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Preparing 14 next generation Fidos for this weekend's iFARM event at Tuckaway Farm in Lee, NH |
R.J. Steinert |
Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 9:48pm |
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Any requests in regards to power and connectivity at the iFarm Event? |
R.J. Steinert |
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - 4:59pm |
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Thoughts on Problem Statement and Proposal Summary for Universal Adaptive Management Software |
R.J. Steinert |
Saturday, May 10, 2014 - 3:58pm |
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Big Ag wants farm data privacy |
agrarian trust |
Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 6:13am |
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We want to turn our ELF farm into an urban farm |
OrganicTransit |
Tuesday, May 6, 2014 - 12:03am |
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Tell me about web pages about equip & projects |
Joel_BC |
Friday, May 2, 2014 - 8:40pm |
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New tool simulates how climate change will affect our rangelands |
agrarian trust |
Friday, May 2, 2014 - 1:35am |
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The Future of Food Hackathon hosted by National Geographic is May 3-4 in Washington DC |
agrarian trust |
Friday, May 2, 2014 - 1:23am |
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Blueprints? |
deh |
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 - 2:22pm |
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Easy-to-use crop planning tool FREE |
Todd Edward Jones |
Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - 5:02pm |
Melissa, I would start with using a large pole with a camera atop, especially for small fields. I just ordered a 36' carp fishing pole that collapses to 4' long. http://www.allfishingbuy.com/Fishing-Pole/Pole-A1-114-3-12011.htm
I got it after testing a DIY 30' bamboo pole that was heavy and difficult to move around, but still produced some decent images:
I work with Public Lab and have a big stock of kites and balloons too, and would love an excuse to to head out to Hood River. DM me on Twitter @headfullofair
Inspecting fields. Counting cattle/goats/livestock. Checking for downed fence lines. Checking water, mineral trays, ...
Of course, you would need video on the UAV, and a high-speed data/video connection to its camera.
Weather is the biggest challenge - it can't be used in moderate wind or gusty conditions. So a fairly good "localized weather" station system might be in order too. Another challenge might be areas of high pollen concentration - depending on the drive mechanism for the UAV.
What we found is if we have to go to the field anyway, then we might as well do the inspection ourselves rather than fool with setting up and packing away a UAV. Having a fixed, computer controlled flight path for a large field might make it more worthwhile - but then there's problems with RC radio range.
Hi Melissa, Welcome to Farm Hack! There is a lot of interest in using aircraft (and balloons and kites) to get aerial imagery for management and research purposes. There is an event in May in collaboration with public labs for the second year in a row focusing on how to best use open source imaging tools for agricultural purposes. More information can be found here
http://farmhack.net/forums/ifarm-imaging-agricultural-research-and-manag...
There is also a tool wiki to focus on the development and use of on farm imagery which I am sure you could add to as well -
http://farmhack.net/tools/ifarm-imaging-agricultural-research-and-manage...
Please feel free to edit and add to the wiki or starting some forum threads from the tool to kick off some more detailed discussion.
I am especially interested in the NDVI and spectrometry potential for rapid assessment of crop performance. There are some researchers here at UNH who are looking at using the spectrometer to get early warning of pests in orchards, and I am particularly interested in gathering data similar to what a Spad meter asses percent cover, identify species composition, and generate estimates of crop height.
I think that rapid data gathering is key to being able to implement adaptive farm management. Look forward to the dialog.
This is something that I'm trying to position Apitronics to help with. Since many farms will have identical sensors deployed, the sensor specifications will be open of course, and the location will be paired with all the data being gathered, I think it could be a great component to the platform being proposed.
I would love to be part of this discussion and to hear what the research needs are. I will have my own practical uses for the data (primarily building physical models for simulations and automation) but I would love to know how to make the datasets more accessible to others.
Dorn, thank you... very welcoming and informative. I particularly resonate with this Farm Hack design principle: "Use of “off the shelf” or commonly available components, or components that are or can be repurposed – can a more easily sourced part do the job as well?"
