Adventure Awaits:
Tour, Discover, and Learn as a Family together with OctoSpy!
Become an OctoSpy by building your own sensor
Explore the temperatures of the oceans as an OctoSpy! With this easy and fun guide you can include the whole family in the building of Octo! This guide suits adults as well as kids. Learn more about technology and electronics in a fun way together as a family. Buy the OctoSpy starter kit and get started, the perfect blend of technology and interactive fun!
OctoSpy Guide
Follow the all steps bellow to start your journey as an OctoSpy
Step 1
Paint Octo
Spray the inside of Octo by using the blue spray paint
Step 2
Prepare the appliance box
Open the appliance box by using a screwdriver. Use a glue gun to attach the piece of wood along the short side with no pre-drilled holes just like in the picture. Be careful, the glue is very hot
Step 3
Power switch and GPS antenna
Picture 1: Place the GPS antenna in the pre-drilled hole on top of Octo and the power switch in the other pre-drilled hole.
Picture 2: Turn the cover over and tighten the nut by hand.
Step 4
Put Octo together with the sensor
Picture 1: Attach three pieces of double-sided tape on the inside of the strainer.
Picture 2: Put the temperature sensor through the bottom of the bucket and tighten the nut by hand so the sensor is about 12 cm under the bucket.
Picture 3: Remove the plastic on the tape and put Octo together. Make sure that the sensor goes through the hole in the strainer.
Step 5
Preparation before connecting
Attach the adapter to the GPS antenna by screwing it in by hand. Insert the wires marked in the picture into the appliance box.
Attention: all holes are pre-drilled so just follow the picture to place everything in the right position.
Step 6
Connect all wires
For this step you need the GPS, the Raspberry Pi, the voltage converter, the connection terminals, the resistor, the lid with the GPS Antenna and the power switch attached and finally all wires. Follow the colors on the wires and connect them, except the ones to the battery, just like in the picture. Double check that everything is connected correctly before you connect the battery like in the picture as well.
Step 7
Wrap it up
Place everything that should be in the device box exactly as shown in the picture in step 6. Roll up the wires gently. Once everything fits into the box put on the lid of the appliance box to protect everything from water and screw it on.
Step 8
Your new friend Octo
Just place the appliance box into Octo and put all wires from the GPS antenna and the power switch together with the box. Put the lid on and say hi to your new friend Octo! Enjoy your time together!
Program your sensor!
When the sensor is finished it is time for some programming! By following the steps below you will be able to collect live data with the sensor and upload it to the website.
The data will contain temperature with timestamp and GPS coordinates with timestamp. This will be shown in a temperature graph and a map. The textfiles containing the data can also be downloaded. When following the steps below we recommend you to connect the Raspberry Pi to a socket to conserve the battery time. Let’s begin!
Step 1
Set up your Raspberry Pi
First you will have to set up your Raspberry Pi. Do this by following the steps in the link below. Note that you will need to follow the steps on wireless connection to be able to collect data in the ocean without a cable.
https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/raspberry-pi-setting-up
Step 2
Install packages
Write the text below in your terminal to install bc and vim to your Raspberry Pi.
pip install bc
pip install vim
Step 3
Clone the Github link
Clone the Github link. The link includes three files, one for measuring and uploading temperature data to the website, another one for collecting GPS information and uploading it to the website. There is also an index.html file which is creating how the information will be displayed on the website.
DONE!
Your sensor is completely finished and you can now see the data you are collecting live on the website! You can also download the raw data files. Good job! You can now go out and measure data!
How to measure temperature with OctoSpy
Once you have finished building Octo, your new friend is finally ready to explore the temperatures of the oceans together with you and your family. Bring Octo to the sea and place Octo gently on the sea surface. Make sure that the temperature sensor is under the surface and turn the power button on. Now you and Octo are measuring temperature together. Data will then automatically be collected and transferred to our website and the app so you can see if the temperature is suitable for swimming, and, as a bonus, you're helping researchers combat environmental problems by collecting data!
