Nerds Without Borders - User contributions [en]

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2014-01-29T01:33:33Z

Chuck: /* Commercial Components */

Phase two is starting up.

==People==
*[[User:Dave]] -- Electrical engineering
*[[User:Sam]] -- Project manager / Software
*[[User:Tom]] -- Engineering support
*[[User:Eric]] -- Fundraising / Community liaison
*[[User:Chuck]] -- Documentation/fundraising
*VOLUNTEER NEEDED -- Web Design and data display

==Overview==
The plan for Phase Two is to create about 30 boards for installation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina during the Spring and Summer of 2013. The design is based around creating a custom processing mother board connected to an off-the-shelf telemetry board. This mother board is designed to be mass produced.

A second simpler version of the mother board is also be developed which connects to two off-the-shelf boards (one for low power computing and the other for telemetry). Every thing on the mother board will have through-hole components to make the board as easy as possible to assemble a single unit. The idea is to have a set of instructions on this web-site which will allow anyone who can do basic soldering to order the parts (from the manufacturers) and quickly assemble a board, install it on a nest (with approval of the appropriate agencies) to communicate with a website we will construct to monitor and collect the data from the nests.

==Organization==
Organization of the Sea Turtle project proceeds through informal discussions between the 5 scientists involved. Decisions as to priorities, division of labor, resources and strategies come from these discussions which may be conference calls involving all members or smaller discussions with only two or three of the scientists involved. The latter may involve topics such as probe design and construction, trouble shooting of current prototypes, and device improvements. Important decisions involve a consensus of the group.

===Conference Call Summary Oct 18, 2013 ===
Participants Tom, Sam, Dave, Eric and Chuck. The agenda had 10 items, and the important items are summarized on this page. The complete minutes can be found [[Turtle Sense/Minutes of conference call 10-18-2013|here]]. We need at least $15k for hardware for the 30 projected units, based on current designs. It appears that the National Park Service will have $50k/year for this project which might be utilized in 2014. Eric's proposal to NC Coastal Recreational Fishing License Fund (BBAFF proposal) may provide funding in 2015; total funds requested (including some labor) are $100k.

Web support, especially the Nerds Without Borders Wiki (Sam developing and coordinating) received extensive discussion. It is proposed as an open source site which covers our progress, what we've developed and learned, and, ultimately, what we consider to be best practices. It is hoped it will become a reference site for workers in the field. A topic of considerable discussion was whether in addition to the public section there would be need for a private section for those primarily involved in the project. Such a section may be needed for legal interactions with future partners. This item was unresolved.

Engineering design changes for version two were discussed by Sam and Tom. Sam reported he'd found some volunteers who were interested in working on a radio version, including prototypes. Design of a prototype is under discussion.

Funding through a Crowd funding source (CrowdRise) was discussed (Chuck coordinating). These require careful preparation, hopefully with a well-advertised buildup to an event with subsequent follow-through. It is important to have feedback to donors, from "swag" to online stroking. Overall it may be beyond our current resources and progress, but might be reconsidered if the project has successes in predicting hatching dates.

Discussions of division of labor resulted in: Eric (Hatteras Island Ocean Center non profit; interface with National Park Service including on-site actions; interface with other turtle groups). Dave/Sam (engineering/electronic communications). Tom (probe design/implementation). Chuck (admin, funding, searches for other turtle groups).

== Engineering ==
===Components===
====Commercial Components====
Commercial sources of components

There are no packaged, complete devices available commercially which satisfy the needs of the Turtle Sense devices. The biggest limitation for our applications of these General Radio Packet Service (GPRS) devices is size with a major constraint being compatability with US Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) systems (ATT and Verizon). There are commercial low power GPRS data loggers available, usually packaged for environmental monitoring, but with sizes too large for the Turtle Sense requirements. A filtered web search produced the list below. Once we had a contact in either sales, marketing, or service, we asked the following general inquiries:

I’d like some specific information on your devices
1. Are they compatible with US GSM systems (i.e. ATT, Verizon)? If so, do you have customers in the US we could contact?

2. Do you have a technical support group we could contact (email and/or phone)?

3. Do you have power pack options? If so, at what cost?

4. Is your software for sale without the customer purchasing the device? If so, what is the cost?

5. What is the pricing of your system
-for 1 device
-for 30 devices

6. What is your delivery time?

EnviroWatch Remote Telemetry, Kelowna, BC
Canada, V1Y 7T2
(http://www.romcomm.com/EnviroWatch.html
This company has an extended line of environmental monitoring equipment, typically dealing with energy companies. Very well tested but expensive for our purposes—components $1600 for example

3GTrack, Hong Kong
This is one of several companies in Hong Kong returned by a search on Alibaba. These seemed to be interrelated (Sirius, Legato, and others) Some used the 3gtrack website for their technical information. 3Gtrack was the only one that had a web site for technical information and they were prompt in their responses, so we have dealt more with them.

From: 3G - Daniel <daniel@3gtrack.com>
To: 'Charles Wade' <cwade13@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 10:47 PM
Subject: RE: Low power GPRS data logger

Dear Sir,

Thanks.
We have been selling our GPRS products to US for more than 5 years.
It is integrated with GSM Quad Band module working worldwide including US and Canada.

