I want to stay my farm.bot up to date so will there be an upgrade kit from 1.4 to 1.5 version?
You can see the change log from Genesis v1.4 to v1.5 here. The most worthwhile improvements you may consider are:
- Upgrading to the v1.5 Farmduino featuring Trinamic TMC2130 stepper drivers. That board can be installed as drop-in replacement with no other modifications necessary. You will just need to change your firmware version in the settings panel.
- Adding an inline air filter to the vacuum pump line to prevent debris from going into the vacuum.
Most of the other improvements made in v1.5 would not make a substantial improvement to a v1.4 bot that is already assembled.
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@roryaronson: It’s great to know that the upgrade path from 1.4 to 1.5 is easy. I think that @fafi asks a very good question.
If we look at the world of CNCs and 3D printers for hobbyists, some of the most successful ones always sell upgrade kits. Prusa springs to mind as an excellent example.
Selling these kits kills two birds with one stone. It ensures a happy and loyal customer base and generates good income streams for the manufacturer from people who would not necessarily buy a brand new device every other year.
Is this something that is built into Farmbot’s strategy plans? If not, could you please consider it?.
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Agree 100% 
I upgraded my Prusa i3 MK2 via MK3 to MK3s and my MMU via MMU2 to MMU2s. Even while the Upgrade from MK2 to MK3 was costly (24 instead of 12V) it was worth it. Open source and upgrade ability go hand in hand from my perspective. It could be costly sometimes (i.e. switching from 12 to 24V as you did as well). Prusa for example made the MK 2.5 for the people who do not want to spend so much for the upgrade and switch to 24V but still want to have at least some of the upgrades.
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I absolutely agree that open hardware and upgradeability go hand in hand. While we have offered a few upgrade kits in the past (vacuum pump relocation comes to mind), we usually just try and offer as many of the key individual parts in our online shop for mix and match style upgrades. The change logs are usually what guide people in deciding what is worth upgrading and what is not, depending on budget and goals.
Whenever we do a production run of a new version, we order extras of the key new stuff (electronics boards for example) to be able to stock the shop, and we’ve seen a good amount of that product sell to existing customers and DIY builders over the years.
If there is ever something specific you’re looking for that isn’t listed individually on our shop, ping me and we may have unlisted inventory I can make available.
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