Shameless plug

We're going to use theSparkfun Inventor's Kit  for our Project.  This summer I trained with Brian Huang at Sparkfun's HQ in Boulder, and can say that after spending a week there using it, and a good chunk of the summer prototyping some of the our project's core ideas on it, it is the way to go..  The kit has it all:

• an arduino
• a breadboard
• cable
• a very good guide
• an LCD screen
• lots of components to get through the core concepts of Arduino, like analog to digital, serial read, digital to digital: LED's, resistors, pushbuttons, and a series of sensors that offer opportunities for students to understand how to convert the analog world of what's around them to a set value

We're going to spend a good chunk of the early part of our 12 week cycle on using these sensors: thermistors, photoresistors, etc because a great deal of our project is about referencing a certain part of the environments (which is variable, and thus, analog) and turning the voltage is puts out  into a calibrated value.

In water, those parameters will include temperature, ph, and conductivity. In air, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and ozone. We hope to get other parameters in our project as we progress.

For example, a CO2 sensor will return a dimensionless value somewhere between 0 and 5 volts.  It will be up to the kids to turn it into a usable value that prints out, such as parts per million (ppm).

At the Sparkfun training, one veteran teacher and I were discussing my project, and he said, when you start having to calibrate, or in other words, find your "k" (constant), you're on the road to real science.

I'm not a math guy.  Wish me luck. 

So what is Arduino?

From Wikipedia:

Arduino is a single-board microcontroller, intended to make the application of interactive objects or environments more accessible.^[1] The hardware consists of an open-source hardware board designed around an 8-bit Atmel AVRmicrocontroller, or a 32-bit Atmel ARM. Current models feature a USB interface, 6 analog input pins, as well as 14 digital I/O pins which allows the user to attach various extension boards.

Introduced in 2005, the Arduino platform was designed to provide an inexpensive and easy way for hobbyists, students and professionals to create devices that interact with their environment using sensors and actuators. Common examples for beginner hobbyists include simple robots, thermostats and motion detectors. It comes with a simple integrated development environment (IDE) that runs on regular personal computers and allows users to write programs for Arduino using C or C++.

The current prices of Arduino boards run around €20, or $27 and those of related "clones" as low as $9. Arduino boards can be purchased pre-assembled or as do-it-yourself kits. Hardware design information is available for those who would like to assemble an Arduino by hand. It was estimated in mid-2011 that over 300,000 official Arduinos had been commercially produced, and in 2013 that 700,000 official boards were in users' hands.

Don't run away if the description there scares you, as it would me until recently.  Full disclosure:  I had hardly touched a computer until I was 27, and didn't know rip about chips, programming, and the like.  If I can get into this stuff, you can.  Arduino was suggested to my by a friend's son as the hot new thing for people who want to really DO stuff with technology but were total amateurs.   You can find Arduino at Radio Shack for pretty cheap, and a whole host of add-ons through many suppliers.  I tend to use Sparkfun, which is very oriented towards teachers and has designed a host of classroom-friendly stuff. 

Arduino is an open source platform with tons of free tutorials, sample programs, how to's, and one of the fastest online forum response turnovers you'll ever see.  Check out their site.  

core setup

As we get ready for the arrival of the kids next Thursday, I'm wanting to make sure that I've got some of the core project parts more or less running.  Here's a little video showing most of our basic work in a raw nutshell:  Two Arduino Uno's communicating wirelessly with XBee Pro 900's.  Both have Arduino Wireless SD Shields, and the one on the left has Sparkfun's new Vernier Interface Shield with a pH and temperature probe attached.  It is sending data to the other Arduino.  

I'm pretty much a newbie to programming, so fellow newbies to microcontrollers and programming in general, I'll try to touch on some of the challenges.  We're going to have some tutorials posted here, mostly ones that are specific to our project. There are a ton of tutorials out there that teach basic Arduino concepts already, so I'll provide links to those from time to time. 

Greetings. Teachers, students, or just curious folk, I hope that you will enjoy our students progress as the kids of Chattanooga School of the Arts and Sciences and Hixson High become the Wireless Earth Watchdogs, dedicated towards using microcontrollers and wireless systems to monitor the environmental health of the greater Chattanooga area.  We're using the Arduino platform to build remote water and air quality monitoring equipment that can last long-term in the field.  This blog will focus on techniques, design, and refining our work.