Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Open Source Farming Robot

farm.bot

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 236 posts

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#201

Post by grizzles »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #167
deeviant wrote: post #133

Oh hey this is my industry (robots in agriculture). I don't like this. It feels way too "Juicero" to me. Too cute, to inconsequential. It feels likely one would spend more time on building and maintaining this thing than work it actually saves and a significant amount the benefit of having a garden is working it with you hands and watching that work grow in fruition. Bots in the farm though, they are the real deal. R…

I’m curious what you think of our approach. Still early but the machine is outside in the fields and even on the shortest day of the year it traveled 20km on solar power. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27634450

If you have that much excess power I wonder if you could solve the precision water problem with tanks that top up by wringing it out of atmosphere in humid climates.

Perhaps cooled coils: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_water_generator

Wind power to shake the water off

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#202

Post by afrodc_ »

gbrown wrote: post #197
afrodc_ wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is tilling bad for the soil? Genuinely curious as I've seen it as an option for my terrible salty clay soil at my house.

It disrupts the fungal life and dries it out, while also increasing erosion and weed pressure. It’s not that you can’t ever till, but it’s generally to be avoided. In the case of clay, deep mulch will do wonders, and the earthworms will gently improve the soil over time.

I'm not sure if you know, but is there a way to promote earthworms in my soil? It's pretty compacted after the build and apparently they don't like that, so I'm trying to aerate and let my grass grow longer to break up what it can before I trim and let the roots die. For the garden I'm also planning on planting plants with deep roots, like sunflowers, to improve the soil.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#203

Post by bluGill »

0xffff2 wrote: post #180
bluGill wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it destories the root structure built up in the ground over the years. Those roots then break down quickly, and in turn the whole microbe profile is different. Sometimes tilling is still the best thing to do, but it isn't a good thing and should be avoided. On a different note, tilling also costs large amounts of energy. The less tilling your do, the less CO2 you are putting into the atmosphere (even if you d…

>Because it destories the root structure built up in the ground over the years. Those roots then break down quickly, and in turn the whole microbe profile is different. Sometimes tilling is still the best thing to do, but it isn't a good thing and should be avoided. Does this still apply when talking about farming? I just started growing food this year, but once I've harvested the first crop and am planting the secon…

It applies to farming in general. You really need to consult an agronomist for better answers (which can be very specific/different depending on which part of a field you are asking about )

I was hoping you would notice the exercise connection. I don't have answers to that, just an interesting consideration.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#204

Post by bluGill »

afrodc_ wrote: post #202
gbrown wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It disrupts the fungal life and dries it out, while also increasing erosion and weed pressure. It’s not that you can’t ever till, but it’s generally to be avoided. In the case of clay, deep mulch will do wonders, and the earthworms will gently improve the soil over time.

I'm not sure if you know, but is there a way to promote earthworms in my soil? It's pretty compacted after the build and apparently they don't like that, so I'm trying to aerate and let my grass grow longer to break up what it can before I trim and let the roots die. For the garden I'm also planning on planting plants with deep roots, like sunflowers, to improve the soil.

Where do you live? Earthworms are not native everywhere and they can be a harmful invasive species if introduced to the wrong place.

If you have a new house, developments are horible, just enough soil to grow grass. You might be stuck buying good compost and soil and tilling that in deep, then letting grass grow for a few years before trying anything more.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#205

Post by opinologo »

jasondozell wrote: post #13

No doubt the tech is interesting but conceptually this is pretty awful. Anyone who has done it knows if you have irrigation sorted there is very little needed for seedlings to grow to full size. Even with no irrigation we’re only talking 5mins watering on dry days. Adding all this electronics and metal to an otherwise organic and natural process is environmentally, economically and spiritually detrimental.

If that's the case then plastics from your irrigation system would also ruin your environment.

Metals (although in tiny portions) are part of ourselves but plastics are not.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#206

Post by jasondozell »

opinologo wrote: post #205
jasondozell wrote: post #13

No doubt the tech is interesting but conceptually this is pretty awful. Anyone who has done it knows if you have irrigation sorted there is very little needed for seedlings to grow to full size. Even with no irrigation we’re only talking 5mins watering on dry days. Adding all this electronics and metal to an otherwise organic and natural process is environmentally, economically and spiritually detrimental.

If that's the case then plastics from your irrigation system would also ruin your environment. Metals (although in tiny portions) are part of ourselves but plastics are not.

Don’t think a hose that costs $10 is comparable to everything going into these contraptions that cost $1.5k

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#207

Post by hinkley »

jve wrote: post #170
hinkley wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a weird sort of reverse classism I saw in my relatives going up. You might summarize it as 'people without dirt under their nails don't understand shit'. As someone who went through endurance sports, being the fix-it guy, and a CS program I always sort of had one foot in both worlds and didn't really engage in this kind of rhetoric. But as I've been accumulating more woodworking tools and getting a lot of dir…

Directly from article: "And because everything is made from aluminum, stainless steel, and UV resistant ABS, FarmBot will last for years in outdoor environments."

Aluminum needs to be replaced when damaged. It won’t rust at least, but that’s only if you don’t let it touch any chemicals or other metals.

And you can’t make a robot only out of aluminum, steel, and ABS plastic. Cmon, you know better than that. All it takes is failure of one of the parts they conveniently did not mention and you have an expensive doorstop.

There are untold number of videos out there that complain about lack of sufficient grommets and conduits for vehicle trailers, resulting in predictable shorts circuits. You’d like to think these are all solved problems, but they aren’t staying solved.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#208

Post by afrodc_ »

bluGill wrote: post #204
afrodc_ wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you know, but is there a way to promote earthworms in my soil? It's pretty compacted after the build and apparently they don't like that, so I'm trying to aerate and let my grass grow longer to break up what it can before I trim and let the roots die. For the garden I'm also planning on planting plants with deep roots, like sunflowers, to improve the soil.

Where do you live? Earthworms are not native everywhere and they can be a harmful invasive species if introduced to the wrong place. If you have a new house, developments are horible, just enough soil to grow grass. You might be stuck buying good compost and soil and tilling that in deep, then letting grass grow for a few years before trying anything more.

Seems to be the case I'll have to play the long game. They bring in this disgusting but shapeable soil to surround the foundation out here in central Texas. I remember growing up finding earthworms and fishing all the time, so they should be native.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#209

Post by toofy »

commandlinefan wrote: post #116
bobiny wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a for small hipster raised bed farming in back yard. Maybe it doesn't have to scale to a size of a commercial farm

> small hipster raised bed farming in back yard As a small hipster raised bed farmer (or rather, gardener), I actually looked into this at one point - the $1500 price tag put me off of it really quick. There's no way that kind of investment makes sense unless you're planning to sell the vegetables to recoup your investment - and it's doubtful that the machine will realistically last more than five years or so, so you…

i don’t think this is an investment kind of project. it’s a hobby, more for people who enjoy the tinkering as much as some people enjoy playing in their own gardens which often costs far more than they’re getting in return via food. simply an early open source iteration with hopes for community improvements as more people with varying needs begin to contribute.

this seems like its definitely not a project yet for people who don’t enjoy that as a hobby.

Re: Open Source Farming Robot

#210

Post by toofy »

commandlinefan wrote: post #138
bobiny wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you pay to get hands off garden.

In that case, you're better off just buying your produce at the grocery store.

i mean, how many hobbies can you say that about? most of them i imagine.

hobbies are about tinkering and learning. we usually put far more in financially then we get returned financially. hobbies are expensive.

Post reply on HN