On April 9, I got to Skype chat with a Yale student based in China. He's working in China on a device, the NODE, that monitors its surrounding environment and reports that info back to cell phones. The applications are endless! After our Skype conversation, he expressed interest in writing a post for WheresTheSolar. Here it is:
Gordon with some friends and the NODE in Southern Africa |
We put our engineering hats on and realized that a
solution to all these challenges could be achieved by combining a few “maker” technologies – an Arduino and a cell phone.
We further realized that such a device could be tailored to many different fields through the addition of different sensors and attachments: a rain gauge and soil moisture sensor for the farming collective or a GPS unit and set of temperature probes for the blood bank shipment. Our concept was a device that was both low cost and rapidly scalable--a stark contrast to the previous standard of highly specialized and expensive devices.
A close up of NODE |
We further realized that such a device could be tailored to many different fields through the addition of different sensors and attachments: a rain gauge and soil moisture sensor for the farming collective or a GPS unit and set of temperature probes for the blood bank shipment. Our concept was a device that was both low cost and rapidly scalable--a stark contrast to the previous standard of highly specialized and expensive devices.
With that concept, a year of effort, and a trip around the
world, NODE was born. We have piloted our device in Zimbabwe and
prepared for manufacturing in Shenzhen, China--a global capital of electronics manufacturing. We have found many clear links to solar energy
and solar technology for NODE. For example, a key use case for
the NODE can be supplying real time power and general
environmental data on a given solar installation over a cell phone network. With this data,
we would allow solar-focused organizations to quickly identify system
issues and troubleshoot remotely.
NODE with a Solar cells on top |
As you can see, Gordon is up to some really cool stuff. If you're interested in working with Gordon or simply want to learn more about his project, he would love to hear from you. Feel free to reach him at info@pivotech.co or +1 (484) 809-1025.
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