Ardusat Update 2014 15 High School Students Working With Live Arduinos In Space

This is an update on the Ardusat program which was mentioned in a July post, "Skys Not The Limit For Arduinos In Space."

Ardusat (from Kickstarter)

In an August 27 press release, Ardusat announced that their Arduino satellites program is now available globally for K-12 students and teachers. ReadWrite has a pretty good article about Ardusat and their program in the recent post titled "Soon Students Will Be Able To Control Satellites In Space." It starts out with a overview of what the program consists of:

"...Ardusat is publicly launching a program to offer "space kits" with programmable sensors that it will place in small satellites in partnership with commercial satellite company Spire. The space kits cost $2,500, but the company has made the curriculum and online resources available for free...Ardusat is running a science competition beginning Sept. 2 to provide 15 high schools with a free space kit and the opportunity to work directly with an astronaut...more than two dozen schools are currently using Ardusat, and with its public launch, the kits are available to everyone...Ardusats “space kits” contain an Arduino board—a cheap, widely available circuit board for DIY electronics projects—and multiple sensors that can be programmed to capture data on temperature, luminosity, and magnetic fields. The students can program the sensors using Arduino to test scientific hypotheses based on

Ardusat exploded view (from Kickstarter)

data that can be measured from satellite orbit—for example, finding the relationship between El Niño weather conditions and the ocean temperature near their schools...Satellite sensors will capture data and send it back to students in real-time, so classrooms can monitor how the experiment is performing each day."

The ReadWrite post also talks about one specific teacher and class thats working with the Ardusat program:

"Rachelle Romanoff is a physics and chemistry teacher...This year, Romanoff is bringing Ardusat to her 10th and 12th grade classrooms. Her AP Physics students are so excited to program sensors in space, some students enrolled in the class just for this particular project—she now has 23 students in the class...Because students can configure the sensors in real time, Romanoff says shell be using Ardusat throughout the school year. Students will write code to then send to the satellites housing their particular project. It will be crucial in helping students understand concepts like electricity and magnetic fields. The satellites will send the data back down to Earth, and students can collect and view the data on their iPads, and make graphs out of the information received from space to observe patterns or work out hypotheses...As the Ardusat programming gets more advanced, and more satellites become available for students, Ardusat envisions more technical experiments like thunderstorm tracking."

I took an AP Physics class in high school, and would have loved it if wed had access to sensors and microcontrollers (MCUs) on a satellite orbiting the earth. Can you imagine the cool projects a few creative, imaginative and determined K-12 student hackers will be doing in a few years on Ardusats system and other cube sats or other type of education or general public satellites that get launched and have this level of access. Instead of writing "Space Invaders" in BASIC and playing it on Apple II or other early PCs, theyll be programming MCUs with the Arduino IDE (integrated development environment) or other program development tools to play real-time "Orbital Space Spy," gathering real-life data in space and figuring out how to capture and package information that lets them become globally-recognized experts on their area of interest or sell information to governments or corporations.

Early breadboard circuitry for Ardusat (from ExtremeTech)

Like many other developer platforms, the truly valuable and innovative outcomes from widespread access to microcontrollers, sensors and other related satellite components that can capture or generate information or physical products in space will be things that the satellite launch companies never expected. Students, teachers and others with access to this space equipment will first do weird, fun and somewhat pointless things with the equipment, as well as activities initially envisioned by Ardusats and other organizations, such as thunderstorm tracking. True hackers rarely work on ideas suggested by someone else as being valuable or appropriate. Theyd rather work eight or twelve hours a day on

something they came up with on their own, something that fully engages them, something that no one else is doing as far as they know. Or something interesting to them that they think they can do much better than someone else.

The initial sensors in the Space Kit are listed on the Ardusat website as luminosity sensor, temperature sensor, magnetometer, ultra violet light sensor, infrared thermopile, and photoresistor. But Im guessing Ardusats have a few more sensors onboard, either for testing or for unveiling at a future time to maintain interest in the program. Early on those student hackers will also come up with additional MCUs and related components that should be added to the next satellite launched, with a clear explanation of how those MCUs and components will be used. At least one of the student hacker improvements will end up able to accomplish the purported task, but will turn out to have unexpected capabilities, either because someone figured out a new way to use the equipment or because the slightly-devious student hacker planned to use those capabilities all along but was intelligent enough to not tell people that before the equipment was launched into

space. These escapades will bring us ever closer to the day when scifi like "Space Cadet" by Robert Heinlein and "Live Free or Die" by John Ringo will be eclipsed by true life stories.

