These FAQs are intended to compliment the information available in the instruction book you received with your box.
How do I connect my Box to WiFi?
We help you do this using one of our Admin Cards, which is bright yellow and says “Connect to WiFi.” You’ll find that in a little brown envelope in the box your Box came in.
Your Box has to be turned on. Then you just boop the WiFi card. Basically, what it does is broadcast its own WiFi network, called “museuminabox”, which you’ll need to join using the normal “join a WiFi network” method you normally use, either on your phone or computer.
Then, you should see a popup that asks you to select your WiFi network name and add the password, if there is one. Then, the Box will try to join that network, and will speak to you letting you know it was able to join, or not.
Possible issues with WiFi
We have had some challenges when there’s a very large WiFi network with lots of different nodes, if the password changes a lot, or if there’s an extra “you’re OK with Terms & Conditions” checkbox. We’ve created an “Advanced WiFi Configuration” form you can try when you’re accessing the Box itself (via that http://box.local:1880/ page).
Do please let us know if you need help.
The Box
What is a Box?
A Museum in a Box is the centre of it all! It’s an electronic device with a microcomputer, two speakers, an RFID reader, and a few other bits and bobs. When you place a Collection object (and its NFC sticker) on top of the Box, it will play you an audio response.
If you’re using a Make Your Own kit, you’ll need to get the Box on WiFi (see below). Doing that will do two things:
- Allow you to download updates, either about your Collections, or the software that runs the Box, and,
- Send your “boop log” back to HQ. (That’s just a simple log of which object is placed on the Box, when, and for how long.)
How do I turn my Box on?
Each Box comes with a power cord. Just plug that into the back of the Box in the port that’s labelled POWER. The Box needs about 15 seconds to boot up, and you’ll know it’s ready to use when the Box speaks to you and says READY, or you see the big green light on the front come on.
How do I connect my Box to WiFi?
We help you do this using one of our Admin Cards, which is bright yellow and says “Connect to WiFi.” You’ll find that in a little brown envelope in the box your Box came in.
Your Box has to be turned on. Then you just boop the WiFi card. Basically, what it does is broadcast its own WiFi network, called “museuminabox”, which you’ll need to join using the normal “join a WiFi network” method you normally use, either on your phone or computer.
Then, you should see a popup that asks you to select your WiFi network name and add the password, if there is one. Then, the Box will try to join that network, and will speak to you letting you know it was able to join, or not.
Possible issues with WiFi
We have had some challenges when there’s a very large WiFi network with lots of different nodes, if the password changes a lot, or if there’s an extra “you’re OK with Terms & Conditions” checkbox. We hope to be able to support these networks soon. Until then we recommend using a mobile hot spot or another wifi network to get the box setup. Once the collections are on the box a wifi connection is not required.
Do please let us know if you need help.
How do I add a Collection to my Box?
Head to your Collection’s page on the Heart website, and look for the ‘Add this Collection to your Box’ link:
- Select the Collection you’d like to add, then hit the ADD button. Then click NEXT. You should see a list of your Collections (which may only have one thing in it), and you click the link next to the Collection you’re ready to work with.
- Then, you’ll be looking at a page that comes from the Box itself, at the web address box.local:1880. For any of your Collections, you’ll see a list of all the objects, and next to each one, there’s a WRITE button.
- All you have to do is put your first object on the Box, and then hit the corresponding WRITE button, keeping the object on the Box as you do so.
- Once it’s done, the object’s background will go green, and Charlie will tell you “OK, that sticker is encoded.” Yay! You should be able to play the object straight away too.
- Sometimes it might not work the first time – that’s OK… and the page should tell you, and so should the Box. It’s pretty unlikely that there’s a problem with the sticker itself, or (hopefully!) your Box and how it writes stickers, so, please just try again . Sometimes it helps to take the object right off the Box and then put it back on. You can also check that the Box has all the audio it needs by clicking the CHECK THE BOX HAS ALL AUDIO FILES button at the top.
I think my box is broken, what should I do?
We’ll do our best to figure out the problem and where applicable repair or replace your Box. We’ll definitely try to get you up and running again if we can!
Boops!
What’s a boop?
When you put an object or postcard on the Box, we call that action a BOOP!
Do you record boops?
Why, yes, we do. Each boop is noted on what we call the Boop Log. This is stored on your Box in .CSV format, and if your Box is online, each boop is sent back to Heart and displayed on the site.
The Boop Log is designed to be non-invasive. It records which object was booped, the date and time it was booped, and for how long.
Can anyone see my boops?
Yes, but only for your public Collections. And that works both ways – you can only see boops from other people’s public Collections on the main Boop Log.
You and Museum in a Box staff can see boops of private Collections.
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