Open Source Underwater Distributed Sensor Network
Water quality monitoring is essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems. This is a project I'm working on right now, to put the clams to work!
The clams are being developed to sample water quality as they descend and ascend the water column using their bladders. In parallel their data could be used to generate 3D maps of water quality for threatened bays and estuaries. Especially in the face of climate change, it is important that we have a baseline of data, in order to identify new trends.
I'm starting to translate the design to be 3D printed, so it can be reproduced, instead of fabricating it in acrylic. I also need to layout a PCB, instead of free-form soldering the circuit. I make my own PCBs using the toner process, but it's really laborious, so I will look into other options for fabrication.
I'm also going to start experimenting with saturometers soon. My dad built saturometers when I was growing up, and I'm planning a visit back to New Haven soon. He still has several of them around and all the materials. I think it would be fun to do a project with him, so I'm looking forward to it.
I'm going to see if I can build them naturalistically. Essentially, I would use the same design, but just embed it within a siphon in the clam. Saturometers and other sensors need waterflow, so I want to design the adductor to pump the siphon.
I'll post more as I go along. Here's the project page on Hackaday: Open Source Underwater Distributed Sensor Network
