Category: Projects

First trial of the capsule for the ERGOnaut Mini at the Euclid Labs dock (check us out on the ERGO map: http://data.ergotelescope.org/map/google_earth).

What they figured out:
1.  The ERGOnaut Mini can be much simpler–just a G-M detector with clicker and an audio MP3 recorder.  Simple, cheap, and small.

2.  The first trial of the steel pipe fitting design worked great, except for one thing:  after four days submerged at 2 meters it had about a half inch of water inside.  That should be similar to an hour at 200 meters, so we need to make that better (but they’re close!).

Alex Mattaway (RISD ’19) has been working on the industrial design for the enclosure for our next-generations pixels.  Here’s the first try.  It’s a 3D-printed model, but the final version will be a custom aluminum extrusion and molded front and rear covers.  It’s going to look very slick, and will be a stylish and durable enclosure for pixels to come.

Well, with lots of help from Jim and Daniel, we have the first, complete ERGO EtherMega pixel (the Gen3 configuration) up and running, supplying data to Jim’s experimental database.  This is a major step forward for Gen3.

We’re experimenting with a new particle detector, based on a special light-sensitive “PIN” diode.  We’ve adapted a circuit from Elektor, and we’ve started to experiment with it.  We’re hoping to develop an inexpensive, low-power detector that works as well as or better than the Geiger-Müller tubes we’ve been using in all the pixels.  If we can achieve reliable operation (not yet, but we’re trying), we’ll build a prototype board with an array of PIN diodes, trying to achieve a sensitive area similar in size to the G-M tubes.
Additional experimentation is being done to see if we can shield the G-M tubes to reduce their sensitivity to Earth-based radiation.  That might reduce the number of event detections that aren’t really cosmic-ray muons.

We have a big team working on the Lightning project this summer.  We’re trying to establish experimental evidence that lighting is triggered by cosmic-ray muon showers.  We finally gave up on the lightning detector boards we have been using, and we’re going with a custom-designed detector board based upon a known working design.  The team has prototyped it, and we’re starting to test.  So far, we know it works with a high-voltage spark transformer “Jacobs Ladder,” but we haven’t successfully recorded actual lightning strikes yet.
We have all the parts we need for the new design, and Simon is designing a custom PCB.  (see the article in Physics Today:  “Runaway Breakdown and the Mysteries of Lightning”)

Those of you following the project will remember the ERGOnaut deep-sea diver pixel that we lost off the coast of Florida last November.  We realized that with all the technology we’ve developed lately (Arduinos, shields, and detector circuits) we could make a new ERGOnaut that is WAY smaller (and less expensive to build).  Matt C and his intern team is building a new ERGOnaut Mini using standard high-pressure pipe fittings, Simon’s tiny ERGOduino, and a compact battery to make a diver capable of a few thousand feet depth and weighing only ten pounds or so.