GS828-L2 “Low Power GPRS Data Logger”
1 unit @USD330
30 units @USD300

Lead Time: within 14 days upon receipt of payment
Payment: T/T in advance
Warranty: 3 years

Setup Software is bundled free.
Ultimate Server Client Software: USD2200

Best Regards
Daniel R.
daniel@3gtrack.com

====Turtle egg sensor====
This would be unchanged from the phase one design that uses plastic ping-pong balls (not good ping-pong balls, but cheap plastic knock offs) and a temperature/motion sensor pre-installed on a small circuit board ([https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11446 Qty 1 Price=$14.95]). Assembly involves cutting a small slot in a ball, putting in some silicone caulk, inserting a sensor board attached to a cable into the caulk, and then filling the rest of the ball with caulk. A ball cut in half covers the slot and makes a thorough seal with the silicone.

====Mother board====
We are creating two prototypes of the mother board. One will have through-hole components and the second has primarily surface-mounted parts. The through-hole hole mother board has headers for attaching a pre-fabricated processing board based on the [http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/16-bit_msp430/overview.page TI MSP430 CPU] and another two rows of headers for a prefabricated telemetry board. The surface-mount board only has headers for the telemetry board. The circuitry on the pre-fabricated processing board is duplicated almost exactly on the surface mount boards. Both boards are functionally equivalent and will operate identically with the same software.

By creating two versions of the mother board, we can make the design useful to more people, and ultimately help protect more turtles. The through-hole board is easy to assemble for anyone with basic electronic soldering experience (think hacker space events and high schoolers). The surface mount board is designed for mass production and is very difficult to assemble without expert soldering skills and magnification because the parts are much smaller, there are many more of them (because it does not use the prefabricated processor board) and surface mounted parts are not designed for hand assembly. The surface-mount board is therefore optimized for automated production in larger quantities. In large quantities the cost of components and assembly is competitive with the cost of just the components of the through-hole board. While the design of the surface mount board is much more complicated than the through-hole board, it solves the problem of having to find volunteer labor for assembly.

While both the telemetry and processing boards already have their own power regulators built in, but there needs to be an additional power regulator for the telemetry board on the mother board to regulate battery power down to the voltage required by the telemetry board. The power regulator for the telemetry board can be totally powered down most of the time, and then powered up when data needs to be uploaded (typically just once a day). This greatly reduces the power requirements of the unit. Depending upon how frequently data is uploaded, the units will operate for many months on a single battery charge. The surface-mount board has two power supplies, one for the telemetry board and the other for the micro-processor.

The custom circuit boards are 2.5 inches by 3.8 inches. Three of these boards can be purchased for as little as $51 plus shipping. For larger production runs the price would be much less per unit (about $5 each for a run of 100 including shipping). Other components on the board total between $15 (surface mount) to $22 (through hole). The through hole board also needs a processing board which adds about $18. The $25 savings in parts for the surface mount board is about the same as the cost of having it assembled. The total cost per board is about $40 either way.

====Processing board====
For the through-hole board we usea pre-assembled processing board made by Oilmex Ltd, that is based on the the ultra-low-power [http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/16-bit_msp430/overview.page MSP430FR5739 processor by Texas Instruments]. The [https://www.olimex.com/Products/MSP430/Header/MSP430-HFR5739/ MSP430-HFR5739 board] has all the essential components needed. There is a header on the board for easy programming, and a connector which we can use for plugging in the cable to the turtle egg sensor. The MSP430FR5739 CPU has 16K Bytes program FRAM, 1024 Bytes SRAM, 10-bit A/D converter, 16-channel comparator with voltage reference generation and hysteresis capabilities which we can use for monitoring the battery voltage, three enhanced serial channels (capable of I2C, SPI, or UART protocols), hardware multiplier, real-time clock, five 16-bit timers, and more. The board also has power supply filtering capacitor and a 3.3V voltage regulator. There are two rows of headers for each pin of the microprocessor which we will use to plug this board into the mother board. The dimension of the board is 2.15" × 1.10". The boards cost only $18.13 qty 1 and are [http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?products_id=5413 available from microcontrollershop.com].

The circuitry on the processing board is duplicated on our surface mount board almost exactly. The only difference is we have omitted one auxiliary button which we do not need.

====Telemetry board====
We plan on using [http://www.janus-rc.com/terminuscf.html plug in Terminus boards] made by Janus. The Janus GSM865CF v1.1 GSM/GPRS Modem with GPS works with AT&T and T-mobile. For Verizon we can use the CDMA864CF v3.0. The boards are interchangeable and will plug into our motherboard. The cost is roughly $140 qty 1 and are [http://www.janus-rc.com/terminuscf.htmlavailable from the manufacturer, Janus].

====Other components====
The only other components necessary are the cable and connector for the turtle egg sensor (a couple of bucks at most), an antenna for the telemetry board (GSM and GPS), which costs about $20 (perhaps more if reception is a problem). The units should operate for roughly 4 months running on 4 or 8 low self-discharge NiMH Batteries. The batteries and holder (TBD) cost about $25. Also, anyone creating these devices will need the hardware necessary for programming the microprocessor (more about this later).

The hardware cost of the electronics is about $250 per unit after start up expenses, and not counting telephony charges, taxes and shipping.

====Parts list====

===Schematic and Board design===
===Microprocessor Programming===
===Board Assembly===

==Web development==

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2014-01-29T01:31:27Z

Chuck: /* Components */

Phase two is starting up.

==People==
*[[User:Dave]] -- Electrical engineering
*[[User:Sam]] -- Project manager / Software
*[[User:Tom]] -- Engineering support
*[[User:Eric]] -- Fundraising / Community liaison
*[[User:Chuck]] -- Documentation/fundraising
*VOLUNTEER NEEDED -- Web Design and data display

==Overview==
The plan for Phase Two is to create about 30 boards for installation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina during the Spring and Summer of 2013. The design is based around creating a custom processing mother board connected to an off-the-shelf telemetry board. This mother board is designed to be mass produced.

