65: Chapter 65 Outpost Phase I Project

March 28th.

Jiang Lin sat in front of his desk, staring at the number in the lower right corner of the computer screen automatically summed up by the Excel spreadsheet, not moving for a full half-minute.

He even breathed very lightly, as if a slightly heavier breath would make that number jump even higher.

Forty-eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-six.

This was the total price of the first version of the material list he had spent three days preparing across major e-commerce platforms, second-hand instrument forums, Xianyu, and hardware chat groups for his sixth trip to the Wasteland.

Of course, this was merely a rough estimate; many things still had to account for shipping costs and extra accessory money.

This list was very long, and every single item hit Jiang Lin's pain points.

Inside was a small desktop-level metal lathe equipped with a complete set of turning tools and a chuck, which meant he could finally process standard shaft parts on the Wasteland, no longer needing to use a file to grind square steel into a cylinder bit by bit.

A set of forty-eight-volt, one-hundred-amp-hour lithium iron phosphate battery packs, coupled with a matching pure sine wave inverter, this was the heart of stable power supply for the future Wasteland shelter.

A complete one-kilowatt wind power generation system kit, including a low-speed permanent magnet generator and fiberglass blades, which could free Jiang Lin from the predicament of relying solely on solar energy and crude wind power generation.

An entry-level micro fiber optic spectrometer used to record the relative spectral intensity of the Wasteland sky.

It might not directly tell him what was in the sky, but if that red-purple color was not ordinary scattering, but some stable emission peak or abnormal absorption structure, the spectral curve would at least leave behind the first fingerprint.

A second-hand retired fluxgate magnetometer, whose precision might not be enough for him to directly prove any grand Physics conjectures, was yet sufficient for him to turn the "abnormal feeling" of the Wasteland into a continuously recordable magnetic field curve for the first time.

It could not verify magnetic reconnection.

But it could tell himself whether those red-purple flickers in the sky above the Wasteland were accompanied by synchronized geomagnetic disturbances.

A set of low-light all-sky camera components used to record star point brightness changes, sky background brightness, abnormal light bands, and dust cloud occlusion overnight.

Finally, there was also a second-hand graphics workstation used for data processing and data storage.

At the very bottom of this table, if one were to factor in all the necessary outdoor flame-retardant cables, various specifications of cold-pressed terminal blocks, IP67-grade waterproof distribution boxes, UPS uninterrupted power supplies, two large-capacity mechanical hard drives for redundant backup, and the systematic measuring gauges and consumables, this number would only gallop wildly upwards like a wild horse off its leash.

Jiang Lin rubbed his glabella with a slight headache, moved his gaze away from the screen, and let it fall onto the blue bookkeeping notebook close at hand.

The ledger was open, and upon it was his entire current net worth.

The New Year's money from relatives, plus the pocket money he had piecemeal saved up over the past few years, was originally a considerable figure close to twenty thousand yuan.

In the eyes of an ordinary high school student, this was a huge sum of money.

However, the material preparation for the fifth trip to the Wasteland had spent several thousand yuan.

Now, the cash he could actually and freely use in his own hands was only left with eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-two yuan and five jiao.

The two numbers were placed side by side on the white paper surface.

One represented his grand ideal of establishing a primary scientific research and industrial system on the Wasteland, and the other represented the bony reality.

Jiang Lin's initial instinctive reaction was to submit to reality and continue cutting the budget downwards.

He selected the entire row where the small lathe was located in the Excel table, his finger hovering over the backspace key.

Large-capacity lithium iron phosphate battery pack?

Too expensive, switch to second-hand dismantled battery cells to assemble it himself?

No, once the battery cells suffered thermal runaway and caught fire on the Wasteland, it was a sure kill; he could only cut the capacity and switch to a smaller one.

Micro spectrometer?

Forget it, just make do with the naked eye plus a filter for now.

Second-hand fluxgate magnetometer?

Compromising, buy a few-yuan Hall sensor module and build it himself.

A complete one-kilowatt wind turbine kit?

Too extravagant.

Only buy the generator stator and rotor, and scavenge for blades and tower poles on the Wasteland to piece them together himself.

The workstation's second expansion monitor?