Please add something on that thread (on SufficientSelf) that I included the link for in my OP, above. I want more input over there, too.
I'll contribute what I can here. This is exciting!
Great to see your comments. The projected goal for "tools" postings is to get each one documented to the point that enough information is shared that the tool can be fabricated/reproduced by farmers where ever they are. The tool wikis should also contain whatever documentation that is needed to communicate how to effectively use the tool. This, of course, is a trajectory, but the power of the wiki is that it can be a repository and accumulate the documentation as goal of complete documentation is worked towards. You will notice that each tool also has related forums attached to it - please jump in with your comments, ideas, suggestions, requests for more documentation etc. Please also send along suggestions about how to make the web site easier to use etc.
You can find the tool template for submitting your own tools here http://farmhack.net/tools/tool-template
and a web posting instructional section here http://farmhack.net/tools/farmhacknet
Welcome to farm hack! It would be great to see documentation for your reefer truck. The best way to do that would be to start a tool wiki for the project. You can then add documentation as you go, and folks can comment using the related forums attached to the wiki. The tool wiki template is here http://farmhack.net/tools/tool-template - and there are some instructions for the wiki here. http://farmhack.net/tools/farmhacknet
I think there will be a lot of interest in your project!
Yeah this is very cool. I think this is great that you are starting simple since know you know how it all works yourself and are able to expand from here now!
Hi group, I'm interested in connecting with people who are involved in local food distribution logistics. I have a small business in southwest Colorado called Local Food Logic LLC, and a service called SanJuanFarmFresh.com. I started service last spring with a pickup truck and four coolers, which turned into a flatbed pickup with 14 coolers, and then a 2-ton GMC with a reefer box, and over the last year and a half I've been converting a former Uhaul diesel into a DIY reefer truck, which will be this season's rig. Is anyone out there running or building small reefer trucks who would like to share opinions and facts? Also, I would love to share more details about the process of my reefer truck build somewhere on farmhack. Which sections would be best for this? Thanks a lot and look forward to sharing. Ole Bye
Hi I am in the process of setting up the fabrication of a small threshing machine. Whats the capacity in mind? A blower for straw stacker and a bagger or just a spout for a grain wagon? what or how do you want to power it?
Mark- Howard Farms / Howard Marine Co / Flying Shamrock Fisheries.com / North Cape Fisheries /
I got that DOC file downloaded but I haven't had a chance to start converting it to Markdown yet. I do however now have a good example of how to structure documentation on Github! Check out the Video Book Manual on GitHub. I've been working on that for Open Learning Exchange here in Ghana and I just made it public! :)
Hello, I am the son of almond and wine grape growers in the central valley of California. I am also a recent graduate of the University of California, Davis, where I studied international agricultural development. I currently work with the Sustainable AgTech Innovation Center (http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu/agtech.php) within the UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. I also started running a small market farm operation of vegetable in both in my home town and here in Davis. It is a small plot in each location, but promising. With regards to my job and my reasons for being on this site: I want to learn about innovative ways to make our agriculture a system worth sustaining. I think agriculture has a lot of work to do before any part of it can truly be considered "sustainable." But I am hopeful and optimistic, and these reasons have brought me to this site and I hope to interact and learn more from those here. Thank you.
Is that $70 per unit as in you would have to buy 4 or 5 to relay them to your house?
One idea that is not exactly the intended purpose of Fido but... It would detect an unusual spike in temperature from a fire and send you a text message. Though, at the point it's detecting heat it's probably too late. It would be better to take the Fido design and repurpose it with an MQ2 Smoke Detector Shield. A text message might be too subtle of an alarm, I wonder what LOUD alarms there that play well with Arduino.
Hello:
My wife and I milk 60 goats in Bakersfield, Vermont and process all the milk into certified organic cheese (and kefir). We also make farm-made sausage from our pigs and goats which we grill and sell at the farmer's market. We do most of our farm work with draft horses.
I have enjoyed reading about the various technological inovations employed by all of you ingenious farmers. I look forward to learning and hopefully contributing to this great site.
