The Seismic Reflector

Step 4 Putting it all together, Final thoughts

There are a couple of things left to mention, firstly there is a problem with power.  Even though I'm using transistors to protect the pins on the arduino, quite often the current being sucked by the motors causes the arduino to reset.  The obvious solution here is to power the motors directly, not through the arduino pins, and that's what I'll be doing in the next version of the hardware.

The reason I'll be doing this as a next step is that I'm also planning on ditching USB both as a means of power, and serial.  Instead I'll be powering the device from batteries (4xAA cells most likely) and using Xbee's for a wireless serial link.  This will achieve the ambition of having the device as a stand alone object, not seemingly thethered.  I'll have to find a nice enclosure for it too.

Finally, I'd just like to stress that this project is about empathising in some small way with victims of earthquakes.  I'm not trying to make light of peoples anguish or suffering, and I'm not trying to play on peoples fears of an impending "big one".  I do not experience many earthquakes where I live, but I know a lot of people around the world (specifically around the Med and the Pacific) do.  This is my attempt to understand that feeling a bit better. Thanks for reading!

Jim