Hey everyone,
Two things I’ve been working on are now live:
- the OWL website at https://openweedlocator.org and
- the official documentation at https://docs.openweedlocator.org.
Why a dedicated docs site?
If you’ve ever tried to follow the OWL setup from the GitHub README, you’ll know it was getting long and increasingly hard to maintain. At last count it was 2095 lines with about 230,000 characters. It worked, but it wasn’t easy to navigate, keep up to date and not particularly friendly.
The new documentation site takes all of that content and organises it into a proper structure with search, navigation, and cross-linking between sections.
What’s in the docs?
The documentation covers the full OWL journey:
- Getting Started — a place to help you figure out where to begin based on what you already have
- Hardware — complete parts lists and assembly guides for both the Original OWL and Compact OWL, plus 3D printing files and settings
- Software Installation — two installation paths:
- Two-step install — mostly automated setup, up and running in ~10 minutes
- Detailed install — step-by-step manual installation if you want to understand what’s happening in more detail (~60 minutes)
- Controllers — better description of the wired hardware controllers and wireless dashboard options, including Standalone (WiFi hotspot) and Networked (multi-OWL with MQTT) setups - these are still on the wireless-display branch though.
- Usage/Operation — detection algorithms, wiring and connections, and use cases for vehicles, robots, and data collection
- Troubleshooting — common errors, diagnostic commands, and fixes all in one place
- Glossary — including a new Glossary covering terminal basics, Linux concepts, networking terms, and OWL-specific vocabulary
Accessibility
One of the main goals was making the docs accessible to people who haven’t used a Raspberry Pi or terminal before. So there are hints/definitions throughout that should help with descriptions of what a command does and why it is important.
Additionally:
- The glossary explains everything from basic commands like cd and sudo through to OWL-specific terms like MQTT, ExG, and systemd services
- Key technical terms in the installation guides now have hover tooltips, just hover over a dotted-underline term and you’ll get a short explanation without leaving the page
- Each installation step includes the expected terminal output so you can confirm things are working as you go
The website
https://openweedlocator.org is the main landing page for the project. It gives an overview of what OWL is, links to the docs, the community, and the shop for parts.
Everything is still open source.
I want to make the OWL as professional as any commercial, large-scale project out there, while still being open source. So you will always have access to the repo/code/hardware. As announced with OWL3.0 we’re planning on selling completed kits and building out a much more user friendly experience around this if you want to pay the money to go down that path. But importantly, if you do just want to do it all yourself you will be able to, and that is very much encouraged. A similar approach to the OWL driver boards.
If you spot an error, find something confusing, or think something is missing, you can mention it here or open an issue or submit a PR to the docs page openweedlocator-docs.
What’s next?
The docs will continue to grow and improve. If there’s something you’d find useful, let me know here or on GitHub.
I’m also working on a platform to house the OWL and help you manage it more easily. The wireless-display branch will eventually be merged into main. I should also release some videos on building a networked OWL. But one thing at a time.
In any case, thanks to everyone who has been building, testing, and sharing OWLs. This project keeps growing because of this community!
Cheers,
Guy