the garage log2 (august to october 2012)

46
The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012) Martin Howse 02 November 2012 August 28 2012 Laser-based sonification of silver nitrate electrolysis (using graphite electrodes, refillable pencil leads). track: 147 1

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Page 1: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Martin Howse

02 November 2012

August 28 2012

Laser-based sonification of silver nitrate electrolysis (using graphite electrodesrefillable pencil leads)

track 147

1

Laser straight through our SN container (hotglued CD case) with photode-

2

tector on the other side bubbles ok but not much from crystal formation Inany case no direct light from laser should hit photodiode head (covered withtranslucent film)

For crystals 148wav use reflection (very sensitive to any feedbackmovements)Also added mirror on other side and galvanometer with copperzinc vinegarelectrolysis

August 29-31 2012

Simple mirror galvanometer

With salvaged HD coil chopstick tripod 2 small neodym magnets mirrorMagnets (with mirror glued to one side) sandwiched over thread hanging fromthe tripod Coil is just held upright by a peg Current passed through coildeflects mirror (laser bounceamp)

3

Thinking to combine this with CDROMcassette box case magnetometer

4

project (ref httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211 )

sulphuric acid electrolysis

Of piezos hard drive coilread head assemblies copper and zinc

5

Notes for performance

electrolysis of piezo (in sulphuric)

bull remember cap on piezo out 12v power supply

bull power to copper side gnd to signal side (track 150)

-also using copper and zinc (track 153)

and of HD coil

bull cap on signal from coil other to gnd

bull 12v power to silvermetal of coil holder and whole more or less immersed(track 155)

gstreamer and gst-launch

Webcam to audio Using now bare ps3 eye without lens and own homemadepinholes lenses

Some examples

6

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 2: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Laser straight through our SN container (hotglued CD case) with photode-

2

tector on the other side bubbles ok but not much from crystal formation Inany case no direct light from laser should hit photodiode head (covered withtranslucent film)

For crystals 148wav use reflection (very sensitive to any feedbackmovements)Also added mirror on other side and galvanometer with copperzinc vinegarelectrolysis

August 29-31 2012

Simple mirror galvanometer

With salvaged HD coil chopstick tripod 2 small neodym magnets mirrorMagnets (with mirror glued to one side) sandwiched over thread hanging fromthe tripod Coil is just held upright by a peg Current passed through coildeflects mirror (laser bounceamp)

3

Thinking to combine this with CDROMcassette box case magnetometer

4

project (ref httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211 )

sulphuric acid electrolysis

Of piezos hard drive coilread head assemblies copper and zinc

5

Notes for performance

electrolysis of piezo (in sulphuric)

bull remember cap on piezo out 12v power supply

bull power to copper side gnd to signal side (track 150)

-also using copper and zinc (track 153)

and of HD coil

bull cap on signal from coil other to gnd

bull 12v power to silvermetal of coil holder and whole more or less immersed(track 155)

gstreamer and gst-launch

Webcam to audio Using now bare ps3 eye without lens and own homemadepinholes lenses

Some examples

6

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 3: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

tector on the other side bubbles ok but not much from crystal formation Inany case no direct light from laser should hit photodiode head (covered withtranslucent film)

For crystals 148wav use reflection (very sensitive to any feedbackmovements)Also added mirror on other side and galvanometer with copperzinc vinegarelectrolysis

August 29-31 2012

Simple mirror galvanometer

With salvaged HD coil chopstick tripod 2 small neodym magnets mirrorMagnets (with mirror glued to one side) sandwiched over thread hanging fromthe tripod Coil is just held upright by a peg Current passed through coildeflects mirror (laser bounceamp)

3

Thinking to combine this with CDROMcassette box case magnetometer

4

project (ref httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211 )

sulphuric acid electrolysis

Of piezos hard drive coilread head assemblies copper and zinc

5

Notes for performance

electrolysis of piezo (in sulphuric)

bull remember cap on piezo out 12v power supply

bull power to copper side gnd to signal side (track 150)

-also using copper and zinc (track 153)

and of HD coil

bull cap on signal from coil other to gnd

bull 12v power to silvermetal of coil holder and whole more or less immersed(track 155)

gstreamer and gst-launch

Webcam to audio Using now bare ps3 eye without lens and own homemadepinholes lenses

Some examples

6

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 4: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Thinking to combine this with CDROMcassette box case magnetometer

4

project (ref httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211 )

sulphuric acid electrolysis

Of piezos hard drive coilread head assemblies copper and zinc

5

Notes for performance

electrolysis of piezo (in sulphuric)

bull remember cap on piezo out 12v power supply

bull power to copper side gnd to signal side (track 150)

-also using copper and zinc (track 153)

and of HD coil

bull cap on signal from coil other to gnd

bull 12v power to silvermetal of coil holder and whole more or less immersed(track 155)

gstreamer and gst-launch

Webcam to audio Using now bare ps3 eye without lens and own homemadepinholes lenses

Some examples

6

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 5: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

project (ref httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211 )

sulphuric acid electrolysis

Of piezos hard drive coilread head assemblies copper and zinc

5

Notes for performance

electrolysis of piezo (in sulphuric)

bull remember cap on piezo out 12v power supply

bull power to copper side gnd to signal side (track 150)

-also using copper and zinc (track 153)

and of HD coil

bull cap on signal from coil other to gnd

bull 12v power to silvermetal of coil holder and whole more or less immersed(track 155)

gstreamer and gst-launch

Webcam to audio Using now bare ps3 eye without lens and own homemadepinholes lenses

Some examples

6

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 6: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Notes for performance

electrolysis of piezo (in sulphuric)

bull remember cap on piezo out 12v power supply

bull power to copper side gnd to signal side (track 150)