A second simpler version of the mother board is also be developed which connects to two off-the-shelf boards (one for low power computing and the other for telemetry). Every thing on the mother board will have through-hole components to make the board as easy as possible to assemble a single unit. The idea is to have a set of instructions on this web-site which will allow anyone who can do basic soldering to order the parts (from the manufacturers) and quickly assemble a board, install it on a nest (with approval of the appropriate agencies) to communicate with a website we will construct to monitor and collect the data from the nests.

==Organization==
Organization of the Sea Turtle project proceeds through informal discussions between the 5 scientists involved. Decisions as to priorities, division of labor, resources and strategies come from these discussions which may be conference calls involving all members or smaller discussions with only two or three of the scientists involved. The latter may involve topics such as probe design and construction, trouble shooting of current prototypes, and device improvements. Important decisions involve a consensus of the group.

===Conference Call Summary Oct 18, 2013 ===
Participants Tom, Sam, Dave, Eric and Chuck. The agenda had 10 items, and the important items are summarized on this page. The complete minutes can be found [[Turtle Sense/Minutes of conference call 10-18-2013|here]]. We need at least $15k for hardware for the 30 projected units, based on current designs. It appears that the National Park Service will have $50k/year for this project which might be utilized in 2014. Eric's proposal to NC Coastal Recreational Fishing License Fund (BBAFF proposal) may provide funding in 2015; total funds requested (including some labor) are $100k.

Web support, especially the Nerds Without Borders Wiki (Sam developing and coordinating) received extensive discussion. It is proposed as an open source site which covers our progress, what we've developed and learned, and, ultimately, what we consider to be best practices. It is hoped it will become a reference site for workers in the field. A topic of considerable discussion was whether in addition to the public section there would be need for a private section for those primarily involved in the project. Such a section may be needed for legal interactions with future partners. This item was unresolved.

Engineering design changes for version two were discussed by Sam and Tom. Sam reported he'd found some volunteers who were interested in working on a radio version, including prototypes. Design of a prototype is under discussion.

Funding through a Crowd funding source (CrowdRise) was discussed (Chuck coordinating). These require careful preparation, hopefully with a well-advertised buildup to an event with subsequent follow-through. It is important to have feedback to donors, from "swag" to online stroking. Overall it may be beyond our current resources and progress, but might be reconsidered if the project has successes in predicting hatching dates.

Discussions of division of labor resulted in: Eric (Hatteras Island Ocean Center non profit; interface with National Park Service including on-site actions; interface with other turtle groups). Dave/Sam (engineering/electronic communications). Tom (probe design/implementation). Chuck (admin, funding, searches for other turtle groups).

== Engineering ==
===Components===
====Commercial Components====

====Turtle egg sensor====
This would be unchanged from the phase one design that uses plastic ping-pong balls (not good ping-pong balls, but cheap plastic knock offs) and a temperature/motion sensor pre-installed on a small circuit board ([https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11446 Qty 1 Price=$14.95]). Assembly involves cutting a small slot in a ball, putting in some silicone caulk, inserting a sensor board attached to a cable into the caulk, and then filling the rest of the ball with caulk. A ball cut in half covers the slot and makes a thorough seal with the silicone.

====Mother board====
We are creating two prototypes of the mother board. One will have through-hole components and the second has primarily surface-mounted parts. The through-hole hole mother board has headers for attaching a pre-fabricated processing board based on the [http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/16-bit_msp430/overview.page TI MSP430 CPU] and another two rows of headers for a prefabricated telemetry board. The surface-mount board only has headers for the telemetry board. The circuitry on the pre-fabricated processing board is duplicated almost exactly on the surface mount boards. Both boards are functionally equivalent and will operate identically with the same software.

By creating two versions of the mother board, we can make the design useful to more people, and ultimately help protect more turtles. The through-hole board is easy to assemble for anyone with basic electronic soldering experience (think hacker space events and high schoolers). The surface mount board is designed for mass production and is very difficult to assemble without expert soldering skills and magnification because the parts are much smaller, there are many more of them (because it does not use the prefabricated processor board) and surface mounted parts are not designed for hand assembly. The surface-mount board is therefore optimized for automated production in larger quantities. In large quantities the cost of components and assembly is competitive with the cost of just the components of the through-hole board. While the design of the surface mount board is much more complicated than the through-hole board, it solves the problem of having to find volunteer labor for assembly.

While both the telemetry and processing boards already have their own power regulators built in, but there needs to be an additional power regulator for the telemetry board on the mother board to regulate battery power down to the voltage required by the telemetry board. The power regulator for the telemetry board can be totally powered down most of the time, and then powered up when data needs to be uploaded (typically just once a day). This greatly reduces the power requirements of the unit. Depending upon how frequently data is uploaded, the units will operate for many months on a single battery charge. The surface-mount board has two power supplies, one for the telemetry board and the other for the micro-processor.

The custom circuit boards are 2.5 inches by 3.8 inches. Three of these boards can be purchased for as little as $51 plus shipping. For larger production runs the price would be much less per unit (about $5 each for a run of 100 including shipping). Other components on the board total between $15 (surface mount) to $22 (through hole). The through hole board also needs a processing board which adds about $18. The $25 savings in parts for the surface mount board is about the same as the cost of having it assembled. The total cost per board is about $40 either way.

