BBC Springwatch – and a Pi

It’s 7.35pm here, and if you’re reading this now in the UK, put down the computer and turn to BBC2 – apparently, a Pi will be featuring on Springwatch this evening (it started about five minutes ago).

See this link for more, and enjoy the show! If we’re able to, we’ll try to embed some video later.

17 comments

gordon77 avatar

Good report on the pi and a use for it :)

David avatar

Missed it – what did they use the Pi for?

Paultnl avatar

A bird box activity monitor with temperature and wind speed records.
Interesting correlation of activity and wind speed. It would be good to get rainfall data as well.

Giegie avatar

Could it be possible to have a local weatherstation and have the rpi control waterinstallations for watering crops? Or any computer?
Is that been done already?

Ian avatar

This is maybe close for you

http://rayshobby.net/?page_id=5816

Greg avatar

Exactly what I’m working on – Not quite sure of the logic yet, but it’ll be something along the lines of get temp / rainfall stats – also DIY moisture sensors (outside and polytunnel) and then water as required. I’m trying to be totally off-grid with this, so it’lll be a Solar Panel & old car battery for power – water from our rainwater tanks (big water butts) pumped by a 12v caravan pump.. watch this space as evening allow for design and programming !

David avatar

Other factors could also be interesting. I would expect the chicks to communicate their need for food, so a microphone would be a useful addition to the setup.

Geoff avatar

Having raised chickens, I can tell you chicks always want food.

David avatar

Dogs too. Even when fully grown
:-)

Wombat avatar

Does that mean if I plant a pi and water it I will get a raspberry pi canes?

Frederick Farquhar avatar

I was watching ts and all of a sudden Chris showed a raspberry pi and talked of how was used to monitor a bird box. Wasn’t expecting that but was great to see.
Out of interest how were you able to advertise this before the show?Did the bbc have to ask for permission to show it (in these days of copyright crusades) or was it a tip off from someone working on the show?

tzj avatar

For the ones that want to see it (UK/proxy only) its on BBC iPlayer, episode 7 (2013), the clip starts at 45:20 and ends at 47:25.

mrpi64 avatar

I missed it too.

Ravenous avatar

Not many people seem to know that someone on the forum here’s been doing this for two years, as far as I can tell with a model B last year and a model A this year. Here’s his post on this forum:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=41542

Latest pictures seem to go here:

http://earlybird.christian-fahrni.ch/aufnahmen/

and if you dig around he has daily time lapse pics, photos of his solar/battery setup, and system status like temperatures, etc. All in Swiss, but we can read the pictures surely! Great site.

David avatar

Funny. I would have expected cuckoos…

But definitely cool. Did you notice that the chicks do not noticeably warm their nest, judging by the internal and external temperatures?

Ravenous avatar

Well spotted – they don’t heat their nest much. But of course, they’re very well insulated so don’t lose much body heat…

Tim avatar

Took a while to dig it out on iPlayer but I found it. Nice to see it getting more press. Awesome use of the Pi also

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