V14.2.1 Beta Release (Quiet mode, Soil Height / Analog Peripheral Improvements)

FarmBot OS v14.2.1 Beta Preview

Today we are announcing the beta release of FarmBot OS v14.2.1.

About Beta Releases

A beta release is a version of FarmBot OS that is almost ready for public use but is still under active testing.

If you are eager to try new features before they are publicly released, you may opt-in to receive a beta update for your device (instructions below).

If you require a high level of stability for your device (e.g., it is currently tending to a live garden), it may be best to wait for the official release since a beta release may have slight stability issues. We appreciate bug reports for problems found on beta versions of FarmBot OS.

What’s New?

FBOS v14.2.1 is a new feature release. It contains new features and bug fixes:

  • Fix problem where writing to an analog peripheral did not update device state, leading to incorrectly reported analog peripheral values.
  • Bugfix for some Lua formulas that would crash under specific circumstances.
  • Add a write_pin() Lua helper.
  • Full removal of factory reset timers.
  • Full support for soil height in FBOS. Previous versions would use a single value. New versions use soil height interpolation. This means that FarmBot can now create accurate guesses about how high the soil is at a particular point in the garden. More soil height readings will lead to more accurate results.
  • soil_height(x, y) Lua function that can detect the soil height of a particular X/Y coordinate.

How to Opt-In

Please follow the official instructions.

3 Likes

Hey @RickCarlino - This is great! I applied this beta to my bot and enabled quiet mode. Am I supposed to notice it being quiet yet or has it not been implemented?

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@stre1026 Unfortunately this one hit some issues related to microsteps- we’re still working on it.

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@stre1026 Have you tried the soil_height features in the MOVE block and Lua? Please let us know how it works out for you. We’ve had pretty good results locally.

@RickCarlino

I actually have a soil moisture sequence that uses the soil height in the move block. I’ll try it tonight and see how it performs!

Thanks,
Steve

This is a perfect use case for the new soil height feature. If you are not doing so already, you may want to try sampling random points that you don’t usually check (e.g., low spots, high spots) and see how it compares to the old version.

In my local testing, I have found it to be more accurate, although I have found that adding a slight negative OFFSET of about -10 mm helps, since some readings will be a few mm below the true soil depth.

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Hi @RickCarlino

Do I need to do anything special to activate this feature or is overriding soil height enough?

@stre1026 You will need to run soil height detection in at least 3 spots in your garden. More readings (ideally in a grid laid across the garden bed) will improve accuracy.

FBOS then uses Inverse Distance Weighing to calculate a height estimate for whatever arbitrary location the device is located at.

@stre1026 Quiet mode works on my device :tada: Please let me know if it works for you.

Note for anyone on older beta versions: Please ensure you upgrade to the latest beta release, v14.2.1-rc15. Press the UPDATE button to update to the latest version.

@RickCarlino

Not working for me :frowning:

I’m also only seeing beta rc13 as latest on my device?

@stre1026 Oops! I may have forgotten to push rc15 to beta (it was still on alpha).

Can you try upgrading again?

Hey @RickCarlino

WOW!! Quiet mode is a game changer. I ran my FarmBot at 9:30 at night and no one would even know except for the screeching Z axis which apparently needs lubrication. This is amazing!

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