Entry Date:
May 31, 2016

Build a Personal Food Computer

Principal Investigator Caleb Harper


What does it take to build an OpenAg Personal Food Computer (PFC)? We have released our internal documentation and an inside look into our engineering process. A beta version of our software and hardware are also currently live and open source, and we encourage anyone who is interested to take a look behind the scenes of what it takes to create a PFC.

Watch the video below to see how we build the prototype version of the frame, the control panel, and the shell out of readily available parts. You can also view and download the code that runs the system and tracks climate recipes, as well as the user interface that’s used to track individual experiments and plant growth.

UPDATE: We are currently in the process of redesigning the Personal Food Computer! Version 2 will be easier to build, use, and maintain, and will feature a range of updated features. We hope to make the hardware specs and software for the Version 2 available in August or September of this year. We will also be introducing a system to share climate recipe data with other Food Computer users in the near future.