Hi all, I was looking at getting a farmbot kit for the spring, but I see that, at least in the product descriptions, they all have a limit on the Y axis. It doesn’t seem like this would be a “hard” limitation, as theoretically you would just need to add more track. I have a very long yard, and was hoping to triple or more the y axis for my setup. what additional hardware would I need to do this, assuming I start with a standard genesis kit, and does the software support it?
We get this question every couple of weeks. It is not an artificial limitation.
Here are some (not all) of the problems associated with having too long of a rail:
- The USB spec defines a maximum cable length. Once you exceed this length, signal strength goes down and interference goes up. This leads to camera problems, photography failures, black images, etc…
- Increased load on stepper motors, increased sagging on Y axis beam, increased drag from extended cable carrier. All of these factors will lead to motor stalls.
- Plenty of other scale issues that I can’t remember off the top of my head.
That’s not to say it is impossible to extend the rails, but it will require more effort than simply buying more tracks. If your goal is to have fun building a hobby project, you could try, but I would not recommend it if your goal is to have a very stable platform.
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hmm. well I may have to rethink that. my goal is to have fun, but to also have a system that can grow enough food for me to preserve excess to go at least partly through the winter without produce groceries. I have a lot of space but the full-sun zone is much longer than it is wide…