Goertzen Luke, Mehr Nicole, Lopez Manuel, Udell Chet, Selker John S
OPEnS Lab, Oregon State University, OR, United States.
Department of Biological & Ecological Engineering, Oregon State University, OR, United States.
HardwareX. 2020 May 23;8:e00112. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00112. eCollection 2020 Oct.
There are many applications for inline pressure sensors, including fluid flow experiments, sensor field deployments, pumps, and Internet of Things systems. We developed a low-cost (~US$56), open-source, customizable inline pressure sensor system with operational flexibility and simple data logging. Most pressure sensors are expensive, not customizable, specific to a single tubing size, provide only analog readings, have poor stability and precision, or are incomplete without a data logger. These issues limit the usefulness of such hardware. Our system addresses all of these concerns. The customizability of both the hardware and firmware (via options or code modification) allows for the device to be tailored easily to each application. Tubing diameter, adapter dimensions, sensor used, logging behavior, and integration with other systems can be configured with ease. Much of the practicality and configurability of the software and hardware arise from the use of our Loom code and ecosystem. We present experimental data for the flow of a viscous fluid between two parallel plates that shows that sudden changes in fluid properties are not always discernible in static images, but are detectable as pressure signals with our inline pressure sensor.
在线压力传感器有许多应用，包括流体流动实验、传感器现场部署、泵以及物联网系统。我们开发了一种低成本（约56美元）、开源、可定制的在线压力传感器系统，具有操作灵活性和简单的数据记录功能。大多数压力传感器价格昂贵、不可定制、特定于单一管径、仅提供模拟读数、稳定性和精度较差，或者没有数据记录器则不完整。这些问题限制了此类硬件的实用性。我们的系统解决了所有这些问题。硬件和固件的可定制性（通过选项或代码修改）使设备能够轻松地针对每个应用进行定制。管径、适配器尺寸、使用的传感器、记录行为以及与其他系统的集成都可以轻松配置。软件和硬件的许多实用性和可配置性源于我们的Loom代码和生态系统的使用。我们展示了粘性流体在两个平行板之间流动的实验数据，结果表明流体性质的突然变化在静态图像中并不总是可辨别的，但使用我们的在线压力传感器可将其检测为压力信号。
