[aklug] Looking for programming help

 Hello,
I'm looking for someone, preferably in the Anchorage area or Mat-Su, who can
help me with a project to test performance of two simple home-built solar
thermal panels -- one for air, the other for water. The goal is to measure
both input (solar insolation from a pyranometer) and output (usable heat
collected by the panel) and to correlate them. A summary description of the
panels and the test design are pointed to below.

Tasks will include monitoring temperature and pyranometer data, and
uploadingfor analysis. It will also include some basic control functions
(e.g. turning a fan or pump on and off, based on temperature sensor input,
etc -- a simple thermostat). I also want to serve the live data to the web
--(using, e.g., something like rrdtool[1]?)

Hardware purchased and experimented with so far includes a LabJack U3 (16
channel 12-bit A/D converter, connects to host computer via USB -- see link
below), temperature sensors and SSR's (solid state relays).

Labjack has drivers for Windows, Linux &Mac, plus sample code in a number of
different languages. It also comes bundled with a basic (but adequate for
this project) data acquisition app called DaqFactory Express -- but it is a
MS Windows product only. Easiest would probably be to go with DaqFactory,
but my preference (so far anyway, -- pending more info) would be Linux and
custom scripts (maybe python?)

Total inputs ~ 13 (10 analog, 3 digital).
Total outputs ~ 6 digital (control SSR's)

Supporting info:
http://labjack.com/support
[2]http://www.azeotech.com/daqexpress.php[3]
http://biorealis.com/files/SolarPanelTestDesignSummary.pdf[4] (717KB PDF)
http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/[5].

What I'm wondering is: (1) is there anyone locally interested and available,
and (2) about how much would something like this be likely to cost.

Thanks

Bob Crosby

--- Links ---
   1 http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/
   2 http://labjack.com/support
   3 http://www.azeotech.com/daqexpress.php
   4 http://biorealis.com/files/SolarPanelTestDesignSummary.pdf
   5 http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/
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Received on Thu Jan 7 18:52:03 2010