====Processing board====
For the through-hole board we usea pre-assembled processing board made by Oilmex Ltd, that is based on the the ultra-low-power [http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/16-bit_msp430/overview.page MSP430FR5739 processor by Texas Instruments]. The [https://www.olimex.com/Products/MSP430/Header/MSP430-HFR5739/ MSP430-HFR5739 board] has all the essential components needed. There is a header on the board for easy programming, and a connector which we can use for plugging in the cable to the turtle egg sensor. The MSP430FR5739 CPU has 16K Bytes program FRAM, 1024 Bytes SRAM, 10-bit A/D converter, 16-channel comparator with voltage reference generation and hysteresis capabilities which we can use for monitoring the battery voltage, three enhanced serial channels (capable of I2C, SPI, or UART protocols), hardware multiplier, real-time clock, five 16-bit timers, and more. The board also has power supply filtering capacitor and a 3.3V voltage regulator. There are two rows of headers for each pin of the microprocessor which we will use to plug this board into the mother board. The dimension of the board is 2.15" × 1.10". The boards cost only $18.13 qty 1 and are [http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?products_id=5413 available from microcontrollershop.com].

The circuitry on the processing board is duplicated on our surface mount board almost exactly. The only difference is we have omitted one auxiliary button which we do not need.

====Telemetry board====
We plan on using [http://www.janus-rc.com/terminuscf.html plug in Terminus boards] made by Janus. The Janus GSM865CF v1.1 GSM/GPRS Modem with GPS works with AT&T and T-mobile. For Verizon we can use the CDMA864CF v3.0. The boards are interchangeable and will plug into our motherboard. The cost is roughly $140 qty 1 and are [http://www.janus-rc.com/terminuscf.htmlavailable from the manufacturer, Janus].

====Other components====
The only other components necessary are the cable and connector for the turtle egg sensor (a couple of bucks at most), an antenna for the telemetry board (GSM and GPS), which costs about $20 (perhaps more if reception is a problem). The units should operate for roughly 4 months running on 4 or 8 low self-discharge NiMH Batteries. The batteries and holder (TBD) cost about $25. Also, anyone creating these devices will need the hardware necessary for programming the microprocessor (more about this later).

The hardware cost of the electronics is about $250 per unit after start up expenses, and not counting telephony charges, taxes and shipping.

====Parts list====

===Schematic and Board design===
===Microprocessor Programming===
===Board Assembly===

==Web development==

Turtle Sense/Minutes of conference call 10-18-2013

2013-12-14T20:42:03Z

Chuck:

Participants: Tom Zimmerman, Sam Wantman, Dave Hermeyer, Eric Kaplan, Charles Wade
===AGENDA===

Intro: Tom gave a brief introduction of Chuck (present for first time). Chuck had sent email items prior to phone conference.

====1. Finances.====
It appears we need at least $15k for 30 units. Eric: NPS will do $50k/year for awhile. They now derive revenue from charges to drive on beach which may be the fund source. Available 2014 (Eric to follow up)? If so, this may cover our expenses next year?

====2. Other Cities/Areas?====
Alabama-NASA engineer. Backend project perhaps for BBAFF proposal (Kaplan) for NC Coastal Recreational Fishing License Fund. Put eggs in cages?

Bald Head Island, NC. Large organization with strong funding

Audubon Voyager?

====3. Web support====
Sam: SF person developing mapping for satellite data, sent over internet, which might be useful.

Sam developing Nerd without Borders WIKI. Strong arguments for open source site which covers what we’ve developed/learned. Should cover such as teaching (best practices), devices, design experiences.

Long discussion on whether in addition to the public section there should be a private section (just this group). Private may be needed for legal interactions with future partners. Issue not resolved.

====4. Engineering team, version 2====
Sam and Tom. Discussion as to changes coming. Comments on need for a time line.

====5. Radio version====
Sam has found volunteers who will possibly create this and perhaps assemble as well. Looking for inexpensive design

====6. Funding====
Crowd funding. Chuck suggested CrowdRise. Sam has done two of these, noted they are a lot of work and require well-advertised buildup to an event with subsequent follow thru. Would require swag and effective donor stroking/communication. May be beyond our resources. Correct timing and correct dollar goals are critical if we proceed.

Eric: In NC Coastal Fishing grant proposal (Would be summer 2015 money). $100k in budget. Grant station, Center for Non-profit Excellence (Charlottesville, VA high schoolers working on proposals)?

DECA marketing programs?

Paradox: environmentalists and the “drive on beach” interests have a common goal in reducing the time needed for path to beach.

====7. Other Groups with related goals====
Seaturtlehospital.org (Karen Beasley center, topsail island)
Lew Browning (associated with Beasley?
SeaTurtleConservancy.org

Many web sites.

====8. Possible Swag====
List from Sam and Tom: Pool on hatching date; pool on tagged female turtles (GPS) return date for nesting. More??

====9. Division of labor====
Eric: involvement of Hatteras Island Ocean Center non-profit; interface with NPS including actions at nest sites; interface with turtle groups., esp North Carolina

Dave/Sam: Engineering/electronic communications

Tom: Probe device design/construction

Chuck: admin, funding, searches for effective turtle web sites

====10. Tom IBM availability.====
Percentage of time he can devote to this is set by IBM management policy.