We havent reached the hockey-stick inflection point yet for democratization of the civilian aerospace sector, but programs like Ardusat are getting us a lot closer to the tipping point. If you work with STEM programs at K-12 schools, I highly recommend you consider getting involved with Ardusat. And if youre a student hacker interested in space, I recommend you start planning your personal participation in off-planet computing.

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What I Learned From My 2014 Summer Garden

I wanted a record of this years garden.  The foliage grew so thick in the hydroponic section I was unable to track down a leak.  Usage became ridiculous and I ended up filling the sump twice a day with water rather than waste the hydroponic fertilizer. 

The bioponic systems did well.  Summer heat put a damper on everything including the tomatoes.  Even the squash seemed to regain vigor once the 100+ days passed.  Bell peppers in the hydroponic system did well, but failed due to blossom end rot in the bioponic systems.  I found [this article about Blossom End Rot] that may be helpful.

One Earthan bed became clogged by a root and I lost all the flowers on my Tomatillo, but even though a second set of flowers came back, I doubts I will get a crop.

My wicking barrels did not wick quite as well as I would have liked.  So Ill adjust the soil mix.  These barrels did not get enough sun in this location, so I will have to find a different location.  That is one of the best attributes of this simple low cost design.  Relocation is not a problem.

The vertical section will get a modification to the water supply.  I plan to install a check valve after the pump and a high pressure connection after that.  When the 1/4" tubes clog I will simply give it a blast of fresh water.   In fact this is how I will maintain the level in the sump tank.  Each time I fill the sump I will be clearing the 1/4" lines.

The 8W Earthan Bed system performed well over the summer.  Water usage was extremely low in both the wicking barrels and the 8W Earthan Beds.  Without a doubt I feel these two systems hold the most promise.  But one thing Ive learned is that any garden that relies on a mechanical system is prone to some type of failure which places the wicking barrels squarely in the best position.

I began the season using weed teas, fish emulsion, and kelp in the 8W Earthan Bed and the Vertical Garden, but the Vertical Garden was abandoned due to high maintenance (clogging).

After the other bioponic Earthan Bed clogged I began to fear that the system might become clogged, but I now feel it would have been okay since it was a root not muck that caused the problem.

But this caused me to switch the 8W Earthan Bed over to plain well water with an occasional slurp of fish emulsion and liquid kelp plus a little Fe DTPA, MgSO4, and HCl after only a few weeks.  My goal for this system was to use no urine.

Clogging is a concern I will eventually have to face with all of the Earthan Beds as I doubt even the worms will be able to keep the rock bed clear forever.   The advantage is that the water stays well aerated which should increase plant vitality and vigor. 

Water use was extremely low in this systems even though I top watered every few days.   

Im still enjoying handfuls of cherry tomatoes from every section of the garden everyday The soil less section of the bioponic system produced more cherry tomatoes than we could eat. This and the hydroponic section were the best performers.  I credit this to aeration and high nutrient levels.  The main bioponic garden (not the 8W garden) received about 50% of my fresh urine plus fish emulsion, kelp, Fe DTPA, MgSO4, and HCl.

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Little Bit of Information About LittleBits

So Im pretty sure everyone reading this blog knows what the Internet of Things (IoT) is. Anyone who likes to use or read about microcontrollers (MCUs) has probably read a couple news stories about the IoT or at least about how some microcontroller is being used in the IoT. The topic of tonights blog is littleBits, which are now "an easy and open way to contribute to the Internet of Things without wasting time prototyping devices from scratch."

littleBits circuit with module snapped and wired together

In addition to that preceding description of littleBits, the July 23 Engadget article about these modular electronic marvels says:

