GELLER Labs "Backyard Science"
Thoughts on a proton precession magnetometer design - a Proton Magnetometer Project. Build an Earth's field magnetometer.
The FDM MAGNETOMETER1 project is a low cost high performance proton magnetometer (a digital magnetometer) kit under development for amateur scientists to be able to accurately measure and monitor changes in the Earth's total magnetic F field and to observe geomagnetic storms. Magnetic storms can cause large excursions in the field and are of concern to interests ranging from electrical power grids, radio communications, and satellite operations, to aurora watchers and amateur radio operators.
1 Filter Diagonalization Method "FDM" (harmonic inversion), see Jan 21 and Jan 23 entries, based on: Vladimir A. Mandelshtam, Howard S. Taylor, Harmonic inversion of time signals and its applications, Journal of Chemical Physics (1997), Volume 107, Issue 17, 1997, Pages 6756-6769
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I created a new Proton Magnetometer Group at Yahoo groups for those interested in discussing proton magnetometers with an emphasis on Earth's field measurements. I will try to keep it as open as possible without getting attacked by spam. I will also try first with no review of posts, let's see what happens. Please keep it friendly and professional. Use of real names is preferred, possibly required in the future.
September, 2009
Well, it seems every couple to few years I start thinking about the famous C. L. Stong Scientific American Magazine, "The Amateur Scientist" column on Nicholas Wadsworth's proton magnetometer (more to follow on the Wadsworth article). Every time I go back and re-read the project, I marvel over how competent the description is and what a challenging design it must have been back then. Here is a low resolution snap-shot view of page 1 solely for purposes of identification; we are actively working to obtain copyright re-print rights. (Scientific American told us that they do not hold the copyright re-reprint rights for the column. Please contact us at the email address below if you are or know of the person or entity who is the present owner of these rights.) The full article can be still found in many public libraries or private collections. Also, the February, 1968 Scientific American issue occassionally shows up on eBay.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center posts a webpage on Solar Cycle Progression. During this lull in solar activity before the solar cycle maximum, GELLER (Geller Labs) is working towards a low-cost proton magnetometer kit. The goal of our project is a low cost / relatively easy to build / high performance proton precession magnetometer suitable for home and school magnetic observatories. Probably (too early to know for certain) we will offer a box of parts including one or more printed circuit boards, most or all active and passive components, and/or the code and plans to build a stand and pick up coils (the sensor assembly). At present, we are leaning towards the National Instruments USB 6008 DAQ module for digital control and data acquisition (no decision yet). If we use a commercial DAQ module, users will buy the module directly from the manufacturer. National Instruments offers an academic discount. Users will probably also provide a PC or laptop, requirements to be determined.
Project Documentation, Links and References (very early stages)
September 3 to September 26, 2009, Journal notes, initial experiments in the back yard.
September 28 to November 24, 2009, Journal notes, setting up the test stand.
November 25, 2009, Journal notes, fluid testing.
December 1 to December 15, 2009, Journal notes, Digitizers.
January 1 to January 4, 2010, Journal notes, The Dead Zone.
January 5 to January 31, 2010, Journal notes, Harmonic Inversion and FDM.
February 1 to February 4, 2010, Journal notes, I/Q FDM and the FOM filter.
February 6 to March 9, 2010, Journal notes, Thinking about what comes next.
March 20 to April 12, 2010, Journal notes, Moving the electronics indoors.
April 16 to April 21, 2010, Journal notes, New prototype, new minor problems.
April 22 to May 1, 2010, Journal notes, Some Run Time with the New prototype.
May 2 to May 10, 2010, Journal notes, Replacing the batteries with a power supply.
May 11 to May 21, 2010, Journal notes, Wire and Cable.
May 22 to May 29, 2010, Journal notes, FOM filter, Polarizing Power Supply.
May 30 to June 1, 2010, Journal notes, More Polarizing Power Supply, a Minor Storm.
June 5, 2010 to June 17, 2010, Journal notes, Project Flowcharts, comparing to USGS plots.
June 18, 2010 to June 26, 2010, Journal notes, Comparing to USGS plots, Geomagnetic Indices.
June 27, 2010 to July 3, 2010, Journal notes, Comparing to NRCan Ottawa (OTT) plots.
July 4, 2010 to July 10, 2010, Journal notes, More comparing to OTT plots, analog printed circuit board (PCB).