This was purely enjoyment; cut it out.

A whole box of imported cobalt-containing drill bits?

Too money-burning, keep only a few most commonly used key specifications, and replace all the rest with the cheapest high-speed steel.

All-sky low-light camera?

Do not buy brand-name finished products; go to Xianyu to hunt for a second-hand USB camera eliminated from industrial machine vision, equip it himself with a few-dozen-yuan surveillance fisheye lens, and use a plastic lunch box for waterproofing.

...

The mouse clicked frantically in the table, and strikethroughs were drawn one after another.

A few minutes later, when Jiang Lin looked at the lower right corner of the table again, that exorbitant number had been forcefully compressed by him to close to eleven thousand yuan.

It seemed that the funding gap had been leveled, and the problem appeared to be solved.

Yet Jiang Lin's right hand holding the mouse stopped in mid-air, his index finger resting on the left button, delaying clicking save for a long time.

He looked at the low-end list that had been cut almost down to the bone, his brows furrowing bit by bit.

No.

Wasteland time was meant for learning, for practicing, for verifying, and for waiting for the next round of trial and error after failure.

But it should not be wasted on such low-value physical exertion devoid of any technical content, such as insisting on continuing to use a breast drill to hard-carry all hole processing when he could clearly buy a bench drill.

Jiang Lin took a deep breath, and without hesitation clicked save as on that castrated compressed list, naming it: "Sixth Low-Configuration Plan - Abandoned Version".

Then, he reopened a clean, blank Word document.

[Explanation of Procurement Budget for Study and Scientific Research Training Equipment]

This title was steady and secure, carrying a thick flavor of an academic application form.

Scientific research training opportunities in the Physics laboratory of Jiangda University, study plans for the interdisciplinary subjects of Physics, engineering, and computing in future universities, preparation of necessary engineering hands-on ability training equipment, establishment of a massive offline scientific research database, and processing requirements for complex experimental data.

The reasons written in this document, every single word and sentence, were true.

He truly needed these things for study and training; it was just that he did not fully state the location of use.

Jiang Lin's thoughts were extremely clear, his fingers flying across the keyboard, dismantling the long budget table into five highly convincing major categories.

Category one, computation and data storage cluster.

Second-hand graphics workstation host, monitor, backup cooling fan, electrostatic shielding bag, dust-proof filter.

The usage description was written airtightly.

[Used for the storage and rapid retrieval of massive offline professional textbooks, English cutting-edge literature, and engineering drawing libraries. Supports complex CAD mechanical structure rendering and drawing, running Python scripts for scientific-research-grade data cleaning and processing, and high-density scientific research training log recording.]

Category two, basic machining and assembly platform.

Including small desktop micro-lathe, high-precision desktop drill press, center drill, complete set of HSS drill bits, a small amount of cobalt-containing drill bits for processing cemented carbide, high-precision reamer, complete set of taps and dies, cutting fluid, special tapping oil, machining V-blocks, clamping plates, magnetic dial indicator bases...

Usage description.

[A worker must first sharpen his tools if he wants to do his work well; used for conducting modern engineering practical training, familiarizing with standard hole machining technology, precision shaft part turning processing, and cultivating the independent manufacturing and maintenance capabilities of mechanical structures from drawings to physical objects.]

Category three, power and electrical control system.

Including low-speed permanent magnet generator and fiberglass blades, wind-solar complementary intelligent controller, three-phase rectifier bridge module, high-power dump load resistor, pure sine wave high-frequency inverter, BMS battery management system, DC direct current miniature circuit breaker, fuses of various ampere ratings...

Usage description.

[The foundation of Physics experiments is energy. Used for field learning of wind fluid mechanics power generation principles, power electronics conversion technology, construction of low-voltage DC micro-grid systems, and electrical safety wiring specifications.]

Category four, spatial Physics environment observation and sensing array.

Including high-precision three-axis magnetometer module, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure three-in-one sensor, illuminance sensor, pulsed anemometer, wind vane, low-light wide-dynamic USB industrial camera, panoramic fisheye lens, SDR software-defined radio receiver, enameled wire, metal shielded wire, and various open-source development boards.

