Robot mowers

[33q]

33q said:

I didn’t know it would be a problem. It’s been flat for weeks.

I have ordered a used sensor off eBay and I can fix the mounts.

Fingers crossed

Sensor arrived today. I did ask the seller if it was tested and he replied very quickly and said it came off a working machine.

Fitted..............no different .........so I'm no further on. I have fixed the broken rubber damper and removed the machine screw to make the other one usable.

I can't workout a way to test the sensor.

Not much on the internet to help find out what the problem is.

[JD]

Well it turns out my 1200R battery is actually not that bad, the reason it keeps stopping is because one of the wheel motors has gone stiff.

On inspection one of the bearing parts of the planetary gearbox has broken into three pieces.

I can only find replacement complete motor assemblies for £190. Which sounds to me it might be curtains for the poor guy.

[Deep Thought]

JD said:

Well it turns out my 1200R battery is actually not that bad, the reason it keeps stopping is because one of the wheel motors has gone stiff.

On inspection one of the bearing parts of the planetary gearbox has broken into three pieces.

I can only find replacement complete motor assemblies for £190. Which sounds to me it might be curtains for the poor guy.

Thats a shame

Ours is still going strong, just turning four years old. We've got away with just replacement blades so far. Watching him here now actually.

On a not unrelated note, our Eufy robot vac stopped working, with a similar fault - one wheel assembly stopped going round. Sourced a new wheel motor for £15.99 from Eufy UK, four screws out and in again and hes working fine again. Shame your 1200R wasnt as handy.

[justin220]

I've got the dreaded no loop signal, and blue flashing light. but I'm 99% convinced it's not the actual loop as it was working fine last week.

I've done the whole AM radio walk round and it appears all in tact. I've broken and remade a couple of suspect connections and really lost what to try next,short of replacing the whole loop

Any other ideas? Tips or tricks. I've owned for about 5 years now and it's been faultless (1200r)

[M1AGM]

justin220 said:

I've got the dreaded no loop signal, and blue flashing light. but I'm 99% convinced it's not the actual loop as it was working fine last week.

I've done the whole AM radio walk round and it appears all in tact. I've broken and remade a couple of suspect connections and really lost what to try next,short of replacing the whole loop

Any other ideas? Tips or tricks. I've owned for about 5 years now and it's been faultless (1200r)

You could try setting up a dummy loop on the base station to eliminate if its a loop issue or not.

[Pheo]

Tempted to pickup something like this to keep my workload down over summer.

Small lawn maybe 12m x 8m. Slightly sloping in places, 5%… 10% max gradient.

What’s cheap but not likely to break in 10 minutes?

[fiatpower]

justin220 said:

I've got the dreaded no loop signal, and blue flashing light. but I'm 99% convinced it's not the actual loop as it was working fine last week.

I've done the whole AM radio walk round and it appears all in tact. I've broken and remade a couple of suspect connections and really lost what to try next,short of replacing the whole loop

Any other ideas? Tips or tricks. I've owned for about 5 years now and it's been faultless (1200r)

I’ve had this a couple of times where the wire appeared to be intact but was broken under ground.

First try making a small dummy loop to test it’s not the base unit out.

If that shows that the issue is with the loop then I make a long test wire and plug it into the back replacing one side of the actual loop. I then break into the wire at the half way point to find which side the break is on and keep doing that I find where the break is. Bit laborious but works well.

[M1AGM]

fiatpower said:

justin220 said:

I've got the dreaded no loop signal, and blue flashing light. but I'm 99% convinced it's not the actual loop as it was working fine last week.

I've done the whole AM radio walk round and it appears all in tact. I've broken and remade a couple of suspect connections and really lost what to try next,short of replacing the whole loop

Any other ideas? Tips or tricks. I've owned for about 5 years now and it's been faultless (1200r)

I’ve had this a couple of times where the wire appeared to be intact but was broken under ground.

First try making a small dummy loop to test it’s not the base unit out.

If that shows that the issue is with the loop then I make a long test wire and plug it into the back replacing one side of the actual loop. I then break into the wire at the half way point to find which side the break is on and keep doing that I find where the break is. Bit laborious but works well.