July 11, 2010 to July 16, 2010, Journal notes, Some July run time.
July 17, 2010 to July 25, 2010, Journal notes, Analog Board first run PCB.
July 26, 2010 to August 1, 2010, Journal notes, Characterizing the Analog Board.
August 3, 2010 to August 6, 2010, Journal notes, August, 2010 G2 Geomagnetic Storm.
August 7, 2010 to August 20, 2010, Journal notes, All is Quiet.
August 21, 2010 to August 29, 2010, Journal notes, NBLNA and SWCTRL PCBs.
August 30, 2010 to August 31, 2010, Journal notes, Corrected NBLNA PCB, Active Filter.
September 5, 2010 to September 12, 2010, Journal notes, One Year of R&D, early September Quiet.
September 13, 2010 to September 18, 2010, Journal notes, FOM vehicle filtering, clicking Pol. PS.
September 19, 2010 to September 26, 2010, Journal notes, Quiet.
September 27, 2010 to October 2, 2010, Journal notes, More quiet, more thoughts on power supplies.
October 4, 2010 to October 12, 2010, Journal notes, minor G1 magnetic storm, more testing.
October 13, 2010 to October 22, 2010, Journal notes, Fast relay operation.
October 23, 2010 to October 31, 2010, Journal notes, Second Revision of SWCTRL and NBLNA PCBs.
November 1, 2010 to November 7, 2010, Journal notes, Third Revision of SWCTRL.
November 8, 2010 to November 14, 2010, Journal notes, NBLNA Testing.
November 15, 2010 to November 21, 2010, Journal notes, SWCTRL board Ver. 0.8.8.
November 22, 2010 to November 30, 2010, Journal notes, some run time on the newest version.
December 1, 2010 to December 5, 2010, Journal notes, BETA Testing!
December 6, 2010 to December 12, 2010, Journal notes, BETA Kit!
December 13, 2010 to December 19, 2010, Journal notes, Software Article, FID amplitude, Magritek Videos
December 20, 2010 to December 24, 2010, Journal notes, Improving Powered Coil Discharge
December 25, 2010 to January 1, 2011, Journal notes, Sample Fluid Tau 1, G1 Minor Magnetic Storm
January 2, 2011 to January 9, 2011, Journal notes, Kp5 Event, More on System Grounding
January 10, 2011 to January 16, 2011, Journal notes, More user accessable controls
January 17, 2011 to January 23, 2011, Journal notes, Measuring the Polarization Field with an Axial Hall Probe
January 24, 2011 to January 30, 2011, Journal notes, New Coil Forms, 2.5" Coils
January 31, 2011 to February 6, 2011, Journal notes, G1 storm, new effective noise bandwidth worksheet.
February 7, 2011 to February 19, 2011, Journal notes, G1 storm, more on effective noise bandwidth worksheet.
February 20, 2011 to February 26, 2011, Journal notes, More Snubber Capacitor, Current Measurements.
February 26, 2011 to February 28, 2011, Journal notes, Auto-Retry Rate and FOM Threshold.
March 1, 2011, to March 5, 2011, Journal notes, G1 Minor Magnetic Storm
March 6, 2011, to March 13, 2011, Journal notes, March 2011 G1 Magnetic Storm Global Kp 6
March 14, 2011, to March 21, 2011, Journal notes, Peak Envelope Voltage (PEV) Servo
March 22, 2011, to March 27, 2011, Journal notes, Peak Envelope Voltage (PEV) Servo Data
March 27, 2011, to April 1, 2011, Journal notes, Tau 2 Feed Forward Polarization Controller Mode
April 2, 2011, to April 10, 2011, Journal notes, NBLNA Gain Increased
April 11, 2011, to April 17, 2011, Journal notes, Kp 5 Event, System Failure
April 18, 2011, to April 30, 2011, Journal notes, New PEV setpoint, minor geomagnetic storms!