George
We're gathering supplies as the event approaches. The tractor that we originally purchased, an Allis Chalmers WD-45, had more wheel and tire problems than we'd anticipated so it's probably headed for scrap.
We're looking at a Case VAC now. It's smaller and older than the WD45 and has a good easy shifter for putting the PTO in and out of gear. It has 32" tires. If anyone knows how this tractor is set up inside to power the PTO (from the transmission or directly off the rear axle), we'd love to know.
No real documentation yet but I added the repo to Farm Hack's Git Hub account. It will be a while until that big file download (I'm on Ghana speed).
See it here->
https://github.com/FarmHack/Encyclopedia-Of-Practical-Farm-Knowledge
Or here ->
http://prose.io/#FarmHack/Encyclopedia-Of-Practical-Farm-Knowledge
Hehe, those are some clever techniques. I hear that copying and pasting into "notepad.exe" is a handy way for Windows users to accomplish this. For plain text editors on Mac, I use Sublime2 for writing code and iAwriter for writing blog posts, both of which have syntax highlighting for Markdown format which is cool.
It looks like Archive.org has choked on that Doc format, there isn't the usual many-formats-to-choose-from :(. I'm downloading the big 500mb doc right now. I'm going to experiment with transferring it to plain text files with Markdown syntax which would work well on GitHub. Also, it will be a good chance to try out some of the other tools on GitHub for collaboration.
If you build it - please post a tool wiki! Let the community know how it works. I think there is a real opportunity to fire these designs with a rocket style combustion unit.
I have heard from one grower that their oilseed press gets the soy heated enough that the extruded meal becomes digestible. He is using a Kern Kraft oilseed press. http://youtu.be/WX-F0IMXew8
That's great that you managed to build a working device from these plans! So the machine doesn't require suction to pull out the hulled oats/chaff mixture, it will blow it out of the outlet itself? From the drawings it looks like a lot will fall to the bottom and be trapped? Or do the fins on the cylinder move enough air to lift it.
You call it a "cylinder" which brings to mind a combine cylinder and its "beating" action. Does this work by contact or does it work by impact (throwing the grains into the stator)?
Thanks for getting back to me and it will be great to see photos/video of the entire machine. When you say the finished product could be used for oatmeal, I assume it is still whole groats and would need to be cut/broken to cook? Or is there a large proportion of broken groats?
Another principle might be "Complies with accepted standards". Examples would be the ASAE (now ASABE) 3 point hitch and quick-attaching coupler standards S217.12 and S278.6 and SAE universal attachment standard J2513, mentioned elsewhere in the forums. I think the tool that best personifies these principles is the 3 point hitch toolbar. We have set up a number of toolbars, using a wide variety of purpose built and adapted tools.
I like some of the ideas you both wrote. I love the Farmall Super C and Super A, both great cultivating tractors with position control on the midmounted implements, On the C with an auxiliary valve controlling the fast hitch, the depth of the midmounted cultivator gangs could be indepently adjusted on each side. There are PTOs for operating sprayer pumps while cultivating and for operating midmount implements like planters and sidedressers timed to the drive wheel speed, a great, extremely durable and readily repairable engine, and tremendous crop visibility, relatively easy to steer, and built to last. What I don't like are the difficulty of climbing up onto the seat, the lack of power steering, (I have bum knees and don't have the arm strength I once had) the inability to reduce speed adequately for delicate cultivation without clutching, and the gas motors that require constant tuneups, carburetor work, and the unavailability of suitable fuel. The play in the steering is another weakness.
The features I would like are power steering, comfortable seating and access to the operator platform, and a diesel engine. We need a lot of ground clearance. 24 to26 inches would be enough to clear our tall raised beds and get over the crop. We used to use the A and C for all the cultivating, but they are too short, and in the case of the A, too narrow to get over our beds.
We have standardized with 72" or as close as we can get to that for wheel centers. Our beds tend to end up at 72" to 76" on center.
In the best of all possible worlds, front, mid and rear mounts.
For us old folks hydraulics are a must. An absolute necessity for heavier implements.