In addition to the sensors themselves, he also additionally listed a small column of inconspicuous debugging tools: USB logic analyzer, simple USB oscilloscope, USB voltage and current recorder, several low-ESR electrolytic capacitors and ceramic capacitors, as well as a bag of ferrite magnetic rings of various specifications, etc.

Usage description.

[Used for learning automatic collection of basic IoT data, recording and analysis of weak geomagnetic disturbances, continuous observation of sky optical anomalies, sensor temperature drift processing algorithms, low-voltage power supply noise troubleshooting, and the design of observation and recording systems under harsh wild environments.]

Category five, equipment consumables and long-term sealing system.

Including color-changing silica gel desiccant, airtight moisture-proof box, vapor-phase anti-rust paper, industrial anti-rust oil, thermal label paper, cable marker tubes, multi-compartment parts sorting boxes, heavy-duty cloth tape, nylon cable ties...

Usage description.

[The rigor of scientific research is reflected in details. Used for the long-term proper preservation of precision equipment, scientific classification and retrieval of parts, routine maintenance, and security management of massive hardware data.]

Behind each item of supplies, Jiang Lin extremely professionally attached the price range after whole-network price comparisons.

Not only that, he also used different colors to mark the necessity levels, provided corresponding alternative plans, and even objectively indicated which equipment could have its purchase postponed if funds were tight.

This compressed procurement budget list was formally submitted after dinner the next day.

Relying on his proud results of far-leading the previous first mock exam and subsequent monthly exams, as well as the halo endorsed by Professor Lu Zhixing, this budget proposal, which looked very serious and ambitious, passed unanimously after his parents' brief surprise and discussion, and received full funding support.

The stone hanging in Jiang Lin's heart finally dropped to the ground.

The material procurement operation, like a wound-up machine, was able to unfold at full speed and smoothly.

In the following days, express delivery packages from all over the country flew towards Jiangcheng like snowflakes.

The corner of the garage was soon piled high with corrugated cardboard boxes of all sizes.

The first to arrive was that second-hand graphics workstation.

This was a heavy black metal monster.

He opened the side cover, cleaned out the dust, checked for bulging capacitors, fan bearings, and hard drive power-on counts, then plugged in the power, reinstalled a clean Linux system, and repartitioned those large-capacity hard drives.

Under the root directory, a directory tree structure was established.

[A - Core Textbooks and Monographs]

[B - Cutting-edge Literature and Preprints]

[C - Engineering Manuals and National Standards of Various Industries]

[D - Original Manufacturer Manuals for Instruments and Equipment]

[E - Wasteland Environment Data Observation Records]

[F - Automation Code and Python Scripts]

[G - Engineering Training Guide under Low-Resource Environments]

[H - System Image and Disaster Recovery Files]

With the architecture built, next came the long process of reclaiming land with data.

[part:gemini-3.6-flash]

He frantically scoured the internet for resources, downloading and saving everything offline.

Textbooks ranged from "Introduction to Plasma Physics", "Introduction to Space Physics", and "Fundamentals of Astrophysics", all the way to the complete set of Landau's "Course of Theoretical Physics".

Engineering manuals were even more varied: full high-definition scanned sets of the thousands-of-pages-thick "Mechanical Design Handbook", an internal "Megawatt-Scale Wind Turbine Installation and Maintenance Manual" leaked from a major wind power manufacturer, pinout definitions for various microcontroller development boards, and practical tutorials from beginner to master for SDR software-defined radio.

As for literature, he followed the threads of magnetic reconnection straight up, downloading hundreds of top English journal papers reviewing magnetic reconnection mechanisms, multi-wavelength observations of Solar Flare eruptions, geomagnetic storm and magnetospheric substorm evolution models, and ionospheric anomaly disturbances.

To get first-hand comparative data, he also used his Jiangda University campus network access to download massive amounts of public space observation data.

Including spectacular high-definition solar activity imagery returned by SDO, IRIS, and the Parker Solar Probe, as well as magnetic field and plasma data recorded by Earth's magnetosphere missions such as MMS and Cluster.

...

Next were the bench drill and test drilling.

