• Came back out a couple minutes ago to find it had started failing the past couple rows. The camera was still flashing and taking photos, but I guess the computer wasn’t receiving them, because it was popping up with a “Missing JPEG” error (although not RAW). I just unplugged the USB-A camera connection and replied ir in and it seems to have fixed it. I sent BBot back to the fourth row and it has resumed imaging.

• Just turned off BBot. It made it to the end of the third species without any software errors, but it looks like the flash battery died at some point and I forgot to switch it out so I’m guessing most of that third species was too dim

• Seeds were planted last week and some have germinated already. So far, there is growth in white clover, turnip, alfalfa, and camelina. I have not seen any visible germination yet in the buckwheat yet, but I think I remember hearing that one takes a bit longer. The horseweed also has not had any new germination, but we saved the horseweed plants growing in summer and implanted those pots into its section so there are "larger" plants there.

• Due to supply reasons we had to use a different soil from what we have used in the past (I believe the it has less mulch and more moss content if I remember correctly). It looks the same as the previous stuff we used, so shouldn't cause a problem with the images but I guess keep me posted if there is an issue.

• After dumping all the old pots, we swept all of the fabric to get rid of all the old soil spills and other miscellaneous build-up, so the fabric should be a little bit cleaner in the images. Additionally, since that was pretty easy and made it look a lot better, I might just start incorporating sweeping into BBot area maintenance and get more on top of keeping the fabric cleaner aside from picking up the colorful leaves and plant materials that wind up on the fabric.

• We have redone the QR codes so hopefully they are more robust and won't be scattered across the area after storms or wind. The problem we were originally having was finding a way to adhere anything to our rebar caps. Not only were the rebar caps a different plastic than we were using for other components, it was also spray painted black so the adherence would be to the paint, not the cap. We circumnavigated this by using hardware for the base connection. Our new system utilizes two acrylic squares, in which one is connected to the rebar cap using hardware (two screws and a tee-nuts), while the other has a matte weatherproof sticker pasted on top of it. We then used 3M doubles-sided acrylic tape to conjoin the two pieces of acrylic (So in essence: rebar cap is attached to acrylic, which is attached to tape, which is attached to a second piece of acrylic, which is attached to the QR code sticker). We couldn't just put the sticker on the hardware-acrylic since the screws made it a not flat surface and we wanted to ensure the vinyl won't fall off.

• Let me know how the QR codes look in the photos. From what I can see on the BBot the stickers are bright but the QR code is still visible and not impeded, so hopefully those work.

• Redid the spraypaint on the rebar caps before constructing them, so hopefully most of the orange has been covered in the photos.

• Started the BBot run today at 10:26, so it has been working for over half an hour at this point successfully. Upon turning on, I did have the "Missing JPG" error again, but it was fixed when I unplugged and replugged the USB-C cable from the camera.Also, today the QR codes have water on them since I turned the sprinklers back on yesterday, so curious to see how they are in the photos with water droplets.

• Some point during lunch, the reflective cover we have for the camera fell off (we've been having stronger winds than usual), so that is probably in some photos covering a pot (end of the 4th species, next to QR code 53). Hopefully it wasn't hanging there blocking the camera for a while before falling, which I have come out to find before. @Matt K if you're available, can you check the photos and see if there were any large regions where the camera might have been blocked that I should go back and image? If it is just the one pot, then probably not worth it to go back but I just don't know if it immediately feel or hung there for a while.Also, I'm just going to stop using the reflective camera cover unless there are chances of rain now since it is colder I don't think the camera is at risk of overheating at this point.

This BBot batch started without issue at 11:57 AM.There will be a few photos before that but those will just be repeats of the ones at 11:57 (didn’t realize the traversal map didn’t clear from the last batch so it started in the “middle” of a row and I had to restart)

NEW

11:25

Also, as for BBot updates, Priya and I worked on getting the globus-upload-system set-up this morning, and it appears that things are working. She said that she’ll be monitoring it throughout the day to check and make sure things are actually getting uploaded. Not sure if any of the previous batches have been uploading or not

Started this batch at 10:54 (although the bot was on for an hour and a half before that so hopefully a bit more uploading happened). No issues so far!.

cleaned potting area with broom.

