Pause button / restarting sequences from a chosen point

I think it’d be extremely useful to be able to pause a sequence, then continue executing a sequence when you are ready to do so. Or more generically, start a sequence at a chosen step.

Use Case 1:
The Emergency Stop works great for when things are looking dangerous, but it’s not so great when you’re in the middle of a long sequence (say planting seed) and the LL needle clogs. If you E-stop, then you have to go copy and modify your procedure to continue only on the plants you haven’t already planted. If you choose not to Estop, then you have to attempt to manually hot swap the needle with a clean one while FarmBot is moving (not easy, nor really safe.

Use Case 2:
Another use case would be when you’re debugging a sequence that contains more sequences. It’d be great to be able to ‘pause’, edit a sequence (obviously not the paused one), and then continue the parent sequence (it will now use the newly modified child sequence).

Now, I have read through the earlier thread concerning human factors, e-stop, and pausing. Safety, hazardly misleading information (HMI we call it in the aviation world), and intuitive, non-complicated interfaces are important. I can see where the FarmBot could be dangerous in very specific instances (finger crushing, stabbed with a needle, whacked in the head, and possibly receiving a healthy dose of water). That being said, I think there has to be some way to better solve the issue of starting a sequence midstream other than manually copying, pasting, and editing.

What ideas does the community have? Has the pause button been permanently paused?

Thanks for the feature request! We are currently working on implementing sequence management features, including pause/resume functionality. We are planning on adding in parts of the features over the next few minor FarmBot OS releases.

3 Likes