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Mothbox 4.0

(digital-naturalism-laboratories.github.io)
277 points bookofjoe | 5 comments | 15 Oct 24 14:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.92s | 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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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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1. 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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2. 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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3. max-ibel ◴[16 Oct 24 05:02 UTC] No.41855776[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.

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4. hikinghack ◴[16 Oct 24 14:27 UTC] No.41859419{3}[source]▶
We have a group of kids in Rhode Island building some with the library there! Part of a "Wildlives" program where the kids also learn to put camera traps around the local nature!

Def just needs motivated teachers!

5. hikinghack ◴[16 Oct 24 14:29 UTC] No.41859434[source]▶
totally! Right now we are just trying to get them out and tested on science projects around the world, but hopefully we can find funding to make more designs that could be manufactured in bulk (like the audiomoth and groupgets) and have even more of these things out and about!