My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122103895#Comment_122103895

Cut thin slot across drive , drop guide into it. Cover with Tar / concrete mastic. Job done.

denismc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122104013#Comment_122104013

That will work if the tarmac is level with the grass but I am guessing he has some sort of kerb in which case he has a bit more work to remove kerbs and build some sort of ramps.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122104077#Comment_122104077

Slot the kerb too. Diamond in an angle grinder. Couple of minutes job.

WildWater

An update on my Luba2 5000 experience. Firstly, a big thank you to a couple of the Luba guys on here that gave me encouragement and advice. Top tip number 1: update the firmware! At first I thought I had a dud, but once I updated the firmware all went perfectly. In short, this has worked a treat and is a very impressive piece of kit. I will be honest, I did have my doubts about going with a high tech solution, but so far, I'm delighted I did. The mapping is incredibly accurate and the thing just does what it says on the tin.

The easiest place for me to position my RTK was on the garden shed which is at the back of my property. This has 100% line of sight to the back lawn (1050ms). However, it has 0% line of sight to the front lawns. I could move it elsewhere on my site but it would have been a PITA in comparison to installing it on the shed. The good news is it mapped and cut the front lawns without any issue. Delighted about this.

Mapping was very easy. I have three areas. The largest is out the back which is 1,050ms and has 16 no go zones (mainly trees). I didn't time it, but I had that mapped in less than an hour. 5 no go zones on the front lawn and two on the little side lawn. Total mapping time was less than 2 hours. I'm going knock out and turn a few kerbs to make ramps and then I'll add my channels.

Yesterday, I cut a large section of the back lawn (I initially just mapped out a big section that had no no go zones and set it off) and the two front areas. Today, I set it off to do the whole back area which it did without issue.

Two other tips. I had my grass cut during the week (second time this season) so it was nice a short to start with. I would recommend this. In one small section (which is really nothing given the size of the garden) it had a bit of trouble with the density of the grass. (More dead moss than grass.) A quick bit of rake work sorted that out.

Overall, I'm very impressed and delighted to be getting rid of my ride on. Despite being well looked after and kept in the shed, that thing game me no end of headaches. An added plus, is I gain a really significant amount of space in my garden shed.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122105057#Comment_122105057

Enjoy the beers watching it do it's business.

Zardoz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122104013#Comment_122104013

Not sure I fancy cutting my nice driveway up.

That will work if the tarmac is level with the grass but I am guessing he has some sort of kerb in which case he has a bit more work to remove kerbs and build some sort of ramps.

Yes I have a kerb, I could make a ramp for it easily enough though I think.

I might just get one robot for the back for the time being, its the largest area, I could cut the front manually for now.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122105169#Comment_122105169

Not really cutting it up most road surfaces have tar separation. Really simple job tbh. Much cleaner than a speed ramp which would be far more damage tbh. 🤷

WildWater

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122105080#Comment_122105080

That's exactly what I was doing yesterday evening. 🤣

blobert

Hello there,

I'm looking for advice on a robot mower for a fairly large (circa 900m2 or so) lawn which is basically triangular in shape.

Along one side is a border to a flowerbed and along the other sides are borders to gravel.

I have an outside socket about 3m away from the lawn to use to power it and some level of Wifi signal which would be strong at this socket but less so as the mower is further from the the base.

I'm looking for somthing very reliable and with as little maintenance as possible.

My builder recommended an Husqvarna mower with guide line which seemingly they will come out and put in place.

I see there are also wireless options such as the Luba 2 mentioned here which in theory sounds better though I'm also wary of fancy tech that may be less reliable. I bought 2 x fancier Roomba models for cleaning the house and they are fiddly and don't work well.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I'm happy to pay more for a product if it will work well and be reliable. I'm not that interested in fancy options, just somthing I can largely set and forget.

Thanks!