Haven’t gotten BBot to start this batch yet. Having a new issue where the images won’t load. Normally what I get is a “missing JPG” error or something of that nature. Instead it is freezing at “loading image” and won’t update to anything else. And when I click “take image,” the camera takes an image and flashes so it is definitely connected to the system, but I guess either it isn’t sending the data back or the system or the system is having trouble receiving the data. @Priya J if you’re available right now, do the logs reveal anything? Already restarted the system twice and unplugged the camera several times.

Gotcha, that probably when I unplug the camera. When I unplug it, the screen finally updates to the normal “error: JPG RAW missing,” but it isn’t doing it on its own. Walked away for a couple minutes there and came back and it was still just “loading.” I’ll keep trying the standard troubleshooting stuff and hopefully it’ll work at some point lol

Alright, got it working. In between it not working and it working, I took the camera off its mount, took the camera battery out and immediately put it back it in, and let it sit off for like 2 minutes. Not sure if that’s what fixed it or just that me plugging it back into the BBot was better somehow that last time, but it’s taking images now!

Same issue has happened two more times. Happened again at about 1. I turned off the BBot and let it sit for half an hour and that didn’t fix it. Taking the camera off and redoing the battery did work again in that case though. Then it ran for about a species and then it stopped working again. It is still non-operational and this time taking the camera down has not fixed it. Just going to try to keep plugging and playing with the cables and hope it works again and stays working until the end (still 2 species left)

Couldn't get BBot to consistently take photos again so going to call it quits for today unfortunately. Fully collected the first four species but couldn't get in those last two. Also, there'll probably be a decent amount of photos at the end of the batch that are just from me testing, so those can be disregard!

Was out in the field this morning so couldn’t start a normal BBot run, but I still wanted to get some data after lunch. Decided that for today’s batch I would image the species I couldn’t get to on Friday (so species 5&6), just so that we have some more recent data of them.

Got the BBot started at 2:36 and so far no issues, so it is already a lot better than Friday lol. It’ll probably wrap up at about 4 assuming no problems come up.

Batch went smoothly, no technical issues and it finished at about 3:50. Only thing I noticed at the end of the run was that at some point it looks like the camera slipped a little on its mount and was angled rightward more, so I think that some of the edges of the leftmost pots may have been cut out from the images, sorry about that!

Started up this batch at 10:34 this morning with no issues. Only thing is the camera slipped on its mount again (I just retightened it as much as a I could) so there may be a photo or two with the amiga in it.

Had the motor 4 emergency e-stop activate halfway through the last species again. Just cleared it, but there are probably a decent number of duplicate images of that middle row.

Finished up the batch at 2:38! Leaving the BBot on for the time being to let it keep uploading.

Started today’s batch at 10:23. No issues or updates to report.

Had the motor 4 emergency e-stop activate halfway through the last species again. Just cleared it, but there are probably a decent number of duplicate images of that middle row.

Finished up the batch at 2:38! Leaving the BBot on for the time being to let it keep uploading.

Began this batch at 11:52 after some troubleshooting (I'll expand on that more in a later message), but it seems to be working fine so far.

So BBot was having the same common set of errors this morning: the “Missing JPG/RAW,” “Missing JPG,” and the infinite-loading issue (aka the camera will flash and take a photo but not send it back to the mini-computer). Since this does not seem to be a software issue and it seems to be randomly solved by constant shifting of the camera and unplugging/replugging the camera cable, I’ve been focusing on playing around with the cable. I spent the end of last Friday and this morning troubleshooting and here’s what I found so far:

• To rule out the exterior USB-A port being the cause, I tried plugging the camera cable into ports directly on the minicomputer (including the port that normally receives the outer USB-A cable). I was still getting the same issues, so unless every port in this new mini-computer has an issue or the mini-computer struggles with using them (which both seem very unlikely to me), then this is not a USB-A port issue.

• I used three different cables and tried plugging each one into every USB-A port on the mini-computer. In every case I was able to get the same set of errors, so unless all three of these cables were broken, this is also likely not a cable issue.

