Building instruments with the CS11: a survey tool

  • This instrument allows you to design and administer a questionnaire, and records the light intensity (lux) at the moment the questions are asked.
  • This is used to investigate the impact of light levels on human perception: for example in testing we asked a group of people the question "Are you happy?". When we analysed the data later on we looked to see if there were correlations between the answers given and the light levels recorded.
  • The instrument can also be used as a stand-alone survey tool. 

Hardware requirements:

To use the supplied code (available further down this page) you will need to have the following hardware:

The hardware that the code is designed to run with is shown above and listed below.
  • A CS11 microprocessor with microSD card slot.
  • An SL06 light / gesture sensor for input and measuring lux.
  • An OD01 OLED display to show questions and instructions.
  • An IP03 (or IP02) and a USB cable to connect it to your computer for power and also to allow you to flash the code onto the CS11.
  • Connectors: 1 xPDI and 5 xBus connectors.
  • A microSD card, formatted to FAT32 standard, no larger than 32Gig.

Setting up the hardware:

The instrument that you will build to run this code could look like this (although the xChips can be connected in a few other ways too):

This How-to guide will show you how to use the survey tool, including connecting the xChips, setting up and administering the questionnaire and then analysing the data.

Code:

The code you need to build this instrument is available for you to download:

Click here to download SURVEY_DATA_1.4.uf2 

  1. Connect the IP02/3 to the CS11 and plug the IP02/3 into your computer.
  2. Click (or double-click) the small reset button on the front of the CS11 so that it shows up on your computer as a drive.
  3. Drag-and-drop SURVEY_DATA.ufc onto the CS11 drive.

Once the code has finished copying over, power up your instrument and get started.

You can view the code here (you don't need to view the code to use the survey instrument, but it is included for anyone interested).

Controlling the instrument:

The SL06 can detect gestures and easily registers swiping movements, which allows us to use it as an input device.  It can take a little practice to get used to it, but its easy to learn and works well when you know the optimal distance at which to make your gestures.

Everything you need to know is in the how-to guide, which is linked to above and here for convenience.

Applications for data science:

Please check out our CS11 Data Science page for ideas and experiments that you can use this instrument with.