Finished PFC 2.0 beta build!

#1

Just finished up our build here in San Francisco and thought I’d share a few photos.

FullSizeRender.jpg2493x2968 1.24 MB

IMG_4486.jpg3024x4032 2.01 MB

next.JPG3024x4032 2.58 MB

We followed the 2.0 beta spec pretty closely. Did all the machining at Tech Shop, a maker space here in SF – the acrylic was on the laser and the Shopbot, the frame was on the vertical mill, the aluminum for the power supply was on the Tormach CNC. Got the PCB printed at a local shop and hand soldered all the components (wouldn’t recommend it!). Everything seems to be working well; all the actuators and sensors are working and connecting through to the UI, and even the webcam is coming through with a little hacking on the UI code.

Overall, was a lot of fun and learned a ton along the way - feel free to reach out if you have any questions! Thanks to the MIT team for a great experience!

#2

Forgot to mention, currently have no lights or cooling since AFAIK those components aren’t available yet… Should be fine to skip the cooling for now, but I may give up waiting at some point and just drop in a generic grow light so I can try it out.

#3

It’s beautiful! Congratulations!!

#4

Hey @dlerman,

Did you happen to keep track of how much the build cost (e.g., materials, shipping, tax, fabrication)? I’m putting together a budget for our build.

Thanks and hope all is well!
Adrian

#5

Hey @adrianlu - I unfortunately didn’t keep close track . I priced out the initial BOM and posted in, but then didn’t update it as I actually made purchases… I have all the receipts so if you have any specific questions I can find the price I paid, but unfortunately don’t have it all pulled together.

#6

Gotcha. Thanks for the quick reply. At this point, I’m just looking for an overall cost. I think an estimate within $500 would be fine.

#7

Well, here’s the BOM I used - came out to about $3000. Throw in another $100 or so for the board and its components, $100 for shipping and misc specialty tools (eg a riveter, a Molr crimper), and you should be pretty close, minus cooling and LEDs which I skipped.