CrowBox V.3 Is Live (And Cameras Are Up for Grabs!)

[Josh Klein]

Big news: after extensive redesign, CrowBox V.3 is ready. We've integrated major improvements in structure, power options, weatherproofing, and ease of use - you can find the full upgrade rundown at https://thecrowbox.com, but the headline is simple: this version is better by every measure, and it's built on your feedback.

Before the rest of the world hears about it, we're offering this group first access to participate in a camera giveaway. Thanks to Wyze, we have a stash of motion-activated cameras to send out to builders with the most exciting or promising deployments.

To participate:
- Share a short video of your functioning CrowBox (Gen2 or Gen3 - either works)
- Include your setup, your plans, and any early observations
- Email it to in...@thecrowbox.com, or post it to the group

Some details:

• There's no need to prove your video is recent. If your Gen2 box from two years ago still runs and you're ready to take it further, you're in.
  
  
• This isn't a random drawing - we'll be selecting based on likely impact and contribution to the community. We're running the giveaway through to the end of the year to give new builders time to order parts (including international Ponoko users), assemble, and test.
  
  
• If you're from a school, museum, or organization that doesn't need a camera but wants to deploy or promote the CrowBox, we'd still love to hear your plans. We're happy to offer advice and highlight institutional projects alongside hobbyist builds.

One heads-up for builders ordering from Ponoko: acrylic sheet thickness has been running variable lately. Our shared carts have a note attached, but to be safe, email he...@ponoko.com when you place your order with your order number and the text "Please use close to 3mm material thickness as possible." Belt and suspenders.


We've worked extremely hard to ensure everything works perfectly, but are always open to hearing about potential improvements. If you encounter bugs, have ideas, or want help integrating custom mods, let us know - we're listening.

Thanks again for all the support. CrowBox exists because of this community, and we can't wait to see what you make of the new version.

- Josh

crowb...@googlegroups.com

[Tom Van Damme]

Hi all,

I am really excited to see that this project is still very much alive and continuing to evolve! It is great to see this new update with improvements around feedback from the community.
Version 3 looks fantastic, and I would love to build one myself in the future (hopefully while reusing some of the components from my current setup - motor and Arduino should be doable, right?).

For my CrowBox project, I decided to build a completely transparent box instead of using the brown and green plastics shown in the instructional videos on the CrowBox website. Mainly because I like being able to see the electronics inside — it just looks cool. In hindsight, it also turned out to be very practical, since I can easily check the condition of the components without opening the box.
I added a battery and solar panel setup, which has been working very well so far. The CrowBox runs fully autonomously, 24/7, without any need for intervenience or maintenance. Just adding nuts every now and then :)

At one point during winter, snow managed to get inside the box and caused the breadboard to rust, so I had to replace it. So then I drilled several drainage holes in the underside of the enclosure to let rainwater or melting snow escape more easily.

I also modified the “open signal” timing in the Arduino program. In colder weather, the motor runs significantly slower than it does in warm conditions. Originally, the signal stopped too quickly, which meant the lid would sometimes fail to open completely.

Our garden attracts quite a variety of bird species: a large group of jackdaws, sparrows, robins, tits, wood pigeons, blackbirds, and what I believe are three different magpies that visit regularly. Interestingly, it took the magpies several months to discover the CrowBox, while the tits found it much sooner. They were actually the first birds to empty the tray almost every two days — there were nutshells scattered all over the garden.

The box is currently in Phase 2, where the birds need to sit on the top plate to open the tray. The free food phase worked very well, but now that the lid is closed, the birds seem intimidated by the sound of the motor. They occasionally trigger the mechanism, but usually fly away before taking a nut. Hopefully they will get used to it over time. It also took them quite a while to become comfortable taking nuts from the open tray in the earlier phase. Additionally, now that summer is approaching, there is naturally much more food available elsewhere.

Overall, I really enjoyed this DIY project. It was fun not only to build and modify the CrowBox itself, but also to observe how the birds gradually interacted with it over time. I now pay much more attention to the birds in our garden and can really recognize the different species and some of their individual behavior. The project has also become a bit of a conversation piece — whenever friends or family visit, they are always curious to check the current status of the CrowBox and see whether the birds have made any progress.

Not sure how to share the video of my setup so you can find a short video of the setup and a few snapshots of the magpies on Youtube:

https://youtube.com/shorts/GUiaILsV2Sg

Thanks again for this wonderful project!

Cheers,

Tom