Wow, I have to admit to being incredibly humbled and thankful for the opportunity to participate in this Design Challenge. Even more especially after having an opportunity to view a couple of the other sponsored participants proposals. Some really interesting and exciting project plans out there! I can't wait to get to working on mine and will eagerly look forward to seeing how the others are doing.
I will definitely offer suggestions/comments to the others and look forward to receiving the same back, I honestly think that with the vast range of Element14 members, their knowledge and creativity, this design challenge will be very informative and fun!
Here is some basic information cut from my application to start as an Introduction:
Old MacDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had some Raspberry Pis
E-I-E-I-O
With IoT here
And IoT there
Here some IoT, there some IoT
Everywhere some IoT
Old MacDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O
Element 14 has some incredible Design Challenges, but this one that brings in the new Raspberry Pi 3 with IoT based on designing Smarter Spaces is a perfect tie in with the fact my family has just purchased a new home with 5 1/2 acres. We have 18 new baby chicks being raised in the garage and 4 young rabbits set in cages ready to have their new living Smart Spaces created and connected to IoT.
I believe the kit setup for this Design Challenge is a great base to work with in connecting small farming implementations. Of course all of it can be applied to various scaled farming projects so I think that the readers of Element 14 would find my Design plan interesting and of actual value.
One of the downsides of having property in a rural location is the fact that natural predators are more common and as such our plans are for having a secured location for the Rabbits and Chickens to live. With the animal location being a little farther from the house to allow for expansion and composting, using the Raspberry PIs to monitor and alert will be a great asset to anyone working with small animal farming.
While the Rabbit hutch/Colony Cage will be separated from the Chicken Coop/fenced chicken yard, they will be side to side and allow for a central Smart Space storage area and is a prime location to place the Raspberry Pi.
⦁ From within this central Smart Space I will implement a USB weight Scale to monitor food storage and alert when food starts running low to allow for planning on a supply run back into town for animal food from the agriculture store.
⦁ In the Rabbit Colony Cage a Noir Camera will be placed inside the nesting box to allow for remote monitoring of birth and babies development.
⦁ In the Chicken Coop the Sense Hat will be installed to monitor environmental conditions and allow for any implementations that might be required to allow for appropriate temperature changes to ensure the chickens have the best living conditions. This could include heat lamp use during the winter months and/or fan implementation during the hotter summer months.
⦁ In addition the Chicken Coop will have lighting controlled via the PI and light sensors outside. This allows for the training and automating of having the Chickens come inside at Dusk.
⦁ The 8mp Camera will be mounted on top of the Central Smart Space to allow remote viewing of the gated areas and track for potential predator threat. Depending on the range of view more camera's may be implemented to further expand monitoring.
⦁ The Raspberry Pi LCD screen will be used as the interface at the main house F.O.C. (Farm Operations Center).
⦁ Potential additional implementation of IoT will be researching how to remotely open and close the Chicken Coop Chicken door at specific times with a sensor to verify the door is open or closed.
I am interested in seeing what type of feedback the Element 14 community may be inclined to provide while this project is underway and I think that some flexibility to allow for additional modifications suggested by the community will make this project even more fun and inclusive.
This Design project has some incredible potential and I look forward to participating with the Element 14 members.
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