-also using copper and zinc (track 153)

and of HD coil

bull cap on signal from coil other to gnd

bull 12v power to silvermetal of coil holder and whole more or less immersed(track 155)

gstreamer and gst-launch

Webcam to audio Using now bare ps3 eye without lens and own homemadepinholes lenses

Some examples

6

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 7: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=441height=60framerate=101 ffmpegcolorspace

videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace audioparse audioconvert

audiox-raw-intrate=44100channels=1depth=16 alsasink -v

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=41 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=16depth=16rate=44100

alsasink

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 videoscale

videox-raw-yuvwidth=80height=80framerate=61

ffmpegcolorspace videox-raw-graybpp=8 ffmpegcolorspace

audioparse audioconvert audiox-raw-intchannels=1width=8depth=8 alsasink -v

test webcam with

gst-launch-010 v4l2src device=devvideo0 xvimagesink)

September 2 2012

Luminous fungi for inter-species communication

Towardsbioluminescence as a possible communications vector Culturing biolumis-

cent fungi such as Panellus Stipticus - recording and analysis of photon detectionover periods of time (analogue photographic materialschemistry photomulti-plierphotodiode detection) Possibly some kind of human-bio-feedback loopestablished - strobe lights

Using photomultiplier(below) and logging (dedicated scry with PSU)Fungi arePStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus) from httpmushroomboxcoukindexphpmain page=product infoampproducts id=36

Cultivationnotes

Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)httpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shopomlphalotus-olearius-jack-olantern-

mushroom-spawndowels-p-619htmlon logso ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)see httpspringbrookinforesearchluminous ghost fungushtm MYAo Honey mushroom (armillariella mellea)httpwwwcarolinacomproductbioluminescent+fungus+kitdokeyword=fungiampsortby=bestMatcheso Panellus stipticushttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-

p-448htmland

7

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 8: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

grow on woodchips Panellus Stipticus - contact httpwwwglowfungicomandhttpsporeworkscomPanellus-stipticus-Luminescent-Panellus-Culture-SyringehtmlThe mycelium can be grown on a wide variety of wood grains and agar

formulas under a wide range of temperatures Mushrooms grown on wholegrains or grain flours typically do not develop normally and abort at a smallsize Plug culture on logs or woodchipsawdust blocks are recommended forobserving normal fruiting

The images below show Panellus fruits produced using the Wood BasedMycoBag(TM) Decently formed fruits are easy to obtain when the substratematerial is removed from the bag and placed in a humidity chamber or tent withincreased air flow Odds of fully developed fruits increases if you are able to keepcolonized substrate block in outdoor environment without drying or exposureto excessively coolhot temps

o several species of MycenaRefsldquoA substance called luciferin reacts with an enzyme luciferase causing the

luciferin to oxidise with the consequent emission of light [ ] The functionin fungi is unknown It has been suggested that it attracts insects which thendisperse the sporesrdquoLuminous Fungi

httpwwwmykowebcomarticlesBioluminescentFungihtml

Photomultiplier and logging setup

Also have Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu (gold connector (signal)and black black red white orange)

red +15vdc black GND white HV control (0 to 5v) other vrefNotes for Burle 4526

See httpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-31andhttp1010coukorgwv2htmlsec-45Questions for Burle

bull to find SHVBNC cable

bull where is signal

bull voltage divider for logging

bull what kind of cableadapter for Hamamatsu

8

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 9: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Simple mirror galvanometercd case mod

Following maketorsion balance maghttpwww1010coukorggeophysicshtmlsec-211Modified with salvaged hard drive coil Sensitive to detect current flow when

we hold zinc and copper electrodes

September 4

track 15650 sulphuric dash of 95 hard drive coil electrolysis

scanner audio

scanimage -x 215 -y 297 --mode Gray --depth 8 --resolution 125 gt pipe

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b -c 1 ~pipe

9

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 10: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

September 5

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

On straw pellets soaked in boiling water - use of orignal bag (micropore) andmicrowavesteam bags (around 5050 grain to pellets)

10

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 11: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japon-icus)

On MYA and on wood chips (soaked in boiling water) MYA in CD cases(sealed) and petri dishes Wood chips in steam bags

MYA recipe

12 gms (042 oz) agar 12 gms (042 oz) light malt powder 1 gm ((0035 oz)nutritional yeast powder 1 litre water

(adjust for 500 ml)

September 14

Fungi update

Schopftintlingshaggy maneCoprimus comatus

Growing through well in both cases

11

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 12: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

PStipticus and Moonlight Mushroom (Lampteromyces japonicus)

On MYA both surrounded by blue mould one of Moonlight has peculierorange goo-like protusion No sign of luminescence in any case

On woodchips both slowly growing through

strange mould with orange fringe

Growing fast on discarded straw pellets Sprayed today with silver nitrate

Tabletop setup

Composed of

bull earth (Johannisthal forest)

bull Shaggy Mane mycelium

bull sprays (silver nitrate solution and distilled water) using skoda wasch-pumpe (relay or irf640 activation)

12

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 13: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Note that inlet is straight out of bottom and outlet is to one side (and GNDis on same side as outlet)

bull shafts of light (what is controlling these what are they - strobe)

bull concrete trays with various chemistry

leached processors (in nitric acidsilver nitrate solutionrochelle saltferrous sulphate - from where as moss killer or acetoneiron woolsulphuric

- see httpwwwcrscientificcomferroussulfatehtml

bull HV pulses (again control or in performance)

potentially 2 or 3 relays

bull metal electrodesantennae

And activated in performance with

bull laserinterferometer setup on edges (light detection solar diode webcam)

