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Mothbox 4.0

(digital-naturalism-laboratories.github.io)
207 points bookofjoe | 4 comments | 15 Oct 24 14:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.81s | source
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morninglight ◴[15 Oct 24 14:28 UTC] No.41849000[source]▶
This could be a great teaching tool, BUT at about $375 per Mothbox, it's going to be a hard sell for most schools.
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1. hansihe ◴[15 Oct 24 14:40 UTC] No.41849105[source]▶
$375 per box doesn't seem bad to me at all when you probably only need a couple per school?
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2. hikinghack ◴[15 Oct 24 23:28 UTC] No.41854163[source]▶
Yeah, i feel like currently they are at about the price of camera traps 10 years ago. There is very little mass-manufacturability to them right now (it's all open source and made from off-the-shelf parts) but later if we can find more funding, we are going to make a design more for manufacturing which should hopefully drive the costs down even more! :)
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3. fn-mote ◴[16 Oct 24 00:55 UTC] No.41854630[source]▶
> There is very little mass-manufacturability to them right now (it's all open source and made from off-the-shelf parts)

This is the obstruction to using them in an educational setting. If they were available for $600+ each but already completely built (minimal DIY), they would be more likely to get into (some) schools.

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4. max-ibel ◴[16 Oct 24 05:02 UTC] No.41855776{3}[source]▶
OTOH, it'd a fun science project just to built one, for maybe a different set of kids that operate the box.

Just needs motivated teachers, if you ask me. I assume the mothbox is more of a high-school project, building one seems on that level as well.