"The magnetic, interconnecting circuit boards that make up LittleBits library of electronic modules make it easy to build all sorts of neat (and noisy) devices with almost no technical knowledge at all...today LittleBits is announcing the Cloud Bit, a new module that, as company CEO and founder Ayah Bdeir puts it, allows builders to "just add internet" to almost anything...More complex modules -- like the Arduino module and todays WiFi-enabled Cloud Bit -- raise the ceiling of complexity for potential LittleBits projects. Its her hope that the product will be used for rapid prototyping of new ideas in addition to being a fun hobby toy. "If you wanted to recreate a Nest or recreate a Sonos or a DropCam, you could. If you wanted to create the next billion dollar idea, you could do that..."

cloudBit

The Wired article announcing the cloudBit has this to say about the new component and about littleBits in general:

"The cloudBit, announced today, is a new component that’ll connect any littleBits creation to the internet, allowing it to be programmed through a simple web interface. There have been other kits like this before, powered by Raspberry Pi and Arduino—but while those remain powerful, flexible, and inter-operable, none of them possess littlBits’s plug-and-play simplicity. So with the addition of the cloudBit, littleBits could become a reasonable, DIY gateway to the Internet of Things...Rigging together motors, sensors, and noisemakers can be painstaking work, requiring lots of soldering and testing equipment to make sure all your circuits are done right. littleBits, instead, is a modular library comprising dozens of neat electronic components that simply snap together in a line, with magnets...To get started, users first sync their cloudBit to the web app. From there, the web app can link to any any web API, including IFTTT (a service that allows you to chain together websites with simple “If this, then that” logic). Users can then use those data streams to turn the cloudBit on or off, or activate any partial state in between. By linking the cloudBit to any number of other bits, users can create whatever chain of mechanical reactions they like...the littleBits ecosystem now has 59 different components, ranging from basic items like motors, a microphone, and a keyboard to a growing body of sensors that detect everything from light to bends to motion to pressure. (There’s also an Arduino component, for more serious hacking.)"

littleBits tagline is "the easiest and most extensive way to learn and prototype with electronics." Maybe its because Im an engineer and not a marketing person, but from my perspective, it seems unlikely for any product to be both the "easiest" and the "most extensive" way to learn and prototype with electronics. My guess is that littleBits is probably a lot closer to the easiest claim of their tagline than the most extensive claim.

littleBits Big Drone Synth 

In spite of their overreaching marketing department, which may be an apt description of the marketing department at pretty much every company, I do feel littleBits does have a strong appeal for non-technical people who want to incorporate technology into unique or interesting products that theyve created in their minds. If an artist, sociologist, psychologist, disaster worker or many other types of people with no desire to figure out how to breadboard an Arduino circuit can fairly quickly learn how to snap together a couple modules that accomplishes something meaningful to them, they will tend to use that product again in the future and start learning how to do more with that product and complementary products.

What this potential appeal for non-technical people says to me is that if littleBits can figure out kits that are useful to a large number of target users and successfully market those kits, it could very likely lead to an active, growing and loyal user community. By removing the Arduino barriers (perceived or real) of learning at least the basics of electronic design and programming basics, littleBits has given itself a much larger potential market. The challenge for littleBits now is figuring out what modules will appeal to and get buzz among non-tech early adopters.

littleBits DIY smartphone-enabled thermostat

I think it would be interesting for the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group to build a product with littleBit modules, then build an MCU-based product that has the same capabilities and features of the littleBit product. We could benchmark the operation of both products, compare the component and build costs for both products and keep track of the actual build time to go from loose components to a properly and reliably operating unit. The main thing stopping us from doing that is the lack of components. If I can identify clear benefits for sponsors, Ill put together a project proposal for doing that comparison and pitch the project to potential sponsors.

One side note of particular interest to me is the IFTTT aspect of littleBits. Ever since I read about if this then that, a couple years ago, Ive wanted to experiment with it. Doing a littleBits project would be a good excuse to set up some IFTTT recipes and figure out how much value the service has for me. Ill have to bring up IFTTT at the next MCU meeting to find out how much, if any, people at the meeting have done with it.

If youre reading this blog post and have used littleBits, please come to the next Humboldt Microcontrollers Group meeting, which will be from 6 to 8 PM on Thursday, August 7, to talk about your experience with them and to demonstrate how to use them.

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