Adaptation of a Low-cost Wireles

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Adaptation of a Low-cost Wireless Sensor for Freshman and Outreach Programs

Mike Fortney and Jeff Frolik University of Vermont Underrepresented Groups in Engineering

Abstract This paper details the development of new CricketSat designs and education programs at the University of Vermont (UVM). UVM first explored the use of this wireless sensor in Summer 2002 after attending a NASA Starting Student Space Programs workshop. Work at the university has since involved improvements to the design to expand functionality and facilitate successful student circuit assembly. High school, undergraduate and graduate level students are involved with CricketSat sensors and systems, design and testing. Collaborative and outreach programs involve other institutions.

Introduction The CricketSat wireless temperature sensor was originally designed in 1999 at Stanford University's Space System Development Laboratory as part of the NASA Space Grant "Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly" student satellite program[1]. The purpose of this NASA program is to instruct students into methods of space hardware development. Student satellites range from the simple balloon-borne CricketSat to the more complex earth-orbiting CubeSat. To assist colleges and universities in developing their own programs, "Starting Student Space Hardware Programs" workshops are held frequently at the University of Colorado campus in Boulder[2]. The workshop covers the range of student satellite designs, with emphasis on the BalloonSat program. Representatives from UVM attended workshops and a CricketSat program was implemented at the University in 2002. UVM CricketSat objectives involve improvements to the original design, its use as an educational tool, and outreach activities. This paper discusses the following activities which take place within the program: 1. 2. 3. 4. CricketSat development and testing Collaborative work with other colleges and universities High school outreach Freshman introduction to engineering course

The CricketSat System The CricketSat system (Fig. 1) is composed of a single wireless sensor and a receiving station. The CricketSat transmitter contains a simple, 555 timer-based circuit that produces an audio tone that changes frequency in response to changing temperature. This tone amplitude modulates a 434 MHz carrier. Calibration of the sensor is performed by measuring the tone frequency taken at various temperatures. From the calibration, graphs are produced for converting frequency to temperature during use.

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Figure 1. CricketSat Wireless Temperature System

For flight, the CricketSat device can be attached to a helium balloon as small as 2 feet in diameter. During flights, the 434 MHz signal is received by the ground station. The ground station consists of a Yagi antenna, a UHF radio receiver and an audio frequency measurement device. The frequency of the tone is measured with a frequency counter or audio-spectrum software. Flights have been tracked for 90 minutes before the signal becomes too weak to measure reliably. During this time, the balloon may travel a distance over 150 km, reach an altitude of 10 km and experience temperatures less than 70 C. The sensor and balloon are seldom recovered. BalloonSat is a much larger system, toting a payload of several pounds, and a price in excess of ~$500. This system contains a GPS device and a radio transmitter used to broadcast the position coordinates for tracking during flight. Sensor data is usually collected and stored during the flight. Recovery of the payload is necessary for the expensive equipment and data. Complexity, cost, and logistics for flight preparation and tracking may make this system undesirable. Flights may achieve altitudes of 30 km in 100 minutes before the balloon bursts and the payload parachutes back to earth. In comparison to BalloonSat, the CricketSat system has benefits of low cost ($10), low weight, and live data telemetry. It is also simple to understand, easy to assemble, and simple to use. Drawbacks include single-sensor operation, and requirements for calibration and frequency conversion. Work at the UVM is involved with improving the performance and flexibility of this device.

UVM CricketSat Development and Testing Development work at UVM includes improvements to the original design, adaptations for new sensing capabilities, and the design of multi-sensor systems. Improvements have also been made to better the electrical performance, system reliability, and the likelihood of successful assembly. Concerning the latter, component outlines and designations have been added to the board, and a protective layer to minimize electrical shorts. A prototype area has been expanded to support student adaptations to the CricketSat design. The most recent UVM CricketSat design is shown in Fig. 2.

