Chicken TV, Coop Tech, and Safety

Chicken TV and Safety

The security systems at Mezzacello are growing increasingly more sophisticated and useful. I call this Chicken TV, Coop Tech, and Safety. I can monitor activity anywhere and at any time in 1080HD and infrared.

That last piece the infrared part is critical. I need to be able to make out details in the dark, as that is where the predators hang out. I have lost enough to predators, I am stepping this system up to insure I do not lose others.

Infrastructure Improvements for Education

These additions are also necessary for the #UrbanAgTech summer camps I will be running here at Mezzacello this summer. The camps are Project BioTech and Project BioEngineering.

This particular improvement will help in the ProjectBioTech camp, where campers will study animal health and sanitation, and monitor and treat animals as needed. They will diagnose and monitor animals using these systems as well as the rabbit cam coming online next week.

This improvement will also be a part of Project BioEngineering as campers will be extending this capability with a portable sensor array that will monitor, sound, infrared body measurements, motion, humidity and the presence of ammonia and methane in the coop and sound appropriate alarms.

The presence of a predator in the coop will quickly be Identified by it’s motion, body temperature, and the sound of fear and chaos in the animals. This will sound an alarm in audible and ultrasound frequencies as well as activate an intense light to scare predators away.

It is going to be a fun summer, I think. Butu mostly it’s going to be a safe and exciting summer. Everyone is going to learn something, even me!

Summer Camp sign up starts now. Go to Events, Summer Camps and choose the camp you are interested in. Or visit the PAST Foundation and sign up there!


I Sense a Theme Here

I Sense a Theme Here

I Sense a Theme Here
The Sensor Array Map of Mezzacello. This is not to scale, and not all security systems are represented.

At Mezzacello our primary mission is grow, maintain, sustain, and explain, and a big part of that mission is accomplished through a variety of advanced electronic systems and sensors. I Sense a Theme Here refers to the approximately 81 sensors and antenna deployed around Mezzacello to make the last three components of our mission statement possible. This is the sensor map of Mezzacello.

I Sense Your Disbelief

I was a bit taken aback when I first created this map over the weekend. I know where the sensors are and I use them on the daily. But I had never undertaken a full survey of the overlapping sensor arrays and mesh 4G and 5G networks until I was required to for insurance and summer camp reasons.

There are a lot. Many of them are bundled into one discrete device and mounted in weatherproof cases around the farm or in the outbuildings. They give me important data, like the current and projected weather, light levels, temperature, humidity, motion, and voltage levels. They give me a story of the farm so I can create a meta data map of the health and vitality of the farm.

I am actively using this data almost on the daily. For example, light, temp, humidity, motion, pressure, and voltage sensors are telling me that right now, putting seedlings in the greenhouse would be unsustainable, but in the attached greenhouse, I am getting a different story.

Data Does Not Lie, But It Can Confuse

Data does not lie, but it can confuse. That is why this summer my goal is to launch the next generation of research and summer camps and create an army of drones that will be controllable from a single source and together we shall overwhelm the outer systems of the galaxy and defeat the Jedis once and for all — oops wrong narrative…

This is an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo

Seriously, an army of 10 Raspberry Pi Pico units powered by mobile solar power arrays and deployed at key locations and with systems integration and custom code to take raw data from 12 unique sensor platforms and arrays and send them to a central computer station. This data will then be used by campers in my #ProjectBioTech, #BioEngineer, #ProjectRenewables, and #projectBioChem summer camps to tell the story of Urban Ag in a way it’s never been told before.

One Map To Rule Them All

I have created an entirely new class of maps and web-resources to this end. Visit mezzacello.org and click on the Mezzacello Systems link in the navigation of the website. Every single system is represented there, with the exception of proprietary or security sensitive data.

Later this spring I will be creating design challenges and video assets that will help me with my goal of extending my mission here at Mezzacello to include train, and expand my vision for the farm of tomorrow. I will do this while still honoring my three main slogans here at Mezzacello;

  1. Poor Boys Have Poor Ways
  2. Living in the Past for the Future
  3. A Twenty-First Century Urban Farm

Join me, support me, donate if you’s like. But this is happening no matter what. Because as Victor hugo once wrote, “This is an idea whose time has come.” My 501c3 status launches officially this month – join me!