My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

Bungusbeefcake

Quick electrical enclosure question. So here is the layout of my lawn before I install my mower (the satellite image is old so doesn't have a number of features). I've a number of sockets on the outside of the house and none on the outside of the garage, so I'm thinking of either of 2 things: 1. laying an extension cable across the road, maybe cutting a slot into the tarmac and siliconing over it, and then placing the electrical stuff in an outdoor enclosure beside the robot. or 2. I could install a socket in the outside of the garage but this would be a bit of a pain for now.

I have 2 outdoor sockets shown on the image and also 2 options for placement of the base station.

So my question really is what do people suggest for safe enclosures for all the electrical stuff. I assume it needs to be ventilated of some sort for heat as there's a transformer but should be weatherproof so it's not flooded. Any suggestions of what to get? or info on what you have? I'd obviously be putting in relatively close to the base station. Does it need to me mounted high or just safely on the ground is fine?

Thanks!

krissovo

If you have inside socket in the garage i would drill a small hole through that and place the base station in that area. Its what I did and saved messing about with external sockets. The cables are quite thin gauge and can be extended if needed easier than a power socket.

I found I like know when the mower is parked visually so line of sight would be important as well.

KCross

Bungusbeefcake wrote: »

Quick electrical enclosure question. So here is the layout of my lawn before I install my mower (the satellite image is old so doesn't have a number of features). I've a number of sockets on the outside of the house and none on the outside of the garage, so I'm thinking of either of 2 things: 1. laying an extension cable across the road, maybe cutting a slot into the tarmac and siliconing over it, and then placing the electrical stuff in an outdoor enclosure beside the robot. or 2. I could install a socket in the outside of the garage but this would be a bit of a pain for now.

I have 2 outdoor sockets shown on the image and also 2 options for placement of the base station.

So my question really is what do people suggest for safe enclosures for all the electrical stuff. I assume it needs to be ventilated of some sort for heat as there's a transformer but should be weatherproof so it's not flooded. Any suggestions of what to get? or info on what you have? I'd obviously be putting in relatively close to the base station. Does it need to me mounted high or just safely on the ground is fine?

Thanks!

Only you can say, but looking at that it would seem easier and neater to me to get it plugged in in the garage rather than cutting the tar.

You dont need an external socket on the outside of the garage. Plug it in inside and run the cable to the docking station outside. The cable is typically 10m long, I think, so you should have enough length to get it out through a wall and across to the lawn. No electrician work required for that if there is a suitably located socket in your garage already.

Note: Its alot better to have the transformer inside than outside for both heat and weatherproofing reasons.

EDIT:... same as what krissovo said really.

antomack

Kash wrote: »

Hoping to purchase one of these beautiful beasties soon. Our lawn isn't massive, under 500m but it has a fair slope on one side.

The Husqvarna 305 was suggested by Husqvarna, does anyone have any experience with this?

Also, can I ask are the guide wires above or below ground? We'll have kids, dogs, cats and chickens running around - i'm a little bit concerned the guide wires could get broken!

Would you not consider the gardena robot mower offer I posted about earlier, rated for up to 1000 sq m and you may even be lucky enough to get the R130 which is rated for 1300 sq m? Manages slopes up to 35% apparently. Have mine about 4 weeks now on around 850 sq m and doing great job.
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057213541/189/#post113909691

Dr4gul4

Husky Owners, for those of you who have a charger located away from a plug socket, and used a secondary pipe to shield the powercable runing from the transformer to the base station, how in the hell did you get the two wires out of the plug socket, in order to slip the cable down a thin plastic pipe ..

I've looked at the connector, and i cannot see a way to "safely" push the two pins back out in reverse.

glog

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Husky Owners, for those of you who have a charger located away from a plug socket, and used a secondary pipe to shield the powercable runing from the transformer to the base station, how in the hell did you get the two wires out of the plug socket, in order to slip the cable down a thin plastic pipe ..

I've looked at the connector, and i cannot see a way to "safely" push the two pins back out in reverse.

