Hi, I’m new to the shake. If I’m going to install a Shake it will be outside.
We are on granite here in central Bretagne, France, the bedrock is exposed at the back of the house. I could put a platform on that only five, six meters from the utility room, or I could go another five away to an outbuilding which is not directly onto the bedrock, which do I chose, and why?
Thank,s Strebor.
There are a few discussions that you can probably find here on siting. I think there may also be something in the manual. All of them boil down to saying that sitting on bedrock is best.
Not sure what you meant about building a platform? You really want as good a “connection” to that rock as possible - so it it’s not flat enough, maybe laying a concrete base directly on the rock would be the best idea.,
But, before making things permanent, I would try out both of your possible locations and see what the results look like. If your utility room includes (for example) a washing machine, see how much of the vibration from that is picked up.
Here is what happens with our washing machine on its spin cycle, 30m away from the R-Shake which is in sitting on the concrete floor of a barn away from the house:
I was originally going to just place it on the concrete floor of the house basement, but the air conditioning vibration was just too much.
Thank you Philip, I did find the install guide on the USGS site, and whilst it for the real deal it does contain some useful information. All the other posts were on RFI for the Radio Hams or environmental concerns
We are terracing the rock bank, and now would be a good time to build a level and tightly coupled base for the geophone. I’m surprised and puzzled by how much “noise of life” is detected as vertical vibrations.
S
“Me too” for the general noises of life. I am probably over a mile from a main road, 100m from the nearest neighbor etc. but still see a very clear distinction between day and night. I see the garbage collection truck, and its progress to the neighbors, and back to us on its way out. Helicopters regularly shake the ground. Amazon delivery trucks coming up our drive are quite noticeable.
I think this is just something we have to live with unless we want to move 50 miles from anyone.
Seismologists like to call this “cultural noise”.
Here is an article that might be of interest to both of you: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd2438
Also, check out our many guest blog posts for home vault designs: Vault Archives - Raspberry Shake
Have fun Shaking!
branden
Hi Strebor and welcome to the RShake community,
I recommend the approach PhillipPeake mentioned. Try each location for a little bit to see if you get the results you are looking for. Ideally, you want the ‘quietest’ location to try and capture those small or distant quakes. You may want to try a week in each location to see how day compares to night and how weekends compare to weekdays.
I initially, had my shake in the garage on the concrete floor. It performed well there. However, it was close to the street causing big spikes from cars. The furnace added noise. Walking in our of the garage… more spikes.
So, I decided to move it to the backyard. No bedrock here, but I did dig down a little to reach more compacted and harder clay. With the new location, traffic noise was greatly reduced. Fewer footsteps and no furnaces issues. You can see what I did in the Vault Archive links Branden provided.
I still pick up various cultural noises: Washers, dryers, swimming pool pumps, a/c units, trash trucks…etc. However, my location has reduced them as much as possible.
–Steve
RD29A
RS4D Chino Hills, Ca
Thanks all, I will try the two locations I have in mind. I’ll cast a ‘coupling’ onto the bedrock near where we are to build the last section of terracing. We do get the the very occasional tremor, the one we really noticed was under the coast about 40k away, enough to rattle the patio doors. Normally a very quite location with little passing traffic, not today 800 vintage cars going past!
…Strebor