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Figure 2. UVM CricketSat Wireless Temperature Sensor

One objective of the UVM CricketSat work is to extend the circuits capability beyond simply measuring temperature. Common sensors for air pressure, humidity, light level, and acceleration can be now accommodated in the design. In addition, easily built sensor circuits[3] will also interface with this design. With this added flexibility, the CricketSat may used as a platform for a wide variety of wireless sensor applications. To date, multi-sensor CricketSat designs have also been developed by both university and high school students. Eventually, the improved circuitry will lead to the development of a low-cost student radiosonde (CricketSonde) containing meteorological and other scientific instruments. Such a design may enable community-based, meteorological measurements at a much finer spatial resolution than those currently available using the current network of National Weather Service radiosonde stations. This work toward this end is detailed in the following sections.

High School Outreach The HELiX (Hughes Endeavor for Life Science Excellence) Program at UVM HELiX/EPSCoR[4] is a NSF funded outreach program supporting area college and high school students. Among the HELiX activities is a summer workshop for high school students that is designed to provide students insight into the "real world" of science. Teams, consisting of a teacher and a few students, conduct a research project, assisted by scientists at the university. At least one of the students must be female. A HELiX-sponsored CricketSat workshop titled "Building and Launching Cricket Satellites to Measure Various Atmospheric Conditions" was conducted during the summers of 2003 and 2004 (one is also planned for June 2005). The one-week session, outlined in Table 1, involves lectures and hands-on activities for the students and teachers. Classroom instruction includes an introduction to the earth's atmosphere and operation of the CricketSat sensors. Hands-on activities involved the assembly, soldering, calibration, and flight of these sensors. Students fly balloons, collect data and analyze the results. School teams must then conduct a related research project to be conducted over the following year.
Table 1 . HELiX CricketSat Workshop Schedule Day Monday Tuesday Activity Temperature profile of the atmosphere Introduction to the CricketSat sensors Practice soldering CricketSat assembly CricketSat testing

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Wednesday Thursday Friday

CricketSat calibration Balloon flights and data collection Spreadsheet data entry Analysis and results

The high school teams have provided an important role of testing and evaluating the CricketSat sensor designs. These teams have also developed and evaluated more complex multi-sensor CricketSat designs. Each balloon flight strives to surpass previous results, contributing towards advancing the system. Parameters analyzed for each flight are duration, distance, minimum temperature and maximum altitude. 2003 2004 HELiX Team This initial workshop (2003) involved a team from the Waldorf High School in Charlotte, Vermont, consisting of a female science teacher and three female students. The June flights involved the initial testing of the newly developed pressure and humidity sensors and ground station receiving system. Balloons were released over the water from a causeway on Lake Champlain. The results were not very encouraging. Frequency measurements using a meter became unstable less than 10 minutes into the flight. The meter did a poor job of measuring the signal in the presence of background radio noise. Expected qualitative variations were observed for the temperature, pressure and humidity sensors. In short, the system worked satisfactory for close-range work, but not for balloon flights. As such, for their long term research project, the team decided to build a wireless weather station consisting of temperature, pressure and humidity sensors. The goal was to make automatic measurements at periodic intervals. A frequency measurement meter was connected to a computer for data collection. Since all of the CricketSat sensors share the same radio frequency, a rotary switch was added to the station to provide power to the CricketSat sensor to be measured. The system worked for three-hour intervals before the meter would turn itself off. This appeared to be caused by the meters inability to properly track the changing signal. A new method was devised for performing the frequency measurements during balloon flights. Several audio spectrum analyzer programs were investigated. These programs allow for individual frequencies in the audio signal to be seen on the computer and measured. The CricketSat signal was easily identifiable, even when far away, allowing it to be measured reliably. The SpectraRTA[5] software was selected at the time due to its data logging capability. Spectrogram[6] is now recommended due to its low cost.

