GSoC Weekly Report 5

The past week ( From Monday 16th to Sunday, 22nd June 2014) was really productive in terms of experimental setups and trials with python codes. My mentors offered all the help and guidance and were very  encouraging and helped me to speedup the things….

What We Could Do….

  • Started creating documents for experimental setups and procedures for mechanics experiments and a few sound experiments.
  • Made necessary changes in python programs for using SRF 05 sensor. Did the experiments on linear air track to obtain position -time plots.constant velocitypt graphconstantvelocitypt graphbounce
  • Ordered and received additional Ultrasonic sensors SRF 05. Did the testing work for all ten pieces of srf modules. They all are working good.
  • Wrote three programs for time measurement using photo-gates and explored the use of time measurement functions like r2rtime r2f time and multir2rtime and updated changes to Git repo.
  • On Wednesday, started giving finishing touch to the following experiments…. Frequency of Oscillations of Spiral Spring, Parallel and series combination helical springs and the resulting spring constant, Uniformly accelerated motion on an inclined plane, Conservation of momentum.
  • On Thursday, Continued working on giving finishing touch to the experiments..Had to spend a lot of time with photo-gates. The problem in accessing Light sensors (Photogates) is partially solved……… :) Now I am able to make time measurements using these light sensors.
  • Completed the setup and documentation for Spring oscillations experiments. Here are the screen shots of the experiment with spring oscillations..Screenshot from 2014-06-21 00:04:36Screenshot from 2014-06-20 23:55:05IMG_20140620_234908
  • One more positive development that has happened is…now we are able to access ExpEYES with android phone or tablets….Thanks to Jitin B.P. for this application.I could connect ExpEYES to my Micromax Canvas 4 Phone…the screen shots shows sine waves and square waves connected to different channels…. Now, our dream of providing an open source science pocket lab to every student has come closer to the reality.
  • Screenshot_2014-06-20-22-36-15Screenshot_2014-06-20-22-34-15
  • Wrote and commited some simple python programs required for time measurements and plots to git repo.
  • On Saturday, worked on an experiment to produce Lissajous figures using two square waves. Wrote Program in python and tested the same. Could obtain various Lissajous patterns.In the code we used Capture2 function from ExpEYES library to plot the figures. used two sine waves with a phase difference of 90 degrees.
  • lisawaveslissaellipse
  • On Sunday, continued to work on experiments to produce Lissajous Figures. Generated two square waves with a phase co relation between  them. Used Capture2 function to capture data and plot graphs. The figures are sensitive to phase difference and the ratio of frequencies.These are the patterns obtained……smooth curves can be obtained using sine waves…
  • lisa4lissa7lissa1lissa6lisa3lissa2
Difficulties Faced…
  • I was facing some difficulties in some experiments while using two photo-gates simultaneously for time measurements. The problem is partially solved. Need to fine a good and permanent solution. Ability to use two photo-sensors simultaneously can make many mechanics experiments easy.
  • For spring Oscillations experiment…difficulty in Fitting the curve to get frequency.
  • The smooth Lissajous Figures are expected if we use two sine waves instead of square waves. Working on the module to generate two sine  waves of variable frequency.

To Do………

  • Work on accessing Photo-sensors. Write necessary python code.
  • Write a code for fitting different curves.
  • Create a GUI where user can change the phase between the two waves and can obtain different Lissajous patterns.
  • My Next Step would be to produce these pattern in 3 Dimensions using Laser and Speakers. For this I need an amplifier to drive two speakers. Sine waves and the required phase difference can be obtained from ExpEYES with python code. Aiming at beautiful Laser Show with a lot of science in it…. 🙂
  • Documentation with experimental procedure for the experiments developed.
  • Taking Photos/Videos of set up and also upload screen shots.

Here is my git activity for this week   https://github.com/wavicles/Plugins-for-ExpEYES/commits/master