On April Fools' Day, he began using the sensor modules he bought to assemble his first-generation low-cost automatic environmental observation box on a breadboard.

This was bound to be a painful process of trial and error.

The first version popped up complete gibberish in the serial monitor as soon as it was powered on and connected to the computer.

After half an hour of troubleshooting, he found that the serial baud rate settings of the development board and the sensor did not match.

After fixing the code, the second version ran.

But the three-axis magnetic field data on the screen jumped around wildly like an electrocardiogram, jumping to ten times normal geomagnetic intensity a second later.

Jiang Lin stared at the layout on the desk for a moment, sighed, and realized the magnetometer module was too close to the workstation chassis and the AC power cord under the desk, completely corrupted by electromagnetic noise.

Moving it away, the third version went live.

This time, temperature and humidity data were very stable, but pressure data occasionally dropped to zero or went offline for a few seconds.

Jiang Lin tweaked the connecting wire with tweezers and found that the DuPont wire connector was too loose, causing poor contact.

After switching to soldered connections and cold-pressed terminals, the fourth version began running at full load for extended periods, writing data to an SD card.

However, after running for three hours, the SD card threw a write error.

At first, he couldn't see any issue using a multimeter; the voltage regulator output was within normal range.

Later, he logged the power supply voltage of the development board as well and connected a cheap USB logic analyzer, only to discover that every time data was written to the SD card, a brief dip occurred on the power line.

The multimeter couldn't catch it, but the program crashed right in front of him.

He neatly wrote down the causes, phenomena, and solutions for these failures line by line in a thick "Equipment Debugging Log".

Every pitfall encountered was valuable experience.

Then, carrying the improved fifth version of the observation box, he appeared in Room B304 of the Jiangda University Physics Building.

He placed the somewhat rough-looking plastic box on the desk.

Yin Hang pushed up his glasses, removed the box's outer casing, and stared inside for ten minutes like a strict quality inspector.

"The wiring is much tidier than last time; it's starting to look somewhat industrial," Yin Hang remarked casually, before switching topics, "Still having problems?"

Jiang Lin nodded in admission: "I ran it myself for twelve hours. It still freezes occasionally, and I can't figure out why."

"Of course there are problems, and the cause is at the physical level. Although you moved your magnetometer module, it's still too close to the DC-DC buck power module. That buck module has an inductor inside, which acts as a high-frequency interference source when running."

Yin Hang pointed unceremoniously to a small green PCB board inside.

"In this tiny space, don't randomly slap a metal shield on the magnetometer—you're measuring magnetic fields! If you want to shield something, you should shield the power module first, or simply make the magnetometer an external probe using a non-magnetic bracket to extend it out. Also here, the external wiring terminal roots must have strain relief structures added, like glue or cable ties securing them to the base. Otherwise out in the field, when strong winds blow and cables sway back and forth, metal fatigue in the wire ends will eventually snap them inside. The internal structure of this box shouldn't be mixed together; it's best to use acrylic sheets to create layers: the sensor zone at the top for ventilation, the power zone in the middle, and the data logging zone at the bottom to isolate interference."

Yao Siyu came over from the side, snatched the printed sample data log form from Jiang Lin's hands, and frowned.

"It's a good thing you have an automated logging module now, but the design logic of your table is still stuck in the handwritten era."

She picked up a red pen from the desk and mercilessly scribbled several terms in the blank space of the table header.

[Unique Device ID]

[Current Sampling Interval]

[Real-time Power Supply Voltage]

[Sensor Relative Coordinates]

[3D Installation Orientation]

[Automatic Reboot Occurred During Cycle]

[Physical Movement of Device During Period].

"Instruments aren't human; they can't speak. If these metadata aren't written into the logs, then if a gap or sudden jump appears in your data curve months from now when you look back, you won't be able to tell whether it was a real environmental anomaly, simply a dead battery, or an animal knocking it out of alignment. Data disconnected from metadata is just useless digital trash."

Meng Che, who had been slumping in his chair sipping instant coffee, slowly turned his executive chair around and looked at Jiang Lin, asking, "Have you version-controlled the code and log tables on your workstation?"

