Science can be accelerated greatly by the use of digitally
controlled devices capable of measuring relevant parameters and, if necessary,
interact with the experiment. Those machines can be bought and they can do
things in an implemented way. They are however neither cheap nor as adaptive as
they should be. The focus of this Guide is to demonstrate how to overcome the
surprisingly small barriers in order to develop their own machines. Recently,
open hardware projects like the Arduino or the
Raspberry Pi draw enormous community coding and building elements that
can be fused together to fit the experimenters needs. We as scientists can
benefit from large numbers of projects that are documented well in the
internet, mostly by tutorial videos including component lists and code. Here I
present a number of simple suggestions how to build yourself helpful devices
for your experiments.
Side effect –
learning programming the easy way:
The easiest way (IMHO) to learn programming is to start with
a hardware based project. Analysis of PhD data is often the first programming
encounter. Analysis is hard enough if you can code, let alone learning while
doing. With hardware projects you can start easy with parts that you are
interested in. You can use the language your lab is using, Arduino can be fed
with C, C++, MatLab, Simulink, Python and most likely others. With increased
experience you can add layers of complexity.
What hardware?
If you want to measure or automate something, with a motor
for example, get an Arduino. Only when your project involves some heavy
lifting, handling camera data or a webserver, you should consider a raspberry
pi. An Arduino is a microcontroller; it can do a thing. A Raspberry Pi is a small cheap computer; it can do all the things.
They supply the hardware and pretty much everything around,
software, examples and a huge community that will help you. Arduinos come in
many flavors, to begin with try an UNO, they do everything most people want and
they are hard to break.
Same as above but for Raspberry Pis, they supply the operating
system and everything you will need to start. Have a look at the Raspberry Pi
Zero, it is impressive how little room money and power this thing needs. Have a
look what an owncloud is and think about
taking back your data into your own hands.
They build shields and boards for nearly
any sensor so you don’t have to. They sell those little boards and they come
with all the documentation you would ever need. A general introduction of how
and what is measured, the hardware connections between Arduino and the sensor,
up to the code to run the device. You don’t need to know anything about
programming or hardware to build something useful.
They supplies all the small parts you may need, sensors,
chips, if it exists they will have it.
Here you can ask for help with your code. Ask your search
engine first, chances are your problem war discussed and answered already.
Get inspirations and reproducible instructions on really
creative projects.
Here you will download most of the code from projects you
will find. Here you will upload your code so others can reproduce your device.
You can decide what license you want to use, MIT or CC-BY-4 for example, so
those people will cite you.
Over all note:
Google(search) is your friend, imagine someone how
knows everything about anything is right behind the screen, you will be
surprised. Behind every project, code, and post is a
person. They are proud of what they have accomplished; they might help you personally
if you ask them something specific about their project.
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