Turtle Sense/People

2013-12-14T20:20:39Z

Chuck: /* Volunteers */

==Volunteers==
* Thomas Zimmerman [[User:Tom]], Engineering -- Phase One and Two
* Samuel Wantman [[User:Sam]], Project management, Wiki (nerdswithoutborders.net), Volunteer coordination, Phase Two software
* Eric Kaplan [[User:Eric]], Non-profit issues, Finances, Fundraising, National Park Service interface, Public relations, Liason with other turtle organizations, Catch-all
* David Hermeyer [[User:Dave]], Phase Two hardware
* Charles Wade [[User:Chuck]], Working with Eric on fund raising, checking other groups (top sail island), notes recorder
* Lou Browning -- Phase One deployment, acoustic research

==Consultants==
* Robert Harris -- Data Visualization -- [http://www.trebor.org/static/earthquake.html An example of his work using earthquake data]
* Derek Pearcy -- Web data transmission
* Mitch Altman -- Hacking community interface, production advisor

==Other Volunteers==
If you would like to help with this project, create an account and then add a link to your user page below.

Chuck pre-call email on possible resources

2013-12-14T20:14:36Z

Chuck: Created page with " Chuck email on possible resources prior to conference call: Sea Turtles 10-16-2013 Some topics for discussion on conference call 10-18-2013 Tom, Eric, Sam Hi. I’ve bee..."

Chuck email on possible resources prior to conference call:

Sea Turtles 10-16-2013
Some topics for discussion on conference call 10-18-2013

Tom, Eric, Sam

Hi. I’ve been doing work mostly in background and wanted to ship this before our conference call. I’ve been working mostly on possible funding and volunteer resources while trying to educate myself on the projects. I had a nice discussion with Tom today so I’ve learned a bit more about the interactions in the group.

Some topics for information or possibly discussion. Note that I have not acted on any of these.

Possible funding- -especially for support for Summer 2013 devices
I can do the work on these but will need some technical backup info on the projects and on turtle behavior plus general ideas of where you wish to focus and what the budget amounts would be.

1. I found an appealing website, www.crowdrise.org, which we might use. It was described in a Forbes article (Top 10 Crowdfunding ..” ) as a “do gooders site”. They have a very engaging style, which among other things says
“CrowdRise is a crowdfunding platform for good. CrowdRise is about raising money for amazing causes and having the most fun in the world while doing it. CrowdRise is the official fundraising partner of the New York Marathon, Chicago Marathon and thousands of other events. The world's finest charities, such as Stand Up to Cancer, Robin Hood, American Red Cross, and the Clinton Global Initiative all choose CrowdRise for online fundraising. CrowdRise was named a Top 25 Global Philanthropist by Barron's, the most innovative fundraising platform by Mashable, and was nominated for a Webby for Best Philanthropic Website. Besides that, CrowdRise isn't that great.

They have the Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club foundation as active sites plus hundreds of other organizations (small and large). Charges seem to be a flat 3% of the transactions plus a 2.9% credit card processing fee. May be different if we go in as a charity (Eric’s?). Money can go to local charities (Eric’s ?). with easy access They walk you thru the enrollment and website process it seems but it would help to have artistic website expertise involved. Writeups are short. Their terms and conditions package is about 10 pages long from, as they put it, “our mean lawyer”-- which I haven’t digested

I’ve never worked with one of these, but obviously the goal is to somehow have enough publicity so people know about it . (bit more below under Other Resources). It is good to have a feedback of some type (small plastic turtles? T shirts?) Donor names can be listed plus they have a system of award heroes depending on how much is raised. Tom and I briefly discussed perhaps using SeaTurtle.org to positive effect for donors?

2. IBM On Demand Community. Internal corporate site, funds open about March, up to 2 K or so with minimal bureaucracy and quick decisions. An hour or less to do the proposal. Funds go to a charity (at least the many I’ve done). Rules change a bit year to year but bigger funds possible if lots of IBMers involved (will be easy to get, probably).

3. IBM IVOC grant—within Almaden, perhaps $1200, may be able to get a bit this year. They balance demands/vs. money in the pot.

Other Resources—haphazard order

In casual conversations, I’ve found the interest in this project to be very high.

a. Publicity: we can get some informal help and suggestions from IBM communications but they have to be very careful about corporate commitments in the government/political arena. We have two such experts in Almaden and one of my friends lauded the wife of one of them (she’s not an IBMer) who helped his high school robotics program get PR and perhaps some funding. Mike Ross, a scientist and former IBM communications person, now an independent writer, would help also I’m certain.
b. UC Santa Cruz has a class/department on Wildlife Illustration. They also have a well known technical writing master’s program. Perhaps we can seed something there.?
c. MIT has a January undergrad research period for undergrads that has an internal funding source…and they are pushing that program. No doubt other schools have something similar. Perhaps get seed funding there?
d. In casual conversations (part of the basis for my comment on the interest)
*one of my friends volunteered that his son has an advertising company and might be interested in doing pro-bono web and advertising
*one of the Almaden postdocs at lunch got very excited—he’s interested in turtles of all types, wants to send me lists of organizations, would like the project to extend to other turtles besides those in NC.
*a local author of children’s books knows good illustrators who might be interested
*my son is starting an online business and has sampled website designers in San Luis Obispo, CA—college town, and no doubt some of these would love to have their name on a worthwhile project. Ditto Silicon Valley?

Organization
In my discussion with Tom today I suggested he shift to me his admin work, from scheduling conference calls to whatever else. I can give it priority, and he should have as much time as possible on version 2 or 3 or whatever—just a thought. Maybe there are other ways I could help.

Cheers, chuck

Turtle Sense/Minutes of conference call 10-18-2013

2013-12-14T20:12:28Z

Chuck: Created page with "Participants: Tom Zimmerman, Sam Wantman, Dave Hermeyer, Eric Kaplan, Charles Wade ===AGENDA=== Intro: Tom gave a brief introduction of Chuck (present for first time). C..."

