Help deciding on a Shake model?

[The1930srust]

Hello! This is my first post here (been lurking for some time). I hope this support forum is an OK place to ask which model would be best for me. I am probably overthinking it, and I’ve read as many similar question threads as I could find. And I am running circles between several models! I’ve had an interest in Earth sciences and science in general nearly all my life. For the past several years I’ve been thinking about trying to build my own seismometer. Then I stumbled on Raspberry Shake.

I live in western Kentucky (US). I would not say it is seismically active but we do reside about 90 miles east of the New Madrid Fault. We probably have several 2+ magnitude quakes per year (a guess), but in the 25 years I’ve resided here I’ve never felt one. Just read about them online or in the local news. But I think it would be fascinating to detect these local events as well as strong quakes from around the globe. I did manage to detect the pressure wave from the Hunga Tonga blast on my Tempest weather station, which was pretty neat.

We live in a log home with both a garage with concrete slab floor, as well as a cellar dug into the hillside. I plan on trying both locations for a RS. Our neighborhood is rural, but a narrow asphalt road runs about 75 feet from the garage and cellar. Light vehicular traffic depending on the season. I would have to run the Ethernet cable from a Google Nest router node. I assume this would work for the Internet as both locations cannot be easily served by an Ethernet cable from our cellular modem.

I like tinkering with electronics (I build a lot of solder kits, mainly Nixie tube clocks; I understand the DIY RS kits require no soldering), so the DIY kits would be my route. Plus I have a Raspberry Pi 4B board laying around that I never used. I am not very familiar with the Raspberry system, but willing to learn. I originally purchased it for use in a meteor camera that I never finished. But I digress.

I can’t decide on which kit to purchase. It’ll be strictly a hobby “toy”, much like my weather station. However I do like being a part of that network, and my neighbors enjoy the weather data. I checked the Shake app, and there are only perhaps a half dozen RS online within 200 miles of me, so I’d like to add my own. I’ve watched all the product videos, but can’t decide which model would best serve my hobby needs considering my geographic locale. I was leaning towards the 3D but it’s a little beyond my comfort zone from a cost perspective. But there is the XMAS sale. The Shake and Boom also seems like a possibility. Then I’m back at the RS1D; repeat circle.

So, in closing, it’s tectonically pretty quiet with only a few small quakes now and again. But I would love to be able to detect these and larger quakes around the world. It’s pretty quiet here as far as vehicular traffic, especially off-season. Some helicopters from an air base 40 miles away; an Interstate several miles away we can sometimes hear trucks on or an occasional tire blowout.

I would greatly appreciate any insight you all may be able to give me!

Thank you, Chris

[ivor]

hi,

i will try to be helpful in the form of a logic tree:

• are large local events of interest, of any kind?

  • YES => RS4D records strong motion across all three axes, with one vertical channel recording weak motion
  • NO => RS4D is not the instrument to choose, next question:

• infrasound data is also desired, along with seismic data?

  • YES => RSBoom is the only instrument that provides both meters
  • NO => RSBoom is not the instrument to choose, next question:

• only the RS3D and the RS1D are left to choose from:

  • want / need all three axes of motion, (two horizontal, one vertical)?
    • YES => RS3D is the only instrument recording all three axes of weak motion
    • NO => RS1D is the most economical instrument since it records only the vertical weak motion data

hope this helps,
richard

[The1930srust]

Ivor: Thank you. This is helpful. I believe I have arrived at the conclusion that either the RS3D or the RSBoom is what I seek.

Are the seismic abilities of those above relatively the same? For detecting local low-level quake activity as well as long distant major quakes?

What does the infrasound ability mean living in the mid-Coninental US? I assume it would have easily detected, say, Hunga Tonga. But what else would it help detect? I am confused on this. That’s what has me teetering on the 3 and the Boom. CG

[Stormchaser]

Hello,

Yes, the abilities of the two Shakes are exactly the same. Both will allow you to detect local events and large, major, distant earthquakes. The only difference will be that the RS&BOOM will only record vertical waves, while the RS3D will record both vertical and horizontal waves.

Regarding your query about the RS&BOOM, this manual section can be of help, listing most of the infrasound sources that you could detect: Raspberry Boom (RBOOM/ RS&BOOM) Infrasound Monitors.

You would have easily detected the Hunga-Tonga wave propagation after its eruption, but there is much more (meteors, weather, wind farms…) that could be seen in what your instrument records.

As general advice, if you are mainly interested in earthquakes, then the RS3D is your desired instrument. However, if you are equally interested in both earth movements and infrasound analysis, then the RS&BOOM may be the best suited Shake for you.

[The1930srust]

Stormchaser, thank you again. I have decided that the RS&Boom would be the best device for me. I appreciate your insight. I will order the unit this week! I am very excited to get it set up.

Now I have to decide on my dark, dank, quiet dungeon of a cellar (perhaps with a small poured concrete pad to place it on), or in my garage with cars and garage doors going up and down.

C

[Stormchaser]

Happy to have been of help!

Both solutions are actually good. There are many Shakers who have put their instrument in a garage and, bar the usual activities, it’s a pretty quiet location.

However, the cellar (we need a dungeon-like picture of your installation then!) should offer the lowest noise levels, especially if you create a little concrete pad to put the Shake on.

Let us know if you need anything else.

[The1930srust]

I’ve been crawling around my cellar, and found what I think is a perfect spot for my Shake and Boom. It’s a poured concrete “shelf” that is part of the foundation of the cabin. Rather than a sloped dirt floor, this seems ready-built.

I was thinking of adhering a thick metal plate (say 1/2" by 6" round) to the concrete with a non-dapening adhesive. This would provide a nice clean, flat surface to rest the device on.

Thoughts?

