Interested in this but have some questions

I first saw this a year or so back and thought it looked interesting, but expensive and I didn’t have space really.

Recently it’s become more realistic to build one in the garden, but reading up has lead me to have some questions.

How automatic/clever is the system?
The way it’s pitched is you use a nice UI to drop what a plants you want onto the grow bed and it gets on with growing them, weeding etc.

But what I’m reading seems to be you have to tell it what to do for every action?

I’ve looked at the web app, obviously I don’t have a machine connected but I’ve tried to configure as if I had an Express, and it seems very basic.

What I’m seeing - select a plant, it tells you things like spacing and gives an option to drop a grid in. Then you have to create routines to perform seeing, watering, scanning, weeding, then a regimen to tell it when to do these.

What I expect from the videos and blurb, I select what I want to grow, place manually or have the web app smart arrange for me, and go. It does the rest.

It uses the openfarm database for info, and the Genesis has the sensors, so I’m expecting that these work together in the way it’s pitched? You tell it to plant carrots, it plants and grows carrots for you, using data from openfarm and sensor feedback.

It looks like you could make this any size you want, you could extend an Express, or even make one smaller?
Could you make a micro herb garden or something, sized like a desktop 3D printer?

Hello @Sidneylopsides

The current state of the FarmBot software is that you do need to command the FarmBot to complete every action. The great thing is that you can program in a sequence of actions to complete tasks in your garden and use the regimens scheduling system to repeat those tasks on a set schedule as you see fit. However in the near future we will advance the software to the point where it will be very easy for users to command the FarmBot. We are currently working on the “GROUPS” function that will allow you to select a number of plants and put them into the group and you can repeat a task or sequence for each plant in the group.

There will be more developments, documentation and videos on this feature in the next few months so keep an eye out for that development.

Right now for your specific FarmBot setup you will need to create several sequences:

1.Watering Sequence
2.Weeding Sequence
3.Seeding Sequence
4.Photo/Scanning Sequence
5.Soil moisture Measurement Sequence (Genesis Only)
6.Plus any other sequences you wish to build.

If you have a Genesis model you will need to create a Tool Pickup and a Tool put away sequence for each tool you will use. The Express model is a bit easier because it only has one (3-in-1) tool head so it can only perform 3 tasks.

It will take some time to complete and test each sequence. However once you complete these sequences, you use the regimens tab to run the sequences on a schedule.

You can learn more about our software on our YouTube channel:

Thanks for the reply. Are there plans to make the system “smart”?

Something along the lines of once it’s set up and knows the size, you can allocate a % for each crop and set of going, it arranges, plants, waters, monitors etc automatically from then.
It seems like the data is already in the system, it just needs a user to read it and manually adjust, when it could be used directly.

I do like to tinker with things, I have a couple of 3D printers and make gadgets etc, but so far this system feels like it’s missing a key step to make it really appealing.

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Hello @Sidneylopsides,

The eventual goal is to have the FarmBot system become fully automated. This means that you will plant the sprouted plants and the FarmBot will be “Smart” enough to take care of the plants until they are ready to harvest.

For an additional support fee, sometime in the future we may offer assisted technical support where a FarmBot Tech will help to program in everything for you.

Marc

Cannot plant dry seeds ?