Open-source ground penetrating RADAR
Open ground penetrating RADAR is an ongoing open-source project initiated by Glenn Powers as his entry for the 2015 Hackaday Prize. The aim is to make a Raspberry Pi powered RADAR system to look into the Earth for less than $500.
Ground penetrating RADAR design
Commercial ground penetrating radar systems cost thousands of dollars. This project aims to create an open hardware alternative for about $500, using a Raspberry Pi with PiMSO to save data for later analysis and send instantaneous results to a web browser on a tablet or smartphone.
A Baofeng VHF/UHF radio is used a signal generator, which transmits via a Transmit/Recieve switch through an antenna. A RF detector is also connected to the T/R switch, which is connected to the MSO-19.
The radio controller is a 4N25 opto-isolator.
The T/R switch controller is a SN74HC04N (or similar) hex inverter.
Any Pi-compatible GPS and WiFi dongle will do.
The Raspberry Pi triggers the radio, T/R switch and MSO-19 via a buffered GPIO port once per second using a very simple python script.