13

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 14: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

bull hanging tripod magnetometerplugged in galvos (above)

bull other receiversdetektors (run through)

bull other detectors

ndash coils

ndash electrolyticcoil

ndash seismometer

ndash ultrasound

ndash earthbootmicro-voltage

ndash radio

Photomultiplier setup

Hamamatsu r1477-07 with c6270-21 psu wired as followsred to 15v both shields to GND white(control) and orange(VREF 5v) wired

togethersignal (chopped MMC connector) to op07 (question of positive and negative

supply not resolved) as transimpedance amplifier -+in to GND 50 ohm input( to -) to PMT signal powered by regulated 5v

1M or 100k feedback resistorWe get 43v in dim light 131 in black bag on multimeterTODO think on +- supply scope program logger and test

September 17

photomultiplier

Biasing + input of op-amp to 25v (test results )Own scope is too slow for potential 10-100mV 5nS wide pulses from photonsNote also oscilloscope probes (high impedance) provide load resistance

earthbootearthboot audio

(To program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

bull earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerialone in 2011 seems for earth measurement

bull earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthbootFor some reason we needed to ldquomake cleanrdquo both versions to get them run-

ning

14

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 15: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

ferrous sulphate

from link above

bull Degrease the steel wool by immersing it in acetone for half an hour Re-move it from the acetone and let it dry in a well-ventilated lab wherenobody can disturb it

bull Place the degreased dry steel wool in the glass beaker and pour in

enough 30-40 sulfuric acid to cover it completely Donrsquot use concentrated acidIf the steel wool is not fully submerged carefully push it down with a glass rodThe sulfuric acid will begin to dissolve the steel producing hydrogen gas Overthe course of several hours the steel wool will gradually disappear Carefullyadd more steel wool Repeat this a few times Reddish-brown insoluble ferriccompounds will form if you add too much steel wool

irf640

Now on arduino uno pin 7GDS in order from left Gate by 1k to arduino pin Drain is where we pull

through power from pump Source is GND (arduino and 12v PSU) 100k gateto GND

On pump power is nearest the exit pipe (which is the one on the side withstraight pipe on end as inlet)

earth measurement device

Red of cable connecting boards is away from USB endGain (on AD620 resistor between pins 1 and 8) is now 1k Gain=50xShould have switch no resistor(1x) 100ohm(500x) and 5k(10x) perhaps

DONE for 50x and 500x

October 4

Commencing research relating to Gent labfieldtrip

PersingerGod Helmet

What is the simple relationship between windingsthickness and re-sistanceinductance

The simplest inductor is a single turn of stiff wire with air in the centre (aircore) If a metal object is placed in the centre of the turn the inductance isincreased If additional turns are added the inductance is increased If thediameter of the turn is increased the inductance is DECREASED If the turnsare stretched apart the inductance of the coil DECREASES

15

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 16: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

RoughlyL (inductance) of an air core cylinder coil =(air permeabilitynumber of turnsarea of cross section)length of coilL for a multilayer coil with ferrite core =air perm ferrite perm N(number of windings) squared (arealength)Resistance is roughly lengthcross sectional area so thicker wires have less

resistanceSee also httpwwwepanoramanetdocumentscomponentscoilshtml

What is the relationship between windingsthickness inductance andmagnetic field densityflux

Faradayrsquos lawsFlux density= (inductancecurrent) (number of windings areacross sec-

tion)(So if we have thicker wire we have less windings in the given area and so

more flux but what of inductance)Current(I)=VR

Measuring the field

Using our gaussmeter Gauss is the unit of mag field (flux density) Relation ofgauss to tesla

1 tesla=10000 gauss 1 gauss=100 microTesla (uT)=00001 TeslaWe aim for around 1 uT=001 gauss = 10 milligauss (as in shakti)

Calculate the limiting resistor

If we pull 12v with the IRF640 through the coil

Refs

httpxxnorgukdokuphpid=brain writingcalculationsamps[]=wagnerhttpforumallaboutcircuitscomarchiveindexphpt-61749htmlhttpbooksgoogledebooksid=YeKleGrKwC4Camppg=PA29amplpg=PA29ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thicknessampsource=blampots=DZuf-

JyGQlampsig=MdPem9C1FY6EJPNGfKGQ4OaS5Psamphl=enampsa=Xampei=FcVsULipLJOHswa6wYDACAampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thicknessampf=falsehttpbrainmetacomforumindexphpshowtopic=13724ampst=30httpbooksgoogledebooksid=vOj GZ2-1dECamppg=PA177amplpg=PA177ampdq=tms+coil+wire+thickness+persingerampsource=blampots=uFVRERzsZqampsig=LnZJIR daKsgik3Mc5Uts1X2dqQamphl=enampsa=Xampei=SlJtUNCbMYbgtQadwYDQCQampredir esc=yv=onepageampq=tms20coil20wire20thickness20persingerampf=falsehttpwwwphysicsforumscomshowthreadphpt=358357

Plantearth measurements

Resistance and impedance

bull fingerearth resistance

Test and distinguish which wires are which

16

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 17: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

bull GSR mod (op07 or opa336 smd)

Could use psyche board with opa336 (also for ad5933)

bull Wheatstone bridge and mirror galvanometer

What could be test values on the bridge

If we have R1 and R2 as right and left at top and R4(variable) and Rx assame bottom

R1R2=RxR4

Rx=(R1xR4)R2

try R1 and R2 as 10K and R4 as 1M variable

bull AD5933

Based on psyche board

micro-voltagedifferential measurement

Options are

bull latest earth device based on AD620 instrumentation amp

Test again

bull further AD620 device

With AGND and ampfilter as in

httppeopleececornelledulandcoursesece4760FinalProjectss2012cwm55cwm55 mj294indexhtml

