July 8, 2020 Software Update

Announcements
1

Hi all,

This morning we deployed a new version of the FarmBot Web App. Here’s what’s new:

Faster photo taking

Thanks to a suggestion from @aronrubin, images can now be rotated in the farm designer map rather than at capture time. To use this option, toggle ADJUST ROTATION DURING CAPTURE to NO. This setting is available by clicking the :grey_question: tooltip next to PHOTOS. Note that this setting requires v1.0.14 of the take-photo package. If you have an older version, press the rotating arrows icon to update that package.

Screen Shot 2020-07-08 at 11.53.34 AM
Screen Shot 2020-07-08 at 11.53.34 AM890×286 27.2 KB

This significantly decreases the time required to take a photo. On Genesis bots, we’re seeing a 50% decrease in time, and on Express bots about a 75% decrease! This option also allows for the uploaded images to no longer include black edges.

Crop map images

Going hand-in-hand with the setting above, the farm designer map can now crop images to either remove the black edges from images rotated at capture time, or to re-align edges with FarmBot’s axes after images are rotated in the map. To enable cropping, open the PHOTOS menu in the map legend and turn on CROP MAP IMAGES.

Crop map images
Crop map images1632×1202 1.11 MB

Camera field of view visualization

A new setting in the map legend under the FARMBOT layer allows you to SHOW CAMERA VIEW IN MAP AREA based on the calibration settings and whether or not images are being cropped in the map.

Screen Shot 2020-07-08 at 1.40.23 PM
Screen Shot 2020-07-08 at 1.40.23 PM1598×1156 451 KB

Point Grids

You can now add grids of points to the map using a similar interface to adding a grid of plants. A new toggle for turning on the CAMERA VIEW AREA allows you to quickly create a point grid that can be used for taking pictures of the whole garden with minimal overlap and no gaps!

Screen Shot 2020-07-08 at 12.58.39 PM
Screen Shot 2020-07-08 at 12.58.39 PM2880×1526 725 KB

Miscellaneous

  • Weed coordinates and radii are now rounded to the nearest whole mm in the weeds list.
  • The SCAN CURRENT IMAGE button now shows an error toast if the camera hasn’t been calibrated yet.
  • Added a warning to the Limit Switches section of the settings because new users were incorrectly enabling them without any attached.
  • Fixed an issue where emails on self hosted setups were not working.
6 Likes
2

First, your numbers do not match my observations. It was taking no less than 15 seconds for me to take a picture in the past. This evening it is taking no more than 3 seconds. So that is no less than a 500% improvement.
Second, doing this test I believe I ran into a bug. I have to turn the lights on to see anything through the camera at 8:30pm tonight.

Issue:
Lights indicate off without interaction

Environment:

  • Express XL
  • FBOS 10.1.2
  • Chrome Browser mobile (Pixel 4)

Steps to reproduce:

  • navigate to the control tab
  • slide the light intensity up
  • navigate to the photo tab
  • take a picture
  • navigate to the control tab
2 Likes
3

I forgot to mention how impressed I am with the pace of improvements. I don’t know how you are releasing these updates so fast but a tip of the hat to you sir :tophat:

5 Likes
4

Thanks for reporting this. This sounds related to another issue we’re tracking with the new analog peripheral sliders. (You may have also noticed that the logs coming from the bot are not quite right when using the sliders, which can confuse the frontend). We should have a fix for this with the next release of FarmBot OS.

3 Likes