Hi
for next season, i am considering putting taller side legs on my farmbot. I intend to add up to 30 centimeters or so. I have a Genesis V1.2+. Has anyone done this? Can you supply pictures? Did it still drive OK? I want to do this to accommodate taller crops like chard and other incrementallly harvested crops (romaine, kale) plus peppers, eggplant, etc.
I understand this will eliminate some of the z-axis utility.
While I haven’t done it myself, it would not be that difficult and honestly I don’t see it being much of an issue. The hardest part in my opinion will be sourcing a longer lead screw, the largest I personally found is 1000mm. This i believe is the same as stock bots. In a nut shell, you’d change your 500mm 2060 “gantry columns” to what ever height you’d want. Say you swap them to 750mm You’d then need to replace the belt, you’d add twice the height difference. So if you add 250mm you’d need a belt 500mm longer. For the tool head, the 2020 v slot (z axis extrusion)would need to be extended by the additional height as well. The lead screw would just need to be swapped to your longer screw, 1250mm if you add 250mm. The cable chain will need a few links added very easy, can even be printed if you have the ability. Then you’d want to add a bit of cable length as well, I’d probably just find out what type of connectors the original wire uses and just make up a small extension to keep everything waterproof but cheap.
After all that, just instruct Farmbot to find it size.
If I were doing this personally I go ahead and change the lead screw up, and lead screw blocks to something with less travel, this will help stop the toolhead from falling. People already have this issue without extra weight, so instead of an 8mm pitch, maybe a 4mm. I had to do this on my CNC machine due to the heavy router. Your also going to want to take a good look at the wiring and determine where exactly would be the best place to lengthen the system, water tubing included in wiring.
I do not know about the Genesis but I have an ExpressXL and I redesigned the gantry to run on 3/4 inch conduits for the X axis. I can raise the whole track system with risers and currently have it raised about 10 inches. I am going tomatoes and peppers and will likely raise it more. My adaptation started because of the unreliability of the x axis running directly on the wood sides of the bed in the express. Unfortunately, i am out of town for another week so i can only grab a screen capture of one of my cameras. I can take better pictures when i get back home on the 27th.
I would be happy to share the stl files and more images once i am back.
Also, the rest of the gantry is currently unaltered so yes, the Z axis runs short and i cannot use for planting until i solution that part.
Thanks,
Roark
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