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"!
Today:
ReplyDeleteAndrew, first thing check the shift (I assume water levels will be stable, keep record of shift values, so we can see if they change a lot on us)
Someone: Figure out timelapse (lighting, where camera is located, find SD cards)
Sheiny: Figure out EC meter (bigger container, beaker?) (hold it in place in center of container?) May not be a need for a U shape at all.
All: Discuss and pick out first run
Someone: try to do math to figure out shape of threshold function (I think its just a calculus problem) Volume flowing through system should be proportional to height of container.
Ethan: try to get the sand resettled (especially near central divide)
Sheiny: Look into how big the EC reading can be before it interferes with K values.
Sheiny: If it's going well mix-up a bucket of salty dye.
Ethan: if you run out of stuff to do Antfarm divide. (and tell Sheiny, she also needs silicone on buckets)
ALL: As we start developing procedures, we should start a check list. What NEEDS to be done before a new run? We will refine this, but they can be experiment savers.