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Saturday 21st September 11am until late
The Horniman Museum and Gardens are to host Hackathon to challenge the brightest minds in technology with the goal of developing a tailored environmental micro electronic control system for coral research that creates the same temperature, daytime photoperiod and moonlight in the Horniman's aquarium system with the actual temperature and photoperiods found in Suva, Fiji to see if we can replicate the environmental cues to trigger coral spawning right here in the UK. |
The Hackathon community will be directly supporting a very worthwhile biology and conservation project. |
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If you have even a little arduino, Pi or programming knowledge come along and get involved! |
Well first off you get to take part in the epic creation of a tool that will be used for conservation and help us get a better understanding of the world we live in and that many other institutions may benefit from.
You’ll experience a great behind the scenes tour of the Horniman Museum and Gardens led by Jamie Craggs the Aquarium Curator where you will find out more about the project and the amazing work the Horniman does.
We’re sure that you’ll walk away from the day having learnt and achieving something new!
There will also be stalls manned by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Ciseco where you can get hands on with some equipment and ask the makers!
Most importantly there is something profoundly fun about having a whole bunch of geeks in one room and achieve something in a day – it’s a great challenge!
Well if you have Linux, Python, PHP, MySQL, Artwork/Design, RF/Wireless Comms, Project Management, Hardware/PCB design and assembly knowledge we can definitely make use of your skills on the day!
Most importantly if you don’t have those skills you're also welcome to come along and learn some – everyone has something to offer, that said there are limited places and we do need to make sure the right people with the right skills are present – but we’re sure you’ll understand that!
11am Horniman Museum and Gardens
The project has been running since January and on Tuesday 13th August we had a major breakthrough in that we were testing the corals and found a gravid colony. What it is showing is that our methodology is working. Attached is picture of cross section through the coral and you can see the white oocytes (eggs) clearly.
We have sent this sample off to run histology on and will get mounted wax section slides sent back to the museum for imaging. We are now planning on taking samples up to the spawning day so we can document the development. Judging by the stage of development the coral should spawn within the next 6 weeks. As its only one coral we can’t do any fertilisation work but this will be the ultimate goal.
In a unique twist to the project at a very late stage we will now be using a RockBLOCK to get real time temperature data directly from Suva, Fiji as opposed to the average day summaries we have previously been using from the NOAA buoy data set.
RockBLOCK can send and receive short messages from anywhere on Earth with a view of the sky using an Iridium Modem.
Of course we'll be using Ciseco microelectronics to hook up to the RockBLOCK.
If you have an Arduino or Raspberry Pi project that you want remote data RockBLOCK is almost certainly the solution.
A number of companies have pledged help and equipment to the project, most of which will be present on the day to support the development work, show off their latest products, and answer any questions you may have on your own projects.
http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/slice-of-radio-wireless-rf-transciever-for-the-raspberry-pi/
The aquarium control system will use the NEW spearhead product from Ciseco – the Slice of Radio. This amazing functional yet very very affordable RF solution for the Raspberry Pi will read the wireless RF temperature sensors we deploy and switch the relays on and off wirelessly for the lighting and temperature control and in addition to this it will also manage the moon and sunlight LED dimming.
The entire solution will be built using off the shelf Ciseco components for a unique application but one of which is suitable for people to modify and use at home!
The Raspberry Pi offers a low cost control solution with network capability and serves as controller, editor and monitor.
The 3 data sets below will be imported into a database on the Raspberry Pi via the following websites an easy to use import for location and year will be designed that may be edited by the user in an online spreadsheet using
Note that the imported data from the NOAA buoy will only be used in scenarios where a live connection fails or if a different location is required.
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/data/cb/time_series/all_Fiji_Beqa.txt
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=82&month=12&year=2013&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=82&month=12&year=2013&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1
The temperature will be monitored by an off the shelf Ciseco XRF Temperature Kit but with a slight modification. To measure the temperature under water a waterproofed sensor will be used.
The sensor will then need to be calibrated.
To control the aquarium temperature we will use the Ciseco Relay Board to turn the chillers and TMC V2therm heaters on and off as determined by the imported current temperature and in relation to the real time temperature using the submerged temperature sensor.
The moonlight is replicated using a custom Tropical Marine Centre AquaRay MiniLED tile which contain 4 x Cree XP-E LEDs running at the same colour temperature as the moon (4400 Kelvin).
The moonlight rise and set times will be set via the imported date and times and will be dimmed up and down using the a Tropical Marine Centre AquaRay 8 Channel Controller modified to work wirelessly with Ciseco's SRF radios to talk with the Raspberry Pi.
The aquarium is now blacked out so that no external light can have any influence on the experiment.
The coral system currently has a mix of T5 and AquaRay LED lighting. These need to be controlled in 2 different ways.
The LEDs will be controlled in the same manner as the moonlight LEDs but using the imported sunrise and sunset times and will dim up and down. This will create ambient light for the aquariums either side for the sunset and sunrise.
The T5 lighting will be turned on and off in the same way as the heating and cooling, with the Ciesco relay board but in line with imported sunrise and sunset times. Because the LEDs will dim up and down during the rise and lower period these will only be turned on at the rise end or rise down start times that were imported.
http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/xrf-relaybase-also-for-xbee-wireless-dual-relay-module-for-switching-kit/
http://www.highcharts.com/
http://shop.highsoft.com/faq#what-is-non-commercial
Reports will be created so we can know that the project is on track and the cooling and heating is adequate so we’ll need to know what the temperature is and what it should be – an easy online report.
We’d also like to have a page to show what the current parameters are and what they should be so we can monitor them.
In the event that a device couldn’t be updated or the temperature is not within tolerance then we need to know so a communication needs to be generated in these circumstances.
There will be 3 co-ordinators and 6 Team Leaders on the day and 6 groups of 3-5 people, some people may chop and change between groups and all groups will obviously have to interact with each other, the co-ordinators jobs will be to oversee this and make sure everything is running to schedule.
- 2 x Temperature Sensors
- 3 x Relay Boards (2 for lighting, one for temperature control)
- 2 x FET strips (one for moonlight, one for sunlight)
A simple workflow diagram of the main activities to take place during the day
Image showing a coral releasing egg bundles © Barry Brown
