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  • Author Author: jkutzsch
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IoT Farm: Blog 11 - FOC Box.  Farm Operations Center in a Box.

jkutzsch

In my last post I shared the variety of boxes I found at the local Walmart ranging in price from 25 cents to 10 cents.  Today I had a chance to try 2 of them on for size and fit and quickly decided the midsize one seems almost made for being used for a Raspberry Pi implementation with the 7 inch Touchscreen!  If I remember correctly it was also only 10 cents! 

 

As I had mentioned the idea was to take the Farm Operations Center setup out of it's base setup which was just a no container, everything hanging out in the air condition, to a more protected containment system of a box.

 

Looking around there were a variety of interesting cases that could be ordered or made from a 3D printer, but I don't have a 3D printer, yet, and I wanted flexibility to add parts and pieces easily without worrying about outgrowing the containment.  One item I am really looking forward to is adding a battery to make it portable, so some extra space was a must.

 

As such I looked into the larger of the 3 cases first, cutting out a hole large enough to slip the metal frame on to allow screws to be drilled through the case and securing it.  My original hole was in the top of the case.  I think mainly because a case is designed with the top up so that is what I tried.  :-)

 

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Here I am showing the F.O.C. mounted to the large box.  Another box is shown above to give you an idea of depth for expansion.  While this wasn't bad there were 2 issues from my point of view. 

 

First mounting to the top of the case, the lid, just wasn't the best option for being able to run cables through main box since you would have to carefully open the lid every time watching all of the cable routing. 

 

Second, it just didn't feel comfortable in my hand.  That extra depth made if feel like a plastic brick.  If you don't plan on holding the F.O.C. Box and just want a containment system to set to the side and use perhaps with an external keyboard and mouse option, then the larger box is not a bad way to go.  Especially for only 25 cents.

 

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Here is the mid-sized option.  Just a tad smaller in the depth.  It looks even smaller then it is because this time I flipped the box over and used the bottom to mount the screen.  This fits my hand much better and I can imagine using the touchscreen and the potential of a battery setup very easily with this in place.

 

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It is hard to tell in this picture, tomorrow I will try to get a new picture with the screws in place and everything wired in, but for now if you look at the 4 plastic squares on the box, they actually line up perfectly with the metal mounting spots on the RPi Screen.  As you can see from the bottom box that I have not cut into, the little boxes are recessed and the extruded part of the metal frame fits right into those.  Making for a great fit once you take some washers and screws and fit it together!

 

10 cents is not a bad price either, in fact I spent more on the screws and washers then the boxes. 

 

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Here we have the new F.O.C. Box sitting in front of my laptop with both of them connected to the MotionEyeOs RPi B+. 

 

The odd picture is actually my ceiling fan & light reflected in the outside window.  The latch of the box works great as an angle provider for the box to be used in a standing position.  I am very pleased with how this came together!  I want to actually be able to mount it above my laptops in my desk area in the future and I think the Box will allow for that easily.

 

 

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On the Farm/Fowl side of things I wanted to share just how incredibly fast ducks can foul their water.  It is crazy!  It also makes for great tree watering supply but still, yuck!

 

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Here is a picture of one of the ducklings being introduced to the pool and enjoying it quite a bit!  We previously had the ducklings and baby keats in the garage.  Word of caution to potential duck owners, ducklings like to play in their water and that quickly makes the entire garage smell very very bad!

 

We had a pretty good rain so the ducks had tracked even more then a normal amount of dirt into the water making it look not quite so refreshing to me.  So today was Duck Water Refresh day.

 

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Ah clean water!  We won't even wait to let it fill up the pool!

 

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Here we have some more water in the pool, and you may notice that the clean part seems to be diminishing.  Kind of like bath water now.  :-)

 

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I guess "clean" water is a somewhat broad term when it comes to ducks.  But boy are they happy!

 

Parents

  • Yes, ducks see a pool of water as a place to drink, a place to relieve themselves, and a place to swim and/or bathe.  So, the water looks as if you haven't changed it in weeks in only a matter of hours.  It doesn't help that ducks tend to dig for insects around the pool.  It ends up creating a muddy hole for the ducks to step in immediately prior to entering the pool.  Find yourself a good source of hay or straw and add it to the floor of the pen on a weekly basis to keep the mud to a minimum.

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  • Yes, ducks see a pool of water as a place to drink, a place to relieve themselves, and a place to swim and/or bathe.  So, the water looks as if you haven't changed it in weeks in only a matter of hours.  It doesn't help that ducks tend to dig for insects around the pool.  It ends up creating a muddy hole for the ducks to step in immediately prior to entering the pool.  Find yourself a good source of hay or straw and add it to the floor of the pen on a weekly basis to keep the mud to a minimum.

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