On June 6, 2012, a group of friends on St. Paul’s east side gathered with a mission to build build hardware, firmware, and software to help anyone, anywhere, measure the environment around them. We are passionate about water resources, international development, scientific advances, and technology. Since that time, we have spent nights, weekends, and scattered pockets of time to build a suite of quality data loggers, sensors, and tools. All of our designs are open source, and our philosophy is first and foremost to improve global access to foundational environmental data.
People
Andy Wickert
President and co-founder
Direction and funding
Scientific objectives
Firmware architecture
Documentation
Bobby Schulz
Lead engineer (electrical)
Electronic hardware design and efficient power paths
CAD, 3D printing, and CNC milling
Lead firmware developer
Chad Sandell
Engineer (mechanical) and co-founder
CAD, 3D printing, and CNC milling
Production runs
Electronics design
Publications
Development
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Wickert, A. D., C. T. Sandell, B. Schulz, and G.-H. Crystal Ng (2019), Open-source Arduino-compatible data loggers designed for field research, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2065–2076, doi:10.5194/hess-23-2065-2019.
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Wickert, A. D. (2014), The ALog: Inexpensive, Open-Source, Automated Data Collection in the Field, Bull. Ecol. Soc. Am., 95(2), 68–78, doi:10.1890/0012-9623-95.2.68.
Applications
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Ng, G.‐H. C., Rosenfeld, C., Santelli, C. M., Yourd, A. R., Lange, J., Duhn, K., & Johnson, N. W. (2020). Microbial and reactive transport modeling evidence for hyporheic flux‐driven cryptic sulfur cycling and anaerobic methane oxidation in a sulfate‐impacted wetland‐stream system. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125, e2019JG005185. doi:10.1029/2019JG005185.
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Saberi, L., R. T. McLaughlin, G.-H. C. Ng, J. La Frenierre, A. D. Wickert, M. Baraer, W. Zhi, L. Li, and B. G. Mark (2019), Multi-scale temporal variability in meltwater contributions in a tropical glacierized watershed, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 405–425, doi:10.5194/hess-23-405-2019.
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Tauro, F., Selker, J., van de Giesen, N., Abrate, T., Uijlenhoet, R., Porfiri, M., Manfreda, S., Caylor, K., Moramarco, T., Benveniste, J., Ciraolo, G., Estes, L., Domeneghetti, A., Perks, M., Corbari, C., Rabiei, E., Ravazzani, G., Bogena, H., Harfouche, A., Brocca, L., Maltese, A., Wickert, A., Tarpanelli, A., Good, S., Lopez Alcala, J. M., Petroselli, A., Cudennec, C., Blume, T., Hut, R., and Grimaldi, S. (2018), Measurements and Observations in the XXI century (MOXXI): innovation and multidisciplinarity to sense the hydrological cycle, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 63(2), 169–196, doi:10.1080/02626667.2017.1420191.
Contact
info AT northernwidget DOT com
Sales
We are currently transitioning through the year 2020 from development to development + sales. Please be in contact if you are interested in purchasing anything, and we will let you know what is available. Costs are dependent on quantity and development maturity.
Collaborations and thanks
Our open-source instrumentation research has benefited greatly from collaborations with the University of Minnesota, including:
- Andrew Wickert’s Surface Processes Instrumentation Lab
- Senior Design programs in both Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
Significant financial support for our work is provided by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Hydrometry Support Facility (HydroHub) as part of an ongoing project to develop telemetered data loggers and better water-level sensors for use in Bhutan and Afghanistan.
