Vilo co-founder and CTO, Man Zheng, recently purchased a 23-acre farm in King County. While the purpose of buying the farm had absolutely nothing to do with Vilo, rather the desire to have a farm and more land for the kids to play on, as an engineer and IoT enthusiast she realized she had one urgent problem, the need for internet coverage at the farm. And so began the Vilo Farm Project, Man’s need for internet became a way for us to test the capabiltites of Vilo, and we thought we’d bring you along for the ride! In this series Man will be updating us on the status of bringing internet to her farm and how Vilos will play a part in the process.
Part 1 – The Problem
The most urgent problem I need to solve is having internet coverage on the farm. I have been self-hosting with 6 Vilo routers at home and am quite satisfied with the performance and Wi-Fi signals across my house. So the first thing that crossed my mind is to spread out Vilo routers across the farm.
The first obstacle to work around is how to protect the Vilo devices from getting soaked in rain or other elements, seeing as the farm is located in the North West, you have to take the weather into consideration all the time. I purchased a few plastic containers and my plan is to drill a hole for all the wires and fix the containers to the posts that I will hammer into the ground later.
The next problem I will need to solve is how to power the Vilos on the open farm where power outlets are out of the question. Stay tuned for the next steps in the Vilo Farm Project – Man Zheng