Smart Citizen Stations¶
What are the Smart Citizen Stations?¶
The Smart Citizen Stations (Stations for short) are open-source environmental monitoring systems. They build upon the functionalities of the Smart Citizen Kit, extending its sensing capabilities. The idea behind this is to leverage the modularity of the hardware and include more sensors, making some changes to the enclosures to make everything fit. Anything on our list of supported sensors can be used to build a Station. Below are summaries of the most common configurations to offer a sample of what can be done. Check the dedicated sections for each to get a complete description!
Questions?
How can we collaborate for my next research project? How much will it cost to make one? Is it hard to install? You can contact our team at info@smartcitizen.me
The Smart Citizen Stations, from the enclosure to the electronics, are open source. Many components can be fabricated and assembled in a Fab Lab. By doing so, we hope to encourage fully open environmental systems, ensuring reproducibility through accessible resources. We hope that this allows people to make use of the development effort in a distributed way. The Stations come in different flavours and sizes. Sometimes, they are more bulky (the one in the picture above has roughly 15 sensors) and, sometimes, they are a bit smaller. Likewise, there are air quality stations or water ones.
Check the Kit first
The Stations build on the core components of the Kit (which means, everything here works in exactly the same way).
Who are they for?¶
Stations can be used to gather field-specific environmental data not only for scientific use but also as a tool to engage local communities with environmental topics. They are generally more complex to use, as they have more sensors and require a bit more involvement from the user. However, not all Stations are the same, and because of that, we have developed some categorisations to help you navigate them.
On each page, you will see the complexity grade for the unit, which gives an idea of whether or not the unit requires previous background knowledge. Here is a small explanation of what this grade means:
Basic: These units are very similar to the Smart Citizen Kit, and they have one or two additional sensors that do not require any additional background knowledge or calibration experience.
Intermediate: These units are still similar to the Smart Citizen Kit, but they have at least one additional sensor that requires some extra care, either because it requires periodic recalibration or due to more complex maintenance.
Advanced: These beasts are larger and are generally not commercially available, as they require much more work to maintain, calibrate, or process the data.
What versions are there?¶
The stations below are the current stable designs. If you are looking into developing other versions, feel free to reach out via info@smartcitizen.me.
