Hi Mike and All, 
Yes! Bring your temperature sensor kit. We can put it together in SF and try it 
out. I think for the parts kits I am assembling for folks to build, I'll go 
with the thermistor. It is less expensive and easier to find in time for the 
summit. It also doesn't need the additional usb cable for power supply to the 
sensor. I think people will appreciate lower cost solutions they can use in 
their deployments. There are also some interesting calibration lessons the 
students can do with the thermistor too. It will be interesting to compare 
yours, which uses the LM35D sensor, with the ones with thermistors.
You mentioned using heat shrink tubing. I have a small travel hair dryer that 
puts out really warm (actually hot) air. Do you think it might work for this?
I'm making the parts lists now and will work on locating an getting the stuff 
after the weekend. Some things are readily available locally, others may have 
to be ordered from a supply store that offers 2-day shipping. When I get the 
list finished for editing, sometime tomorrow, I'll send it out so people can 
check it over for me and make any needed corrections and suggestions. I would 
appreciate it if everyone with electronics experience could look it and make 
suggestions... even it you aren't coming to SF or are coming but don't want to 
build and play with sensors while you are there.
Caryl
P.S. Do you think TSA will blow up my luggage when they see all those wires and 
sensors in it???  
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 23:19:09 -0400
Subject: Re: [IAEP] It's Time to Sign Up For Sensors!
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Hi,
Looking forward to being in SF! I'm not ready to sit down for a sensor session, 
but here's a historical bit...
I found one of XOExplosion.com's temperature sensor kits from 2008 and just 
posted photos and their parts list to Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/sets/72157631756048008/with/8081515681/
Plan Ceibal's handout is a nice update of the wiki page:

http://www.reducativa.com/xo/man-sis-sensoresdetemperatura.pdf
I'll bring the kit. It looks like an assortment of heat shrink tubing is needed 
along with basic soldering supplies. I typically use a heat gun on shrink 
tubing, but a BIC lighter is quick and easy. You might want to check with 
Sameer if it's OK to use one of those. I think this video by Becky Stern of 
Adafruit demonstrates soldering in a snappy way:

http://youtu.be/yZkz_a52I6s?t=1m18s
Looking at some of the sensor documentation for Turtle Art, it looks like the 
use of a thermistor with two leads simplifies the assembly a bit, but the 
addition of a resistor or zener diode are suggested for XO-1.5 and XO-1.75.

Guzman's video of temperature graphing in Turtle Art is awesome. Are these 
project files available anywhere? Looking at his video surfaces the fact that 
there's much more to the sensor exercise than just soldering:

- Source parts and assemble the desired sensor- Test (and calibrate?) with the 
particular model of XO- Test with a specific project file for Turtle Art 
w/sensors, Scratch w/sensors, Physical Etoys, etc. 
- Create updated documentation and devise lesson plan ideas
I messed around with the temperature sensor briefly back in the simpler times 
of 2008. Now the solution matrix has grown quite a bit.

Mike

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Steve Thomas <[email protected]> wrote:

Unfortunately I will not be in SF, but I am very interested in Sensors.Perhaps 
I can attend or see the final results if you do presentations via Google 
Hangout?

I hope to be going to Haiti next March and plan to bring some lessons and an 
"engineering challenge" around the kids/adults building Solar Stills.  So 
temperature and humidity sensors would be good.  I would also be interested in 
ones we can hook in through an arduino (like the versions C. Scott Ananian 
designed) for data collection.



Thanks,Stephen

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 12:06 AM, Caryl Bigenho <[email protected]> wrote:






Hi Folks, It's crunch time!
STEM, SET, SCIB... no matter what you call it, the world is focusing more and 
more on science and technology in education. The XO is an ideal platform for 
furthering science education through hands-on student based experiments that 
will teach and/or reinforce science concepts from core curriculums. It is a 
perfect use of the XO for any deployment.




So far the following people have shown interest in doing something with sensors 
at the SF Summit and/or Sugar Camp.


Tony Anderson, Janissa Balcomb, Ed Bigenho, and myself.  Also, it is possible 
Nick Doiron and/or Alex Kleider can help us with the building.


Surely there must be more of you that are interested in this!


The plan is to make the sensors early on, maybe in free time, maybe at the 
Noisebridge makerspace, maybe at the Summit itself. That way, folks who aren't 
staying over for Sugar Camp will have the sensors to take home with them.  
Those people who are able to stay past Sunday will have a chance to experiment 
with the sensors and find ways to use them in science lessons, probably 
focusing on upper elementary to middle school science. These ideas will be 
shared with all who are interested, principally on the SugarLabs wiki.




Sensors we will probably  build will include temperature, light, and possibly 
one or two others. Once we know how to build and use them, it should be fairly 
easy to transfer what we learn to building others once we are home.




If you want to be a part of this, I need to know in time to get the supplies 
for you. I plan to make a trip to a large electronics store in the San Fernando 
Valley next week to purchase the parts we will need. Their prices are excellent 
and they will sell small quantities if needed.  My best guess is that most 
sensors can be made for $5 or less… maybe much less. That means your investment 
for one each of 4 different sensors would be $20 or less.




So… what I need to know is…


Do you want to be included in this project?


If yes, what days/dates  will you be in SF and what part of town are you 
staying in?


What sensors besides light and temperature are you interested in building?***


Ideally, how many sets of parts for each sensor would you like me to get for 
you? I don't have an endless pot of money and expect to be reimbursed, but I 
can probably put enough into this for everyone interested to have at least one 
of each, maybe more.




I will be making my shopping list for this over the weekend, so don't delay in 
making up your mind!! Just send me a reply to this email with your 
"reservation" and info.




Hope to see you in SF.
Caryl (aka SweetXOGrannie or GrannieB)


*** If you missed or misplaced the links to into about sensors, here is a list 
from the SugarLabs wiki and a link to a series of videos make by Trinidad 
Guzman who makes and uses a lot of sensors with his students in Uruguay. The 
narration is in Spanish, but if you know any science no language is needed!




http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art/Using_Turtle_Art_Sensors




http://www.youtube.com/user/guzmantrinidad?feature=watch                        
                  

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IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)

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_______________________________________________

IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)

[email protected]

http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

                                          
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