Wednesday 13 July 2011

A simple magnetometer for detecting auroral activity

I've been playing with the idea of creating a simple magnetometer which can be used for detecting times when the aurora might be visible. AuroraWatch UK already provides a service for this, with email and Twitter alerts. The AuroraWatch web pages also show how to build a simple pop-bottle magnetometer, and a compass detector, but I wanted something which could easily output digital data. Now I've found a suitable sensor, I've started building a prototype using the open-source Arduino micro-controller platform.The recent Howduino workshop at Lancaster was very helpful in finding (and fixing) a few bugs in the DHCP support.

Arduino with protoyping shield 

A short test at home didn't reveal much, except that cars cause far too much disturbance to the magnetic field. The next test will be at a more remote location but first I need to extend the sensor lead and add some buffering and protection circuitry. It's unlikely I'll have a network connection for time keeping so using NTP won't be possible so I'll probably add a real-time clock.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Steve. Do you have instructions to set this up? I live in an area with decent auroral activity, so this could be real fun to try out. Cheers.

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    Replies
    1. The entire system has been developed considerably since this first post, for more recent information see http://blog.stevemarple.co.uk/search/label/Magnetometer
      There's a manual which will give you an idea of the system, http://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/manual
      Drop me an email for me information before you start construction since there are various build options to choose.

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