Participants: Tom Zimmerman, Sam Wantman, Dave Hermeyer, Eric Kaplan, Charles Wade
===AGENDA===

Intro: Tom gave a brief introduction of Chuck (present for first time). Chuck had sent email items prior to phone conference [[Chuck pre-call email on possible resources]]

====1. Finances.====
It appears we need at least $15k for 30 units. Eric: NPS will do $50k/year for awhile. They now derive revenue from charges to drive on beach which may be the fund source. Available 2014 (Eric to follow up)? If so, this may cover our expenses next year?

====2. Other Cities/Areas?====
Alabama-NASA engineer. Backend project perhaps for BBAFF proposal (Kaplan) for NC Coastal Recreational Fishing License Fund. Put eggs in cages?

Bald Head Island, NC. Large organization with strong funding

Audubon Voyager?

====3. Web support====
Sam: SF person developing mapping for satellite data, sent over internet, which might be useful.

Sam developing Nerd without Borders WIKI. Strong arguments for open source site which covers what we’ve developed/learned. Should cover such as teaching (best practices), devices, design experiences.

Long discussion on whether in addition to the public section there should be a private section (just this group). Private may be needed for legal interactions with future partners. Issue not resolved.

====4. Engineering team, version 2====
Sam and Tom. Discussion as to changes coming. Comments on need for a time line.

====5. Radio version====
Sam has found volunteers who will possibly create this and perhaps assemble as well. Looking for inexpensive design

====6. Funding====
Crowd funding (Wade suggestion attached). Sam has done two of these, noted they are a lot of work and require well-advertised buildup to an event with subsequent follow thru. Would require swag and effective donor stroking/communication. May be beyond our resources. Correct timing and correct dollar goals are critical if we proceed.

Eric: In NC Coastal Fishing grant proposal (Would be summer 2015 money). $100k in budget. Grant station, Center for Non-profit Excellence (Charlottesville, VA high schoolers working on proposals)?

DECA marketing programs?

Paradox: environmentalists and the “drive on beach” interests have a common goal in reducing the time needed for path to beach.

====7. Other Groups with related goals====
Seaturtlehospital.org (Karen Beasley center, topsail island)
Lew Browning (associated with Beasley?
SeaTurtleConservancy.org

Many web sites.

====8. Possible Swag====
List from Sam and Tom: Pool on hatching date; pool on tagged female turtles (GPS) return date for nesting. More??

====9. Division of labor====
Eric: involvement of Hatteras Island Ocean Center non-profit; interface with NPS including actions at nest sites; interface with turtle groups., esp North Carolina

Dave/Sam: Engineering/electronic communications

Tom: Probe device design/construction

Chuck: admin, funding, searches for effective turtle web sites

====10. Tom IBM availability.====
Percentage of time he can devote to this is set by IBM management policy.

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2013-12-14T20:05:18Z

Chuck: /* Organization */

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2013-12-12T01:19:39Z

Chuck:

Phase two is starting up.

==People==
*[[User:Dave]] -- Electrical engineering
*[[User:Sam]] -- Project manager / Software
*[[User:Tom]] -- Engineering support
*[[User:Eric]] -- Fundraising / Community liaison
*[[User:Chuck]] -- Documentation/fundraising
*VOLUNTEER NEEDED -- Web Design and data display

==Overview==
The plan for Phase Two is to create about 30 boards for installation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina during the Spring and Summer of 2013. The design is based around creating a sandwich of off the shelf boards (one for low power computing and the other for telemetry). Both of these boards will be plugged into headers on a custom mother board we will design. Every thing on the mother board will have through-hole components to make the board as easy as possible to assemble. The idea is to have a set of instructions on this web-site which will allow anyone who can do basic soldering to order the parts (from the manufacturers) and quickly assemble a board, install it on a nest (with approval of the appropriate agencies) to communicate with a website we will construct to monitor and collect the data from the nests.

==Organization==
'''Conference Call Sea Turtle Project Oct 18, 2013 2:15 pm Pacific time.'''
Free Conference Call 213 493-0700, then 346192#

Participants: Tom Zimmerman (tzim@us.ibm.com), Sam Waltman (sam@waltman.net), Dave Hermeyer (dave@hermeyer.us); Eric Kaplan (ekaplan@hiocenter.org). Charles Wade (cwade@yahoo.com)

AGENDA

Intro: Zimmerman, brief introduction of Wade (present for first time). Wade had sent email items prior to phone conference (attached).

1. Finances.
It appears we need at least $15k for 30 units. Eric: NPS will do $50k/year for awhile. They now derive revenue from charges to drive on beach which may be the fund source. Available 2014 (Eric to follow up)? If so, this may cover our expenses next year?

2. Other Cities/Areas?
Alabama-NASA engineer. Backend project perhaps for BBAFF proposal (Kaplan) for NC Coastal Recreational Fishing License Fund. Put eggs in cages?

Bald Head Island, NC. Large organization with strong funding

Audubon Voyager?

3. Web support
Sam: SF person develop9ng mapping for satellite data, sent over internet, which might be useful.

Sam developing Nerd without Borders WIKI. Strong arguments for open source site which covers what we’ve developed/learned. Should cover such as teaching (best practices), devices, design experiences.

Long discussion on whether in addition to the public section there should be a private section (just this group). Private may be needed for legal interactions with future partners. Issue not resolved.

