Pre-Earthquake Warning System for Home -From Recycled Materials + Seismic Station Upgrade,Innovation, Home Safety

OVERVIEW:

• A life saving apparatus invention. It is made in two ways. The first one,cheap "junkyard's jolt", is made from scrap materials like discarded iron pieces from shop, water bottle etc. yet very sensitive. Lasting more than a year in a single 9 volt battery. The item is then upgraded with accelerometers and display that looks good in a home and can be made from 3d printed models provided here.
• The idea is to get a 3 minute heads-up warning before an earthquake from a 400km far seismic source.
• This is based on scientific theories and it can be found in major expensive earthquake warning systems. See "Theory" section for details.
• 5 micron pre-seismic ground movement is detected which is only detected by highly sensitive apparatus.

DETAILS:

• Change the time of 3 minute linearly as per your distance from well known sources given in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes
• For the theory of seismic warning systems, check: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/earthquake-early-warning-basics-0, See "theory" section.

SPECIALITY OF THE PRODUCT:

• If someone wants to measure a 5 micron pre-seismic movement by hanging a 2" pendulum, then the lever axis needs to be over 25 foot (!)long. It needs to be that sensitive and it is not possible. So I made a double lever system which reduces the length to a mere one foot. So this is now feasible and this is the main innovation of the product.

ABOUT:

• It was made after a large earthquake news came up many months ago. Since then it is put near my workshop.
• On two occasions of earthquakes, I could go out on the road 2 minutes before . Saw people come outside of the homes after the earthquakes were actually felt. So this definitely worked on two big earthquakes.
• It is still working after months as it does not waste charge and remains disconnected when not in use. You can see the dust because it is left untouched.
• It is made from recycled materials.

DISCLAIMER:

I must say that even though the purpose is to help people, this can not be a complete protection from earthquake because it needs some distance from the source.It may also not be completely reliable and I don't take any responsibility for anything damaging resulting from this project. But if it can offer even a small option to save lives, it is a good addition to your home/ workshop if you experience earthquakes frequently. I keep it in my home at all times.

FURTHER WORK:

• I have not put any patent on this item but if you want to do something with it and take it further its free and ask me in comments.
• Hope this post helps someone.

The items can be as you wish as long as the primary functions are met. For example, instead of a copper wire to bind, you can use thin G.I wires also. I used below items in a checklist format.

• Picture 1: ☐A rigid frame made as per given sketch . I recommend steel or stainless steel as it will be sturdy and will not waste micro movements. Get it welded in an welding shop.
• ☐steel plate for base, as per picture.
• Pic 2: ☐3 nos bolt+nut for adjusting the platform elevations and angles. Use M4x30mm or similar
• Pic 3: ☐hanger for weight: one keyring, ☐two nuts. (Or use similar, but make sure it can hinge horizontally but not rotate around vertical axis)
• Pic 4: ☐Steel plate as weight 30x40x10 mm3 or similar. ☐2 mm dia 50mm long rod welded below it as shown.
• Pic 5: ☐steel weight or paper weight to hold the sensor connection. ☐ a stick for adjustment (I used a paintbrush partly shown in green)
• Pic 6: ☐pencil tip graphite for the connecting tip.
• Pic 7: ☐a beeper for 9 volt battery+ ☐discarded plastic food delivery box for focusing the sound.
• Pic 8: ☐A rigid rack to put the instrument. (You can make it as you wish but it must be completely rigid. the instrument is super sensitive. Wood Sheets+Nails)
• Pic 9: ☐G.I wire approx 1mm thick.
• Pic 10: ☐Copper wire, enamled . around 0.33-0.5 mm thick 2 meter
• Pic 11: ☐Insulated wire for connections: Take around 2 meter.
• Pic 12: ☐9 volt battery and connector
• ☐Misc tools of workshop: Plier, Wire cutter, screw driver, Tape, Blank sheet of paper, soldering iron and soldering wire.

• Earthquakes have multiple kinds of waves. As you can see in the first picture, The small "P" waves comes much earlier than large "S" waves. The most damaging are surface wave which come later.
• The reason is the P waves are compression waves which travel at 6 km per second speed and S waves are shear waves which travel slower at 4 km/s.
• But the P waves are very small in amplitude. So People cannot feel this. but I suspect that animals can feel this. So we often find them perk up and howl before earthquake arrives . So if we make a device that measures this small movement, we can detect the P waves.
• Now if your nearest earthquake source is 400km away. Then the time you have is 400/(6-4)=200 seconds. which is 3 minutes 20 second. This can be enough time to run down the stairs and reach open grounds.

