Page Comparison

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1. Batteries

   1. 1x Camera Battery

      1. For SVCam: there should be a power cable that connects the Bench Bot to the camera (this cable will stay with the bench bot)

   2. 1x Flash Battery

      1. For SVCam: make sure the battery is charged before deployment

   3. 4x Amiga Li-ion Batteries with 4x Keys

2. Camera with Attached Lens (handle with care)

3. Flash

   1. For SVCam flash system (Godox AD1200 Pro) includes flash bulb and flash box

4. USB-A to USB-C Cable

   1. For SVCam: this should be an ethernet trailing cable

5. Measuring Tape

6. Color Checker

7. Stool

8. Grease gun/lubrication

1. Setup Bench Bot Flash

1. Jack needs to be plugged into flash

2. cable from camera to flash

1. Setup Bench Bot and Camera

1. Attach the camera and lens if separated.

2. Replace the battery in the camera if low. I have found that

3. Attach camera to the flash bracket. It is held in place by a screw and two washers. Try to align camera lens to parallel with the ground as best you can, and tighten as much as is reasonable. If the camera is too loose, it does not have a risk of falling but the BBot’s movement can jostle it and cause it to be pointed at an angle, which can lead to the amiga being in frame, pot edges being cut-off, etc. if this was not anticipated.

4. Attach the camera to the BBot bracket. The black triangle piece on the back of the flash bracket will slide into the piece toward the bottom of the BBot z-axis. Make sure to have a strong grip on the flash/camera and always have a hand below the camera. It can take a couple tries to properly hook it on (sometimes only one side will slide in), so you want to ensure you do not drop it.

   1. remove lens cap if needed, and keep handy as it will need to be replaced during pack-up stage

5. Unscrew the cap (keep handy as it will need to be replaced during pack-up stage) on the BBot box USB port. At this point, you may attach the camera to the box via the USB-C to USB-A cable (ethernet trailing cable for NC site). If using a long cable, make sure it does not hang below the camera so that it does not get in any of the photos.

6. If there is a risk of rain or if it is a hot, sunny day, it is advisable to put a cover over the camera.

7. Place the four amiga batteries into the BBot. There is a battery slot above each wheel that they will slide into. Make sure it slides into the bench bot’s internal track, it can be easy to slide one of the sides on top the track instead of in it.

8. Once all batteries are inserted, you may put the keys into the battery. When turning from “Unlocked” to “Off”, a little peg will push out of the battery (on it’s bottom side) to enter a hole in the frame of the Amiga. If you cannot change the battery from “Unlocked,” then it is likely the peg cannot extend down into the hole due to a misalignment. You may just have to wiggle the battery around a little bit, or the battery may not be in the tracks and you may have to slide it out and slide it back in properly.

9. Plug the dangling power cables into their batteries. Each battery has its own power cable.

10. Turn on the batteries with the key.

11. At this point BBot will begin booting up. The Amiga interface will be immediately available to use, while the BBot app interface will take a minute or two to boot. Remove the cover from the amiga interface, and press start. Reduce the motor speed to 4 bars (a value of 80). We do not want to BBot moving too fast.

12. Adjust the BBot alignment if needed using the joystick. At MD, the bench itself is a little curved so it can be difficult to get a straight alignment. Try your best to get the BBot wheels to be as parallel as you can with the left and right edges of the pots. It is okay to pause the BBot when it is running to make quick alignment adjustments later when you are conducting the batch collection. When choosing a starting place, make sure the camera is above the first row.

13. On the Amiga interface, click the “Auto” tab on the left (it is an A surrounded by a circle). On this page, turn auto-control on. The light on the joystick should be orange or blue. When this is on, the BBot will be able to control itself (so the Y-axis is now controlled), but the joystick will be unresponsive. To make further BBot adjustments with the joystick, you may turn this off when needed. Make sure to turn back on after making your adjustments, however, because if BBot is started with this “off,” then it will be unable to move forward and will continuously take images of the same row.

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1. Check aperture is correct

2. Check that the focus is correct

3. Check the flash power

4. Check height of the lens from the potting soil surface using a measuring tape

5. Place the color checker in frame of the starting position

6. Open the BBot app on the BBot interface and press the “take image” button to take a test image.

Camera and Flash Settings

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Lens height above potting soil surface

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Aperture

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Focus

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Flash Power

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1.66 m

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Table4. Check and Adjust BBot App Settings

1. To avoid the Amiga/BBot frame being in the images, we start the camera at a position further in the X-axis, away from its right/leftmost position, which I am referring to as “0”. To get the camera into proper position, move the camera to the “0” position so that it is at its standard starting place, and then move it whatever distance your site species in the table below (the “x-axis starting” column).

2. If you are changing your species map (or need to replace it, as sometimes it will clear itself when restarting the app or BBot), use the “Species Map” tab to build it. Use the information in the table corresponding to your site to build the species map. At the moment, what you select for the “species” itself does not matter (we do not use that metadata and there are limited options). Just make sure to select a species from the list. If you leave it as “none”, BBot will not take images there. After making your settings, click add rows and your map will appear on the right side of the screen. If it looks good to you, then press “Save.” If you do not press save, then the map will not appear in the “Traversal” tab and you will have to rebuild it.

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1. Return BBot to its starting position.

2. Reapply lens cap to camera lens if needed

3. Unplug the camera cable, and screw the USB-port cap back onto the BBot box.

4. Take the camera off the BBot. At the triangle mounting spot, there is a little tab you will need to press in to disengage the mount. When holding that tab in, you will be able to lift the camera/flash out. I like to have one hand dedicated to the tab, and another below the flash, holding it and pushing up.

5. Pack away any accessories you brought out (Color Checker, Tweezers, etc.).

6. Turn off Amiga batteries and unplug them.

7. Bring everything inside, and charge all batteries so that they are ready for the next batch collection.

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7. Trouble Shooting Issues

No images taken

In the mini-computer (via piKVM)

While in the mini-computer, you execute localhost:5000/image in the address bar, and this message is returned:

{“text”: “RAW BMP missing”, “imageTaken”: 0}

on the screen it says “Raw BMP missing”

Order of operations

power to camera

data to camera

flash to camera

1. power cable to the camera

2. flash camera from the camera (camera to flash)

3. data ethernet cable from the camera to the box

torubleshooting

1. check that cable are securely in place (unplug and re-plug)

   • flash to camera cable

   • data cable

   • power cable (make sure to properly turn off the bbot before removing power cable)

2. check that the mini computer is and camera are communicating

Basic Troubleshooting Tips:

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