Thud

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122105488#Comment_122105488

Husqvarna doesn't necessarily mean reliable if you read back through the thread you'll see a lot of issues from Husqvarna owners with wheel motors, PCBs etc

MoodeRator

I also finished setting up my LUBA 2 at the weekend and very similar experiance to WildWater above. Very please with it so far, the set up of bounderies was a lot easier than expected, thoough I still have to retrain the bounderies at a couple of places. One was where I has it going to close to some Laurel bushes and it got caught, and the other was at a curb next to the driveway where is felll and got stuck. But this is easily rectified. Very imppressed with how accurately it cuts the lines in the grass and leaves I nice look to the lawn. Great to now have a few hours made spare at the weekend, and also not having to wait for dry weekends to cut. As we all know, if you are only able to cut at weekends, you can go a month without cutting due to rain, now I can sit at work and just the LUBA out when ever we get a fine day

pete6296

Hi

Looking at the luba 2. Lawn is 2400sqm.

Sloped rear garden. Would the 3000 be fine?

MoodeRator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106182#Comment_122106182

I believe all of the current 300s in Ireland are gone, and not due for another 10 weeks. For the extra money I just got the 5000 as I could not wait any longer.

MoodeRator

Also just to add that the Parkside garage in LIDL does actually fit the LUBA! :)

blobert

Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'll try the LUBA one so.

Any thoughts in terms of speccing the size of them?

My lawn is under 1000m2 so in theory that one will be fine. But I've seen in some of the reviews that the mower will have to go recharge during the cut which makes it take a lot longer.

I'm wondering if I went for the bigger battery one (I think the 3000 and 5000 have the same battery) would it be able to cut about 950m2 all in one go to save time?

I know from running Roombas in the house it's annoying if it has to go back to charge in the middle of a clean for a few hours when ideally I want it running at specific times when there is nobody at home etc.

LubaDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106813#Comment_122106813

They've hobbled the 1000 imo and it's not worth it. The battery is smaller (too small tbh) and it has a limited forward speed. They also have a reduced number of zones and no go zones. My personal opinion is that the 3000 is the minimum viable option.

The hardware, other than the battery is exactly the same as other models, it's a software lock that limits it's features.

Jack_wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122106813#Comment_122106813

For your lawn size, the LUBA 2 should do the trick nicely. As for the battery life, opting for the bigger battery models like the 3000 or 5000 could indeed be a wise move because the 1000m2 LUBA has a less powerful battery. LUBA! It's a solid choice for sure.

I'd suggest checking out Mowers.ie I bought my LUBA 2 there and they're a reliable source and might still have some models available.

Now about the Husqvarna, my cousin had a fancy one and faced a heap of issues, especially with those wheel motors. It's a shame when you put your trust in a brand and it lets you down.

That's actually why I ended up going for the LUBA 2 myself. After researching and reading reviews, it seemed like the most reliable option out there. Plus, the feedback from other owners was overwhelmingly positive.

Cheers…

WildWater

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122105488#Comment_122105488

I would generally be pretty tech weary also. Low tech, simple, tried & tested is an attractive proposition. The first thing I did was read back through this tread and then I started to research the brands that people were recommending. I considered Worx, Kress and Luba. I really did not fancy the hassle of laying a wire around my site. I figured that to do it right I should wire around all my no-go zones and that would have been a serious PITA. I was also under a bit of time pressure, my ride on is kaput and the grass was, well, doing what grass does! I watched some youtube videos and aside from the satellite controlled business, I was also impressed with the overall functionality design of the Luba particularly the wheel design, AWD and suspension. (The aesthetic design is pretty snazzy also.) My site is very flat but it has it's fair share of little bumps and hollows. I was put off the Kress (satellite version) by the fact that you can't set up the perimeter and no go zones yourself. Thus, Luba it was.

Re the set-up. Had I thought to update the firmware the set-up would have been a total breeze. The biggest PITA I had was getting a bracket to mount the RTK. I got an aerial bracket from ScrewFix. The first one was too small. As in not enough horizontal clearance. The larger one just gave enough clearance to clear the gutter on the shed.

