Sheiny! This gives her 2 points, and Andrew 1 point, while Ethan and Dr. Stonedahl are still at zero points. Anyway, Shieny will do the experiments with the sand to hopefully figure out wich of the variables are responsible for making inconsistencies in our electrolytic conductivity readings.

Ethan assembling the new divider
Ethan the metal bender!
He uses the tool like he was born with it. 
Filing away
Another filing session
No hose no problem!

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Day 7: In the beginning it was dark.

In the beginning we did more testing of the pressure transducers. We tried increasing the number of digits, but it didn't help. We then did more testing of the programs with the pressure transducers using five gallon buckets to pump water into one another. We put pressure transducer A in a bucket with a constant level of water over it. We then put water in a second bucket with a pump and continuasly pumped water into a third bucket, where pressure transducers B and two pumps were located. Andrew got the program to be able to control the pumps and make the pumps turn on when the water level in the third bucket got over a certain height. We looked at an article we got from an interlibrary loan. We also got the EC meter out and we got it to start working. Later, we also brainstormed ideas to be able to hold the pressure transducers in place during the actual experiment rather than having them taped to the side. We came up with an idea to take small metal pieces and hang them over one side of the glass. We also started looking into why the water's electrolytic conductivity was not as high as expected in a previous experiment.
measuring the sand 

Finally got the pumps and sensors to work.
Proud of his coding