Current status project/os

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@Klimbim, thanks for asking :smile:

Over the last few weeks, Gabriel and I have been mostly working on the next iteration of hardware, v1.3, that incorporates feedback from the community and makes general improvements to the design. We’ve also been working with our suppliers and manufacturers to begin our second production run of another 250 full kits + partial kits (just motors/cables, just plates, etc) + individual components for DIY builders. Some highlights of v1.3 hardware are:

  • An IP67 rated waterproof power supply
  • Moved the vacuum pump to the z-axis so the suction is more powerful, and we put it under a plastic housing
  • No more “Sockit Box” because of the above two changes
  • Slightly larger cable carriers which makes it easier to feed all the cables and tubing through. This change required many of the supports and other plates/brackets to become a little larger as well
  • A new open-source electronics board named Farmduino that combines the functionality of RAMPS and the Arduino into one board, and has a much better layout and connectors that make it more suited for FarmBot. (RAMPS is for 3D printing, which works, but it is far from ideal)
  • A new electronics box that is better sealed from the elements and fits the new board
  • A bunch of the new parts will be injection molded rather than machined from aluminum, which is helping us to bring the cost of the device down. These parts are still 3D printable and machinable for anyone wanting to build their own FarmBot

On the software side of things we’ve been working on the following:

  • Adding a FIND HOME command to the sequence builder
  • The firmware respecting the axis lengths as determined by calibration or via the LENGTH input boxes in the web app
  • WiFi stability improvements in the OS
  • Toggle switches to invert the jog buttons in the Controls widget so that you can match the buttons to your perspective
  • We’ve had to do quite a bit of refactoring of how points are created and stored in the database. This is the groundwork needed for move absolute commands to be able to import coordinates from the plants in the farm designer. This refactor has required code changes in virtually every part of the backend, frontend, and OS, which means it will need a good amount of QA before we release it (and the above improvements) to everyone. We’re expecting to have it pushed to the production servers at the end of next week.
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