I've only done two cuts of my lawns, but the thing just working perfectly. Obviously, with only being a new owner I can't speak to reliability or maintenance. I could be crying into my app yet!

LubaDriver

If I had a larger budget and didn't care about price I wouldn't have bought Luba. I'd have gone with husqvarna Epos. It's a much more established brand, with a dealer network and good parts availability. Even now I still think husqvarna are a broader company, and the long term survivor. If they stop making robots, they have lots of other products, and lots already in the market. Parts and support are likely to persist.

Mammotion on the other hand is a skunkworks spinoff of Agilex robotics. While that is a successful robotics company, it is very small, relative to the $50bn size of husqvarna. The real risk for Luba, as I've mentioned before is that the company folds. As it is largely cloud controlled, if the servers die you will be left with very limited control.

The more they sell the more likely it is that the company will continue to grow and thrive so that's something that all owners will want. It would be wrong though to not mention this risk as it is in my opinion by far the biggest. It's a risk that all the new startup mower companies have though so it's not unique.

Whether it's for you comes down even now to your price to risk tolerance. It's a very good physical product, it's software is serviceable if somewhat buggy, it's frequently updated and the company does seem to take feedback on board.

IrishHomer

I have 0.6 acres or 1500 square metres

I'm a long time fan of Husqvarna I currently have their tractor ride on and a self drive push mower.

Can someone please recommend a robot mower? I want to sell the rideon and I'll keep my push mower:)

Bedouin79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122102335#Comment_122102335

ambrogio 250+. Gone for a service today will report back on diagnosis.

Bedouin79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122102385#Comment_122102385

thanks for that. Booked in for a service will report back.

DrPhilG

Some advice folks...

The area in along the fence is very spongy. I've balded it with the push mower and also strimmed tight to the ground around the trees but I'm still getting a lot of mower jams in there.

Any tips to improve it? Kress 101e nano.

denismc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122109299#Comment_122109299

Im guessing it's getting wedged between the trees and the fence?

Have you considered letting the grass in that section grow wild? It will make a nice contrast with the cut lawn.

You then just tell everyone you are doing it for the bees!😁

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122109531#Comment_122109531

It's not wedging against the fence no, it seems to be bogging down in the spongy soil & grass.

Letting it grow wild isn't an option.

LubaDriver

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122109548#Comment_122109548

If its bogging down, would a layer of grass reinforcement or chicken wire give it that extra bit of traction?

Failing that, a bit of ground improvement is necessary.

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122110194#Comment_122110194

I was wondering about scraping the surface down to the soil and then laying a few rolls of turf.

Dozz

Hi All.

Am having a bit of trouble with my Robomow RC 308. It will cut away for a few days and then stop showing an error code E3 (perimeter wire).

I have checked everything and all seems okay. If I plug out the base station for an hour or so it will work away again but next morning the error is showing again.

Am confused as it's an intermittent fault now.

Have the mower 6 years and has been working like a dream up until now.

Any advice would be great.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111098#Comment_122111098

Can be a few things.

1. There is water ingress on your cable meaning it's weaker than before and can have intermittent connection faults. You'd need to check the resistance on the cable. Do you have any links on the perimeter cable. These can fail.
2. The base station connections aren't clean or loose and need a sanding and tightening up.
3. The PCB in the base station is shagged. I have and others have had slugs eat the pcb and short the board.
4. The base station isn't getting enough current from it's transformer meaning not enough current around the perimeter need to check the transformer output and also be 100 percent sure that it's connection into the base station isn't loose or has water ingress these can get loose and fail from environmental conditions.

SocialSpud

Hi folks.

I'm close to finishing a brand new lawn and so will be getting my Worx Landroid L2000 set up soon. Should I place down the boundary wire and charging station after the top soil has gone down before seeding, or wait until the grass has grown a bit?