17

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 18: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

AD620

ndash resistor between pins 1 and 8 sets gain 1k=50x 100R=500

bull earthbootmega32u4 and onboard diff amp

Make a few more of these

GPSnew skry

With GPS to left power is bottom left connector with red on right

rendered audible

bull laptopsoftware a la earthboot

bull microcontroller and amplifier

bull analogue VCO (741 4046 555)

18

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 19: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Photomultiplierbioluminescence

bull not glowing (more oxygen lower pH)

bull where to source P Stipticusother biolums

ordered log dowels (Jack OrsquoLantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)) fromhttpwwwmrcashoporgmushroom shoppanellus-stipticus-luminescent-panellus-p-448html

but for this we need to find a log andPlease use hardwood (most suitable oak beech) Let the log dry for approx

4 5 weeks after felling For inoculation with the dowels the log have beenpreperated duck for 3 days in water (log should be complete coverd with water)After this let the log dry for approx 2 days in the sun We recommend to uselogs (with bark) diameter approx 20 -35 cm length 50 bis 80 cm

bull correct operation of Hamamatsu

bull do we need stretchcount pulses and if so how (if we use digital scopeI guess not)

what are designs for detectstretch pulsessee also httpugastroberkeleyeduay122 fall12PMTindexhtmlhttpwwwdiyphysicscom20120202home-built-radiac-radiation-detector-

and-meter-for-a-surplus-dt-590apdr-56f-scintillation-probe

bull cable and test other tube with amp

bull photodiode

19

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 20: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

October 5

earthcoding documentation

Preparation for earthcode evening Sept 20

20

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 21: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

21

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 22: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

22

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 23: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Post-earthcode

23

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 24: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

24

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 25: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

25

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 26: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

26

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 27: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

27

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 28: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

28

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 29: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

October 8

Mirror galvanometer

Rebuilt with bottle top usual thread 02mm copper wire windings

29

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 30: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Paper Wheatstone bridge

30

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 31: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Working with multimeter and rough tests of finger resistance But not muchsign of any change with mirror galvo (although does shift the reflected laserbeam when we adjust the nulling potentiometer on fixed resistance setup (topof bridge 1k and 1k 100k poti) Could be that the resistance of galvo is nothigh enough (but if was higher we would lose current - test with smallish (say100 ohm) seriesshunt resistor

refhttparchiveorgstreammethodsmeasurin00nortgoogpagen19mode2uphttpelectron9physutkeduphys136ddistlablab7htm

Reviving old plantbio measurement box

Includes

bull HAL-4 one channel EEG attached to HID (order of inputs=EEG Wheat-stone differenz)

bull Wheatstone bridge with amplifier

bull Elektor CA3140 design - differenzverstaerker (Mai 1977)

Old EEG design

is the one following HAL-4 schematics (based on TL084)

31

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 32: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

So we have one channel here (differential pair - 2 jack sockets with shieldedcable and one jack socket for common ground on ear)

bull software used for first version of this

(Now it is attached to HIDearlier BYRON) was in c and read from par-allel port

filecollect2011psychtechniquebiologiceegoldeegincvxc

see eegtool below

software to log HID

hidtool is in rootcollect2011code refchidclient

hidtool read 5

Which reads analogue 10 bit values from channel 5 to STDOUT [first rmmodusbhid to detach driver]

(5 is diff 4 is wheat 3 i guess is EEG)Also included eegtool which appears to be version of oldeeg for HID

32

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 33: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

data logging on SD from ADC

On pin 7 of top header (ADC7)see (GSR example with averaging) rootxxxxx 2xxxxxtrunkmini skrymainc

October 9

E-S-E

Details on earth-substrate-earth device Green wires are electrodes with chang-ing flow of current purple as measurement

See Earth Resistivity Logger John Becker EPE Everyday Practical Elec-tronics AprilMay 2003

Here

33

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 34: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

2003-04pdf

290 Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003

electrically probing the soil in theirsearch for minerals and oil deposits(since 1946 says Robert Beck) it hasbeen found that there are better probingtechniques than just using two probesSome of these have been adopted byarchaeologists

Most of the favoured ones all use fourprobes ndash two for transmission (TX) andtwo for reception (RX) The righthand sec-tion of Fig2 shows one way in which thesecond pair of probes can be used AnthonyClark says that there are also some tech-niques that use five probes ndash with push-pullTX across two and the fifth becoming agrounded reference perhaps

There are several ways in which four

probes are used in relation to each otherand each with its own merits Their use isoutlined later but no quality judgement isoffered here on their appropriateness to

various survey situations ndash but it is worthnoting that Clark considers the Twin-Probetechnique to be the most favoured forarchaeological surveying although theWenner technique is said to provide moredetailed results Nick in his extensive useof the prototype adopted the Twin-Probetechnique

The Twin-Probe and Wenner techniqueswere outlined in Robert Beckrsquos article andwere used in the authorrsquos garden tests withthis Logger They will be discussed in Part2 in a bit more detail Suffice to say for themoment both involve placing in the soil areference probe that is connected to the cir-cuitrsquos 0V line (common ground) This isregarded as one half of the TX probes pair

To the other TX probe is fed the alter-nating voltage or current evenly swingingas a square wave above and below the 0Vreference value The function of the TXprobes is to set up a field of potential gra-dient in the soil which is then sampled bythe RX probes

The RX probes are positioned at dis-tances away from the TX probes as dictat-ed by the probing technique being usedThey are connected to the twin inputs of adifferential amplifier whose output signalamplitude is determined by the differencein the two input levels It is this signalwhich is then monitored by the controlcircuit

