SUMMER 2015 INTERNSHIP

-On Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week of internships (5/26-5/27), we finished ordering the last 4 parts for the AS-1 Seismometer.

-This was completed on the same day.

-On Thursday, 5/28, some of our members finished the application for the seismometer, due on Friday.

-Karina was unable to complete the process, however, we have now (6/2), worked it out.

-On the following Monday, 6/1, we began to work on the circuit board/NerDAQ, for the new seismometer. We were also looking for a new area for the seismometer where it would not be disrupted.

-The final soldering was completed Thursday, 6/4. The seismometer was eventually brought down to SA-119, for further evaluation.

-On the following Monday (6/8), we will begin to machine the metal pieces.

UPDATE (6/8): Unfortunately, today, students will not be able to machine the pieces. We will resume on Wednesday. Other than that, not much will be done for today.

-On Wednesday, 6/10, we will hook up the new Arduino board to the computer to see if it works. Also, today we will assemble the new seismometer. 

-On the same day, we realized that the arduino board successfully connects to the computer.

-On Thursday, 6/11, we will continue to work on assembling the seismometer.

-We successfully cut the big piece for the AS-1.

-On Monday, 6/15, we will continue our focus on building the AS-1.

-Karina & Tamar successfully sandpapered one of the pieces.

-On Tuesday, 6/16, our goal is to bring the seismometer back to SA-119.

-Karina brought the computer, along with the seismometer downstairs to that particular room. 

-On Wednesday and Thursday, 6/17 and 6/18, we realized that the seismometer in SA-119 was not detecting as powerful signals as it did when it was residing in the blockhouse.

-Our goal is to now investigate different locations to place the seismometers suitable on campus.

-Throughout the week of 6/22-6/25, the seismometer team continued working on the progress of assembling the AS-1.

-On Monday, 6/29, Karina and Nicolette continued assembling the AS-1 with the parts ordered at the beginning of the summer I semester.

-Although this is taking some time, we are also going to invest some time in West Hall. West Hall has some suitable locations in basement-leveled floors.

UPDATE: By the end of the day on Thursday, 7/2, the manufacturing portion of the AS-1 has been completed.

-On Tuesday, 7/7, the team joined together to spray paint the metal pieces which had many dimensions written on it. We did this to perfect the image of the final AS-1.

Moreover, Professor Sivo, along with Karina and Nicolette had to go to Home Depot to pick up a few missing parts that we had not gathered until today.

Shown are pictures of the team spray painting out by the blockhouse. We found an old wooden piece to spray paint the pieces on, to avoid painting the grass itself:

Professor Sivo & Nicolette 

-On Wednesday, 7/8, because of the rain, the team moved back to the manufacturing lab to continue putting all the metal pieces and parts together to actually build the seismometer.

-We had a small setback because of the miscalculations of the seismometer's holes. However, we continued to work through by cutting the wooden dowel. We also took out all the screws and bolts to start assembling the seismometer's black metal pieces together.

Below are pictures of cutting the wooden dowel for today's progress:

Nicolette

Karina

-On Thursday, 7/9, Karina and Tamar researched different shelters for seismometers to be placed inside. Moreover, Karina and Tamar researched on Youtube and around the web to look up Raspberry Pi configurations for installing jAmaSeis on Karina's B+ model. It has been told that Karina will bring in her small computer on Monday, as we continue to work on the networking and software configurations.

As for the location to put our new AS-1, we were thinking about placing the shelter/seismometers in a remote location outside the blockhouse. 

-However, the use of solar panels is a must for the computer to function, and since the sun's rays would not always be directed toward the panels, our next option were the 6' x 6' concrete pads located by the Manufacturing Laboratory, in which we could build a small shelter ourselves, rather than investing money for one sold in Home Depot.

Below are pictures of today's progress. These were taken when testing out the solar panels:

 Professor Sivo & Karina

Bernard

Bernard & Professor Sivo

-On Monday morning, 7/13, Professor Sivo brought in all the wireless networking equipment for Tamar and Emily to assemble together. Eventually, Tamar, Emily, and the rest of the blockhouse team worked on configuring the wireless internet portion of the project to assure that it works before putting all our work together. 

Professor Correa & Kassem testing the equipment by the blockhouse

Emily & Tamar assembling network equipment

Emily & Tamar

-Although the assembly of the equipment was easy, it was a bit tedious to get onto the Internet from our old desktop computer. In fact, we would  need Professor Correa's colleague, Chris, to assist us to make sure that the equipment works as needed. This will hopefully be completed the next day.

-On Tuesday, 7/14, the team needed to manually spin the coil around from the old spool to the new spool. We also resumed the progress of figuring out the networking portion of our project after our lunch break. We were told that people from the IT department would come to the machine shop today to fix our problems.

Nicolette & Emily spinning the coil wire onto the spool

Nicolette & Professor Benjamin measuring the amount of Ohms in the wire

-However, Professor Correa's colleagues never came, and they promised us to come in the next day, 7/15. Moreover, we realized that not much progress was completed today. When we measured how many Ohms were in the copper wire using an Ammeter, we only measured 45.3-45.5 Ohms, rather than the 400-500 Ohms we actually needed.

-On Wednesday, 7/15, despite yesterday's setbacks, today was a much more successful day. Professor Sivo and Tamar quickly realized the miscommunication, as we apparently needed to spin the entire wire onto the new spool, also making sure that it was evened out as we spun it. Professor Sivo also told us that he had bought the wood for the new shed to be built, so Karina joined him to build this new shed to house the seismometers. We decided to go small with our dimensions, and to think about the multi-axis seismometer later on, as we cannot guarantee success with our current plans.

