The BeagleBox: a dirt cheap, tough-as-nails field computer

thingiverse

A small field book built into a Pelican case powered by a BeagleBone Black or your SBC of choice. Fieldwork is tough. You're in the elements, facing wind, rain, and salt spray, sometimes on an open boat far out in the Atlantic. You and your gear take a beating. But you're out there because there's science that needs to get done. Your equipment is controlled via computer. Your data entry demands a computer. This means that your precious laptop has to come with you. For graduate students and early career scientists, this can be a dilemma. Do you take your one and only computer out into the field and risk damaging it, or do you leave it behind and brute-force your way through sampling without it? This equation is getting worse, counter-intuitively. Our sensors, sampling devices, and scanners are getting cheaper and lighter. Rather than buying a $20,000 piece of equipment, you can get a $20 chip, but there's a trade-off. Chip-based systems rely on external processing power; they need a general computer. It doesn't have to be a good one. Say hello to the BeagleBox, a dirt-cheap, tough-as-nails field computer for about $200. A full description and build guide can be found at Oceanography for Everyone. Support more projects like this by contributing to my Patreon: Tools for ocean science and conservation.