It is not even necessary to use specialprobes any metal object that does not cor-rode and can be inserted into the soil with

a wire attached willdo The probes donrsquoteven need to beinserted very far justenough to penetratethe soil to makeelectrical contactwith its moistness

It will be obviousof course that drysoil will be lesscapable of passing acurrent than moistsoil Keep in mindthat the surface ofthe soil can dry outfaster than thatbelow it and so areasonable amount

of penetration should be allowed RobertBeck allows 200mm with his probe struc-tures discussed in Part 2

With some sites it may be necessary toevenly damp the soil with water beforeadequate probing can begin

13The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

almost irrelevant to the main aspects of soilmonitoring So first letrsquos look at the powersupply requirements and the simple trans-mission circuit both illustrated in Fig3

As said in Table 1 the power can origi-nate from any dc source (eg battery)ranging between about 9V and 15V This isinput via diode D1 to the +5V voltage reg-ulator IC1 The diode prevents distress tothe circuit in the event of the battery beingconnected with the wrong polarity

The regulated +5V output from IC1powers the main PIC-controlled circuitwhich must not receive a supply signifi-cantly greater than +5V It also providesthe positive power to the TX and RX cir-cuits Both of these circuits additionallyneed an equivalent negative supply This isgenerated from the +5V line by the voltageinverting chip IC2 which outputs a voltageof close to ndash5V

Opamp IC3 is the device which feeds the

137Hz alternating signal to one TX probe(the ldquoactiverdquo TX probe) As previously said

the other TX probe is connected to the 0Vpower line IC3 is configured as a compara-tor whose inverting input (pin 2) is tied tothe potential divider chain formed by equal-value resistors R1 and R2 The resistors areconnected across the +5V and 0V lines andthe voltage at their junction is thus 2middot5V

The non-inverting input (pin 3) of IC3 isconnected to one of the PIC microcon-trollerrsquos output pins (RA2) and is fed witha 137Hz square wave generated by thesoftware and which alternates between+5V and 0V As this square wave repeated-ly crosses above and below the 2middot5V refer-ence voltage IC3rsquos comparator actiontakes place and its output (pin 6) alternatesbetween the devicersquos upper and lower volt-age limits ie swinging between about+4V and ndash4V

Note that the opamp to which the TXprobes are connected (IC3) is short-circuitprotected internally and is unlikely to suf-fer if the probes accidentally come intocontact with each other while the power isswitched on However do not sustain suchcontact since it could cause regulator IC1to get hot and it will shorten the batterycharge life

Depending on the probing technique

used experienced geophysicists can deter-mine not only the subterranean density butalso its possible composition This isapparently achieved by pre-setting the cur-rent which flows between the two TXprobes

Robert discussed this in the rsquo97 textreferring to the technique as providing aldquoconstant currentrdquo It would appearthough that his circuit did not provide aconstant current in the literal sense ndash samecurrent flowing irrespective of resistiveconditions ndash but rather it provided a currentlimit It is the same limiting approach thathas been taken in this Logger design

The output from IC3 can be switched byS2 to the active TX probe via one of fivepaths These comprise a direct unlimitedpath and four limiting paths via resistorsR3 to R6 in order of 10 100 1k and10k

Readers are referred to the publicationslisted in Part 2 for information on resis-tive path use The field tests performed by

B19V

RESISTANCEOUTPUT

7660IC2 NC

NC

NC OUT

LV

OSC

+VE

C

GND

C+

NC

78L05IC1IN OUT

COM

+

+

+

ONOFF

S1

C122micro

C2100n

C3100na

kD1

1N4001

C422micro

C522micro

R2100k

SEE TEXT

R1100k

+IC3TL071

2

3

7

4

6

R610k

R51k

R4100Ω

R310Ω

TO RA2

S2TO SK2

(C1 WHITE)(FREQUENCY)

SK1(C2 BLACK)

0V

5V

+5V

2

4

1

8

7

6

5

3

Fig3 Power supply and transmission interface circuit for the Earth Resistivity Logger

LINES OFEQUAL POTENTIAL

CURRENT FLOWLINES

CURRENTSOURCE

A) B)

mA

MEASUREDPOTENTIAL

V

Fig2 How current flowing between two probes is detected bya second pair

34

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 35: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

2003-04pdf

the author and Nick Tile were carried outvia the direct TX path (Nick says he hasnot found the switchable resistance facil-ity to be useful) In this role the signalamplitude across the TX probes is pickedup by the RX probes simply as an alter-nating signal whose amplitude variesaccording to the soil density it has to passthrough

The receiving circuit is shown in Fig4

The twin RX probes and their received dccoupled signals are connected via bufferingresistors R7 and R8 to the respective inputsof the differential amplifier formed initial-ly around opamps IC4a and IC4b and hav-ing a gain of three The outputs from theseopamps are summed still as dc signalsby opamp IC4c which provides unity gain

The resulting signal represents thedifference between the two input signallevels It is now ac coupled via capacitor

C6 to the amplifying stage around IC4dHere the gain can be switched by S3between times1 times10 and times100 In the proto-typersquos garden tests the times1 gain wassatisfactory across the maximum probeseparation distance that the dense gardenflower beds would allow (11 metres) Nicksays he prefers the times10 setting

At this stage the signal is swingingabove and below 0V It has to be shifted sothat it only swings between 0V and +5V atthe maximum extremes to suit the PICmicrocontrollerrsquos limits This is achievedby ac coupling the signal via capacitor C7to the level-shifting potential dividerformed by resistors R22 and R23 DiodesD4 and D5 limit the maximum voltageswing then fed to the PIC preventing itfrom swinging above or below the PICrsquoslimits of acceptance

It will be seen that two additional signalpaths are provided from the output ofIC4ab and consist of resistors R16 and