I did it quite easily using a little sim card remover tool - you need to push down/back a little tab, from the top end, in the plastic sheath and gently pull out the pin.

That's the connector at the base station end.

randombar

Worx working well now, still need to sort out the border wire a bit but so far so good. Ran out of pegs too so have to order more.

I can see online you can get a replacement 5ah battery for 50 euro or something.

Comes with 2ah battery which takes 30 mins to charge and cuts for 2 hours (5ah would take 70 mins to charge and cut for 5 hours).

So on an a day of 14 hours run time

2 ah = 4 returns to base and 10 hours run time

5ah = 2 returns to base and 12 hours run time

Make sense to everyone?

Also any other hacks for it?

randombar

GaryCocs wrote: »

Worx working well now, still need to sort out the border wire a bit but so far so good. Ran out of pegs too so have to order more.

I can see online you can get a replacement 5ah battery for 50 euro or something.

Comes with 2ah battery which takes 30 mins to charge and cuts for 2 hours (5ah would take 70 mins to charge and cut for 5 hours).

So on an a day of 14 hours run time

2 ah = 4 returns to base and 10 hours run time

5ah = 2 returns to base and 12 hours run time

Make sense to everyone?

Also any other hacks for it?

Hold this thought, I might have a 5ah battery in it already. Balls!!!

glog

I have a brand new Husky 430X Charging station complete with transformer, 10m cable and anchor bolts which is surplus to my requirements.
It is unopened, in original packaging - Cork area.
PM me if it you are in the market for this.
Cheers,
gLo

Tilikum17

Would anyone have any experience with the Ambrogio brand?

I was in looking at the Ambrogio twenty elite this morning.

shanemkelly

Tilikum17 wrote: »

Would anyone have any experience with the Ambrogio brand?

I was in looking at the Ambrogio twenty elite this morning.

Are Ambrogio the same as Wipers? Something tells me they are; if so, (although I've no experience of them) Wipers are supposedly very good...

neilc

shanemkelly wrote: »

Are Ambrogio the same as Wipers? Something tells me they are; if so, (although I've no experience of them) Wipers are supposedly very good...

Would love to hear people’s feedback on the Ambrogio brand as well, strongly considering the 4.0 elite for next years cutting season, seems very robust.

Tilikum17

neilc wrote: »

Would love to hear people’s feedback on the Ambrogio brand as well, strongly considering the 4.0 elite for next years cutting season, seems very robust.

Yer man in my local place said he used to do the husky ones but changed to ambrogio as he feels they’re better. He’d say that anyway.

I’ve also been looking at the worx landroid. €1000 cheaper.

This might be a stupid question but does the robot need to have WiFi in the garden?

randombar

Tilikum17 wrote: »

Yer man in my local place said he used to do the husky ones but changed to ambrogio as he feels they’re better. He’d say that anyway.

I’ve also been looking at the worx landroid. €1000 cheaper.

This might be a stupid question but does the robot need to have WiFi in the garden?

I got two add ons with the Worx, radio wifi extender and obstacle avoider ACS thingy. Long garden so it wasn't picking up the wifi.

fuzzballer

Hi,

I've been advised by the Husqvarna dealer and rep that due to the slope in my garden, I'll need the 435X awd. I haven't seen much mentioned here about that model, has anyone any experience of the 435x?

Is there any alternatives out there that can handle 45-50% slope and 1800sqm garden? The mower will have to travel up and down the slope to get from charging station to lower part of the garden. There's about 150sqm of steep slope to the garden.

krissovo

fuzzballer wrote: »

Hi,

I've been advised by the Husqvarna dealer and rep that due to the slope in my garden, I'll need the 435X awd. I haven't seen much mentioned here about that model, has anyone any experience of the 435x?

Is there any alternatives out there that can handle 45-50% slope and 1800sqm garden? The mower will have to travel up and down the slope to get from charging station to lower part of the garden. There's about 150sqm of steep slope to the garden.

