Scioly.org

Detector Building is a trial event for Division C at the national tournament for the 2019 season.

Tough specs for this thing. +/-0.2C resolution? Will be interesting...

Looks like this will be an official Division C event next year.

What microcontroller board is the best one to buy? I'm talking about functionality, how difficult to use, etc.

No right answer to that, but a basic Arduino is a decent place to start.

dxu46 wrote:What microcontroller board is the best one to buy? I'm talking about functionality, how difficult to use, etc.

I would highly recommend the Arduino over others, mostly because the Arduino is beginner-friendly and has lots of resources. If you have experience with other microcontrollers, like Raspberry Pi, you could use that, but in my experience the Arduino is simple enough for this event.

Is there anything better than a thermistor to use for the actual detector part?

That is also a question without end . There are of course other options to measure temperature with (RTD, thermocouple). There are other analog output sensors, but it becomes a little tough to work out if they then fit within the rules in terms of it being automatically adjusted/calibrated.

Lorant wrote:Is there anything better than a thermistor to use for the actual detector part?

That will depend on the rules for next year. Instead of temperature, the rules may ask to detect weight; or distance using piezo-electric or strain gages or optical sensors. They may even ask to detect speed, or time, luminosity, magnetism, or pressure.... But if they do ask for temperature, then thermistors are the way to go. Since it will be the first time that it will be an official event, they will probably stick with temperatures for now.

acidbeaker wrote:

dxu46 wrote:What microcontroller board is the best one to buy? I'm talking about functionality, how difficult to use, etc.

I would highly recommend the Arduino over others, mostly because the Arduino is beginner-friendly and has lots of resources. If you have experience with other microcontrollers, like Raspberry Pi, you could use that, but in my experience the Arduino is simple enough for this event.

Some nuanced things to keep in mind though are the resolution of the ADC (analog-to-digital converter) on whatever microcontroller you use compared to the range and resolution of whatever you're trying to measure, and also how your voltage changes with temperature.