4. Engineering team, version 2
Sam and Tom. Discussion as to changes coming. Comments on need for a time line.

5. Radio version
Sam has found volunteers who will possibly create this and perhaps assemble as well. Looking for inexpensive design

6. Funding
Crowd funding (Wade suggestion attached). Sam has done two of these, noted they are a lot of work and require well-advertised buildup to an event with subsequent follow thru. Would require swag and effective donor stroking/communication. May be beyond our resources. Correct timing and correct dollar goals are critical if we proceed.

Eric: In NC Coastal Fishing grant proposal (Would be summer 2015 money). $100k in budget. Grant station, Center for Non-profit Excellence (Charlottesville, VA high schoolers working on proposals)?

DECA marketing programs?

Paradox: environmentalists and the “drive on beach” interests have a common goal in reducing the time needed for path to beach.

7. Other Groups with related goals
Seaturtlehospital.org (Karen Beasley center, topsail island)
Lew Browning (associated with Beasley?
SeaTurtleConservancy.org

Many web sites.

8. Possible Swag
List from Sam and Tom: Pool on hatching date; pool on tagged female turtles (GPS) return date for nesting. More??

9. Division of labor
Eric: involvement of Hatteras Island Ocean Center non-profit; interface with NPS including actions at nest sites; interface with turtle groups., esp North Carolina

Dave/Sam: Engineering/electronic communications

Tom: Probe device design/construction

Chuck: admin, funding, searches for effective turtle web sites

10. Tom IBM availability.
Percentage of time he can devote to this is set by IBM management policy.

Information distributed prior to conference call:

Sea Turtles 10-16-2013
Some topics for discussion on conference call 10-18-2013

Tom, Eric, Sam

Hi. I’ve been doing work mostly in background and wanted to ship this before our conference call. I’ve been working mostly on possible funding and volunteer resources while trying to educate myself on the projects. I had a nice discussion with Tom today so I’ve learned a bit more about the interactions in the group.

Some topics for information or possibly discussion. Note that I have not acted on any of these.

Possible funding- -especially for support for Summer 2013 devices
I can do the work on these but will need some technical backup info on the projects and on turtle behavior plus general ideas of where you wish to focus and what the budget amounts would be.

1. I found an appealing website, www.crowdrise.org, which we might use. It was described in a Forbes article (Top 10 Crowdfunding ..” ) as a “do gooders site”. They have a very engaging style, which among other things says
“CrowdRise is a crowdfunding platform for good. CrowdRise is about raising money for amazing causes and having the most fun in the world while doing it. CrowdRise is the official fundraising partner of the New York Marathon, Chicago Marathon and thousands of other events. The world's finest charities, such as Stand Up to Cancer, Robin Hood, American Red Cross, and the Clinton Global Initiative all choose CrowdRise for online fundraising. CrowdRise was named a Top 25 Global Philanthropist by Barron's, the most innovative fundraising platform by Mashable, and was nominated for a Webby for Best Philanthropic Website. Besides that, CrowdRise isn't that great.

They have the Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club foundation as active sites plus hundreds of other organizations (small and large). Charges seem to be a flat 3% of the transactions plus a 2.9% credit card processing fee. May be different if we go in as a charity (Eric’s?). Money can go to local charities (Eric’s ?). with easy access They walk you thru the enrollment and website process it seems but it would help to have artistic website expertise involved. Writeups are short. Their terms and conditions package is about 10 pages long from, as they put it, “our mean lawyer”-- which I haven’t digested

I’ve never worked with one of these, but obviously the goal is to somehow have enough publicity so people know about it . (bit more below under Other Resources). It is good to have a feedback of some type (small plastic turtles? T shirts?) Donor names can be listed plus they have a system of award heroes depending on how much is raised. Tom and I briefly discussed perhaps using SeaTurtle.org to positive effect for donors?

2. IBM On Demand Community. Internal corporate site, funds open about March, up to 2 K or so with minimal bureaucracy and quick decisions. An hour or less to do the proposal. Funds go to a charity (at least the many I’ve done). Rules change a bit year to year but bigger funds possible if lots of IBMers involved (will be easy to get, probably).

3. IBM IVOC grant—within Almaden, perhaps $1200, may be able to get a bit this year. They balance demands/vs. money in the pot.

Other Resources—haphazard order

In casual conversations, I’ve found the interest in this project to be very high.

a. Publicity: we can get some informal help and suggestions from IBM communications but they have to be very careful about corporate commitments in the government/political arena. We have two such experts in Almaden and one of my friends lauded the wife of one of them (she’s not an IBMer) who helped his high school robotics program get PR and perhaps some funding. Mike Ross, a scientist and former IBM communications person, now an independent writer, would help also I’m certain.
b. UC Santa Cruz has a class/department on Wildlife Illustration. They also have a well known technical writing master’s program. Perhaps we can seed something there.?
c. MIT has a January undergrad research period for undergrads that has an internal funding source…and they are pushing that program. No doubt other schools have something similar. Perhaps get seed funding there?
d. In casual conversations (part of the basis for my comment on the interest)
-one of my friends volunteered that his son has an advertising company and might be interested in doing pro-bono web and advertising
-one of the Almaden postdocs at lunch got very excited—he’s interested in turtles of all types, wants to send me lists of organizations, would like the project to extend to other turtles besides those in NC.
-a local author of children’s books knows good illustrators who might be interested
-my son is starting an online business and has sampled website designers in San Luis Obispo, CA—college town, and no doubt some of these would love to have their name on a worthwhile project. Ditto Silicon Valley?

