Lab46 Wiki

To quote Elizabeth Bales,

    "This is something I would throw my masters students at...like 
    five of them....for a year...."

Phase rainbows/unicorns CANCELLED

See revised objectives-

Flying solo on this one as it falls out of the scope of any one program offered. I am pursuing this idea because I feel it can benefit the program and my peers for some time to come.

This project was conceptualized on March 13, 2013 (BWAHAHAHAAHA……..pi) and, hopefully, Phase - Rainbows will be finished shortly after spring break and Phase - Unicorns 2 weeks following that time permitting but may carry over into the next school year.

I hope to utilize a miniature computer system and various components from different industries to create a modifiable and modular air(may be expanded) quality sensing system that runs a Linux environment with most of the coding done in C.

The system will be integrated into the L.A.I.R's network and generate reference points at 15 minute intervals throughout the active class day measuring air quality as well as the amount of active users on the local network(how many people are in the room roughly). This will give data over a given amount of time to estimate an individuals impact on the environment of the room.

In a second phase I'm going to pester the upperclassmen for their research on the hydroponics experiment that existed in the previous incarnation of the L.A.I.R (prior to it's flooding) and reintroduce a air cleaning “living wall” into the geeknasium.

For the duration of this experiment I will constantly be exercising the C, Unix, Python, think-mo-tron, theory, keyboard/hammer vs. face, and electrothing muscles and will eventually my mind will open up like a flower in the morning or I'll switch to a liberal arts major.

Current objective for the foreseeable future is to map out sensor types to deliver accurate results in the measurements of pollutants that must include C0, c02 and particulate matter.

These sensors will feed into and Arduino controller that is interfaced with a Linux system that will collect the data.

Here is a list of components that will be used….I will seek advice on whether or not this will be possible with the listed components, my ability or any combination of the two.

• AC in cable adapter
• Display
• Processing
• Expansion
• Systems connectivity
• Integration
• Sensor

After a casual conversation with Matt Haas about various innocuous things; hydroponics came up. I believe they serve a purpose in certain contexts, but, growing food in a room in a very fertile part of the world seems a waste. The energy expended on materials used and their transport MUST surpass the energy expended utilizing the local soil and even if it does not there is much to be said about creating a symbiotic relationship with your local and expanded habitat. (to be elaborated on)

The state of our air quality is a growing concern and as prospective computer scientists it behooves us to not forget the end-users of all systems are people..not matter how big of a jerk they may be…. and we are driven to use the tools and knowledge at our disposal to the benefit of ourselves and greater community. It seems only logical that the environment we create systems in should be as conducive to the process as possible and, although stylistic opinions may differ, cleaner air would not only benefit ourselves but the machines we rely upon.

As much as possible, this project will be completed with assistance from other individuals in place of web reference. As far as I have found no one has implemented a project similar to this in the Linux/Unix environment on such a small scale. All resources will be listed.

Give a general overview of your anticipated implementation of the project. Address any areas where you are making upfront assumptions or curtailing potential detail. State the focus you will be taking in implementation.

The world will be a better place.

Idea is born…much pondering ensues…

Casual conversation with Dr. Hans Appelt(Professor Emeritus Computer Science) on whether or not the idea is plausible. cautiously optomistic

E-mail dialog begins with Elizabeth Bales(Computer Science Doctoral Candidate UCSD)

          I think your project might be a bit beyond the scope of what they are asking for... for example, the 
          part where they say to show your code between the code tags... that suggests they don't want you to 
          write thousands of lines of code in multiple files....
          

…waiting for advice from others on whether to proceed or refocus on other priorities.

time passes ….For use with listed sensor wondering if arduino shield for raspberry pi is better option. to avoid communication problems.

Late night conversations with Lizzie and Matt have led me to the conclusion I am in over my head.

Parts ordered

parts HERE!!

Upon completion of the project, if there is an applicable collection of created code, place a copy of your finished code within <code> </code> blocks here.

/*
 * hello.c - A sample "Hello, World!" program
 * 
 * written by NAME for COURSE on DATE
 *
 * compile with:
 *   gcc -o hello hello.c
 *
 * execute with:
 *   ./hello
 */
 
#include <stdio.h>
 
int main()
{
    printf("Hello, World!\n");    // Output message to STDOUT
    return(0);
}

laLAA… pretend this is a pico temp file. Watch out for those $ signs Are we having fun yet? Care must be taken when using the '!' symbol, as it deals with history. This file has spaces and ?'s in its name. will the weird filenames ever end? This file has spaces and a backslash in its name. this file has spaces and double quotes in its name. Simple, but simpler without the spaces! spaces, commas, two types of quotes… oh my! lab46:~/badname/exercise$

Comments/thoughts generated through performing the project, observations made, analysis rendered, conclusions wrought. What did you learn from doing this project?

In performing this project, the following resources were referenced:

• URL1
• URL2
• URL3 (provides useful information on topic)
• URL4

Generally, state where you got informative and useful information to help you accomplish this project when you originally worked on it (from Google, other wiki documents on the Lab46 wiki, etc.)