DATA LOGGING
For some people, caves provide the opportunity for scientific study, in disciplines ranging from cave biology through geology and volcanology, to hydrology. A key technology here is data logging, but the challenges aren’t to be underestimated. Anything that’s going to last in a cave for weeks or months on end is going to have to be designed to the highest standards of engineering to survive high humidity and even occasional flooding. We’ve not included this aspect of cave technology in the main part of the article because cave data loggers tend to rely on Windows software, but we thought that a brief mention might act as a catalyst, inspiring member of the Linux community to enter the fray.
For students considering options for a final year university project in electronics, computer science or earth sciences, the British Cave Science Centre was recently set up for exactly this reason. Based at Poole’s Cavern in Derbyshire, it’s been equipped with Tinytag wireless data loggers from Gemini Data Loggers, and cavers have since added to this initial equipment. Users can already access near real-time online measurements of temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide and radon concentration, and air movement, throughout the cave. However, there’s plenty of scope for further developments in the areas of additional types of data loggers, communication, and post-processing software.