Chris

[Stormchaser]

Hello Chris,

That looks like the perfect spot to put your Shake on!

I would recommend leaving it as it is, as a metal sheet could introduce some unwanted additional vibrations, while the simple solid concrete foundation would be ideal for a Shake installation.

In any case, if you have a metal plate available (and you don’t have to buy it), you can always test with and without it to see the differences, if you want.

[The1930srust]

Its has arrived! And two days early. I also successfully ressurected my long dormant Raspberry Pi 4b, and got it connected to my Google Mesh network. This will be key to getting internet connectivity to the cellar. Now, to begin construction, though I still await a higher amperage power puck for the RS&Boom.

The metal plate I plan on experimenting with as a base is a ten pound stainless steel telescope counterweight I have laying around. I will try both with and without depending on how smooth the concrete can be made.

Thanks! Chris

[Stormchaser]

Always great to get what you have ordered earlier than expected!

Looking forward to see this RS&BOOM online, and the results of your metal plate experiments!

[The1930srust]

Welp, I got my RS&Boom constructed! More or less. Some hardware is left over (small split ring washers). I can say that I was not terribly impressed with the instructions for construction. The first video I found (the QR code in the box gave a 404 error) had a completely different shake board than what I have. The tube sensor was mounted 180 degrees from mine. Only after discovering a second video did I realize there had been a design change? And I ended up using the wrong length screws several times, as this did not appear to have been addressed in the videos. Nevertheless, I prevailed!

A few questions. The side panels (specifically the ends) do not appear tight. That is, there is a bit of play in them. All the hardware is tight. Is this a problem? Also, is there a way to test to see if this device works? By all accounts it is. It’s connected and all the LEDs are functioning. I am not going to connect to the network until I have the unit placed in the cellar.

Chris

[Stormchaser]

Hello,

First, great job on the overall Shake assembly!
(and I love your clean setup from the pic)

The QR code problem should not have happened, indeed. Thank you for your feedback! I will ask our team to crosscheck this particular issue so that this doesn’t happen again.

Regarding the side panels, yes, even if there is a little play, it’s not something to worry about. As long as the main screws are sufficiently tight, your Shake is good to go.

Without connecting it to a computer, at least, there is a bit of a limit to what we can say about its working status, but if, when booted, the LEDs follow this pattern, everything should be all right: Technical Specifications.

But, if there is anything that doesn’t seem to be working when you connect it to the network, let us know, and we’ll assist you as best as we can.

[The1930srust]

Well, S1C88 is officially online! Preliminary installation tonight. I was very pleased the Google Mesh hub had a great connection. Now to soak this all in. It really picks up footsteps and doors closing upstairs… Still learning the app. Hoping there is a way for notifications. The 1000g weight is an experiment.

Anyway, this is my setup thus far.

Thanks all!

C

[Stormchaser]

Very nice installation, and very low noise too! Great to see it online!

And yes, it is really sensitive, so you’ll see many things in its data. Notifications are not yet available in the mobile app but are on our radar.

Enjoy your Shake!

[The1930srust]

Thanks!

A novice question. I saw this 5.0 on X today. I went back and checked my data feed, matching date and UTC. Does this mean my Shake captured this south Pacific quake, or is it a coincidence? It was 0320 local time, so nothing was stirring. Not even a mouse! C

[Stormchaser]

You’re welcome!

Good question with a potentially long answer. Let’s start!

Whenever you see an earthquake on our feed, or other feeds (like USGS, EMSC, etc.) you have to take into account the time that it will take for the seismic waves to reach your location.

As you are close to both the New Madrid and the Wabash Valley seismic zones, earthquakes in this area will probably take around 2-4 minutes to reach your station, possibly even less. Let’s take an example from this small M 2.2 quake you’ve captured during the night:

As you can see, the quake origin time was 04:02:44, and the waves arrived at your location at about 04:03:40, so there was less than a minute difference for a distance of about 120 miles.

Let’s take another example with the M 5.9 Cuba region event, from today’s early morning, with a distance of 1370 miles:

The quake was at 06:00:59, and it arrived at your Shake around 06:05:30, almost 5 minutes later. More distant earthquakes will then take even more time to reach you, topping at about 18-20 minutes if they come from your antipodes.

You can expand more on travel time (and their associated curves) with this EarthScope video: Travel-time Curves: How they are created- Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology.

Also, a tip for distant earthquakes: enable the spectrogram view and look towards the very bottom frequencies. As you can see with the Cuba one, most of the signal is concentrated between 0 and 2-3 Hz, which can be a great indicator that your Shake has detected a far away event.

Also, another tip: sometimes you’ll have to filter your data to properly “see” an earthquake trace. We have preset filters in both the Mobile App and on DataView that can help.

With practice, you’ll be able to recognize and separate earthquakes from everything else very easily. But if you have questions or doubts, we are here.

[EmmaEHZ]

Wow how silent your shake is, lately I’ve been struggling in the noise in my shake&boom.

[The1930srust]

Stormchaser:

Thank you for this most excellent response! I learned a great deal. I long ago forgot how quickly earthquakes can propagate across (or through) the globe. I thought there must be a lag, but having no idea how much, I wondered if my example was a coincidence.

I have started experimenting and learning the settings, but have much yet to learn. And I appreciate you drawing my attention to the local quake. Fascinating. Chris

[The1930srust]

Emma, I am afraid I’m not knowledgeable enough to even comment on the silence of my Shake! Perhaps I am lucky to have a thick concrete foundation set in hard-packed clay soils. Maybe the 1kg weight helps? I saw that somewhere here and tried it on a whim. C

[Stormchaser]

Very happy to read that my reply was helpful, Chris!

If you have anything else to ask or if there is some signal that you are unsure where it’s coming from, feel free to ask here in the community! There are lots of people ready to reply.