Slashdot Mirror
Prefab Greenhouse + Ardunio Controls = Automated Agriculture (Video)
Sam Bagot and Will Bratton operate Horto Domi (hortodomi.com), an agricultural project they describe as "beyond organic." They're working with small prefab greenhouses, adding sensors and Arduino-actuated controls, and even including an earthworm breeding area in most domes, because earthworms are good for the soil and can increase plant production. If you're the kind of person whose plants always seem to shrivel up and die, this may be a great way to garden. With watering and other functions automated, it looks like all you have to do is set your controls, plant what you want to grow, and wait for the "time to harvest" alarm to go off. Okay, it might not be that simple, but Sam and Will say their gardening method saves a lot of energy and time. It also looks like fun, besides being an easy way to grow your own 100% organic fruits and vegetables.
...one might even call it orthogonal to organic! Or not related to organic at all!
I mean, the worms, sure, but arduinos? Automation does not make things magical, it just makes them work. (And if anything, doesn't that make the growing more artificial?)
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Yes and pot growers have been doing this for decades.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
(no, not for the Micronaut)
Kind of begs the question --- how would homesteading look w/ 21st century technology? How much land does one need for a self-sufficient existence for a family of 4?
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
come to think of it those 2 guys look like a couple of pot heads. Think I'm starting to understand their objective with this project.
I would love to watch the video, but it would require Flash. Being Slashdot, is it not possible at this point to load the videos in html5?
That seems similar to mourning the downfall of mainframes and high-power UNIX workstations and the rise of the PCs, and that people start using high level languages before taking the time to learn assembler and memory timings or whatever first.
In an ideal world, all competent programmers would be well versed in all the important aspects of programming and hardware. It's similar with MCU and EE projects. In real world, to get shit done, there are other important factors other than technical competency and lowering the playing field enables hacking electronics for people with little or no experience, only spotty technical understanding of what's going on at all levels, but with familiarity with other fields (e.g. gardening), enthusiasm, determination to pull the project through, documentation skills or whatever. The new projects aren't as perfect technically, but there's heck more of them and they are making ways to yet uncharted areas (and budgets).
It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
So why don't you put something together, with your non-Arduino knowledge, that automates the old man screaming at the kids to "Get off my lawn".
I'm sure this kind of scheme would give the owner some warm fuzzy feelings, knowing that they did it themselves, and that in principle they're 'saving the planet' by growing without pesticides...
But really, you'd have to voluntarily ignore the total financial AND environmental costs.
How many veggies do you need to grow and eat before you break-even on the cost of the setup?
How many to grow & eat before the reduced pesticide use makes up for the energy-costs and pollution associated with fabrication, distribution and eventual safe disposal of the hardware?
I know that's not 'the' point, but it does need to be considered int eh context of the 'cool' factor
Slashdot, here's some feedback for making better videos.
In comparison to other slashdot videos, this one's OK, and it could be a better. Without commenting on the content or participants or video production (which other people can do), here's some notes about presentation:
Repeat until memorized:
Having a video of talking heads/talking people is the wrong way to present. Watching people talk is boring! Use the right technology in the right way for maximum interest.
A short clip of people talking will establish the context and make a personal connection with the viewer. Then cutting to illustrative videos while they talk makes a stronger, clearer presentation of the information.
(Also, briefly cut back to the people talking to reestablish context between subjects. Talking heads aren't forbidden, but using talking heads to present verbal information is bad form.)
When the video finally cuts away from the talking heads, it doesn't track the speech! Talk about the dome size, type, materials, area, earthworms is dubbed over a video of the controller box. The audio doesn't match the video, and it makes no sense.
Choose video clips which correspond to and illustrate the talk, this serves to present the information in two ways (video and audio) for better impact.
What's the point of the picture-in-picture at the beginning? It's arty and establishes the context (ie - growing things), but context is established after 5 seconds or so. What's the point of PIP for 45 seconds? You're crippling the presentation for no purpose.
The subject and content is pretty good. The people interviewed give a surprisingly good talk, given that this was probably off-the-cuff and they're not professional presenters. No problems there.
The content was a little shallow - it's more of an advertizing brochure with no detail. I would have liked to hear more about the nuts-and-bolts of what they are doing: their controller box, how things connect, what micros/sensors/interfaces they use, how the dome is built, what materials to use, assembly, &c. I know it's in the link, but this is a web site for people interested in tech, and since tech is what will get people interested in their site, you should explore it.
Overall the quality of video posts is improving. Keep up the good work, and keep on making it better.
Don't scale it up, scale it DOWN. Get this to window ledge sized, add 50 million apartment dwellers replacing a part of their food budget, and you've just increased food security while decreasing the carbon emissions with traditional farming, while decreasing obesity and increasing fresh food consumption.
Don't think mainframe replacement- think personal greenhouse.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Yeah. Real EEs use discrete components to prototype, which they fabricate themselves. After all their time has little value -- certainly less than the princely $20 a fully assembled and tested Arduino board set them back.
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