Final Project Proposal

Can We swim in the lake?

As Pontes, A Coruña (Spain), now have a huge and beautiful lake since 10 years, as part of a large environmental restoration project carried out by ENDESA after the closure of the open-pit lignite mine. This project managed to turn a huge hole 288 meters deep and 6 km long by 2.5 wide into the largest artificial lake in Europe.

Since then we can enjoy the beach (before the closest one was 25 km away). Now we can practice water sports such as swimming, canoeing, sailing, windsurf, paddleboard… or just relax, sunbathe and swim!

One of the biggest doubts that we neighbors had while the mine was being filled with water was whether it would have the optimal conditions to be a place suitable for bathing.

In addition to water quality factors, one question would be whether the water would be cold or hot.

The truth is that finally no, it always has a quite optimal temperature, much better than the waters of the Cantabrian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which on many occasions hover around 17ºC. The water of the lake is about 23ºC in summer. The average air temperature of As Pontes in summer is 25ºC.

Fab Academy project

The idea of the project is to create a buoy that allows us to know the temperature of the water of the lake, either to enjoy the beach or for the sports that are practiced in it with information of waves too.

The goal is to create a cheap and effective tool to generate the data, and ultimately improve understanding of it. This is the main objective of the project, design, registration and presentation of data.

Digital fabrication

The buoy will made with 3d Print, I think use for print PETG and TPU, and apply composities for add a good durability.

With laser cut for close areas with foam.

Molding and Casting sealing areas with silicone to make the buoy hermetic

With the cnc the pcb will be made where all the electronic components will be soldered.

Sensors

The sensors on board the buoy must allow to measure: wave height, wave period, wave power, water temperature, air temperature, air pressure, voltage and current consumption and GPS location.

For operation on days with little sun or at night, we must store electricity in a battery, we will have to control the voltage and consumption and optimize the use of energy.

Network

The data must be sent as far as possible, in order to process it, for this the LoraWan network will be used (Low Power Wide Area Network). In addition to distance, also because of the low consumption that will involve the buoy, and that it will be powered by solar energy.

As Pontes have working a LoraWan network, installed since 2021 by Amigus Labs, in collaboration with Xunta de Galicia, As Pontes City Council and the ICOEume company.

Visualize data

For visualize the data will made a website, for see the current data and history of all parameters. The web will be responsive and work in any device desktop, tablet, movile…

Too think made a small devices with e-ink digital paper for place in the sailing club and huts on the lake to display the data, as well as add a qr code that links to the buoy website.

… more values in the future

In the future we will add a meteorological station, to have data on rain, wind direction and speed, temperature, as well as solar and UV radiation and show in the web too.