R17 plus diodes D2 and D3 These are notpart of the required analogue processingcircuit but were included for use duringsoftware development Their function willbe described presently

The PIC-controlled processing circuit is

shown in Fig5 At its heart is a PIC16F876microcontroller IC5 manufactured byMicrochip It is run at 3middot6864MHz as setby crystal X1 The frequency may seemunusual but crystals tuned to it are stan-dard products Its choice provides greateraccuracy of the baud rate at which thelogged data is output to the computer

The software-generated 137Hz squarewave pulse train is output via pin RA2 andfed to the TX opamp IC3 in Fig3

Pin RA3 is the pin to which the level-shifted signal output from IC4d is inputThe pin is configured by the software as ananalogue-to-digital converter (ADC)

Everyday Practical Electronics April 2003 291

R71k

R81k

R10100k

R9100k

R11100k

R1610k

R1710k

R12100k

R14100k

R15100k

R13100k

R1810k

R211M

R20100k

R1910k

+

+

++

IC4aTL074

IC4bTL074

IC4cTL074 IC4d

TL074

9

10

8

11

5

6

7

4

2

3

1+C622micro

TO RA0

TO RA1

a aa

a

k kk

k

D21N4148

D31N4148

D51N4148

D41N4148

0V 0V

5V

+5V

TO SK3(P1 YELLOW)

TO SK4(P2 GREEN)

13

12

14

C7470n

R23100k

R22100k

VOUTTO RA3

GAIN

S3

Fig4 Differential amplifier that receives amplifies and conditions the RX probes signal prior to sending to the ADC input of thePIC microcontroller

RA0AN0

RA1AN1

RA2AN2VREF-

RA3AN3VREF+

RA4TOCK1

RA5AN4SS

OSC1CLKIN

OSC2CLKOUT

MCLRGND

+VE

GND

T1OSOT1CKIRC0

T1OSICCP2RC1

CCP1RC2

SCKSCLRC3

SDISDARC4

SDORC5

TXCKRC6

RXDTRC7

INTRB0

RB1

RB2

PGMRB3

RB4

RB5

PGCLKRB6

PGDARB7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28PIC16F876

14

3

2

1

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

D7D7

D6D6

D5D5

D4D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

EE

RWGND

+VE

+VE

CX

CX

X2LCD

MODULE

RSRS

A0

A1

A2

GND

+V

WP

SCL

SDA

IC624LC256

UP DOWN MODE DOWNLOAD

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

CONTRAST

S4 S5 S6 S7

SAVETEST

S9 S8

0V VPP DATA CLK

TO IC7 PIN 11RS232

NC

IC5

36864MHzX1

1N4148D6

0V

0V

TB1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

R2810k

R3010k

R2910k

R2410k VR1

10k

k

a

C810p

C910p

R2610k

R2710k

R251k

+5V

0V

TO R16

T0 R17

F OUT

TO D4D5

TB2 PROGRAMMER

R3110k

Fig5 PIC-controlled processing display and data storage circuit

35

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 36: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

2003-05pdf

There are numerous archaeological websites with bulletin boards and ldquochat-zonesrdquoon-line if you search through the excellentwwwgooglecom or other quality internetsearch engines It is worth noting thoughthat Anthony Clark considers the Twin-Probe technique to be that most suitable toarchaeological work and is the one usedby Nick with his surveys

With all techniques the area to be sur-veyed is first marked out as a grid withtapes or similar to form squares havingsides of say one metre in length (this is acommonly quoted distance in this context)and probably forming a 20 times 20 matrixedarea see Fig8

Anthony Clark comments that plasticcovered clothes line is also useful for set-ting out a grid matrix He cautions thoughthat it can be difficult to untangle and onone site he knows of it had to be ldquoguardedin the presence of sheep by whom it wasregarded as a rare delicacyrdquo

The Twin-Probe technique is apparently

more suited to initial surveying of a siteestablishing whether or not it is worth car-rying out a more detailed survey

With this method the two probes C1 andP1 are inserted into the ground sufficientto make electrical contact with it (see earli-er) centrally to and somewhat outside thearea to be surveyed Anthony Clark dis-cusses the best distance in his book

Probe C1 is the transmitting probe con-nected to the comparator IC3 via switchS2 Probe P1 is one of the receiving probesconnected to the input of opamp IC4a

Probes C2 and P2 are inserted into theground to a similar depth at the far cor-ners of the first square to be monitored saytop left coordinate R0C0 (row 0 column0) Probe C2 is the 0V reference probe andP2 is connected to the input of opampIC4b The respective leads from the Logger

are then connected to the probes usingheavy duty crocodile clips seems theeasiest method

The Loggerrsquos storage coordinates are setto suit the square number ie to R0C0 inthis case and a reading saved to theLoggerrsquos serial EEPROM by pressingswitch S8

The C2P2 probes are then moved to thetop corners of the next square to the rightfor example to be monitored and its coor-dinates set into the Logger in this caseR0C1 Again a reading is stored to theEEPROM

The process continues fully across hori-zontally for the width of the marked surveyarea eg R0C19 (the final column of thisrow in a 20 times 20 grid) The probes are thenmoved down by one row and the processrepeated to the left this time back toR1C0 And then down by another row andso on for all 400 squares

1313Note that the relative order of all probe

connections must be maintained during thesurvey Differences in reading can result ifthe order is changed hence the earlier rec-ommendation that the plugs and crocodileclips should be colour-coded

In practice it does not matter in whichdirection you move the probes or whetheryou start the survey from the top of the gridor the bottom Note that the PC screenregards location 00 as being at top left ofthe screen

ldquoBe methodical and consistentrdquo seems tobe the key phrase though ndash this helps youto establish a routine that becomes secondnature which the author soon found whenstarting his own mini surveys

