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Yes. I've got a friend who digs privies for fun (that's a loaded intro, search for The Privy Diggers or The Boghouse if you're curious) and he bought a GPR cart

Yes. I've got a friend who digs privies for fun (that's a loaded intro, search for The Privy Diggers or The Boghouse if you're curious) and he bought a GPR cart last year for a pretty reasonable price - I think the price was in the hundreds, rather than the thousands. Some guy assembles the electronic components into a Pelican case, essentially, and it hooks up to free iPad software.

dylan604 6y ago
This got my curiosity peaked. I was able to dig up an open source GPR rig that even utilizes building a rover to do scanning. https://hackaday.io/project/4440-open-ground-penetrating-radar https://hackaday.io/project/4440-open-ground-penetrating-rad...
- dekervin 6y ago
  Just took a tour on http://hackaday.io http://hackaday.io, it's refreshing to browse through what feels like genuine innovation.
  - hwillis 6y ago
    Definitely check out the hackaday prize finalists; everything in the top ten every year is usually spectacular. Example: https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri
- hwillis 6y ago
  Fun fact: magnetic resonance (a la hospital MRI machines) is also a common method of underground imaging. MRI is quite neat in that the time-space resolution tradeoff is extremely flexible, and you can get quite good pictures if you leave a cheap imager long enough. Instead of using massive superconducting magnets they just use the Earth's field. It's especially good for imaging underground water, as well as other hydrogen-containing materials like hydrates or hydroxides. I think there may be a DIY version on hackaday, but I know for a fact theres a project where someone took a DIY MRI of an apple. The hardware for a low-field MRI actually has a fair amount in common with GPR- the hydrogen atoms emit lowish frequency radio waves when they realign with the magnetic field. https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri

dylan604 6y ago

This got my curiosity peaked. I was able to dig up an open source GPR rig that even utilizes building a rover to do scanning. https://hackaday.io/project/4440-open-ground-penetrating-radar https://hackaday.io/project/4440-open-ground-penetrating-rad...

dekervin 6y ago
Just took a tour on http://hackaday.io http://hackaday.io, it's refreshing to browse through what feels like genuine innovation.
- hwillis 6y ago
  Definitely check out the hackaday prize finalists; everything in the top ten every year is usually spectacular. Example: https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri
hwillis 6y ago
Fun fact: magnetic resonance (a la hospital MRI machines) is also a common method of underground imaging. MRI is quite neat in that the time-space resolution tradeoff is extremely flexible, and you can get quite good pictures if you leave a cheap imager long enough. Instead of using massive superconducting magnets they just use the Earth's field. It's especially good for imaging underground water, as well as other hydrogen-containing materials like hydrates or hydroxides. I think there may be a DIY version on hackaday, but I know for a fact theres a project where someone took a DIY MRI of an apple. The hardware for a low-field MRI actually has a fair amount in common with GPR- the hydrogen atoms emit lowish frequency radio waves when they realign with the magnetic field. https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri https://hackaday.io/project/5030-low-field-mri