"I plan to use Git for the collection scripts," Jiang Lin paused, startled, "but I haven't put in the observation tables, config files, or device wiring logs yet."

"That's where the problem lies."

Meng Che put his coffee cup aside, his tone becoming more serious than before.

"You're thinking too narrowly about Git; it's not just for code. Your sensor collection scripts, data cleaning scripts, observation record templates, config files, device ID lists, wiring diagram versions, and sensor calibration parameters should ALL be in the local repository."

Jiang Lin frowned: "Even wiring diagrams?"

"Of course, especially wiring diagrams," Meng Che said. "If you change a wire now, you think you'll definitely remember it. Look back in three months, and who knows why you changed that I²C address to that value."

He tapped on the data log table on the desk.

"In a low-resource environment, the scariest thing isn't writing bad code; it's not knowing which version started being wrong. Every time you change a threshold, sampling interval, filtering parameter, or sensor mounting position, leave a commit message. Not for looks, but so you can roll back when things go wrong."

All in all, the constructive criticism from the trio gave Jiang Lin—who lacked systematic classroom training—enormous insight.

...

On the night of the first, all equipment had been tested and entered the final packaging phase.

For the bench drill, he only disassembled the workbench, belt guard, handles, and easily damaged accessories, marking positioning points on the column and base.

The parts prone to shaking and deforming under transfer vibration were padded with thick sponge and packed separately with cloth duct tape.

Heavy items like the low-speed generator were clamped tightly in the box with custom hard foam and wooden boards to ensure they wouldn't smash other delicate components under gravitational impact.

To prevent static and vibration, the graphic workstation was stripped of its heavy discrete graphics card and all mechanical hard drives, which were sealed into silver anti-static bags.

The observation box was stickered inside and out with conspicuous fluorescent numbers.

All outdoor cables were neatly bundled and tied according to their system: power, signal, antenna, and so on.

Fragile cobalt drill bits, taps, and reamers were all placed into hard-shell engineering cases with high-density foam padding.

The wind turbine controller, rectifier bridge, dump load resistor, and DC-DC buck module were each labeled with crisp waterproof thermal printer labels indicating input/output voltage ranges and maximum current.

Paper materials were too heavy to bring entirely.

Jiang Lin only printed pilot hole charts, tolerance tables, electrical codes, reference indices, key equipment wiring diagrams, workstation recovery steps, Git rollback commands, sensor address tables...

As well as several ultimate tables revised under Yao Siyu and Meng Che's guidance: "Standardized Meteorological Observation Log", "Wasteland Sky Anomaly Rapid Log", "Equipment Fault and Maintenance Tracking Table", "Standard Cold Data Backup Procedure", and "Offline Git Version Rollback Emergency Memo".

As for the massive amount of data in the workstation, he took precautions and made three physically isolated backups.

One copy was stored on the main workstation drive, and another was copied onto a shockproof mobile hard drive.

Finally, the core documents and code directories were streamlined, packaged, and copied onto two industrial-grade SD memory cards.

[Sixth Wasteland Teleportation Ultimate Goal: Establish Outpost Phase I Project.]

[Remember: The purpose of this trip is not to absurdly transplant a modern Jiangda University laboratory into the Wasteland as-is, but to bring in a framework capable of growing a new laboratory out of the Wasteland soil on its own.]

[Power Infrastructure: First establish a completely controllable closed loop from power generators and energy storage arrays to end-distribution. Only with electricity can everything else exist.]

[Machining Infrastructure: First establish stable hole-machining and standard thread-machining capabilities. With this foundation, anything can be assembled and repaired.]

[Observation Infrastructure: First establish 24-hour uninterrupted continuous data logging capabilities to objectively collect magnetic field and optical data. Do not preset stances or rush to conclusions; let the data speak for itself.]

[Computing Infrastructure: First establish robust offline database retrieval, automated data processing, and strict code version management capabilities.]

Having written the last line, Jiang Lin closed the logbook heavily and looked around.

In the once empty small garage, five large, high-strength engineering storage trunks now stood neatly stacked.

[Power Trunk], [Machining Trunk], [Observation Trunk], [Computing Trunk].

Plus the lightest yet weightiest one: [Core Materials & Survival Trunk].