Hi jlbrian7 - Measuring electricity is definitely an important application. If the electricity is out and we detect it, it could provide an early warning before greenhouses overheat or refrigerators thaw. I've been looking at the [Grove Electricity sensor](http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/Grove_-_Electricity_Sensor) + [GrovePi](http://www.dexterindustries.com/GrovePi/) to accomplish this. I checked out your hackaday project page. How would one hook it up to an electrical system to monitor electricity?
I'm all for farmers choosing who they share their data with. I imagine the farmers participating in a data collection program like Monsanto's Climate Pro are worried that their data is going to be sold to the highest bidder and that highest bidder might not have their best interests in mind. After all it is Monsanto's legal obligation to maximize returns to their investors. Has anyone here read the Climate Pro "Terms Of Service" (TOS)?
A while back I wrote up some ideas on a similar system. It was inspired by Abe Collin's presentation on Grow Clean Water. It's a lofty goal but something cool to aim for.
When we integrate ...
- Project management, per field/facility, what particular people/objects need to do when with what equipment (includes automation schedules)
- Budget management
- Equipment inventory/management
- Automated and manually entered environmental data
We can do ...
- Smarter computer generated Nutrient Management suggestions
- automated generation of reports for taxes and certifications
- alerts when trouble is brewing
Hi Jenna,
Cool work you're doing there. Last year I had to calculate the size of a solar panel and battery required to support 30 tablets and a Raspberry Pi for 8 hours a day. [Here's the calculations I came up with](https://github.com/open-learning-exchange/BeLL-System-Documentation/tree/1.x/Guide-for-Managing-Energy). It includes a couple of helpful links at the beginning for educating yourself on how to do the calculations yourself as well as some example technologies. Louis also helped out by verifying those calculations.
On the number of pins issue. I wonder if using a device like a Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone with USB capabilities would be a viable option. Plug in a USB hub and a couple of [USB-to-Serial adapters](http://www.pololu.com/product/1308) and you could potentially have all the pins you ever need. I've never tried it myself so there might be some limitations there I haven't run into. The other option is more Bees/Arduinos talking to a central unit that is running the logic and sending commands back to the nodes. The Bee+Hive project Louis and I were working on has that potential but we have yet to build in sending automation commands from the Hive to the Bees.
- RJ
The videos are awesome over on the Robot Gardener website -> [http://robotgardener.com/open-documentation/](http://robotgardener.com/open-documentation/)
Sam and Will, have you guys tried [Hackpad](http://hackpad.com)? I like it a lot. You could combine your text documentation and videos into a Hackpad site dedicated to this project. It works like your own Google Docs site. We'll probably add support for embedding Hackpads on Farm Hack tools sometime in the future.
- RJ
Comments
Checking out Grove Electricity Sensor for monitoring power fail
Has anyone read the Climate Pro Terms of Service?
Ideas on what we can do after integrating farm related tools
Calculating battery and solar requirements. Also, on more pins.
The Robot Gardener videos are awesome