• It likely not being the USB-A port or the cables leads me to believe that the issues are caused by the USB-C port on the camera or just the camera itself. I played around with a lot of different options when taking photos (pushing the cable, pulling the cable, holding it every-which way and angle) and I have not been able to find any consistency. With one of the cables, it would consistently work if I held the camera 90 degrees to the right (so the lens perpendicular to the ground with the USB-C port facing the down to the ground) and not work when pointing the camera straight down or the other direction. But then a different cable didn’t follow any of those rules, and would just work whenever I held the camera below the attachment frame and as soon as I would raise it and hook it onto the BBot it would not work anymore. Each cable felt like it worked differently so I have not found a way to solve the errors across the board consistently, neither a way to induce the errors consistently. It just feels like random chance. Also there does not seem to be any gunk in the USB-C port.

I think the next step is to try out the WIR cameras on the BBot, just to see if they consistently work when the BBot camera doesn’t work. I haven’t done that yet because I didn’t want to have to deal with changing the save settings for testing and I needed to get BBot working to get a run in today, so that’ll be something I can explore at a later time.

Came back to BBot after some cover crop WIR, and it looks like it had been taking images of the same spot for 40 minutes. There was no emergency stop notification on either screen, but it was not moving the x or y-axis despite the log saying it was running the command. Rebooting BBot fixed that lack of motor function issue, but then the "loading image" issue returned and persisted, so I called it for the day. It stopped in the middle of the buckwheat, so 1.5 species from the end.

Began today's batch at 10:00 AM and have had no issues so far!Just two little notes:

• Looks like birds have started taking an interest in the plants again now that they have gotten bigger. Planning on putting up some more of the reflective tape.

• Planning on fertilizing the plants tomorrow now that it has been a couple weeks since planting.

Started a batch at 10:23 which pretty much immediately failed with the usual errors halfway through the 2nd row. Have been unsuccessful in getting it to work again, will keep updated

Got it working again and started a new batch at 10:56 and has been working since 

Looks like BBot just had the issue again where it stopped being able to move the x and y-axis on its own, so it took a couple images in the same spot. Closing the app fixed it, and I restarted the row it was on

Oops, forgot to send a finished update, but BBot finished over an hour ago without issue!

Began the batch at 10:04, haven't encountered any technical difficulties yet (other than a few minutes of fiddling with the camera to get it to work initially).

Few things of note:

• This is a more windy day and unfortunately there is a tree directly upwind that's losing its leaves, so the wind keeps pushing new leaves onto the BBot space. Despite cleaning efforts, more just keep blowing onto the fabric so this run will likely have leaves moving all over the place in between the pots for the first couple species. Hopefully this does not mess with the process for overlapping/stitching the images together.

• I noticed we're starting to get some green growth on the topsoil of some of the pots which is a problem I know we have encountered with previous BBot seasons. I believe it is algae, so I am going to reduce the water the plants are getting for now. Turned off the irrigation last night and am going to leave it off for the weekend. The plants have been getting plenty of water so they should be fine to go a couple of days without it, I just want to start drying out the soil to hopefully get ahead of any more unwanted growth.

• Got a leaf blower, so cleaning the fabric is a lot easier!

• Fertilized the pots on Tuesday (11/5/24), which has probably contributed to the emergence of some of the algae. But for future reference for myself, I made batches of the 2 gallon mixture as per the bottle of Miracle Gro, and then gave each pot roughly 150 mL of that. I tried to avoid the leaves of the plants when pouring, but hopefully the sprinklers washed any fertilizer that may have gotten on them.