May 1, 2011, to May 8, 2011, Journal notes, Taking Tau 2 - Polarization Time Data
May 9, 2011, to May 15, 2011, Journal notes, Comparing Polarization Controller Modes
May 16, 2011, to May 21, 2011, Journal notes, The Varian/Packard Polarization Field Fast Turn-off Technique
May 23, 2011, to May 29, 2011, Journal notes, G2 Geomagnetic Storm
May 30, 2011, to June 12, 2011, Journal notes, June G2 Geomagnetic Storm
June 14, 2011, to June 26, 2011, Journal notes, June Observations
June 27, 2011, to July 3, 2011, Journal notes, Late June Observations
July 4, 2011, to July 16, 2011, Journal notes, Thunderstorm, G1 Storm, July 2011 PreKit Sales
July 17, 2011, to August 4, 2011, Journal notes, Kp 5, Instrument Health
August 5, 2011, to August 10, 2011, Journal notes, G3 Strong Geomagnetic Storm
August 11, 2011, to August 21, 2011, Journal notes, HILF Events and the Kp scale
August 12, 2011, to August 31, 2011, Journal notes, August Observations
September 1, 2011, to September 6, 2011, Journal notes, Control variable data file added to LV program
September 7, 2011, to September 17, 2011, Journal notes, Instrument Health, USB 6008 driver, G2 storm
September 18, 2011, to September 29, 2011, Journal notes, Late September 2011 G2 Geomagnetic Storm
October 1, 2011, to October 31, 2011, Journal notes, October 2011 G2 geomagnetic storm
November 1, 2011 to November 6, 2011, Journal notes, IRFI1310N as an alternative for the SWCTRL module
November 7, 2011 to November 13, 2011, Journal notes, continued IRFI1310N run time, NBLNA case study
November 14, 2011 to November 30, 2011, Journal notes, Software file I/O and post-processing diagram
December 1, 2011 to December 9, 2011, Journal notes, Thinking about the magnetic noise floor
December 10, 2011 to December 31, 2011, Journal notes, NBLNA 0.9.4, TCP-IP
January 1, 2012 to January 30, 2012, Journal notes, Improved Earth Grounds, G1 minor storm, space weather in the Media
February 1, 2012 to February 10, 2012, Journal notes, Stepping the Polarization Current
February 11, 2012 to February 19, 2012, Journal notes, PEV servo and Polarization Power Supply Requirements
February 20, 2012 to February 29, 2012, Journal notes, Local Ground Rods, Magentic Direction Finding for vehicle rejection
March 1, 2012 to March 16, 2012, Journal notes, Early March 2012 Geomagnetic Storms, including a G3 storm
March 17, 2012 to March 31, 2012, Journal notes, General comments, Orange Juice as the working NMR fluid
April 1, 2012 to April 27, 2012, Journal notes, April 2012
May 9, 2012 to May 28, 2012, Journal notes, Earth Ground Rods, FDM PPM Software Ver. 0.9.6.3
May 29, 2012 to May 31, 2012, Journal notes, AC coupled NBLNA input circuit (7.5 uH input chokes to 0.1 uf film capacitors)
June 2, 2012 to June 12, 2012, Journal notes, PPM design aspects to consider, changing the powered coil discharge voltage
June 15, 2012 to June 24, 2012, Journal notes, Running on a USB-6009, TVS Diodes, NIST PowerPoint Slides
June 26, 2012 to July 10, 2012, Journal notes, Looking a FDM PPM performance Numbers, USB 6008 USB 6009
July 11, 2012 to July 14, 2012, Journal notes back to running on the USB 6008
July 15, 2012 to July 17, 2012, Journal notes July 15, 2012 G2 Geomagnetic Storm
July 23, 2012 to July 29, 2012, Journal notes Discussion with N. Wadsworth, FDMPPM version 0.9_6_6
August 2, 2012 to August 16, 2012, Journal notes Early August 2012, USB 6008 error handling
August 19, 2012 to August 31, 2012, Journal notes Ver. 0.9_6_7
September 1, 2012 to September , 2012, Journal notes September 2012 G1 and G2 storms
October 1, 2012 to October 27, 2012, Journal notes G3 Geomagnetic Storm FDM decay constant
November 2, 2012 to November 28, 2012, Journal notes G2 Geomagnetic Storm
December 2, 2012 to December 8, 2012, Journal notes Instrument Health
January 1, 2013 to February 10, 2013, Journal notes PEV Servo and NBLNA Gain
March 1, 2013 to March 23, 2013, Journal notes G2 Storm LV 32 bit Runtime Engine
April 1, 2013 to April 26, 2013, Journal notes SIDC Belgium, Space Weather in the press
Most Recent Journal notes
Project Documentation, Links and References (very early stages)
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/notice of typos, etc. send email to joegeller @ gellerlabs dot com
COPYRIGHT © 2009, 2010 JOSEPH M. GELLER, All rights reserved.