Agriculture Product:  An intensive care light box, for COFFEE PLANT - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 05:41:01 pm
content: I've acquired a new set of tasks, here in Hawaiian big island, including care for sickly young COFFEE plants. I thought a light box would help also to block the extremes of gusty wind, here on the island, as well as provide some 'intensive care' brighter lighting for healthy growth.As you can see, in photo, the intent is to place my LED light bars as close as possible. (That's an older speaker box that has proper openings, for the coffee plant up through the box bottom, and sunlight through the top opening.)

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 05:53:27 pm
content: Ok, sorry, I thought the blog photo posting was 'cropped' enough in the photo edit. Doing that simple post was, actually, a part of my actions, today, as I feel at the mercy, of whatever changes in this Android phone camera are great, but they didn't take any time to introduce the features.I tried using EDIT - CROP - SAVE actions, (as another reader helped suggest). The first time that did work, reducing the file size to below 2 mbytes'. But this time, this post, my photo edits resulted in a 2.6 mbyte file size, I assume too big to post alongside my text.I suppose I could 'play' around guessing game to solve this extra problem (and even learn something). Good thing is I don't have a boss or supervisor, waiting for results (an actual picture post, gee whiz).I'll try crop function yet again. Often, the photo edit menu items are shown, in dark highlight, while the buttons that are allowed to work are in lighter color highlights. I can crop a photo, and I can see the 'SAVE' button...just can't actually 'SAVE' the edit.....unless I do what ? Read the user guide ? Did the Android folks supply a User Guide, for these 'simple' photo edits ?

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 06:07:48 pm
content: Photo posted at 1.6 mbytes'

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 06:08:30 pm
content: Nope. Try again, to post:

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 06:15:54 pm
content: Ahh, that problem explained: Must first do the crop, by way of finger manipulations, of the corners of the photo, under the 'CROP' function.It took a relative, a kid, to solve that; simply a how to CROP your photos...(actually a good topic to cover in 'xxx for Dummies' series books.)NOW: I can resume my original thoughts: Posting on a topic !

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 07:35:04 pm
content: So the main theme, for the intensive care enclosure, is the high degree of light intensity loss, vs. distance. The converse of this is that, maybe, I can gain some needed light intensity, starting with a semi-dim set of lights, instead of the usual, high intensity AG (agricultural) lamps that have some distance to a plant.Plus, in this one case, I have some fairly destructive wind gusting that happens regularly, in the unsheltered outdoors. My recycled speaker box provides that special need, and can be easily dismounted in still wind conditions. (Wind exposure at lower levels does help with plant stalks strengthening.)But the main experiment is the attempts to use a very low power light, and up unusually close (or even touching) to baby plants. Specifically, I'm actually not sure how much light falls off, with distance, whether it's with distance squared, or if the light intensity falls off according to distance cubed (x to 3rd power).Thanks- - Rick

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 07:38:08 pm
content: From a point source, the light power falls off as the distance squared.For large-area sources, you need to use integral calculus, until the distance becomes much larger than the physical size of the source.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 07:52:47 pm
content: Thanks Tim. You can see, I've picked a task having some challenges, which is a nice way to encourage improvements. Didn't expect that INTEGRAL relation complication.Picture shows an obviously distressed baby coffee plant, as I'm a basic brown-thumb gardener. Close-up helps show the bottom port, on the light-care box, for any small plastic plant container. Most planters can handle the weight, but it can be a little precarious, without a little brace.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 07:57:21 pm
content: Looks like, when posting my photos, 1.9 meg is too big, but (here) around 1.4 mbytes is small enough to post. Good to know !

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 08:12:46 pm
content: This particular time, I've reduced the photo to 844 kbytes, and first attempt to post failed. Just a mystery, for now, as identical actions made the photo post work.I'm checking as I go, as (trying) to only go ahead with a post, that has accepted my valid photo. (Placing text only after it shows the posted as thumbnail,...meaning that it accepted the photo part.)

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 08:21:09 pm
content: But this brings up a posting issue, as smartphone cameras get more and more resolution, even deliberately cropping like crazy doesn't always reduce file size, effectively. One of those cases where you want the enhanced performance (but I complain that it gets dicey to successfully post that...lol).(Back to subject):So, I posted a shot showing the enclosure top, where normal sunlight, or other lamps will feed yet more overhead light. The light bars both fit neatly inside that cubic shaped box. For intensive care some experts recommend 24 hours (or continuous) with the extra light from lamps.I'm not with much skill, or experience, in the AG things (as you can observe, from the baby plant sample, shown.)

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 08:56:15 pm
content: I prefer to use a digital camera for such purposes.They now come bundled with a lot of image processing to be done inside the camera, but I prefer to use standalone software (in my case "Paintshop" from Corel, which is not a subscription like Photoshop from Adobe, and is reasonably priced).If my file is "RAW", I convert it to TIFF, edit it, and then convert it to JPEG for posting.If it starts JPEG, I do the editing on that file.Editing: I first tweak the brightness and contrast, if needed, and do a simple image improvement with the software tool.Then, I use the "crop" tool to remove extraneous parts of the image.After that, I "resize" the image to a size either in inches or pixels, smaller than the original.Finally, I "export" the cropped image to JPEG, adjusting the compression ratio to reduce the file size in bytes to an acceptable level.(I used to do the JPEG compression without resizing first, but that gave me bad results.)For non-critical applications, this workflow is simpler than it may sound.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2025, 10:33:46 pm
content: Here is my far-off photo, of the Intensive Plant Care enclosure.I did a lot of cropping, as the photo was far away from the item.Something like 866 kbytes, so should (always) fit,...but posting often does not work.I tried a second time posting, and this time it worked. Not so bad, once the situation is known, and I can always see the photo file size, before doing a (failed) attempt, so as to only press the 'post' button when I have confidence it is successfully loaded in, (by noting that a thumbnail appears.)Thanks for your patience.