Finished up today’s batch at 1:54 without issue. Leaving BBot on for uploads

Todays batch began without issue at 11:13 AM this morning. Haven't had any technical issues yet!Unfortunately, we had a frost last night and it killed the BBot buckwheat (species #5), or at least it is all limp and shriveled. Even after soaking the pots yesterday to help give them a buffer, the cold still got to them. All the other plants seem perfectly fine, but the buckwheat suffered a lot. In addition to that, the birds had been picking at the buckwheat over the past weekend, so a decent chunk (although a minority) of the buckwheat pots don't even have a plant in them. For now I am just leaving it as is and not pulling it all up, but we should probably not use the new Buckwheat images for data (unless of course we want to get images of it in this damaged/dead state).Some good news is that there has been some new germination in the horseweed that I've been noticing for the past week (not sure why any of it is germinating now). But there are tiny little plants scattered across the horseweed, so that's already looking good. Hopefully we get a lot more when spring comes.Also this week is going to be a 2 batch week instead of 3 (unless anyone wants me to image tomorrow as well). The site was closed Monday and we had an all-persons event yesterday, so I am just planning on imaging today and Friday.

Finished up the batch at 3:06! No technical issues today

Here’s what I came up with for keeping species in the same spot. I am going to define the species boundary from the QR codes, since the QR code positions will remain unchanged (in addition to putting some stakes in the grass). Let me know if there are any issues/concerns with this, and here’s what I have in my notes app for the horseweed for example:Terminology/Deatils

• Measurements from QR codes are from the rebar and are along the ground, not from the cap

• Measurements are to outer edge of the pot (aka boundary of the species)

• “Before” and “Start” refers to the direction of Fourth St. (aka where BBot starts a batch)

• “After” and “End” refers to the direction BBot travels during a batch.

• “Left” is towards Range 2 Dr.

• “Right” is towards North Dr.

Species #3Start Edge:

• 18” before QR4

• 30” after QR19

• 16” before QR35

• 31” after QR50

End Edge:

• 2” after QR5

• 5” after QR36

Left Edge:

• 3” left of QR4

• 3” left of QR5

Right Edge:

• 4” right of QR51

• 78” right of QR35

Got this batch started up at 10:13 AM after 45 minutes of fiddling with an uncooperative BBot. It has been working perfectly since, so hopefully it stays working the rest of the day.Also, since the horseweed has been moved and the buckwheat is dead, I'll be skipping those two sections (species 3 & 5), so this batch should be roughly 2/3 the size of other full runs.Also, in regards to horseweed cold-frame progress, I moved all the pots to the cold-frame yesterday and began packing them in. Hopefully today we will be able to finish packing them into the sand!

Also, for photo reference, skipped over species 3 at about 11:30 and skipped species 5 at 12:18

Finished up the batch now at 12:53, and had no issues while running. Will leave BBot on for a bit for uploads to continue

Began todays batch at 9:43 and have run into no issues so far :)

Completed todays batch at 12:08.Going to move the directional WIFI router closer to the BBot to hopefully improve upload speeds

60.5” before QR48

3” after QR2

3” left of QR1

7” right of QR48

12.5” before QR32

52” after QR17

73.5” left of QR17

79” right of QR32

61” before QR17

4” after QR33

2” left of QR2

78” right of QR33

14” before QR1

27” after QR2

4.5” after QR50

73” left of QR18

7” right of QR49

19.5” before QR18

43“ before QR4

2.5” left of QR3

78” right of QR34

27” after QR33

3.5” after QR19

75” left of QR19

8” right of QR50

18.5” before QR49

43“ before QR35

18” before QR4

2” after QR5

3” left of QR4

4” right of QR51

30” after QR19

5” after QR36

3” left of QR5

78” right of QR35

16” before QR35

31” after QR50

25” after QR5

3.5” after QR53

75.5” left of QR21

7” right of QR52

18” before QR21

44.5“ before QR38

3” left of QR6

79” right of QR37

30” after QR36

2” after QR22

75” left of QR22

7.5” right of QR”53

14.5” before QR52

45“ before QR7

20.5” before QR7

42.5“ before QR55

3” left of QR7

78” right of QR38

29” after QR53

3” after QR39

73” left of QR23

7.5” right of QR54

20” before QR38

44“ before QR24

2” left of QR8

79” right of QR39

27.5” after QR22

2” after QR8

16.5” before QR55

48.5“ before QR10

73” left of QR24

9” right of QR55

31” after QR39

6” after QR56

2” left of QR9

80.5” right of QR40

16.5” before QR24

44“ before QR41

74” left of QR25

10” right of QR56

27.5” after QR8

1” after QR25