Is there a good explanation of when to use Regimens and when to use Calendar? Right now I just use Cendar for watering. And I have a calendar event for each group of plants in the bot, and they are separated by enough time that the bot finishes one sequence before it is compelled to start another.
By “calendar”, I assume you mean “Farm Event”. Farm Events do have a calendar icon, so that is actually a pretty good name for the concept!
Yes, you can find the documentation for farm events here. The documentation for regimens can be found here.
Here’s a simplified explanation:
- A farm event tells farmbot to start “something” at a specific point in time. Either once, or on a repeating schedule.
- That “something” can be a sequence. Or it can be…
- A “Regimen”, which is a multitude of sequences that are executed from the starting offset of a farm event.
When to use a plain Farm Event + Sequence combination:
For simple repeating actions, like watering a plant every day at 9 AM, or running the weed detector every night at 3 AM.
When to use a Farm Event + Regimen:
When you have a complicated chain of events that change over time. Example: You want to water a single plant every day, but slowly give it less water as it matures.
In those cases, the farm event sets the starting point, but the regimen sets the conditions of repetition thereafter.
We spent a lot of time building the “regimens” feature, hoping that it would allow for advanced care schedules for a plant. The truth is, most users are happy with just using a regular old farm event. If that works for your plant, that’s totally fine! This is how I do most of my stuff, also.
Some power users still prefer having more control over their schedules, and that’s why Regimens exist. Both approaches are fine, though.
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