Talk about stuff that has nothing to do with Ghostbusters!
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By Nighty80
#4952694
Hi all,

Sorry if this has been asked before - but I couldn't find anything and it's been troubling me for ages!

Is there an accepted unit of measure for PKE? I've never heard or read anything that explicitly states a unit.
Since PKE is a form of Energy, would it be reasonable to assume that readings would be some fraction of (assuming SI for the sake of argument), Joules? Or maybe electron volts (eV)?
I think I'm right in thinking the Giga Meter measured in GeV which seems appropriate, but differs in reading to the PKE meter above the river of slime, which makes me think they're measuring different units.

Any thoughts/insights appreciated; I'm currently coding and building a containment system which (amongst other things) tracks 'atmospheric PKE' (IRL data from my weather station), and really want to display with units.

FWIW, were's a work-in-progress screenshot of ContainmentOS :)
Image
User avatar
By Fritz
#4952732
Yeah, this is another thing that hasn't been nailed down very well.

There was this, but as far as I can tell it may only have fan origins (it's credited to EgonsLab, a subsidiary of GBHQ)
How to Read a P.K.E. Meter: A P.K.E. Meter measures the Psychokinetic energy in the current area. In order to correctly assess the reading, you must view this guide.

200-300 = No Threat, small to no paranormal activity.

301-450 = Trouble, you have a faint trace of a spook.

451-550 = Biblical Proportions, don't let anyone in your house named "Zuul".

Now that you know how to correctly process the information, now you need to know some other tips. If the meter is reading very close in between 300-305, you may be picking up a trail of a ghoul that was already in your area. In other words, you are seeing his residual traces. If you are reading anywhere from a 450-455 when a ghost is present, you are looking at a Class V apparition, a ghost not to be taken lightly.
The West End Games RPG measured both Ectopresence (impingement on the material plane) and Power (well, how much damage they can do really) and they tended to be low integers: for example, Gozer had a Power of 12 while Slimer had Power 2 Ectopresence 5.

None of those give you units. 300 what? (GeVs?) 12 what?

An episode of the cartoon, "The Headless Motorcyclist", Egon described the entity as having a reading of "12.5 on the Flammarion Scale" (an apparent reference to real life French astronomer and writer Camille Flammarion, who contributed works of science fiction and spiritualism). This is actually the closest thing to a "unit name" I've found besides GeVs.

So there's not really a completely "standard" system.

What you're doing looks quite neat, by the way.
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User avatar
By Nighty80
#4952778
Hi Fritz,
Interesting - and thanks for such a detailed reply!

Since the units are not strictly defined, it leaves plenty of room for interpretation which I quite like...

Considering radiation (Bq or Ci) can also be measured in terms of Exposure (C/kg or roentgen), Absorbed (Gy or rad) and Effective (Sv or rem), the same could theoretically apply to PKE (since it's presumably radiative, penetrates walls/floors etc.), and could likewise be measured in a variety of ways - with differing scales, units etc.
So if I define my own units [edit: which appears common in universe], I'm also defining my own scale - which [edit: allows me to use the data I have in whatever format I want, and] won't conflict with canon.

Flammarion is an awesome Easter egg! I quite like the idea of something like Fl/cm² (Flammarion 'radiation' exposure per cm sq.) - any thoughts? [edited: replaced 'absorbed', with 'exposure']

Thanks :) I've been toying the idea of a build thread... I'll try drafting a synopsis and see how it reads.
[Edit: You can see why I don't write more, considering all the OCD edits above :sigh:]
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By Nighty80
#4952980
Quick update:
Started to integrate my pet theory into ContainmentOS - see 'atmospheric PKE' [this is actually barometric pressure]:

Image

Above is an auto trap sequence (as opposed to physically loading a trap into the portal) and resulting EctoPlasmic Residue in the 'EPR filter'. (I came up with this concept as a place-holder until I got my head around PKE).
The EPR filter also accumulates based on the current weather conditions my Netatmo weather station is reporting and once it reaches a pre-determined point it will automatically purge(, vent & drain - PV&D). This wakes the system, plays an appropriate sound effect while flickering the manual activation button LED.
(I realise none of this makes sense yet as I've not introduced the hardware that ContainmentOS interfaces with... Another time/thread maybe).
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By Fienen
#4953291
So, I don't know about PKE, but I do know in G2 when they're measuring out in the street, they refer to 2.5 GeVs on the gigameter. They refer to the PKE as 1118, but alas, no unit. This doesn't tell you anything you don't already know. I sorta think you get to make it up, in this case. In your case, I feel like the number aligns well with air pressure in mbar though.
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By Nighty80
#4953326
Thanks Fienen,
I'm using mbar but had left a /100 from an earlier iteration - but I think you're right, it does look better without and works nicely with the reading above the river of slime - thanks for the input :)

Still not sure about my units; I figured measuring atmospheric conditions would generally be at a much lower scale than a direct meter scan of an entity - hence the μ (which is also a nod to my vintage Geiger counter (μGy/h)):
Image

Thinking about it again now, I plucked /cm2 out of the air - I'll reformat to μFl/h for a while and see how it feels...
Speaking of which, it is currently 1003.3 μFl/h and trending down... no crossrips today - woo! (but it might rain - boo) :rofl:
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By Nighty80
#4953342
Preface: Sorry if this is too geeky/no-one cares; still trying to gauge how best to write this up properly - if at all. In all honesty, the hardware is probably more interesting... But I love it!

ContainmentOS is a TUI application written in Python, running on a Pi which interfaces with the ECU hardware via GPIO and my Philips Hue lighting via the bridge's API. It queries Holly (my home server, running on a separate Pi), which in turn periodically polls the Netatmo servers for my weather station data and formats it appropriately. It returns JSON like:
Code: Select all
{"data":{"CO2":994,"epr_rate":984,"hum":[62,91],"pres":[1009.9,1000,0.99,"stable"],"rain":[0.1,2.8,3.1,true],"temp":[18,18.2]},"errors":[],"success":true}
"pres" represents the current atmospheric pressure in millibars [absolute, gauge, delta, trend].

This is then displayed on the command line by calling the 'pke' command:
Image

Ultimately I'll tie this into the main monitoring/alerting system.

I also use the "temp" data to change the colour of the Status/Alert Light, depending on external temperature:
Image
(Apart from the centre "Emergency" Light, the others drop out during a containment shutdown).

The hardware I'm working on will mount to the wall, along with the Spengler wand (which is on a v-hook of course)...
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