take a picture why don't ya ?

Somewhere along the line the idea to have a camera with the box seemed like a Good Idea. Still not sure how this will work in practice. But we did find this kid camera in a discount pile. While the image quality is poor (640x480), it does mean that a practically infinite number of pictures can be put on a 2GB card. Plus the camera is easy to use, rugged, and runs on AA batteries. It will be interesting to see what pictures end up on it !


Total project cost:
$12 (3 LED solar garden lights)
$20 (2 LED solar flood lights)
$45 (for the box)
$50 (for camera, SD card, batteries)
-----
$127

My kingdom for a box !

When it came to the box itself, I wasn't sure what to do. The woodworker in me said "build it!". How hard should it be to knock together a box for crying out loud ?

Then reality set in. I didn't have access to a good wood shop. The box would probably be fairly heavy if made of wood. It would probably cost a fair amount given lumber prices these days. So I decided I should buy something.



I thought of a few different criteria that needed to be met -

• sturdy - the box should be able to take a fair amount of abuse
• size - it needs to be big enough to hold a fair amount, but not big enough to generate a huge wind load
• one piece - anything that snaps together seems destined for disaster on the playa

After some searching, which took a lot longer than you would think, we ran across this box in Wal-mart garden section which seemed to fit the bill. A couple weeks after I saw an even better box in another Wal-mart in the auto section. C'est la vie.

Note the plastic lid restraints failed immediately so I replaced them with some paracord.



Total project cost:
$12 (3 LED solar garden lights)
$20 (2 LED solar flood lights)
$45 (for the box)
-----
$77