Organization
In my discussion with Tom today I suggested he shift to me his admin work, from scheduling conference calls to whatever else. I can give it priority, and he should have as much time as possible on version 2 or 3 or whatever—just a thought. Maybe there are other ways I could help.

Cheers, chuck

== Engineering ==
===Components===
====Turtle egg sensor====
This would be unchanged from the phase one design that uses plastic ping-pong balls (not good ping-pong balls, but cheap plastic knock offs) and a temperature/motion sensor pre-installed on a small circuit board ([https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11446 Qty 1 Price=$14.95]). Assembly involves cutting a small slot in a ball, putting in some silicone caulk, inserting a sensor board attached to a cable into the caulk, and then filling the rest of the ball with caulk. A ball cut in half covers the slot and makes a thorough seal with the silicone.

====Mother board====
The mother board will be custom made and have two rows of headers for attaching a pre-fabricated processing board based on the [http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/16-bit_msp430/overview.page TI MSP430 CPU] and another two rows of headers for prefabricated telemetry boards. Each of these boards already have their own power regulators built in, but there needs to be an additional power regulator for the telemetry board on the mother board to regulate battery power down to the voltage required by the telemetry board. The regulator, headers, and other components on the mother board will all be through hole components that can be easily soldered to the mother board making it easy to assemble for anyone with basic electronic soldering experience (think hacker space events and high schoolers). The mother board will be approximately 2.5 inches by 1.9 inches. We can purchase 3 boards for $51 plus shipping. We might be able to cut each board in half (full size is 2.5 inches by 3.8 inches). This can be done with a hack saw. For larger production runs, we can get the boards pre-cut to the optimum dimensions and the price would be a little less per unit (about $7 each for a run of 30). Other components on the board should total under $15. Total cost per board $20 to $25 each.

====Processing board====
We've found a pre-assembled processing board made by Oilmex Ltd, that is based on the the ultra-low-power [http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontroller/16-bit_msp430/overview.page MSP430FR5739 processor by Texas Instruments]. The [https://www.olimex.com/Products/MSP430/Header/MSP430-HFR5739/ MSP430-HFR5739 board] has all the essential components needed. There is a header on the board for easy programming, and a connector which we can use for plugging in the cable to the turtle egg sensor. The MSP430FR5739 CPU has 16K Bytes program FRAM, 1024 Bytes SRAM, 10-bit A/D converter, 16-channel comparator with voltage reference generation and hysteresis capabilities which we can use for monitoring the battery voltage, three enhanced serial channels (capable of I2C, SPI, or UART protocols), hardware multiplier, real-time clock, five 16-bit timers, and more. The board also has power supply filtering capacitor and a 3.3V voltage regulator. There are two rows of headers for each pin of the microprocessor which we will use to plug this board into the mother board. The dimension of the board is 2.15" × 1.10". The boards cost only $19.53 qty 1 and are [http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?products_id=5413 available from microcontrollershop.com].

====Telemetry board====
We plan on using [http://www.janus-rc.com/terminuscf.html plug in Terminus boards] made by Janus. The Janus GSM865CF v1.1 GSM/GPRS Modem with GPS works with AT&T and T-mobile. For Verizon we can use the CDMA864CF v3.0. The boards are interchangeable and will plug into our motherboard. The cost is roughly $140 qty 1 and are [http://www.janus-rc.com/terminuscf.htmlavailable from the manufacturer, Janus].

====Other components====
The only other components necessary are the cable and connector for the turtle egg sensor (a couple of bucks at most), an antenna for the telemetry board (GSM and GPS), which costs about $20 (perhaps more if reception is a problem). The units should operate for roughly 4 months running on 4 or 8 low self-discharge NiMH Batteries. The batteries and holder (TBD) which should cost less than $25. Also, anyone creating these devices will need the hardware necessary for programming the microprocessor (more about this later).

The cost of the total project should be around $200 to $250 per unit after start up expenses, and not counting telephony charges.

====Parts list====
===Schematic and Board design===
===Microprocessor Programming===
===Board Assembly===

==Web development==

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2013-12-11T23:47:37Z

Chuck: /* People */

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2013-12-11T23:47:07Z

Chuck: /* People */

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2013-12-11T23:46:30Z

Chuck: /* People */

Turtle Sense/Phase Two

2013-12-11T23:45:34Z

Chuck: Entered myself

User talk:Sam

2013-10-21T21:26:50Z

Chuck:

Welcome to my talk page. Please leave me a message by clicking [http://nerdswithoutborders.net/index.php?title=User_talk:Sam&action=edit&section=new here].
Hi, Sam. I logged on, clicked on Chuck, filled in a box, clicked Save....now I can't find it. Under what might it be stored?

I'm a bit baffled about how to provide info from the phone conf
? write it up as it occurred (1,2,3,4..) then put it somewhere - -if so, where?
? split it into portions somehow for individuals?

We may have to have a discussion since Talk and Page and a few other things aren't clicking with me. I can see the advantages of a Wiki for our coming discussions--will be better once I can handle it.

cheers, chuck

User:Chuck

2013-10-21T21:17:22Z

Chuck: Created page with "I'm Charles Wade. I volunteered to help on the sea turtle project because of my interest and because of the skills of the other 3 involved (Sam, Tom, Erik) when I encountered..."

I'm Charles Wade. I volunteered to help on the sea turtle project because of my interest and because of the skills of the other 3 involved (Sam, Tom, Erik) when I encountered the project. I"ll be doing fund raising, some potential university interactions, online searches for other sea turtle projects, serving as recorder, and filling in otherwise as I can.