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Archive for the ‘Radiolab’ Category

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23

Tracking cicadas with Radiolab and an Arduino

arduino, arduino hacks, cicadia, Radiolab, thermistor Commenti disabilitati su Tracking cicadas with Radiolab and an Arduino 

Cicadia

Once every 17 years, a population of cicadas ranging from Connecticut to the Appalachian highlands of North Carolina emerges to annoy everyone within earshot. The last time east coasters saw this brood was in 1996, making 2013 yet another year of annoying insect pests. The only question is, when will we start to see this year’s cicada brood?

Radiolab, the awesome podcast and public radio show, has put together an awesome project that asks listeners to track when the cicadas in their area will emerge. Cicadas generally enter their loud and obnoxious adult stage when the ground temperature 8 inches below the surface reaches 64º F. Armed with an Arduino, thermistor, and a few wires and resistors, any Radiolab listener can upload soil temperature data to Radiolab servers where all the data will be correlated with documented cicada sightings.

After following the page’s instructions for wiring up a bunch of LEDs and a thermistor to an Arduino, just upload the most well-commented code we’ve ever seen and go outside to take soil temperature measurements. The temperature is displayed in a pseudo-binary format on nine LEDs. To decode the temperature without counting by powers of two, Radiolab has an online decoder that also allows you to upload your data and location.


Filed under: Arduino Hacks
Apr
11

Swarmageddon: Cicadas Helping Crowdsource Citizen Science

arduino, cicada, Electronics, Radiolab, thermistor, WNYC Commenti disabilitati su Swarmageddon: Cicadas Helping Crowdsource Citizen Science 

2504764693_e31815f70e_bThe Cicada Tracker project is crowdsourcing soil temperatures to track the emergence of Brood II cicadas, that have been living underground for the past 17 years. Billions and billions of cicadas are expected to emerge over the next few weeks throughout the northeast United States.

Read the full article on MAKE



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