2004 2005 HELiX Teams This improved platform was utilized for the second HELiX workshop (2004) in which two high schools participated. The first team was from the Milton High School located in Milton, Vermont. The team was composed of a female science teacher and two female students. The second team was from the John D. O'Bryant (JDOB) School of Mathematics and Science (Boston Public Schools) located in Roxbury, Massachusetts. This team consisted of a female science teacher and two students: one female and one male. Day and evening CricketSat flights (MHS-1) to monitor atmospheric temperature profiles were conducted. A CricketSat humidity sensor was also flown along with an experimental audio alarm device attached. Collectively, the flights were a remarkable success. The SpectraRTA software performed well, allowing measurement of the tone signals for a much

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longer period of time than the previous method using a frequency meter. The shortest flight was tracked for 45 minutes and the longest for 91 minutes. This allowed for measurements much higher in the atmosphere. Accordingly, the lowest measured temperature was -41 F (-40 C), and the highest recorded altitude was 26,732 feet (8.1 km). Factoring in the velocities of the upper-air winds obtained from the National Weather Service (NWS), the longest CricketSat altimeter flight was 144 km.
Figure 3. The John D. O'Bryant School CricketSat presentation of the MHS-1 flights. The team received a 2nd-place finish at the 2005 Boston Regional Science Fair.

Figure 4. Medgar Evers College (MEC) team preparing for a BalloonSat launch at the Milton High School. The CUNY school provided flight support for the MHS-2 payload.

For their follow-on project, the JDOB team prepared a detailed presentation of the MHS-1 flights, placing second at the 2005 Boston Regional Science Fair in March 2005 (Fig. 3). They will go on to compete at the Massachusetts State Science Fair to be held in May at MIT. For the Milton High School team, their work was just beginning. The school hosted two BalloonSat flights in July 2005 for students from Medgar Evers College (MEC) of the City University of New York (CUNY). CricketSat sensors were flown as payload to provide real-time flight support data for the MEC team. These flights also allowed CricketSat sensors to achieve altitudes and conditions not normally experienced with the smaller balloon flights. For the first BalloonSat flight (MHS-2), the MHS team monitored the temperature inside the BalloonSat instrument flight bag (Fig. 4). The temperature was measured for 125 minutes and never dropped below 63 F (17 C). For the MEC team, this validated the use of the insulated lunch bag for holding instruments during BalloonSat flights. This experiment also demonstrated the compatibility between CricketSat and BalloonSat payloads concerning radio co-interference. With the successful results of the single CricketSat sensor on the MHS-2 flight, the team was now presented a challenge of measuring data using several CricketSat sensors. Unlike the earlier weather station, this system would need to sequence through the sensors automatically. The problem was presented to the Milton team, and with a little guidance, they devised a sequential timing algorithm for segregating and identifying sensors during flight. In addition, the design needed to be light weight for the balloon application. A circuit was designed for the students using a BASIC Stamp controller. One ambitious student assembled the circuit, wrote a PBASIC program employing the timing algorithm, and tested the controller. The CricketSat Array System (CAS) assembled for flight is shown in Fig. 5. During the BalloonSat flight (MHS-3), the CricketSat flight bag and external temperatures were measured, as well as altitude (air pressure). The system worked very well, properly segregating the data from the

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various CricketSat sensors, as seen in Fig. 6.

Figure 5. The Milton High School CricketSat Array System flown on the MHS-3 flight. This project allows the measurement of several CricketSat sensors over 50 miles away.

Figure 6. Properly segregated data collected from the Milton High School developed CricketSat Array System. Raw frequency results are shown.