Eventually, after lunch, two people from IT came, but there was no luck. One of the IT advisors told us that he would talk to their supervisor, Ed, and tell Professor Correa what the next steps would be. 

Before we left for the day, we rechecked the amount of Ohms in the newly spun around coil wire. We saw the reading, which measured the wire to have 506 Ohms. We could not have been happier.

The Ammeter reading 506 Ohms

Professor Benjamin & Karina with the better result

Nevertheless, we realized that the magnetic damper also needed some attention. 

Karina and Tamar emailed Professor Balzarette, to make sure he would be in tomorrow, 7/16, to assist us in cutting the metal pieces to build the damper itself.

UPDATE (7/15): After the internship was over for the day, Professor Balzarette emailed Tamar, reminding Tamar and Karina to wear long pants for tomorrow's agenda in the machine shop.

-On Thursday, 7/16, the team focused on other priorities for STEM. Later on, in the afternoon, Tamar, Karina, and Emily joined Professor Balzarette in cutting the metal pieces for the magnetic damper. 

By the end of the day, Karina and Tamar successfully cut the leftover metal pieces from the base of the AS-1, drilled holes in the sheets, as well as cleaned them to prevent the sheets from rusting, as this may eventually affect the quality of the traces and proper detection.

See below images:

Karina & Professor Balzarette

Karina polishing metal pieces

On Monday, 7/20, the team built the other side of the shed to shelter the seismometer, the truss. Professor Balzarette had the copper paddle he promised us prepared, and stated that we must solder it onto the screw in order to prevent them from separating. We were going to glue the pieces together, but we realized that the glue would not be the best method for such a small surface area. We also got the two sides of the damper we had prepared last week, and spray painted them red. Eventually, Professor Sivo will buy more wood to connect all sides of the shed together.

On Tuesday, 7/21, the team continued building the shed, as we had some wood purchased from Home Depot. We also spray painted the second coat for the metal pieces, and let them dry. Today's agenda was cut short today because of the robotics presentation at 1pm. Tomorrow, we will continue working on the wood beams for the foundation of the shed.

See pictures below for more details:

The spray-painted metal pieces

Nikki and Professor Sivo slicing the wood

The base of the shed

On Wednesday, 7/22, the team turned to what they were mostly doing on Monday -- working on the magnetic damper. In the morning, Karina, Emily, and Tamar tried separating 4 neodymium magnets needed to work the magnetic damper itself. This was a bit tedious, but eventually, we managed to place those 4 magnets on the red plates. Later in the day, we thought we had a small setback: we did not make note of the material... whether if all these small screws and nuts had to be magnetic or non-magnetic. Eventually, we looked back at the instructions, and read that although the housing of the AS-1 is magnetic (for it to function properly), the blade and the brass bolt are not magnetic. Quickly afterwards, Karina and Tamar walked back to the STEM room to see if we even had the correct parts. By the end of the day, we saw that the only part that needed to be changed was the brass bolt. Karina was nice enough to eventually make the small slit on the new brass bolt we had, rather than the aluminum bolt we had slit previously. 
Nevertheless, Nikki, Emily, Tamar, and Professor Sivo worked on the housing portion of the project, cutting more wood with a miter saw.

Luis was of big help today. None of us knew how to cut the wood at an angle, and he was nice enough to teach it to us for future reference

Karina placing magnets on the red plates

Carlos using a drill

-As for tomorrow, we will take the brass bolt's head off. We will hopefully also place plywood on all sides of the newly built shed.

In science, when learning new things, it is important to be alert, and read all appropriate instructions that any kit or set of tools may come with.

UPDATE (7/22): The networking component of this project is not working out. After emailing the supervisor, with not much of an answer to be given back, our next step is to visit their office.

-On Thursday, 7/23, the team continued working on the shed. We put cross beams on the short sides and the roof. Also, Professor Sivo purchased some new plywood, wood filler, and glue to continue working on the shed next week.
As for the AS-1 assembly, Karina and Tamar decided to solder the copper paddle with the bolt so that we can make sure that they do not separate from each other after much use. Also, Karina and Tamar needed to cut the head off the bolt. We will later attach nuts to secure the bolt's long end from both ends on the AS-1 itself.

See below for pictures:

Soldering the copper paddle

Karina using the hacksaw

-On Monday, 7/27, the seismometer team worked on assembling all the parts that the members worked on for months. However, despite the successes we have had until now, the alignment of the coppered wire and spool were not centered precisely with respect to the magnet. After much thinking, the team decided to drill another hole on the opposite side of the spool. 

Moreover, Nicolette and Emily worked on the housing portion of the project. They made four corner braces, as well as measured the roof for the plywood placement.

Unfortunately, not much was done today. Karina and Tamar also had to work on the abstract for the conference being held on November 1-4, in Baltimore. Tamar also had other STEM priorities. Despite this, tomorrow will be a better day in getting things done.

UPDATE (7/28-8/5): Since the team has completed the assembly of the AS-1 (except for minor justifications of the screw terminal and the gluing of the gauge to the spool), Karina, Tamar, and Nicolette are now working on the abstract for the Baltimore conference.

UPDATE (8/6-8/10): During this time, the shed has completely been up to par. We have all the sides. We attached the back panel, and we glued and screwed them on. Moreover, the door from plywood was cut out, as well as the floor.