On the 12th of May, the PICAXE team have finally implemented the PICAXE technology into the ground water level measuring pipes. We have 3 pipes set up around the school, each have a PICAXE Transmitter in it, transmitting the ground water level data wirelessly to the three opposite receivers. From that we can know the accurate ground water level around Tahuna with the five-dollar PICAXE broadboards.

The first challenge we met was to put the pipes in the ground. Because far as we know, there are... Some Dunedin city sewer lines below Tahuna. But Mr. Boyes showed his bravery and drilled three holes out of some careful selected places. One's behind the Tech rooms, one's beside the bars, and one's below the A Frame. The second challenge was to actually code the PICAXE and set the electronic parts correctly. We met the problem of the receivers not picking up any data which they should. That was because the "Data" pin of the antenna was going nowhere, so it couldn't output the data.

There's still one little problem is that the temperature inside the pipes was still, so a little change could cause rain on the broadboard. We have temporarily slowed down the issue by putting the PICAXE in a well-sealed box, and putting wood blocks on top of the box. But that would not solve the problem completely. We have a solution ready to implement. That would be the Tahuna Ground Water Monitor Version 2.0!

It's very interesting how much these little computers can do with all the accessories. The technology we are using for this project is the Radio Transmitter, also we reference it as the "Tahuna Protocol" or the "Radio Protocol". It uses the radio antenna to transfer data and uses the Unique ID we give each connection (A, B, C) to identify which signal to send and receive. That way the Radio Receivers will not receive other transmitter's signals. Therefore we can have three going all at once. And the battery used by the PICAXE is actually very little, so we think that it would approximately last for at least months!

If you are interested in what we are doing in Design Tech, feel free to go to Mr. Boyes, and I believe he'll be very pleased to explain what we are doing.

-By Ray Ma.

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