Real Time

Realtime Project - Recognition

New Scientist - Found Here

Quipsologies - Found Here

Vimeo - Found Here

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Realtime Project - Ferroseismic Promo Video

We managed to film our project working today in all it’s glory, and I was pretty impressed with the results. Give it a watch (fullscreen) and see what you think…

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Realtime Project - Branding

Luke and myself having been “unofficially calling our project ‘Ferroseismic’ which is a combination of Ferrofluid & Seismic Activity, which are the two main concepts behind our project so it is very fitting. So today we decided to christian the project and come up with a logo.

We wanted something clean and simple, that echoed the project itself. The whole project is housed in a clean white structure with 4 jet black puddles on top. So a black & white logo seemed the logical choice.

We decided to add the logo as a watermark over the top of the promo video, so hopefully our logo will start to become synonymous with the word Ferroseismic!

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Realtime Project - Ferroseismic
Today was the first time in a long time everything has actually gone right!
Firstly we managed to get some new glass vials, that are a lot deeper, meaning that the ferrofluid never touches the surface of the water, and you are able to see the reaction of the ferrofluid with the magnets a lot clearer.
So now that we had everything working, it was time to start filming. We filmed the project working so that we had some evidence to show during our presentation, incase (heaven forbid) something happened to our project between now and Tuesday. The end result of the video i thought was very impressive and I’m looking forward to seeing peoples reactions towards our project!
As the project is now over I guess this would be a good a time as any to mention what we would change about this project given another chance to do it…
1) Use a Motor Shield
With a a motor shield we would have been able to control the motors with a higher degree of accuracy, and would have spent about 100% less on batteries. Which is ironic as we thought by not using the motor shield would save money!?
2) Use a Saw
When it came to cutting the acrylic for the project housing, we had to use a stanley knife and brute strength as mentioned in previous posts, but this didn’t have the most professional finish to it. So given another chance we would like to use the Brunnel labs and some power tools!!
3) Use reactive Ferrofluid
The Ferrofluid we have reacts brilliantly to the magnets, but the sample of Ferrofluid we had at the beginning (from Lee Nutbean), that initially sparked our interest in using Ferrofluid in the project was about 50% more reactive than ours. So given the chance we’d like to use more reactive Ferrofluid.
But despite all problems, I’m am infinetley happy with out results and cannot wait to present this project to Hannah on Tuesday.

P.S. Special Thanks must go out to:
Pete Smithers for providing the glassware.
Jon Sigworth for giving us permission to use his track in our presentation video.
Hannah Drayson for continued advice and support.
&
Lee Nutbean for introducing us to Ferrofluid earlier in the year.

Realtime Project - Ferroseismic

Today was the first time in a long time everything has actually gone right!

Firstly we managed to get some new glass vials, that are a lot deeper, meaning that the ferrofluid never touches the surface of the water, and you are able to see the reaction of the ferrofluid with the magnets a lot clearer.

So now that we had everything working, it was time to start filming. We filmed the project working so that we had some evidence to show during our presentation, incase (heaven forbid) something happened to our project between now and Tuesday. The end result of the video i thought was very impressive and I’m looking forward to seeing peoples reactions towards our project!

As the project is now over I guess this would be a good a time as any to mention what we would change about this project given another chance to do it…

1) Use a Motor Shield

With a a motor shield we would have been able to control the motors with a higher degree of accuracy, and would have spent about 100% less on batteries. Which is ironic as we thought by not using the motor shield would save money!?

2) Use a Saw

When it came to cutting the acrylic for the project housing, we had to use a stanley knife and brute strength as mentioned in previous posts, but this didn’t have the most professional finish to it. So given another chance we would like to use the Brunnel labs and some power tools!!

3) Use reactive Ferrofluid

The Ferrofluid we have reacts brilliantly to the magnets, but the sample of Ferrofluid we had at the beginning (from Lee Nutbean), that initially sparked our interest in using Ferrofluid in the project was about 50% more reactive than ours. So given the chance we’d like to use more reactive Ferrofluid.

But despite all problems, I’m am infinetley happy with out results and cannot wait to present this project to Hannah on Tuesday.

P.S. Special Thanks must go out to:

Pete Smithers for providing the glassware.

Jon Sigworth for giving us permission to use his track in our presentation video.

Hannah Drayson for continued advice and support.

&

Lee Nutbean for introducing us to Ferrofluid earlier in the year.

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Realtime Project - Motors Working!!

This video is showing the motors now working with 2 AA batteries instead of one 6volt battery.

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Realtime Project - Dancing Ferrofluid

Here’s a quick video showing the Ferrofluid reacting with the motor underneath in what is a pretty impressive little dance.

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Realtime Project - So Close
Today was meant to be the last day myself and Luke worked on this project until the presentation, unfortunately this was not the case…
At 9 o’clock this morning I went to Maplins to pick up our Miniature Potentiometer, which I was assured would solve our battery problems. This was not true as when I attached it to our circuit it burst into flames!! So i took it back where i was told “Well, of course its gonna blow up if you add it to THAT circuit” So after a little disccusion on customers service I was on my way back to the lab with 12 AA batteries and a 4 battery connectors. using weaker batteries did seem to do the trick, and seems so obvious now …so why didn’t anyone mention it to us sooner!! I blame everyone but myself :)
Once the battery issue was sorted there was a host of other issues cropping up, including; Wires coming loose, Petri Dishes getting smashed and magnets flying around all over the place.
As I mentioned, we are now one petri dish short of a project, so we will be heading back to davy tomorrow (Sunday) to hunt for some more…
The last problem we encountered today was with adding Ferrofluid to the water. So far in this project we have been adding minuscule amounts of Ferrofluid to the test with, so today when we added a larger amount we were surprised to find that the fluid was less reactive and when in contact with the surface of the water, it bleeds across the surface. So we shall be using a lot smaller amounts in the future.
In Conclusion:
We encountered a lot of problems today and made a 8 hour session in university seem a lot longer. Hopefully with the arrival of the new petri dish everything should go smoothly tomorrow as every problem we have encountered we have solved, So here’s hoping…

