Sensors
sensors

Relatively inexpensive, transportable and deployable sensors are produced all over the world for a variety of analytes. Broadly defined, sensors respond to a physical or chemical property, providing an interpretable output. For our purposes, a main distinction of a sensor versus a sampler is that sensors do not require laboratory-based analyses, and provide outputs in near-real time. Though we often think of sensors as part of the electronics field, plenty of analog sensors have been available for decades. Common analog sensors include things like mercury thermometers and classic barometers. Common digital sensors include things like voltmeters. In Public Lab, we're interested in a broad variety of sensors, both analog and digital, designed for measuring chemical and physical properties in air or water. ###Air Sensors There are a ton of different air sensors on the market these days, with common analytes including carbon monoxide (e.g. smoke detectors), temperature, humidity, particulate matter, and more. Some of these sensors require a digital interface with a controller and data logger, others are analog. Please see more information [here](/wiki/air-sensors) and check out air sensors in the table below. Please add more sensors that you've used! [embed table] ###Water Sensors Water sensors are available for several analytes, such as salinity, pH, and depth. Like air sensors, water sensors may be digital or analog. Any digital water sensors that are meant to be deployed will require water-tight enclosures for the electronic components. Please see more information [here](/wiki/water-sensors), and check out and add more sensors to the table below. [embed table]...


Author Comment Last activity Moderation
stevie "Great post! Any updates on this project? We'll be talking about data loggers on Monday's OpenHour - would be great to hear more about the webjack t..." | Read more » almost 7 years ago
warren "We can resuscitate response: and we can have a range of similar but distinct powertags - esp. now that we have the cog-shaped powertag menu that ca..." | Read more » almost 7 years ago
cfastie "I like the idea of linking to other notes that set the stage for the current one. I was using the response:##### powertag for a while, but that doe..." | Read more » almost 7 years ago
warren "Hi, Chris - did you see the Open Hour on data loggers on Monday? " | Read more » almost 7 years ago
warren "Awesome, and also great formatting btw on your parts list here. I've been linking to "prerequisite" activities in some of my recent posts, which he..." | Read more » almost 7 years ago
cfastie "Thanks Jeff. That's a really interesting question. I did not include step by step instructions, so a complete novice would have to do some research..." | Read more » almost 7 years ago
warren "Love this post, Chris! Do you think there's enough here for someone else to try building and testing this out, and that it's worth marking as an ac..." | Read more » almost 7 years ago
donblair "Great question re: whether powering the Feather on the 3V line really does work well ... I don't really know. But: looking at a schematic for one ..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "That's a really good point that the En pin on the Feather can disable the regulator and reduce power consumption. We need a table of all the featur..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
donblair "Thanks Chris -- this is incredibly useful. So important for folks to have a sense of the trade-offs and considerations when choosing solutions in ..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
shanlter "Hi Dan, thanks very much! So basically, what I need is to connect (at least) DO and pH sensors to Riffle. My collaborator said that using a voltage..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
shanlter "Thanks very much! The link of your website is very helpful! I will try when I receive a riffle : ) " | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "Although there are sensors that require more than 3.3V, most of the simple DIY sensors are designed to use 3.3V. For example, all of the sensors he..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "Further empirical evidence suggests that the VBAT pin delivers the voltage of the battery that is plugged into the "Lithium 3.7V" connector, but no..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
donblair "Hallo! If the hardware is Riffle version 0.1.8, the relevant schematic is here -- and, so far as I can tell, VBAT should simply be the battery inp..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "Evidence suggests my answer is wrong. I powered a Riffle with a battery pack which supplied 4.5V, but the VBAT pin supplied only 2.3V. So maybe it'..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "Hi Shanlter, That's a good question. There is no 5V-out pin on the Riffle, but there is a "VBAT" pin on the 2x7 pin header. I assume that pin carr..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "The Melexis MLX90614 Non-Contact Sensor has a temperature range of -70°C to +380°C. This is an infrared sensor so it does not have to touch the thi..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
liz "@cfastie here's the link to the known bug currently affecting the display of replications on the original activity: https://github.com/publiclab/pl..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
zengirl2 "@cfastie thanks for pointing out that I used the new small SD card module. Your comments about energy savings are also very helpful. Fascinating th..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "Leslie, it's really good you got this working. Thanks for troubleshooting the RTC library. It looks like the library I have been using is the MrAlv..." | Read more » about 7 years ago
warren "Wow, super!!! " | Read more » about 7 years ago
cfastie "It would be fun to try an Aeropod. I couldn't find any details about the instruments, but it looks like an awesome contraption to fly. " | Read more » about 7 years ago
warren "Hi, Chris, I think it's possible we could get a wind profiler "payload" for the (patented) Aeropod sent out, which has a Kestrel attached. If so, m..." | Read more » about 7 years ago