Day 15 Friday 6-28

It's Midterms!!! 3 weeks to go......

Every group shared out their progress so far in their research.   

We really enjoyed each participants personalities and the information shared. All the groups presented what they have been doing up to this point. It is neat to see how far everyone is coming along. The others groups projects are very interesting. We actually had a chance to see how much individuals have learned prior to ever being involved in an engineering component.

After a quick lunch we are back in the lab to try and figure out why our system is recording 24/7. We called SWANN yesterday and received instructions on how to set up the cameras to record when motion is sensed. It is not working the way we would like it to be. Today we are still researching this problem. 

We are also looking into how to cool the pelican box, in which the system is securely stored in, now that we have officially hit the 100 degrees mark! Even though it is shaded, we are worried. The DVR's survival temperature is up to 104*F, we will easily reach that temperature. 

We have been viewing videos of other burrowing owl monitoring systems and other ideas. This link has been the best so far.

Little Owl Video Blog





We called SWANN Friday afternoon and they walked us through the set up steps to have the system record for only when motion is sensed.

WE GOT IT TO WORK!! VICTOOOORY!    

Day 14 Thursday 6-27

Our day started off by visiting the Interpretive Center at Ilse Du Bois to meet with a new park ranger,  Kelly, and our original ranger, Bryan. We needed to get everyone up to date on where the project was at.

This is our second meeting place! We like this one alot because it is A/Ced!

We then proceeded to check out our equipment and gather the video data that has been collecting since Monday. Everything was still in place, and nothing was tampered with. We discovered that the system was not set up correctly and recorded the entire time since we left it on Monday, instead of only recording when motion was sensed.

We did not record any big species just bugs. These pictures are from the PVC tunnel run and the nesting box.

This is the tunnel run

This is our bug!

This is the nest box burrow.

This is our second bug!!

We got back into the lab and studied the videos that were recorded. We also started brainstorming on how to fix the video motion recording, and to keep the box cool because we have hit 100*F today! 

Day 13 Wednesday 6-26

Today was trouble-shooting day.  We worked with the PIR sensor programming.  We think the sensor isn't working.  The sensor works from 5V-12V but think that the 5Vs is not enough.  Motion detection seems to be all the time.  We are going back to the drawing board.  There is only a 5mu swing.  We plans out our diagram for the off-grid system. 

                                                          PIR Sensor Programming

                                                                 Plan for Thursday

                                                             Diagram for our of-grid system

We are working on the Literature review section of our paper. 

Day 12 Tuesday 6-25

Back at it again!

Even with all the deep sleep everyone got from being so worn out, we are very sluggish today. One group member has poison oak and another has around 30 chigger bites and we all have scratches and weird bumps! With all the precautions we took, we still came out beat by nature.
Wild Watch = 0 Nature =1

We are learning how to program the Arduino board. Basic steps for now but soon we will be able to rule the world MUHAHA!

We started by accomplishing the tutorial again with blinking LED lights.   http://www.hacktronics.com/Tutorials/arduino-flashing-led.html


Once we finished, we started to work towards setting up the board and codes for the PIR sensors.  We were using the tutorial from "hacktronics" but found that we made the mistake of assuming the wiring was common.  We found that "bildr" was better at explaining how to set our "breadboard" due to user comments.  http://bildr.org/2011/06/pir_arduino/






There was one set back, we was worried that the power voltage would not be compatible. After research, this particular PIR can sustain an Arduino board between 5v-12v.  So why wasn't it sensing motion?  Duh!!! We had our power wire in 3.5v instead of 5v.












Once this was corrected, we were able to start reading the sensing output.  It will post a message ever 2 seconds.






Our next goal is to see if we can get the motion sensor to light the LED when motion is being sensed.

Day 11 Monday 6-24

INSTALLATION DAY!

                                                         All packed up and ready to go!

We met up at 7 am, as to get to work before the wonderful Texas heat sets in.
Arriving at Ilse De Bois, you could feel the excitement in the air. We jumped to work on cutting the PVC artificial burrows, laying out power cords, running cameras to their monitoring spot, flagging our power line and camera cables, covering the burrows to look more natural, and hooking up the monitoring system.  To increase the likelihood of our burrows being inhabited, we cut the bottom out of the burrows to make for a more natural environment. 

Goal:  To have all our fingers when done!

                                                   

                                                     Success: Still have 10!

Installing the Camera

                                   Hiding the Burrows

A field trip to the Greenbelt Corridor was scheduled for 10:30, we had to cut our work time short so we could meet up with the rest of the UNT RET group. We took a tour of the Greenbelt. It was very informative. We saw poison ivy, a huge 80 year old Cottonwood tree, deer tracks and most importantly the weather station and the WSN nodes and relays..

                             UNT Weather Station


Deer Tracks

Water Pressure meters                                                             WSN Nodes




 

                                                               80 Year Old Cottonwood

Thank goodness they brought snacks! Breakfast was around 6 am for the UNT Wild Watch group and we were getting hungry. The oranges and granola bars held us over.

                                           Group Photo in front of the 80 year old Cottonwood Tree.


 After the tour we were back to Ilse De Bois to finish installing our security system, we had to be out of there by 2:30. Our park ranger was leaving then and we have to be supervised. We had to secure the cameras, make sure all the exposed parts were covered in electrical tape, seal the weatherproof box hole with sealant, adjust the recording settings on the system, and pick up our mess. We also installed a PASCO temperature monitor system inside the weatherproof box to keep track of the temperature inside. We want to make sure it is not getting too hot.


