I work as an editor for the c’t magazine. c’t is europe’s biggest magazine about computers and technology (in german language). I wrote four articles about my experience building a FarmBot Genesis 1.5.
There is a DIY magazin called Make at Heise and you publish it in the c’t? So why have I subscribed the Make magazin?
I had not in mind that the tool changing option has the Genesis only and not the Express, good point Pina / @pinae! Just to be clear, can e.g. seeding be done with the Genesis only or can I change tools by hand with the Express.
In case you have a link for a comparison Genesis vs Express it would be nice.
Make publishes mainly step-by-step instructions. In c’t we have some amount of maker content but with a focus on microcontrollers and how to program them. So in the best interest of my employer I advise you to look into both magazines.
As I understand seeding is possible with the express. The seeding tool for the genesis has interchangeable needles which is probably a bit better for very small seeds.
In my opinion the seeding tool is not very important. I wanted to start early this year and bought small plants in a garden market. I designed a “planter” tool for the genesis to mark holes in the ground where I planted the small plants by hand. With this method I already have growing vegetables in my beet. It’s still below 0°C at night at the moment so I added removable arches to the raised bed which act as a support for a transparent foil. This effectively keeps the early plants from freezing. The 3D printed holders for this are available in my copy of the FarmBot design in Onshape: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0c7a2ad4d38ff17d7fad60fa/w/a4eeb42e08bde05944e14301/e/adf3aeaf5b9d44a18b286ae1
