[dba-Tech] Has anyone kickstarted?

Fri Mar 13 06:29:08 CDT 2015

The spectrum analyzer is on the way. I will likely be joining one of 
those "maker space" things, though there are none local so it will be a 
drive to get there.  That will give me access to 3D printers and such.  
I need to do a good prototype and do some extensive testing.  There is a 
lot of absorption spectrometry going on now that this inexpensive widget 
is available.

It "feels" like this should work.  It is something that I personally 
want and would just pay for if it already existed.

I have in fact found a company doing something similar, though they only 
test for hardness and Ammonia, not PH, Nitrate or Nitrite. They do cover 
water temp. logging etc.  Slickly packaged and a slick web page. Lots of 
add-ons and consumables to drive the price up. They also do what appears 
to be a submersible camera probe (extra cost add-on) to do light 
analysis at the bottom of the aquarium.

All of which gives me hope that the idea does in fact have legs.  I have 
the programming chops to do computer analysis and automation.

One way or the other it will be a fun project.

John W. Colby

On 3/13/2015 3:07 AM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
> Hi John:
>
> This looks like a Kickstarter project that has legs. It is hardly as smooth a sales video as many of the most popular supported products but it would seem that a good video production individual could put a real professional presentation together.
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John W. Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>, jwcolby at gmail.com
> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 12:08:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Has anyone kickstarted?
>
> Visible spectrum analysis of lights (LEDs, florescent etc) is widely
> talked about (and done) in the aquarium community. Basically shine a
> light of interest on a spectrum analyzer and measure the strength of the
> light at various frequencies.  A kickstarter project built an
> inexpensive analyzer using a diffraction grid plastic, a shaped (dark)
> box and a cell phone camera.  Use the cell phone to run software to
> display (and graph) the resulting spectrum.
>
> http://publiclaboratory.org/wiki/spectrometer
>
> Measuring various properties of aquarium water (inexpensively) uses
> measured vials of water (5ml), adding various "number of drops" of one
> or more titrating liquids. You then compare the resulting liquid color
> to a color card to determine the amount of the substance being
> measured.  You can buy kits which measure PH (High and low), Amonia,
> Nitrite and Nitrate.  The process involves taking 4 water samples. then
> dropping the correct number of drops of various things into each sample,
> comparing the resulting colors to an included card.
>
> For anyone who has actually done this... it is an inexact science to say
> the least.  The color cards contain shades which are difficult
> (impossible) to really accurately gauge when holding the tube against
> the card.  As an example, the Amonia test is really yellow turning to
> green, but it is basically impossible to tell which of three shades your
> tube matches.  In this example, any three adjacent shades are close
> enough together (to the eye) that "who knows".  And yet for example, one
> is 1 PPM (borderline bad), the next is 2 PPM (bad) the next is 4 PPM (do
> a water change NOW, do not stop for dinner).
>
> So all you really get is a range.  Unfortunately one end of that range
> is non-toxic, the other is toxic as hell.
>
> So...
>
> Take the tubes of water, beam light through them and measure the
> resulting color intensity with a spectrum analyzer using a camera and
> software.  If the light intensity is known and stable (a white LED), the
> sample is placed in a dark chamber so only light from the LED can pass
> through the sample (and not leak around the sample), the distance from
> the sample to the diffraction box is stable, and the distance from the
> diffraction grid to the camera is stable (and doesn't leak light) then
> you should be able to accurately and reliably measure intensity and
> color of light through the sample.
>
> Reliable analysis.
>
> If you can automate the process, you get automated reliable analysis.
> Twice a day (week, month) measurement of all measurable parameters.
> Throw in water temp.  Throw in logging.  Throw in Wifi and a browser
> interface.  Heck, throw in automated dosing of chemicals to correct the
> issue.
>
> The first part (measuring the color) is relatively simple. Automation is
> not.
>
> I am ordering the USB Desktop analyzer and will then build a little box
> to hold the sample vials such that light is forced through the vials
> (not around) and a powerful white LED as a light source.  I will then
> test the measuring concept with this widget.  If it works then I can
> reliably measure my own aquarium water.
>
> If it works, that is where kickstarter would come in, commercializing
> this.  There is a pretty large community out there of folks doing
> aquariums, even high end aquariums.  Lots of people, lots of money.
>   From what I can tell, and I have done a lot of reading, everyone just
> uses the liquid tests.  So selling into a high end market where people
> already use and are comfortable with these tests, but providing really
> accurate measuring, logging etc seems like a viable business.
>
> John W. Colby
>
> On 3/12/2015 12:28 PM, Jim Lawrence wrote:
>> Hi John:
>>
>> Sounds exciting...so maybe you can give us a hint of what type of project you are thinking of?
>>
>> Sorry, no experience other than contributing occasionally.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "John W. Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com>
>> To: "DBA Tech" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 7:41:23 AM
>> Subject: [dba-Tech] Has anyone kickstarted?
>>
>> Has anyone ever done a kickstarter project?  If so email me off line. Or
>> discuss general details here of how it works.
>>
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