[dorkbotsea-blabber] Science fair - earthquake - help

[Rich (SpamButcher)]

ah - cheap vs easy...

Parallax (the Basic Stamp guys) makes a cheap ($129) USB Oscilloscope 
that might be a relatively easy option without having to program / do 
much electronics (I have not used it myself):

http://www.hobbyengineering.com/H1976.html

Sounds like you'd need to upgrade to Windows 98 (and a free USB port)

Assuming you have an audio-in jack on your laptop - you might be able to 
do it for $20 in software and some electronics work:

http://www.zelscope.com/


Toby Paddock wrote:
> My son is doing a science fair project on a table-top earthquake machine.
> I'm looking for a CHEAP and especially EASY way to capture and display
> seismic waveforms on a computer. Most of what I'm finding on the web for
> amateur seismology is either expensive or pretty complicated. And I'm pretty
> cheap and lazy.
> 
> I'm not worried about the sensor. We can use a MEMS accelerometer or
> coil/magnet or even a geophone if I can find one. No problem. And it doesn't
> have to be real sensitive or calibrated.
> 
> But the a/d and the software I don't know about. I couldn't program my way
> out of a paper bag, so simple is good. 3 channels of a/d would be great, 2
> would be fine, and 1 would be OK. If the software ran on win95, I could use
> my $5 garage sale laptop.
> 
> The earthquake stick/slip model thing is something like this:
> http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/research/deformation/modeling/eqmodel.html
> 
> Thanks,
> Toby
> 
> 
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