Created March 24, 2017

Hyperion - UV levels

An incredible and simple project that allows the user to detect the UV radiation levels and share them with the community.

BeginnerProtip1 hour190

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino 101

Seeed Studio Grove starter kit plus for Intel Edison

SparkFun ML8511

Breadboard (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

MIT App Inventor 2

Fritzing

Story

The Sun is responsible for warming Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans and for providing with the necessary light energy for plants to transform it into chemical energy during the process of photosynthesis. Long story short, life as we know it would not be the same without it. However, the Sun also emits Ultraviolet radiation, which has harmful effects on living organisms after prolonged exposure. Although small amounts are beneficial, being under the sunlight for too long may cause sunburns, degenerative changes in skin cells, and in the most severe cases, skin cancer. Therefore, it is very important to raise awareness, so that people can take the proper precautions if the UV radiation levels in a certain place are too high.

“Hyperion” is not only the name of the god of watchfulness, wisdom and light in Greek mythology, but also the title of my idea. Hyperion is a small station that will be able to monitor the UV radiation present in sunlight. Due to unforeseen events, I was unable to implement all of my ideas on the project. Nevertheless, Hyperion will be able to determine if the radiation is harmful, and send a short tweet that contains information regarding its levels, remainders to use sunscreen, sunglasses and prevent a long exposure if the readings fall on the UVB (burning rays) spectrum.

By using the Arduino 101 Board, Hyperion will be controlled by a phone app and will be able to send tweets thanks to its Bluetooth LE capabilities. . With a ML8511 sensor and 3D-printed parts, this monitoring station will use social media to raise awareness and improve the health of the inhabitants of a city, beach, farm or any place where it is located.

In the meantime, I will submit part of the project in the hopes that the hackster community will be able to contribute with improvements for the code and for my idea. The Arduino 101 interprets the information received from the ML8511 sensor, and it displays the readings on the Grove-LCD.

Code

UV Intensity Code

#include <Wire.h>
#include "rgb_lcd.h"

rgb_lcd lcd;

int UVOUT = A0; //Output from the sensor
int REF_3V3 = A1; //3.3V power on the Arduino board

const int colorR = 204;
const int colorG = 255;
const int colorB = 229;

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);

  pinMode(UVOUT, INPUT);
  pinMode(REF_3V3, INPUT);

  Serial.println("ML8511 example");
  
 // set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
 lcd.begin(16, 2);
    
 lcd.setRGB(colorR, colorG, colorB);

  lcd.print("UV INT (mW/cm^2):");

    delay(1000);
}

//Takes an average of readings on a given pin
//Returns the average
int averageAnalogRead(int pinToRead)
{
  byte numberOfReadings = 8;
  unsigned int runningValue = 0; 

  for(int x = 0 ; x < numberOfReadings ; x++)
    runningValue += analogRead(pinToRead);
  runningValue /= numberOfReadings;

  return(runningValue);  
}

//The Arduino Map function but for floats
//From: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=3922.0
float mapfloat(float x, float in_min, float in_max, float out_min, float out_max)
{
  return (x - in_min) * (out_max - out_min) / (in_max - in_min) + out_min;
}

void loop()
{
  int uvLevel = averageAnalogRead(UVOUT);
  int refLevel = averageAnalogRead(REF_3V3);

  //Use the 3.3V power pin as a reference to get a very accurate output value from sensor
  float outputVoltage = 3.3 / refLevel * uvLevel;

  float uvIntensity = mapfloat(outputVoltage, 0.99, 2.8, 0.0, 15.0); //Convert the voltage to a UV intensity level

  Serial.print("output: ");
  Serial.print(refLevel);

  Serial.print("ML8511 output: ");
  Serial.print(uvLevel);

  Serial.print(" / ML8511 voltage: ");
  Serial.print(outputVoltage);

  Serial.print(" / UV Intensity (mW/cm^2): ");
  Serial.print(uvIntensity);

  Serial.println();
  
  lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
  lcd.print(uvIntensity);

  delay(500);
}

Credits

Ramon Alexandro Castaneda Cerdan

1 project • 0 followers

I'm just an international student and science enthusiast that hopes to change the world.

Hyperion - UV levels

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Schematics

hyperion_50zcFhD0Th.fzz

Code

UV Intensity Code

Credits

Ramon Alexandro Castaneda Cerdan

Comments

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Hyperion - UV levels

Hyperion - UV levels

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Schematics

hyperion_50zcFhD0Th.fzz

Code

UV Intensity Code

Credits

Ramon Alexandro Castaneda Cerdan

Comments

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