Realtime Project - So Close

Today was meant to be the last day myself and Luke worked on this project until the presentation, unfortunately this was not the case…

At 9 o’clock this morning I went to Maplins to pick up our Miniature Potentiometer, which I was assured would solve our battery problems. This was not true as when I attached it to our circuit it burst into flames!! So i took it back where i was told “Well, of course its gonna blow up if you add it to THAT circuit” So after a little disccusion on customers service I was on my way back to the lab with 12 AA batteries and a 4 battery connectors. using weaker batteries did seem to do the trick, and seems so obvious now …so why didn’t anyone mention it to us sooner!! I blame everyone but myself :)

Once the battery issue was sorted there was a host of other issues cropping up, including; Wires coming loose, Petri Dishes getting smashed and magnets flying around all over the place.

As I mentioned, we are now one petri dish short of a project, so we will be heading back to davy tomorrow (Sunday) to hunt for some more…

The last problem we encountered today was with adding Ferrofluid to the water. So far in this project we have been adding minuscule amounts of Ferrofluid to the test with, so today when we added a larger amount we were surprised to find that the fluid was less reactive and when in contact with the surface of the water, it bleeds across the surface. So we shall be using a lot smaller amounts in the future.

In Conclusion:

We encountered a lot of problems today and made a 8 hour session in university seem a lot longer. Hopefully with the arrival of the new petri dish everything should go smoothly tomorrow as every problem we have encountered we have solved, So here’s hoping…

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Realtime Project - Inspiration (River Monsters)

Upon mentioning Namazu, to one of my fellow coursemates, he instantly pointed me towards a clip of the show River Monsters where they mention the infamous Namazu and try to explain why it can detect Earthquakes.

I reckon it’s worth a cheeky watch if you’re at all interested in this topic…

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Realtime Project - Inspiration (Namazu)

In Japanese mythology, the Namazu is a giant catfish who causes earthquakes, and was worshiped as a god of world rectification.

The origin of this story is the fact that these catfish can sense the small tremors which happen before an earthquake, and are known to be more active at such times. This sudden activity was observed in ancient times and believed the quakes to be the result of a giant catfish.

Evidence of the Namazu tradition still lives in in Japanese culture as Catfish are depicted on pictures of emergency earthquake preparedness activities in Japan, and the Earthquake Early Warning logo by the Japan Meteorological Agency utilises pictures of the catfish on devices capable of issuing an early warning.

But my favourite example of Namazu being used recently is in an episode of Pokémon featuring a catfish-type monster based on the namazu was banned when it was scheduled to air too soon after a quake.

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Realtime Project - Inspiration (Heng & Merryweather)
Having decided on an idea for a project I thought i’d have a look at some unusual techniques that have been adopted in seismology in the past to see if they can influences in my own project.
Firstly I looked at Zhang Heng’s Seismograph built in 132 A.D. It worked by housing a pendulum that was surrounded by 8 balls, when the pendulum felt any seismic activity it would push out one of the balls into a receptacle below. This would show the direction of the earthquake had come from.
The design of the device was very elaborate and contained 8 dragon heads each holding a ball, with 8 corresponding frogs with mouths open ready to catch the falling ball.
It first worked in 138 A.D. detecting an earthquake 1000km away. It was the first time mankind had used an instrument to detect an earthquake.
Then I looked at the The Tempest Prognosticator AKA ‘The Leech Barometer’ which was created in the 19th Century by George Merryweather. It worked by having 12 Leeches kept is small vials, and when a storm is near they become agitated and try to crawl out, triggering a small hammer that strikes a bell. The more bells struck, the higher the likely hood of an incoming storm.
Merryweather referred to the leeches as his “jury of philosophical councillors”.
Both of these machines are highly interesting and I would love to create something equally fascinating and theatrical.

Realtime Project - Inspiration (Heng & Merryweather)

Having decided on an idea for a project I thought i’d have a look at some unusual techniques that have been adopted in seismology in the past to see if they can influences in my own project.

Firstly I looked at Zhang Heng’s Seismograph built in 132 A.D. It worked by housing a pendulum that was surrounded by 8 balls, when the pendulum felt any seismic activity it would push out one of the balls into a receptacle below. This would show the direction of the earthquake had come from.

The design of the device was very elaborate and contained 8 dragon heads each holding a ball, with 8 corresponding frogs with mouths open ready to catch the falling ball.

It first worked in 138 A.D. detecting an earthquake 1000km away. It was the first time mankind had used an instrument to detect an earthquake.

Then I looked at the The Tempest Prognosticator AKA ‘The Leech Barometer’ which was created in the 19th Century by George Merryweather. It worked by having 12 Leeches kept is small vials, and when a storm is near they become agitated and try to crawl out, triggering a small hammer that strikes a bell. The more bells struck, the higher the likely hood of an incoming storm.

Merryweather referred to the leeches as his “jury of philosophical councillors”.

Both of these machines are highly interesting and I would love to create something equally fascinating and theatrical.

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