It was also soon found that it is not nec-essary to move both probes on each occa-sion Since one is already at the corner ofthe next square it is only necessary tomove the probe from the corner now

finished with putting it in the next squarersquosopposite top corner and swap the probeleads to retain the correct order

The author surveyed his garden severaltimes in different ways during designdevelopment and on each occasionbecame faster at doing so On the final sur-vey on an 11 times 7 grid (77 samples) it tookabout an hour and half

Of course during the process of doingthe test surveys several methods for speed-ing it were imagined For a solitary survey-or perhaps the most efficient in terms ofspeed would be to insert separate probes ateach corner of the matrix prior to takingreadings It would then only be required torepeatedly change the lead connections ndash aseemingly much faster ldquoconveyor beltrdquosystem No doubt though having an assis-tant would probably make the moving ofjust two probes a speedy alternative

A perhaps less practical method was(bizarrely) thought up too ndash using amotorised vehicle like a golf buggy withprobes attached to the wheels in Boadiceafashion This would then be driven backand forth across the grid the probes auto-matically inserting themselves and trigger-ing the storing of each reading at thecorrect coordinates (Well ndash a chap candream canrsquot he)

Another seemingly useful technique is

known as the Wenner configuration In thismethod the four probes are arranged in astraight line equally spaced apart say ametre between them Fig8b shows theorder of arrangement

This method is apparently better suitedto doing a more detailed survey of thematrixed grid site The principle is that theTX probes are the outer two The RXprobes are in line between them The cur-rent flows across the TX pair and is pickedup across the RX pair the received signalvalue varying with the resistance in serieswith the probes in a more direct fashionthan with the twin-probe technique

A variant of this technique theSchlumberger in which the probes are notequally spaced is discussed in AnthonyClarkrsquos book But he regards it as not ide-ally suited to archaeological surveying

Another method is known as the Square

Array in Anthony Clarkrsquos book With thismethod the TX and RX pairs are placed atthe corners of the one metre squares asshown in Fig8c The four probes aremoved as a set from square to square

The transmission signal flows betweenthe TX pair as before This time the RXpair pick up the radiated signal at the samedistance from the TX probes If the soilresistance between the TX and RX pairs isuniform so too will be the amplitude of thesignal received by both RX probes

Tests showed that because the probes areconnected to a differential amplifier if thetwo input amplitudes are the same theywill cancel each other out at the final com-bining stage (IC4c)

If on the other hand the amplitudes arenot the same the difference between themis that which will be finally output fromIC4c In this case what would be lookedfor is any difference values indicating theedge of a subterranean feature

364 Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003

BASIC GRID LAYOUT ALSOSHOWING TWIN-PROBEEXAMPLE POSITIONS

THESE PROBES ARE MOVEDBETWEEN COORDINATE NODES

00

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

7

7

8

8

9

9

10

10

11

11

12

12

13

13

14

14

15

15

16

16

17

17

18

18

19

19ROWCOLUMN

C2 P2AT COORDINATES

R19C3

SEE TEXTFOR DISTANCE

C1 P1THESE PROBES REMAIN IN FIXED POSITION

A GRID MATRIX OF SQUARES IS COMMON TO ALL NORMAL SURVEY METHODSTHE ABOVE ALSO SHOWS EXAMPLE POSITIONS FOR PROBES IN THETWIN-PROBE TECHNIQUE

PLACING PROBES AT THE GRID INTERSECTIONS ASSISTS REGIMENTATIONOF THE SURVEY TECHNIQUE

SQUARES TYPICALLY HAVE SIDES MEASURING 1 METRE

C1

C1

P1

P1

P2

P2

C2

C2

WENNER ARRAY

SQUARE ARRAY

PROBES EQUIDISTANT

PROBES C1 AND P1 REMAIN IN FIXED POSITIONPROBES C2 AND P2 TRAVERSE THE GRID

Fig8 A 20 x 20 grid layout with Twin-Probe example positions and the positioningof the probes in Wenner and Square arrays

36

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 37: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

2003-05pdf

Everyday Practical Electronics May 2003 365

It is evident however that balanced(zero) readings when the two input valuesare equal would only indicate the unifor-mity of the terrain in that grid It would notindicate whether that uniformity was dueto a highly resistive feature or a highlyconductive one Nonetheless the detectionof only outlines might in itself be a desir-able situation

A variant of this technique would be toplace the two TX probes at one end of acolumn and the RX pair at the other tak-ing a reading and moving both pairs to thenext column still at the top and bottompoints This could perhaps yield initialinformation about whether or not a site isworth examining more closely Not beingan archaeologist though the author can-not comment on the validity of this

Anthony Clark discusses the abovenamed probing techniques in more detailand describes others

During garden tests with the prototype

Logger individual metal rods measuringabout one metre long by 5mm diameterand with a right-angled bend at the topwere used as the probes These were pur-chased inexpensively from a garden cen-tre their intended use being to supportplants

A recently observed but not triedpossibility was in the form of long inex-pensive barbecue skewers ndash seen in a localsupermarket

If you wish to construct purpose-builtprobe structures of more durability andperhaps greater ease of use the probe

assemblies describedby Robert Beckshould be consideredSchematics of theoriginal figures illus-trating these probeshave been redrawnand are repeated hereOther than the fol-lowing details noadditional informa-tion can be offered

Robertrsquos rigidframe assembly fortwo probes is shownin Fig9 Details ofhis single probe aregiven in Fig10

His original textstates that the Twin-Probe assembly wasspecially developedand that its top mem-ber is a wooden bat-ten 30mm times 50mm times1050mm the ends ofwhich are bound withself-amalgamatingtape to form handgrips