I have a 30/40% slope in mine and was advised in a similar way. I went with a Landroid m2000 for my 18000sm lawn and it is ok in the dry but any damp whatsoever even a layer of condensation will cause the mower to stray and either exit the perimeter, dig holes, spin in circles or leave tufts of uncut grass. I got around the issue with zoning but with your slope AWD is probably the only solution.

carq

Hi All

What mower would you recommend for a small garden (40foot x 50 foot) ?
I see one on Amazon (McCullagh Rob600) - apparently a husq with a different badge, for 600 Sterling, Flymo Easilife 350 for 550 sterling.
these are still quite expensive - is this as cheap as they come?

I have an external socket but this is on a patio and about 20 foot from the grass - what kind of cabling is required to set up the base station?
Can you have the base station exposed to rain when its plugged in ?
how do people hide their wires ?

antomack

carq wrote: »

Hi All

What mower would you recommend for a small garden (40foot x 50 foot) ?
I see one on Amazon (McCullagh Rob600) - apparently a husq with a different badge, for 600 Sterling, Flymo Easilife 350 for 550 sterling.
these are still quite expensive - is this as cheap as they come?

I have an external socket but this is on a patio and about 20 foot from the grass - what kind of cabling is required to set up the base station?
Can you have the base station exposed to rain when its plugged in ?
how do people hide their wires ?

Disclaimer. I'm not on commission for Gardena, coopsuperstore or tj omahony I'm just a happy customer who reckons the deal is good.

Anyhow take a look at my earlier post, the mower is rated for much more than you want but it only costs a bit more than those you mentioned at €750 delivered.

Have one installed on my back garden of around 850 sq m for about 6 weeks now and doing great, so good that with my push lawnmower finally dying on me a few weeks ago I decided to splurge on a second for my 300 sq m front lawn which I'm actually in the process of installing.

There are a few more boardsies with Gardena bots that seem happy too.

The power cable thats provided is 10m long and apparently can be got in 5m or 20m lengths. It's pretty light cable, somewhat akin to speaker cable, see pic.

Personally I've built a little hut for the robot as prefer not to expose too much to the elements but have seen a few installs where it's just sitting at the edge of the garden without any sort of cover. Going to have to build another one for the new robot.

chelseavera

Devoured this fantastic thread last weekend (the specifics lost in my muddled mind now!) But... took the plunge during the week and ordered a Worx Landroid M500 for my small front lawn. Wondered if anyone has one and can advise on maximising the 'cut to edge' feature. I've seen videos of them riding along with 2 feet on kerb and doing a fab job. This is what I'm after. One guy recommended halving the recommended distance to edge to achieve this. I'll be installing myself - it's less than 200m perimeter... wondered if anyone has achieved this.
I hope to get a bigger beast for the 2k bigger lawn - but will have that installed. Might be going for a Ambrogio over the Husky there. Undecided. But looking forward to playing with this Worx baby next week.

Bedouin79

Right research done, 4 different dealers visited. Having my heart set on a Husqvarna 450x. My heads been turned by L250I ELITE S+. Dealer visiting to view the lawn next week. Will report back. Fantastic thread great source of info.

Lurching

Tilikum17 wrote: »

This might be a stupid question but does the robot need to have WiFi in the garden?

My Husqvarna doesn't need WIFI anyway.

krissovo

chelseavera wrote: »

Wondered if anyone has one and can advise on maximising the 'cut to edge' feature. I've seen videos of them riding along with 2 feet on kerb and doing a fab job. This is what I'm after. One guy recommended halving the recommended distance to edge to achieve this. I'll be installing myself

The guide that comes with the landroid has a 4" and 12" measure. You use the 12" for the cut edge where there is a step or a wall, the 4" is where it would straddle between the grass and say a patio. The landroid would NOT manage to straddle a step very well.

It also has a template for cutting perfect right angles so it can cut around walls cleanly.

krissovo

Tilikum17 wrote: »

I’ve also been looking at the worx landroid. €1000 cheaper.

This might be a stupid question but does the robot need to have WiFi in the garden?

