Hi Brian,
Posting on this thread but the question ties directly to Boris's thread titled "New Board Update for V1".
First, I think it is great you got the FABMO Upgrade Kit out the door; I have been tempted to grab one but have waited to see what happens on the upgrade front.
On that topic we all appreciate, that your entire team is heads down on several projects, the pure interest in the upgrade program should speak volumes as to the success of the Handibot and particularly the V2. Congrats!
I strictly use the Handibot as a hobbyist, and as such, my interests may be a little different from most on this forum. What I want is the Extended Length Base. I understand the ELB is an accessory for the v2 and that is why I want the v2. Increasing the work area is a major desire for me, along with easier bit changes.
I have done several different things with the v1.1, including joinery in furniture that you would struggle to do by hand or with a handheld router. The Handibot is great for those tasks and results are amazing! However, I principally use the Handibot for carving, on this fronts the 6x8 is a major limitation. Being able to move about a large piece of material is a major advantage of the Handibot, I have not seen any other product that gives us this flexibility. The Large Material Indexing Jig is great for things like Opendesk projects, but you cannot tile carvings with it, or rather, you can, but it is very difficult. The LMIJ, in my humble opinion, does not have the accuracy needed for carving, particularly as you move away from the origin.
I borrowed the concept from the LMIJ and built an aluminium frame, based on the assumption that aluminium extrusions as reasonably true. Using pinning holes along both X and Y-axis, I can somewhat more accurately than the LMIJ, manually tile, at least up to about 36"x36" but it is still not ideal. I originally had high hopes for the crawler, but the ELB looks like a much-improved solution.
So while I am certainly interested in the trade up program details, I would love more details on the ELB.
Cheers,
M