An aluminiumplatform is attachedto the centre of thisbatten to carry thecase that holds theelectronics secured by rubber bands Thebottom member is a similar wooden bat-ten but this piece must have good insulat-ing properties (to prevent current leakagebetween the probes) He suggests that you

either dry and coat the batten with varnishor devise insulating collars of Tuffnol orsimilar material and fit them where theprobes go through the batten

The top and bottom battens are heldtogether by metal conduit pipes threadedat each end and secured by lock-nuts

In describing the construction of theother probes he says that none of theirdimensions are critical and may be dictat-ed by what is to hand In Fig10a is showna substantial probe made out of stainlesssteel tubing with a brazed on T-handle andtip which assist soil penetration Thisprobe is designed to be used by the opera-tor in the standing position

A smaller version of Fig10a is shown inFig10b This has a 4mm screw terminaladded an alternative method of wireconnection

Probes may be constructed of materialother than stainless steel which is expen-sive and a little difficult to obtain he says(provided it is corrosion resistant ofcourse)

An extremely simple probe is shown inFig10c and which may be constructedfrom 6mm diameter metal rod ie brazingor uncoated welding rod mild steel silversteel etc A depth guide consisting of aband of paint or insulating tape is addedand connections are made to the top usinga crocodile clip

The depth stop in Fig10d is adjustableby means of an Allen key The materialneed not be insulating and could be ofmetal if desired

13Since finalising the Earth Resistivity

Logger Part One for publication lastmonth reader Joe Farr has provided EPEwith a specially written SerialIOOCXprogram that allows legal access to VisualBasicrsquos own serial control IO facilities

170mm 100mm

15mm

20mm

250mm

250mm

250mmTUFNOLCOLLAR

TUFNOLCOLLAR

A) A)

930mm

330mm

330mm

B)

B)

SCREW TERMINALWITH 4mm SOCKET

BAND OFPAINT OR

TAPE

TUFNOLCOLLAR

HOLE FOR PROBETO PASS THROUGH

120

0BA TAPPED HOLESTO RECEIVE SOCKETHEAD GRUB SCREWS

D)

Fig10 Construction details of Robert Beckrsquos probes

NOTE THE UPPER AND LOWER HORIZONTAL RAILSARE OF WOOD tHE LOWER RAIL SHOULD BE DRIED ANDVARNISHED tHE L-SHAPED ALUMINIUM BRACKET IS TO

SUPPORT THE RESISTIVITY METER

4mm PLUGS TO CONNECTTO RESISTIVITY METER

METAL CONDUIT PIPETHREADED AT BOTH ENDS

SOLDER TAGS

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

THIS AREATAPED TO

FORMHANDLE

L-SHAPEDALUMINIUMBRACKET

500mm

200mm

800mm

PROBE C2 PROBE P2

30mm

30mm

1000mm

1050mm

Fig9 Support frame for the Twin Probe configuration used by Robert Beck

37

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 38: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

GSRplants

plot notes

live plotting with minicomgnuplot

minicom is set to 9600 baud - set logging to file called test2run looper as followsgnuplotiquest a=0 gnuplotiquest load ldquorootcollect2011psychfieldeffectsoftwarelooperrdquo

plotting with python

python wx_mpl_dynamic_graphpy

or use in plotmon dir

python plotting_data_monitorpy

gnuplot notes

basic plot

plot 201201171520resultslog w lines

plotting only a section

plot [10][300] 201201171520resultslog w lines

set output to a png

set term png size 1024768

set output rootcollect2011psychlogimagestestpng

and set title set xlabel set ylabel as further commands

38

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 39: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

for earthboot (mod to measure)

find mod somewhere in 2011

bull earth measurement

using plotting data monitorpy in

rootcollect2011psychwalkerpsychogeophysics-walkersoftwareplotmon

(first remember to expand window of app)

bull earthboot

(program hold middle two jumpered jumper briefly edge 2 and releasemiddle 2)

ndash earthboot audio version is in

rootcollect2012earthearthcodeearthbootLUFA 091223DemosDeviceLowLevelVirtualSerial

pipe business

one in 2011 seems for measurement

ndash earthboot itself is in

˜collect2011psychcrystalworldearthcodeearthbootearthboot

for newskry plots

Newskry reads in order ad8313lowfigsr tempProcess usingfilecollect2011psychstudiessummit2011softwaregpsgsrpy

39

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 40: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

October 10

555 VCO

R2 as 1M for lower frequencies

40

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 41: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

741 VCO (from elektor elektroskop design mai 77)

41

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 42: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

With 10n and 680n substitutions works well

Wheatstone with transistor

Also works well with BC547bc 10K instead of 47K (and Followed byLM358 inverting op-amp [two 1K resistors into + - in and 1M poti for feed-backgain) Can also have emitter of transistor into VCO (ignore bridge)

Question is if it can drive mirror galvanometer

AD620

See also

42

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 43: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

and

43

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 44: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

and maybe use +-5v

44

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 45: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

GSR

Modded for op07

45

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46

Page 46: The Garage Log2 (August to October 2012)

Again test with mirror galvo

October 18

At foam see all online libarynth noteshttplibfoamsilent dialogues notes201210181504resultslog - first leaf test with no amplification201210181530resultslog - 50x616 and 557 with GND in earth201210181741resultslog (with second set of wrapped electrodes)

2 earthboots2 channels

play -t raw -r 44100 -u -b 8 -c 1 ~pipel -t raw -r 44100

-u -b 8 -c 1 ~piper --channels 2 -M

metaphase typewriter

quantumpy

but what sort of data does it expect - numerical in relation to len(probb)

46