New levels of performance were achieved. The flight was tracked for 134 minutes, to an altitude of 85,781 feet (26 km), and with a bone-chilling external temperature of 92 F (-69 C). The CricketSat altimeter worked properly below 32,000 feet (10 km), meeting expectations. External temperature versus altitude data correlated with NWS sounding balloon data. The CricketSat altimeter data agreed well with altitude data provided by the onboard GPS. The results were presented at the Northeast Regional Space Grant Conference held in October 2004 in South Burlington, Vermont by the author and the two Milton High School students. Design changes to the CricketSat are necessary for improvement to the temperature and pressure measurements. As can be seen in Fig. 6 (Ext Temp 1 & 2), for very low temperatures, the CricketSat frequency is very low and difficult to measure. In addition, the CricketSat pressure sensor only works properly up to altitudes of 10 km. To completely characterize the environment experience during these large balloon launches, the sensors need to perform measurements to altitudes of 30 km with temperatures as low as 90 C. As such, thesis work is in progress by the author towards the development of a linear frequency response CricketSat temperature sensor for use in extreme cold environments. This may lead to the development of a family of linear response CricketSat sensors for radiosonde experiments (i.e., CricketSonde). The linear response provides benefits of uniform sensitivity, and simplified calibration and conversion methods. The sensors will be evaluated on future HELiX and BalloonSat flights.

College Freshman Engineering Course As a result of the above successful programs, the CricketSat was chosen in Spring 2004 as a project platform for UVMs freshman design course for electrical and mechanical students (instructed by the co-author)[7]. In this course, students first fabricate, test and calibrate the basic wireless temperature sensor. Then, working in teams, the 60 students adapted over a six week period this sensor for an application of their own choosing. The project requires electrical modification of the circuit and mechanical design requisite of the application. Student projects from the first offering included a wireless wind-chill instrument (Fig. 7-left), a wireless synthesizer and a wireless alarm system (Fig. 7-right). We view the breadth of these designs as being indicative of the flexibility and simplicity of the CricketSat platform to accommodate a variety of introductory-level student projects. The course is currently in its second offering to 70 students and utilizing the improved CricketSat design illustrated in Fig. 2.

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Figure 7. Example student design projects: Wireless Wind-Chill Instrument (left) and Wireless Door Alarm (right) Conclusions UVMs CricketSat activities have in addition enabled collaborative meteorological studies with the University of Alaska along with the aforementioned work with Medgar Evers College. Like UVM, the University of Alaska is involved with CricketSat development and testing. Designs and methods are being shared between the two schools towards a common goal of improving this design. With this wide range of customer input, we view the UVM CricketSat design as rapidly migrating towards a simple, flexible and yet a powerful platform upon which meaningful projects can be developed for a wide range of wireless monitoring applications. We hope that with this paper along with additional material (schematics, project ideas and kit information) available online[8] will provide a resource that other institutions may utilize to develop their own entry level sensor programs. The author encourages interested institutions to contact him[9] should they have any questions. Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the Vermont and Colorado Space Grant Consortiums, and the UVM HELiX outreach program for their support in the development of the CricketSat program at UVM. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr. Shermane Austin of Medgar Evers College and Dr. Neal Brown of the University of Alaska for their flight and technical contributions, respectively.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHIES MIKE FORTNEY received the B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Vermont (UVM) in 2000. He is currently a candidate for the M.S.E.E. degree at UVM with an expected October 2005 graduation date. He has been active with the HELiX outreach program since 2002, and Vermont Space Grant projects since 1999. JEFF FROLIK received the B.S.E.E. degree from the University of South Alabama, Mobile in 1986, the M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1988 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering Systems from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1995. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Vermont (UVM). He is the recipient of the ASEE Southeastern Section New Teacher Award in 2002 (while at Tennessee Technological University).

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[1] NASA, Learning to Fly on Mars, online: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features /F_Learning_to_Fly_on_Mars.html [2] NASA Space Grant Consortium, StudentSat Workshop, online: http://spacegrant.colorado.edu/studentsat/ [3] Mims III, Forrest M., 1988-2000, Engineers Mini-Notebook Series [4] UVM HELiX/EPSCoR, online: http://www.uvm.edu/~helix/ [5] Sound Technology Corporation, online: http://www.soundtechnology.com [6] Visualization Software LLC, online: http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/gram.html [7] J. Frolik and T. Keller, Wireless Sensor Networks: An interdisciplinary topic for freshman design, 2005 ASEE Annual Conference, Portland, OR, June 12-15. [8] UVM CricketSat website: http://www.uvm.edu/~cricksat [9] Mike Fortney, email: mfortney@uvm.edu

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