PTO for a sprayer pump is an absolute must. Auxiliary hydraulics are handy, they could be an option.
The 23 HP motor on the farmalls was plenty of power for their size, but relative to modern motors, their 123 cu in displacement and heavy flywheels made for lots of inertia and ability to pull through tough spots. Also, if you go to hydraulic drive, you will need more HP to make up for the lost efficiency.
The ability to perform multiple tasks is pretty important. We can cultivate with front and rear implements, spray and sidedress at the same time with out NH TD95 HC tractor. I used to do the same with the A and C with midmounted and rear mounted implements. The problem with our HC tractor is you can't see the crop the way you can on the A and C. The other need is for slow ground speeds for delicate cultivating and waterwheel transplanting. Four wheel drive would be nice, it helps a lot to reduce side slippage on side hills, but I'd rather have a tight turning radius for maneuvering on headlands. Two wheel drive tractors require large diameter drive wheels to pull through wet spots and push front and mid mounted implements. The C will get through spots that stop our 50 HP 2WD JD utility tractor dead. There needs to be adequate lift height to raise midmounted implements over tall beds. Depth control for hydraulic lifts would be nice. Standard Cat 1 hitch dimensions are important. I am converting the C from fast hitch to 3 point hitch to gain some ground clearance and I will use combo Cat I and II balls and make sure that the hitch will go narrow or wide to accommodate both standards. We use Cat II quick hitches on both our main tractors to make changing implements easier, faster and SAFER. The front hitch on the large tractor has Walterscheide ends on the arms. That system, too makes changing implements a snap. Good brakes are an important consideration, including an easy and reliable parking brake.
I like the idea of toothed or ribbed timing or gear belts for final drives. During my 19 years as a plant engineer in a textile company we used timing belts to replace chains and v-belts on lots of drives, including some 15 and 20 hp drives. They require far less tension than v-belts, have far less lash than chains, and time drives impeccably. Plus they run cooler, longer, and quieter than the others, they stretch less, and they don't require lubrication. The only time I ever had to replace a belt was when a mechanic grossly misaligned a motor. By incorporating a speed reduction in the final belt drive a lighter transaxle could be used.
Finally, a hybrid diesel electric drive system and a fabricated chassis would be great.
I, too, am delighted to serve up my wish list. Please continue posting your thoughts.
-Mark
I moved things forward on the onion seedling room project. It took a while but I finally got an arduino sketch that works to control the powerswitch tails. Also after some net searching it seems 14-16 hours is a good amount of time to leave the lights on. I connected the 'in+' of the powerswitch tails to digital pins 8 and 9 and the 'in-' to ground. The stripped down sketch for the timer looks like this:
// Program .....: RTC_Relay // Author ......: Jenna Jacobs (adapted from Joe Pitz, Objetek Systems, objetek@gmail.com) // Copyright ...: Creative Commons, CC BY-SA // Description .: Turn on and off two power switch tail 2s // Date Created.: 3/20/2013 // Usage and dependencies: // // Variables are used to set start time and end time. // Times are based on 24 hour clock, i.e.: // 1:00 pm = 13:00 and Midnight is 00:00 // // Start time must be less than end time and both times must fall within the // same 24 hour period. // // Code uses RTCLIB, a branch provided from: // https://github.com/adafruit/RTClib //#include <Wire.h> #include "RTClib.h" RTC_DS1307 RTC; // Setup Start and End TImes // This is where you define your start hour and start minute times unsigned int StartHr = 7; unsigned int StartMin = 30; unsigned int EndHr = 22; unsigned int EndMin = 30; // This is where we create a combined time in Day minutes (the number // of minutes since the start of the day) unsigned int DayMin = 0; unsigned int StartDayMin = (StartHr*60) + StartMin; unsigned int EndDayMin = (EndHr*60) + EndMin; // ledPin used for debug using Arduino on board LED. int ledPin = 13; // Pins used to control powerswitch tails (pst) int pstPin1 = 8; // Set our LED pin int pstPin2 = 9; // Set our LED pin void setup () { Serial.begin(9600); Wire.begin(); RTC.begin(); pinMode(pstPin1, OUTPUT); pinMode(pstPin2, OUTPUT); RTC.adjust(DateTime(__DATE__, __TIME__)); if (! RTC.isrunning()) { Serial.println("RTC is NOT running!"); // following line sets the RTC to the date & time this sketch was compiled RTC.adjust(DateTime(__DATE__, __TIME__)); } } void loop () { DateTime now = RTC.now(); DayMin = (now.hour()*60)+now.minute(); Serial.println(); Serial.println(); Serial.print(now.year(), DEC); Serial.print('/'); Serial.print(now.month(), DEC); Serial.print('/'); Serial.print(now.day(), DEC); Serial.print(' '); Serial.print(now.hour(), DEC); Serial.print(':'); Serial.print(now.minute(), DEC); Serial.print(':'); Serial.print(now.second(), DEC); Serial.println(); Serial.print(StartHr); Serial.print(':'); Serial.print(StartMin); Serial.print(" to "); Serial.print(EndHr); Serial.print(':'); Serial.print(EndMin); Serial.println(); // Check status of light if (DayMin >= StartDayMin && DayMin < EndDayMin) { // turn on lights digitalWrite(pstPin1, HIGH); digitalWrite(pstPin2, HIGH); Serial.print(" Lights On"); } else { // turn light off digitalWrite(pstPin1, LOW); digitalWrite(pstPin2, LOW); Serial.print(" Lights Off"); } delay(3000); }I have incorporated this into the temperature datalogger I have documented in the tools section and will add documentation there.
Jenna
Test test.
http://www.antiquefarmtools.info/page5.htm
http://www.princetonimaging.com/library/mechanical-dictionary/
http://www.mot.be/w/1/index.php/IDDOCEn/ByMorphologicalUnit
http://www.princetonimaging.com/library/western_electric_catalog_1916/
Another example to draw on and to link in with (a Farmhack curated kickstarter page etc.)
http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/curated-pages?ref=sidebar
https://help.github.com/articles/user-organization-and-project-pages
I think this article provides interesting background on workflow and reducing barriers to entry for posting - and is worth considering as we design the next web site improvements and integrate with other partners.
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/github/
Hey Y'all, so the folks at ACRE and Brother Nature says that Hostel Detroit is a good place to stay. I called them and they will have space for up to 10 if folks wanna split the cost on that room
Acorn nuts on drive studs slip occasionally, but do not catch and heave the barrel. Wood frame works well, Hemlock and pine from the local mill. Fixed brackets are used to hold the water distribution pipe, Owner is happy, have requests for more, as they are locally produced, the purchased machine components are very durable and wear parts are easily replaced, sustainable and recyclable. Variable speed drive is essential...could be done with belts, but electronics are easier.
Thank you for the offer of translation. I need to order a copy of the book myself. Based on some recent conversations, The ADABio folks were happy to have us post other designs as well - It would be great if you are able to translate and share any of the other designs you think would be useful to the community.
One of the issues it seems is translating the metric to standard steel stock dimensions. I have heard from another farmer that they have already built a version using standard stock, and am waiting to get the design from them to post. Another option would be finding a good supplier of metric steel for the C channel and square tube stock. It would be great to have them be cross compatible. It would also be good to know if the Jiffy hitch is cross compatible with the ADABio design.
Here is a link to a video about the jiffy hitch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID5xjHvT7qs and a link the the web site
http://www.jiffyhitchsystems.com/index.php/jiffyhitchesmenu
I gave them a call and got current pricing
Female Cat I $331- Ca I HD $337 - cat II $ 459 cat II HD $524
male Cat I $637 - Cat II $736 Cat IIHD $824
The delta hook does not look to be compatible with this design http://www.deltahook.com/
I don't know if I will make my own male side, but compared with the work in a normal three point implement, a manual process of locking the top seems fairly easy and still avoids many of the safety issues involved with hitching up 3 point implements. I think from the open source perspective It would be terrific to build one to study and hopefully improve.