June 20, 2022 Software Update

There’s a new version of FarmBot OS now available along with updates to the web app. Here’s what’s new:

New group sorting methods

You can now sort groups with three new methods: X/Y Alternating, Y/X Alternating, and Optimized. The alternating methods will move FarmBot in a serpentine fashion which is often an efficient and the most predictable path through a uniform grid of plants.

The optimized method uses a nearest neighbor algorithm to move FarmBot from one location to the next closest location in the group until all locations have been visited. This is a great option to choose for most groups with non-uniform locations because it often produces a more efficient pathway than the other methods.

To complement the new sorting methods, we’ve added two new Lua helpers allowing you to access FarmBot’s sorting and group functionality from your custom code. The group(id) helper allows you to quickly get a table of the current members of a group based on the group’s filter selections. The returned table will already be sorted by the group’s SORT BY method.

If you want to re-sort the group or if you’ve cobbled together an unsorted group by other means, you can use the sort(points, method) helper and choose any of the available sorting methods.

Toggle peripheral command

We’ve added a new TOGGLE PERIPHERAL command to the sequence editor allowing for digital peripherals to be toggled between 0 (OFF) and 1 (ON). To toggle a peripheral, FarmBot will first check the peripheral’s state and then toggle it, either from ON to OFF or OFF to ON.

You can also use the toggling functionality from Lua using the new toggle_pin(pin) helper.

Camera connectivity indicator

You’ll now find in the connectivity popup an indicator for whether or not a camera is plugged into the Raspberry Pi. This can help identify if there is an issue with the camera or camera cable preventing FarmBot from taking photos.