It does not NEED wifi, its useful if you want to control it from your app to say stop, send it home or start another session. Also with wifi it will tell you if it gets in trouble like its crossed the boundary wire or the wheels are digging in.

I think the Landroid is amazing value.

chelseavera

krissovo wrote: »

The guide that comes with the landroid has a 4" and 12" measure. You use the 12" for the cut edge where there is a step or a wall, the 4" is where it would straddle between the grass and say a patio. The landroid would NOT manage to straddle a step very well.

It also has a template for cutting perfect right angles so it can cut around walls cleanly.

Great stuff. I guess it's a bit of trial & error and I might be able to tweak it a bit. Can't wait! :-)

oleras

i would love to see some pics of how the grass is looking, what kind of finish is possible if people would like to share.

krissovo

oleras wrote: »

i would love to see some pics of how the grass is looking, what kind of finish is possible if people would like to share.

Here is an example of the landroid, the finish will never be like a lawn just cut with a decent lawn mower. What you end up with especially for a large lawn (mine is 1800sm) is a general level of grass with areas that may not have been cut yet. Also you can see the perimeter trail that the lawn mower leaves and the how it cuts around obstacles.

If you have OCD for perfect lawn a robot mower may not be for you. It can leave small tufts and take days to cut them. My mowing cycle means it can take 5 or 6 days to cut every area of the lawn. My lawn also is about ready for its final feed of season to green up as the soil is not the best.

Shaunoc

krissovo wrote: »

Here is an example of the landroid, the finish will never be like a lawn just cut with a decent lawn mower. What you end up with especially for a large lawn (mine is 1800sm) is a general level of grass with areas that may not have been cut yet. Also you can see the perimeter trail that the lawn mower leaves and the how it cuts around obstacles.

If you have OCD for perfect lawn a robot mower may not be for you. It can leave small tufts and take days to cut them. My mowing cycle means it can take 5 or 6 days to cut every area of the lawn. My lawn also is about ready for its final feed of season to green up as the soil is not the best.

i find that happens with a couple of possibilities: either need to change blades every so often or at peak growth like last few weeks, need to extend the mowers operating hours if possible or mower is back onto lawn after a break

i was away for a week recently with mower safely housed. on return it looked like a typical lawn, a bit scraggly in need of a cut. took mower a full week to catch up on itself due to growth rate.

I would get a bit ocd about trimming verges, but sure don't we need something to be at. however in places i would adjust the boundary cable or put in a flower bed / tree to minimize work.

hopefully a couple of pictures attached.
its still a lawn and needs managing but i find the finish 1000X that of a traditional lawnmower

xl500

heres mine always looks great no weeds

randombar

krissovo wrote: »

Here is an example of the landroid, the finish will never be like a lawn just cut with a decent lawn mower. What you end up with especially for a large lawn (mine is 1800sm) is a general level of grass with areas that may not have been cut yet. Also you can see the perimeter trail that the lawn mower leaves and the how it cuts around obstacles.

If you have OCD for perfect lawn a robot mower may not be for you. It can leave small tufts and take days to cut them. My mowing cycle means it can take 5 or 6 days to cut every area of the lawn. My lawn also is about ready for its final feed of season to green up as the soil is not the best.

From talking to others with the Husq, they apparently have less of the mowhak sections because the GPS can identify where it has cut and where it hasn't.


I do find the worx return to base via the guide wire is a bit annoying with the track it leaves but for 1100 it is very hard to beat imo.

Duke of Url

antomack wrote: »

Posted a few pages back as was considering purchasing the Gardena offer with coopsuperstores which I bit the bullet on. Have it installed 2 weeks now and it's doing a great job.

Anyhow see that my great deal at €799 + €25 delivery is now being beaten by TJ O'Mahony at €750 (delivery generally free for c.€200+ I think), see here.

Might be of use to someone although only 5 showing in stock.

Still on coopsuperstore for €799.

Thanks

I pulled the trigger and ordered the Gardena Smart Sileno 1000M2 Robotic Lawnmower & Set.

We will see how it goes as I only have the average size garden