“Open-science hardware is not only important in Africa but all over the world,” Chagas says. You can repair your equipment if it breaks down, and, even more importantly, adapt it to your local needs.” “If you have the blueprint for a piece of equipment, you can understand how it works. Kumbol’s Actifield device is an array of infrared light emitters and detectors inside a box, run using a microcontroller made by the open-source developer Arduino.
As rodents move around in the box, they disrupt the beams and the actimeter counts those events. Mary Twumasi assembles the Actifield, a low-cost device for quantifying animal activity, which she helped to develop using open-source components. Credit: Agnieszka PokrywkaĪt US$122.91, the device is a fraction of the cost of commercial systems, which can amount to $6,000 or more. The resulting paper in HardwareX helped Kumbol to secure funding from the Mozilla Foundation to organize a follow-up workshop last July at the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, Ghana. He has demonstrated Actifield at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and has built actimeters for the science department there. Now a PhD student at the Einstein Center for Neurosciences in Berlin, Kumbol has joined the editorial board of HardwareX. In February, he was invited to speak about using open-science tools to tackle equipment challenges in Africa at a VIB Core Management Workshop in Leuven, Belgium. “I received a lot of positive feedback on the potential for open hardware, which has really motivated me to start working on the next steps.” “It was a great experience for me,” Kumbol says. Says Chagas, “This is what we want: a new generation of African scientists that will train others on the continent.Joy-Compatible Board Arduino ™ MEGA 2560R3 The 3D printed IR panel supports are each composed of top and bottom halves. Due to the size of the workspace of our 3D printer (20 × 20 cm), we printed the parts of IR panel support B in halves which were subsequently joined together with epoxy (see the black parts in Fig. Carefully insert the emitter panels into the bottom halves of the IR panel supports (D01). One emitter panel should be placed into each of the IR panel supports (i.e. In the same manner, insert the receiver panels into the remaining two IR panel supports. Arrange the four IR panel supports in a square ensuring that the emitter and receiver panels are aligned and face each other ( Fig. The cost for installation should be a few hundred dollars.Complete the assembly of the grid by fixing the upper halves of the IR panel supports ( Fig. Speak with electricians for installing AFCI breakers in your home. On the other hand, if you want to sell your home, the buyer of your home may request AFCI’s to be installed for safety reasons. It is common to not have AFCI’s in older homes, therefore, you are not required to upgrade. If your home does not have AFCI breakers, do not fret. What to do if your home does not have AFCI breakers Check the featured image of this post for what they look like. A tell-tale sign is if you panel is branded with Square D, and you have blue buttons on your AFCI breakers. Square D (blue buttoned) AFCI’s are actually called out for Recall due to consistent failure. Test your AFCI’s monthly by pressing the “test” button in your electrical panel. If there is a short period of time where there is a surge of power, the AFCI is “tripped” and automatically shuts off the power! How awesome is that?! Things to rememberĪFCI’s are not guarantees of success as AFCI’s are systems that can fail. In a nutshell, the equipment is able to detect the amplitude (size of power) over a period of time. These high tech breakers have many interior components that work together to determine arcing. This means your AFCI breakers should be installed in all bedrooms, the living room, dining room, den, etc., but not where water is located (bathrooms, garage, exterior, and kitchens). Where should AFCI’s be installed?ĪFCI’s should be installed or covering every living space that is not a wet area. AFCI’s in Square D electrical panel – White buttons are AFCI’S. However, this should not be confused with GFCI breakers (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) that protect wet areas.
A few breakers should have buttons for testing and be labeled as “AFCI”.
You can tell if you have AFCI breakers by looking at your electrical panel. These breakers function by detecting if there is an arc in electricity and then shutting power off to stop the arcing. An AFCI breaker is an acronym that stands for Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter.
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