Double checking that our cameras are up right and secure.

Configuring the Swann Security settings.

AHHHH! Our final product is complete! It is all set up and recording properly! We are happy, satisfied and exhausted.

We left feeling great! It was fantastic to see all of our work actually in the field! As soon as we left we were all talking excitedly about how great it was going to be to eat, shower and be in the AC!

Day 10 Friday 6-21

Finalizing Plans

Today we did one more last run to Walmart to get some more supplies.  We faced a challenge of purchasing for we had do the route of reimbursements, ooops!  : (

That afternoon, we drilled a hole in our weatherproof box so that we can run our cables from the power supply to the DVR and to the cameras. 

We gathered all of our supplies for installation day! It was very exciting seeing it all come together. We loaded up the car said goodbye and actually looked forward to Monday! 

Day 9 Thursday 6-20

Let's go shopping 

Today we finally purchased our supplies needed to install our monitoring system.  We went to Lowes and Tanners

A real Electronics store is a whole new world! Thought we were going to have to get Jennifer down off the ceiling.  Resistors in all strengths, capacitors with voltage, light sensors too.

Day 8 Wednesday 6-19

Work and more work :)

Today we were able to finalize our materials list for Tech Fest! It's going to be so much fun! Our plan for tech fest is to create three stations for the community to monitor. We are going to have 2 aquariums at each station one that will be a normal environment and the other will be a tank that has experienced a natural disaster. The participants will be testing the pH of each tank, this will let them see that just because you can see a mess does not mean that the waters pH changed, and sometimes you can not see a water change but the pH has changed. For instance you can see the change after a tornado because of all the debris in the water, but the water quality is the same while after a flood the water looks normal but in reality the quality has dropped severely. 

Supply list

8 Aquariums

water plants

aquarium gravel

floaty stuff

ph stripes

Acid Rain Station

vinegar

pippettes

3 oz dixie cups

Tornado Station

tornado demo  

bottle connectors

2 1 liter bottles

food coloring

plastic bottles

toothpicks

tiny toys to fit inside plastic bottle ( monopoly size houses, little mammals)

leaves/grasses/twigs

Flood Station

a LOT of sponges (each kid will cut out their fish, we can get 4 fish per sponge)

soil

raisins

green drink mix

red drink mix

pink drink mix

road salt

paper cup/trash

maple syrup

Day 7 Tuesday 6-18

1 down, many more to go!

We had a very productive day! Our lesson plan is ready for review https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JpLrgT28hbCSiPKX29KEEy8WPemecAfn9tmvsv_XMdk/edit

We also were able to plan out our activity for Tech Fest! Please come out to the ESSAT building @ UNT, Dec. 7

Station 1:  Acid Rain or Not?

To connect our lesson design and our RET wildlife monitoring project, we decided to have our participants make an observation on rather or not from the naked eye, could you detect there is a change in the land water.  Acid rain is a natural disturbance that is often not detected unless it is tested. We will have the participants test the two sample ecosystems to determine which one is affected by acid rain using Ph strips

Activity 2: "A tornado's a comin"!!!!

Participants will determine if a tornado affects the water by testing again.  Often times, the water supply is not affected due to contaminants not spilling over during the disturbance. 

Engineers construct monitoring systems to measure the size and intensity of the cyclone.

they will be able to make their own cyclones!

Activity #3:  Ashes to dust

When a volcano erupts it causes primary succession, which starts over an ecosystem. In this activity we would like the participants to test the surrounding water after a volcano erupts for alterations.





Activity #4:  Freddy the Fish Journey

Freddy the Fish is a good visual experiment to do with children to illustrate the effects of pollution on water sources.

Water pollution is a very serious issue that we face every day. Large companies often
use our natural lakes and streams as a dump. Sometimes, power plants pollute by heating
the water. Many times, we are contributing to water pollution and don’t even realize it.
Other times, we realize it and don’t do anything about it. Let’s take a look at a few
different ways we pollute our water. Being aware is the first step to making a change.

Day 6 Monday 6-17

Adventure Day!!!

Today we went to Isle du Bois to plan out our path for installing the monitoring system. 

So far there are three artificial burrowing sites to attract small animals to habitat.  As mention in our earlier blogs, the ultimate goal is to provide alternate housing for the burrowing owls in El Paso.  Since there isn't a shortage at Isle du Bois, we are hoping that any small animal will live in the burrows so that we can test out the monitoring system. 

We will also monitor a birds nest to test out the surveillance system.  A family of birds had already occupied the house, but has now abandoned it : (.  Hopefully another family will come in occupy the house. 

Our lovely drawing of our wiring layout
42 feet to fence
From fence to birdhouse is 165 feet
Fence to DVD possible spot is 140 feet
From DVD possible spot is 114 feet
From DVD possible site to deer site is 212 fee 

 Here is the tricky part.  We needed to measure how long our extension cords will need to be based on the location of this power shed.

Monitoring system with swan system
Doing on grid and then off grid with solar panel
Brian Daniels with TXPW
Doing a survey of area for measurements for cables and four sites for camera
Possibly setting up an Internet feed to interpretative center using wifi
Brian says wifi is patchy out here
Run power from maintenance center, Brian will put covering and flags to cover cables