We are so excited about the project, that we don´t want to wait for the Kit.
Our plan is to order as many parts possible for our free time after Christmas.
Here we started a Bill of Material List for suppliers from Germany / Switzerland and or Austria
(DACH = Deutschland Austria CH-Schweiz)
As especially waterjet cutting and 3D Printing would cost less if we order a higher quantity, we are looking for others to join us …
Thanks for all FarmBot guys for this initiative…
Gerne antworten wir auch in Deutsch…
Wir wohnen an der Deutsch - Schweizer Grenze bei Basel
Aw, that sheet looks really nice. Still some work to do, but it looks solid so far.
When I was building up my own Farmbot back in summer, I was also in trouble finding hardware parts that fit in. Also many resellers were completely sold out (I think a popular 3D Printer came out just before). Right now I am changing the tracks from “low tracks” to “high tracks” (example) just to compare movement differences.
I’ve noticed that you have a few questions in your sheet. Some of them are also important for me, so I am looking forward to see your solutions, or maybe even try to help out
I’d be curious to know people’s experience with really long extrusions (3m, 4.3m). It seems like shipping and handling would be expensive and difficult, but perhaps the advantages outweigh that?
I like to order the 3m Extrusions from makersupplies.dk He will just get new material this week (4.6m). Transport over 2m lenght in Europe gets expensive, but maybe as we share shipping cost by four it will be affordable. Decision will be made next week.
I´ve heard from another guy that having 2 times 1.5m extrusions is not really that perfect.
Have you ever tried to stabilize resp. link the X-Axis extrusions with 3-4 double tee nuts each side? http://www.vslot-europe.com/home/150-double-tee-nut.html
We have used the double tee nuts before and they do help maintain alignment of the extrusions. Though they are not available in stainless steel so instead we have been relying only on the track joining plates which is sufficient.
we had quite some progress in building our 4 Farmbots the last two weeks. Our website under construction is farmbot.live
In our opinion various solved and open issues are based on the different parts we ordered in Europe (US parts hard to find here). I think it makes sense to facilitate (sooner or later) a kind of integer release with parts from European suppliers, granting that everthing will work together. Until then we are looking for other Farmbot enthusiasts running in similar issues and which are open for mutual learning.
Below there is a short brainstorming where we have or will invest some efforts mainly in design-adoption of the printable 3D part respectively aluminium plates.
We are happy to share our experience even we do not have a finished tested version yet in all areas
As all of this has a certain complexity, I made the experience to start with a short telco is good thing to start
Cheerio Frank
Modifications due to different parts in Europe
Cable Carrier --> adapted CC Spacer for Z-Axis smaler
Barbes -> adapted holes in UTM for mounting
Grommets -> adapted UTM Cover to use O-Rings
Soil Sensor -> adapted Tool to mount
Ring Magnets -> adapted Tool and UTM for 3mm Ring Magnet with M3 holes
Eccentric Spacer -> increased diameter in plates
Cost Optimisation
Electronic Housing -> new 3D design
Tracks for 6m -> Quad Tee Nuts
less V-Wheels
own electronic cables for stepper motors
smaller aluminium plates for Tool Bay
Design
end cap for extrusions
individual embossment of owner names etc…
divers ideas (incl. for easier maintenance)
Still open
good solution for cable to Z-Axis motor
replacing rotary encoder by another solution
performance of stepper motors (speed)
appropriate vacuum pump
appropriate UTM cable
use of free included Arduino Display
new tool for watering sidewards e.g. tomatos at the edge
Thanks for the writeup here! Can you provide a link to the ring magnets you purchased? And a part file for your modified UTM cover with o-rings would be cool to see too
Though it is not shown in our CAD models, we are including a 25psi pressure regulator with all kits. It is listed in the BOM on the docs site.
If you come up with a side-spray watering nozzle design, please share!
For all active farmbot-builders from Europe we just set up a slack community in order to exchange knowledge, discuss open issues (mainly arising by using parts from european suppliers) and ideas to lower marginal cost (e.g. alternative solutions for rotary encoders) --> https://farmboteurope.slack.com/
Interested -> please send a private message with your email so I could invite you. I would be happy when you say some words where you are building your farmbot and the current status (idea, parts ordered, assembled, under test, finished…)
In Februar we will continiously feed farmbot.wiki with our lessons learnt etc…
Everything that contributes to let the installed base of Farmbots in Europe (with working solutions) grow is very much appreciated
Awesome! We are planning to build a FarmBot in the Netherlands, I hope I can learn a thing or two from you guys, and I be happy to return the favor later ;).
I´m impressed by your documentation (at wefarmbot) full of pictures. Stil I don´t see the value that you add almost the same comment to so many threads - for me it looks like spamming (well I´m not the administrator of this forum)
The intent of this thread was to exchange suppliers in the DACH region (maybe Europe). One of the major reason to have local or at least regional suppliers are not only the shipping costs, but the shipping time as well.
At least speaking for myself, I would prefer to order a kit from a Europeen supplier rather than from US or Asia, as replacing broken parts (by warranty) would take far less time.
Still I would like to facilitate a global exchange to improve the technical concept and lower the marginal costs. I like your solution to connect the rasperry cam to hdmi. Do you share this part also alone or only in the complete kit you sell?
Have you found already a solution to protect the seeds from rain, sun, birds etc.?
Yup, sorry for that and i deleted my post!
Thank you for the feedback on our documentation, we expect to finish it all by the end of the month and will provide it in different languages. We expect to make it really complete to help people who want to set up their own FarmBot as well.
Our shipping time is as well really fast (3-5 business days) and i understand that you want to support local suppliers. We are already talking to German possible partners and if you are interested, you can contact me to nicolas@wefarmbot.com
Currently, we do not sell spare parts, but we might be interesting in doing it as demand is growing.
Thanks again Frank for your message, feel free to revert to me if you have any inquiry.
yes I did. I got parts from Waterworxx and Fabtools as well.
But most promising here in DACH at the moment for me is www.nittschneidtechnik.de
If you like to get details please send me a private message