The blog of a heathen chemist

Almost there…

heathenchemist — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:55:46 +0000

I’ve now attached arduino and the breadboard to the metal tubing and they are structurally very sound. I’ve also wired the flood light in so it now works along side the light sensor. The last job to do is to wire in the inner-temp sensor and dangle it over:

Posted in PRID303

The floodlight is up!

heathenchemist — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:43:42 +0000

Eight LED’s wired to a piece of board all attached to two metal rods (borrowed from a lamp) that point directly down into the orb:

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Live Data

heathenchemist — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:06:40 +0000

It was always my intention to have live sensor reading from the orb streamed directly online in some way and to accomplish this I’ve used Pachube.This service allows the user to become a member in order to connect and share real time sensor data to anyone in the world. I’ve set up three livefeeds from one light sensor and two temperature sensors (one located inside the orb and the other located outside). Pachube easily collects this data at an update rate of every five seconds and collates the maximum and minimum averages of each feed. As well as this each feed has it’s own graph which collects data over 24 hour periods to view.

To view my live feeds page click HERE

It will take a couple of hours for the graphs to be populated with a great deal of information but it’s all running live from the board sat right in front of me.

I’m also taking interest in Pachube’s ability to alter arduino behaviour by reading other external feeds from around the world…

Here are some updated production images:

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Moss

heathenchemist — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:57:16 +0000

Ok so I’ve officially populated the orb with a small patch off moss, freshly watered the thing and now I’ll need to grow the organism until the project is complete and ready to be enabled and let it do its thing:

(Update: 21.55pm)

I’ve also started programming some of the functionality in arduino. If the light sensor is exposed to ambient room light and gives values of 500 and over I have an LED turned off. Should the sensor get covered and read below 500 the LED turns on:

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Two sensors

heathenchemist — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:39:36 +0000

Quick update on arduino progress. I’ve hooked up two light sensors this morning to get used to working with the breadboard to create more complex circuits. Temperature and humidity sensors require exactly the same set up as light sensors so by creating this circuit now I can replace the second light LDR with a temp sensor and it will be good to go:

(The wires will be tidied up come presentaton day)

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Slowly but surely

heathenchemist — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:50:51 +0000

I’ve collected most of parts I need to make this ‘bio-orb’ as can be seen from the pictures below. I’ve spent much of my time getting to know Arduino by testing out a number of different sensors using a breadboard. I’m now starting to assemble a kind of mini-floodlight that will be positioned an inch or two above the orb entrance and I’m also wrestling with the voltage needs of two halogen UV lamps. Arduino has only 5 volts to play with so I’ve had to work around this with some additional batteries. This will provide artificial light for plants when the light sensor no longer finds natural light:

update @ 12.18am

Have managed to successfully wire up an LDR light sensor to Arduino. Spent the last several hours desperately trying to get arduino to display the sensor output values on screen and here they are refreshing every half second:

The readings that display between 150 -200 are when I cover the light sensor with my hands. When I take them away and expose the sensor to the light in my room, the readings bolt up to the 600′s. Even knocking some of the light exposure away from the sensor pushes the reading down to the 300′s/400′s.

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Breathing

heathenchemist — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:02:01 +0000

i-DAT based artist Guto Nobrega’s piece ‘Breathing’ is currently providing a great source of inspiration for my project. Guto has created an organic/technological creature that reacts through movement and light when the organic object (in this case a plant) is breathed on. The robotic part comes to life through the interaction of breath:

It uses a number of sensors attached to separate leafs through an arduino board that picks up breath. This then activates motion in a customised umbrella skeleton. This is good evidence that arduino works effectively between the natural and the technological using sensor arrangements that are programmed to measure subtle alterations in environment. As Guto puts it:

“Breathing is a work of art driven by biological impulse. Its beauty is neither found isolated on the plant nor in the robotic system itself.”

http://www.gutonobrega.co.uk/

I’m also interested in the relationship between the natural organism and the robotic one. In particular I want my project to question which of the two holds more importance/influence over the other. Alternatively perhaps perfect balance can be achieved?

Posted in PRID303

Tom meets Arduino board

heathenchemist — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:28:01 +0000

I’ve begun the process of building the circuit for the sensors I will use in my project. I’m using an Arduino board for a number of reasons.

I’m going to need to buy a number of sensors for measuring moisture and temperature. These sensors can talk to arduino connected through a breadboard through a number of analogue and digital outputs. By measuring the levels of moisture in the soil of my organic object and the temperature of the surrounding environment I can then programme software to make my project react accordingly to the needs of the lifeform. So if the moisture level in the soil drops below a certain number the arduino board could turn on an irrigation system to provide water. In the same way if the temperature dropped or raised to a certain level the arduino board could then alter the state of the light source through rules programmed through the software.

As this is the first time I’ve used an Arduino board I’ve been working through the generic ‘getting started’ tutorials and managed to not only got a red LED blinking but also get the rate of the blinking controlled by a potentiometer..great stuff:

Now I need to go shopping for the rest of the components needed for the hardware side of my project. I will need to purchase a breadboard to act as a middle ground connection hub between the component sensors and the arduino board. I will also need to purchase the sensors themselves like the moisture sensor below:

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Ok…project time…..first things first. Growing Moss.

heathenchemist — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:35:05 +0000

My continued project research now takes an odd turn and focuses on the growing of Moss.

I’ve found some useful websites that have great tips on cultivating a type of plant that has over 12,000 differing species.

Anyways, enough Attenborough and more….erm….

‘When putting together a moss garden, start by filling a shallow pot of your choice with rich organic soil. If you decide to incorporate a plant into your moss garden, place it in the center of the pot. A moss garden wouldn’t be a moss garden without live moss, so the next step is to press live moss onto the surface of the soil. Lastly, arrange the woodland treasures you’ve chosen around and top of the moss.’

courtesy of – http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/40935/make_an_indoor_moss_garden_pg2.html?cat=24

I’m going to put less importance in aesthetics and leave the woodland treasures out. By doing this simple exercise I can find out what moss needs to survive and begin to get a picture of what to give technology control of.

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Live Motion patch download

heathenchemist — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:30:30 +0000

The VVVV patch I developed as part of the 4D module will be available to download and use here very soon…

You will need to download VVVV to be able to run the patch and have a webcam installed on your computer.

You can also download the ‘Transforming Social Narrative’ presentation slides here > transforming social narrative

Posted in IDAT307