Hello all,
Today we’ve got a big update for you. Over the last few weeks we released Genesis v1.7 documentation and a new FarmBot Story video. We’ve also done a lot of web app housekeeping to improve reliability, add support for upcoming hardware kits, and give the app a bit of an aesthetic update. Here are all the details:
FarmBot Genesis v1.7 documentation
Over the last two months we’ve completely rewritten the Genesis documentation for the v1.7 release!
First up in the new docs is the change log, showing all of the changes we made to FarmBot Genesis since the last version. Of note: Genesis and Genesis XL v1.7 will come 90% pre-assembled in the box, substantially reducing setup time to just a few hours.
Genesis and Genesis XL v1.7 also feature completely redesigned track extrusions. These new extrusions are less than half the weight of the previous track extrusions and are designed to mount directly on top of a wood raised bed without the need for track joining or end plates.
The new design also removes the need for separate plastic cable carrier supports, instead relying on an integrated wooden cable carrier support attached to the side of the raised bed.
This new track design is also much easier and faster to assemble than previous versions of the Genesis tracks due to the significant reduction in part count. The new design also saves significantly on manufacturing cost and shipping weight and volume.
Updated assembly instructions
The new assembly instructions are significantly shorter and faster to follow thanks to the kit coming mostly pre-assembled. We estimate the assembly time to be just 3 hours for Genesis and 4 hours for XL.
New FarmBot Story: Paint with your Garden!
In this latest story, we’ve revisited Jonathon Wolfe of Maxiem and Western Sydney University to see how he uses his FarmBot Genesis v1.6 machine to collect phenotyping data of his garden in realtime, process it with PlantCV, and then generate unique artistic representations using Stable Diffusion.
For further information and access to the art generation system itself, source code, etc, get in touch with Jonathon at jonathon@maxiem.com.
Consistent buttons styles
Nearly all of the buttons throughout the app (with text, or with just an icon) have been updated to provide more consistent styling, hover effects, disabled states, sizing, and spacing.
Some buttons have also been moved from the bottom of panels to the panel headers to provide for a more consistent layout across the app and a more compact design.
Genesis v1.7 and Express v1.2 software support
In preparation for our next generation of FarmBot kits, we’ve added software support to both the web app and FarmBot OS for Genesis and Genesis XL v1.7 and Express and Express XL v1.2. The changes include adding FBOS download options for these kits, including the correct firmware, and adding account seeding profiles so app users with these models can get setup quickly with the appropriate resources.
While the Express kits are still several months out, Genesis and Genesis XL v1.7 are available to order today with shipping expected in mid-January.
Demo accounts for every FarmBot model
We’ve updated the demo account feature to work with all of our FarmBot models (Genesis v1.2 - v1.7 and Express v1.0 - v1.2, both standard and XL). Previously, only Express v1.0 accounts were available.
While this change may not affect existing users, it is a valuable tool for prospective customers to try out the app, and for doing internal testing of model-specific features.
Miscellaneous
- Improved the reliability of auto-generated Lua code being streamed into the text field.
- Fixed a bug where the final character added or removed from the Lua code field was not being saved.
- Added a warning for when the camera RESOLUTION is set to a different value than the previously calibrated value.