• See the pictures above for references. Left one is conceptual and the second one is of the equipment.
• A weight "W" is hanged from a hinge. This weight be a scrap piece of steel. A small steel stick is also welded below the weight. Then if "W" moves by "x" micrometer, then the tip of the stick moves by 2x as it is approximately 2 times away from the hinge than the center of "w"
• Now another steel G.I wire of 150mm is hanged from another hinge to multiply the movement even more. Then the tip of"w" is attached to the GI wire at a distance of 2mm from the hinge. So this multiply the movement by 150/2=75 times.
• Total increase in movement=2*75=150 times.
• Now the tip of the GI wire is put inside a round loop or wire. the gap is 0.75mm. If the Gi wire moves by 0.75 mm in any direction, then the circuit of the beeper is complete. This will make the alarm go on.
• So the needed movement of pre-earthquake shake is is 0.75/150mm=0.005mm or 5 microns. Then this Thing will work.
• As given in the last image of a real earthquake, the P wave gives a 5-25 micron movement which should trigger the alarm in a continuous fashion. The sound should be a continuous beep-beep-beep for 1 second or so. Any less sound can be a false alarm that can happen if the assembly is not covered.

• To weld the parts, take help of a professional welder. But keep the parts ready.
• Keep the total height of the equipment around 300mm. 120-150 mm from top-most part to the connections at mid section. And 150 mm midsection to the bottom plate.
• Make the steel support out of 4 mm thick steel bars. Use Scrap metals if you wish.
• Hang the weight as shown.
• You can adjust the distances by moving the ring along the top bar.

• We need to electrically connect the hanging GI wire to a circuit. So solder (not weld) the GI wire to 3 strands of an insulated copper wire seen in blue. The left side of the blue wire is connected to the black wire.
• the blue wire should be fixed to the support by means of GI wire and loose copper wires as shown.
• Connect the Steel spike of the hanging weight to the GI wire at a 2 mm distance by a 0.3-0.5mm copper wire as shown.

• the tip of the GI wire should be a material that can resists small sparks. So i chose a graphite tip of a pencil. Graphites are also used in motor brushes for similar reasons.
• A loop is made of a small hoop made in the copper wire.
• the copper wire is set at place by a bent GI wire and a steel block of weight. you can also select paperweight for this.
• The bottom of the GI wire is connected to a painting brush for adjustment. Put a white paper below the loop so you can see clearly and adjust.
• There are three adjustment screws and welded nuts on the platform to adjust slope of the equipment. See hand-sketches in step 2.
• Connect the circuit after putting the equipment on a stable platform. Use a plastic container to focus the sound

• The equipment needs to be placed on a strong platform not affected by wind. Use three pieces of cardboard and nails to put a rack in any corner of your workshop or garage.
• Cover the entire equipment by an enclosure. I used thrown away water bottle for this purpose. Else slight breeze and mosquito fly-bys can activate the alarm.
• The equipment should last for many months, as the battery is disconnected by default. But do not touch it or move it any time.
• For first few days, the equipment may give false alarms during settling period. After the residual stress in the items have subsided, it should become stable.

The item can be upgraded with an accelerometer to show a graph similar to seismic stations. The process is shown below:

• STL files to print
• 3d printer or printing service
• MPU9250 accelerometer
• Arduino Nano
• SPI TFT module. 1.8"
• Rainbow coloured ropes so they don't get mixed up
• Misc tools like pliers, wire cutters, screwdriver etc.

• Used tinkercad to make the mechanisms.
• First the bottom rod is made as shown in the steps. This will hold an accelerometer MPU9250. The parts are to be updated as per dimensions of the MPU9250.

• Top rod is also made similarly.
• It needs to hold weights and rest on a hinge.

• The structure is made from a model of the eiffel tower. The model original is from this location: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3577783
• If the eiffel tower cannot be imported due to its size, it needs to be scaled down.
• It is cut to give space for the rods
• Some finishing is also required for the model.

• We have to make two hinges at 90 degree angles for movement in two directions.

• The display box is made as per dimensions of the parts to be kept inside.
• 
  

There are two versions of this file:

PartA: full scale model based on the main apparatus.

PartB: half scale model which is faster to print, but will not be very sensitive.

• This is half scale model.

• The arduino nano needs to be connected to both the display and the accelerometer.
• The website for the code files for the connections are given as image files.
• All the setups and libraries are to be uploaded to Arduino IDE as per the website.
• The connections shall be done as er attached image. For the accelerometer connection, the red voltage regulator was not used in this project. the wires were connected directly.

• Make the platform with paper covered wood.
• Fix with drills and screws.

• Solder the arduino in breadboard with help of rainbow coloured wires.
• Then add the display also.
• Use very thin wires to connect the Accelerometer to the circuit.

• Fix the 3d printed pendulums as shown

• The code is attached.
• We Imported Adafruit, SPI, MPU and Wire libraries in the code.
• Then setup the accelerometer by calibrating.
• It outputs the acceleration values in three axis but we need only two. X and Z .
• The make the code to plot the graph in the SPI display.

• Upload and run the code
• Adjust "const float scalingFactor = 1000.0;" inside the arduino code, so that the graph falls inside the display.

• We can add sms module to send message and set up community alarm system also.
• I hope you liked this instructable of making a seismic monitoring system at home.