What is Sensorpedia without sensors? This article will be one of a series that detail how to talk to a few different types of sensors, calibrate their data, and interface them with Sensorpedia.

These are the sensors we will be connecting (this guide will focus on reading the LM34 analog temperature sensor):

• Irradiance (digital)
• Relative Humidity and Temperature (digital)
• Temperature (analog)
• Barometric Pressure (digital)
• Light Color (digital)
• Distance (digital)

One of the preferred data formats for Sensorpedia is GeoRSS.  Simply put, a GeoRSS feed contains entries of data readings tagged with a specific time and spatial location. We can serve RSS or GeoRSS feeds to Sensorpedia, but first we need to have data to display in the feed.  Since we can’t plug little sensor PCBs straight into the back of a server, we will need a bit of infrastructure to calibrate and relay the data.  An ARM microcontroller board designed for the DIY/tinkering crowd called the Make Controller (henceforth referred to as “MC”) will serve as a middleman and communicate with a host server computer and the various sensors. It can poll analog sensors, digital sensors, control TTL, communicate via USB and Ethernet, and even control servos. The MC is a powerful little device.

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Happy New Year! The full team is back in full swing now that the holidays are over and we’re getting excited about the upcoming BETA release.

2008 was a big year for social networks, social media, Twitter, Facebook ,etc. People are finding lots of novel uses of these technologies to address everything from political campaigns to emergency notifications. From fighting wars to dealing with rare medical conditions. Twitter had some real shining moments this past year.

Where are we going in 2009? There are lots of predictions, but one thing is for sure: this is an exciting time to be working in the area of information sharing.

Have thoughts or ideas? Please join in the conversation here on the blog, by following us on Twitter (@Sensorpedia), or joining one of the other social networking groups.