I (used to) get a lot of rabbits in the garden causing plenty of breaks almost daily. Got tired of wandering around looking for breaks and one day my luck ran out, couldnt find the fault despite examining every area. I bought a testing kit for £57 on amazon and found several breaks in no time, some I’d never have spotted without pulling up the wire. Wish I’d bought it sooner, highly recommended.

[justin220]

Thanks chaps, some great ideas there.

Link to Amazon tester?

[M1AGM]

justin220 said:

Thanks chaps, some great ideas there.

Link to Amazon tester?

I havent got a link to the one I bought because it’s no longer for sale, but if you search

F02 Underground Cable Wire Locator Tracker LAN with Earphone

That was it.

But this looks near identical, hopefully link works:

NOYAFA Underground Cable Wire Locator Locate Pet Fence Wires, Metal Pipes, Electrical Wires, Telephone Wire, Coax Cable with Earphone (816)

https://amzn.eu/d/b9v4xYV

[justin220]

Great thanks.

I've had some success. I've replaced a section of wire and it's mowing intermittently. I suspect another part has been stretched, or there is a loose connection on the back.

Spent about 3 hours at it yesterday and had enough so will report back if I find something definitive

[gfreeman]

I had the dreaded blue flasher…
After wandering for hours with a small AM radio I couldn’t find any breaks. Spoke to dealer who advised dropping in with the base station for a diagnostic check.
Turns out the circuit board was faulty/fried. Not unusual as they sit out in all weathers. Worst culprits are slugs apparently!

[justin220]

gfreeman said:

I had the dreaded blue flasher…
After wandering for hours with a small AM radio I couldn’t find any breaks. Spoke to dealer who advised dropping in with the base station for a diagnostic check.
Turns out the circuit board was faulty/fried. Not unusual as they sit out in all weathers. Worst culprits are slugs apparently!

I've pretty much decided it's an issue with the base or connections now.. I've replaced various sections and used the AM radio trick all the way round,all appears ok.

Where did you send yours to? I've looked at spares online but for the price I'm almost aswell buying a replacement mower

[gregch]

Anyone had an issue with the base station where the LED just doesn't light at all? I noticed yesterday that there's no green light (so I guess there also wouldn't be a blue light if the wire got broken?). All still works OK, he's out right now cutting the grass as usual. Just no LED.

[David A]

justin220 said:

gfreeman said:

I had the dreaded blue flasher…
After wandering for hours with a small AM radio I couldn’t find any breaks. Spoke to dealer who advised dropping in with the base station for a diagnostic check.
Turns out the circuit board was faulty/fried. Not unusual as they sit out in all weathers. Worst culprits are slugs apparently!

I've pretty much decided it's an issue with the base or connections now.. I've replaced various sections and used the AM radio trick all the way round,all appears ok.

Where did you send yours to? I've looked at spares online but for the price I'm almost aswell buying a replacement mower

Perhaps dumb question but can’t you check for continuity on the ends at the base station just with a multi meter or even more diy with a bulb and 9v battery or similar?

[Freakuk]

Is there a go to brand for robot mowers, probably a really broad question - apologies.

Our petrol mower is on its last legs so a replacement is imminent.

It's not a large garden, pretty flat but has a few obstacles on the lawn, trees etc.

[Durzel]

Hauled my Worx Landroid out of the shed to begin it's year long assignment, and it is moaning that the wire is missing, even though I've got a green light on the docking station.

Looking at the diagnostics on the Landroid itself it doesn't appear to be detecting any signal from any nearby wiring, so I'm wondering whether the green light is a lie.

Over the ~3 years I've had it there has been various wire slices, which I've fixed with twisting them back together and putting electrical tape on it. I gather this is suboptimal and I should have used those waterproof gel connectors instead.

Short of pulling the whole wire up and redoing it, what are my options here? I've already checked with a test loop and that works fine.

Thanks in advance for any help

[M1AGM]

Freakuk said:

Is there a go to brand for robot mowers, probably a really broad question - apologies.

Our petrol mower is on its last legs so a replacement is imminent.

It's not a large garden, pretty flat but has a few obstacles on the lawn, trees etc.

I think everyone has their preferences. They all seem to do a decent job. I have 2 Husqvarnas (315 and 450x), altogether about 10 seasons between them and they do fine. Just work out the surface area and search for a Brand/model that is suitable and you like and get one. They are great for what they do and save so much time, plus the lawn always looks cut.

That reminds me, I’m eagerly awaiting the mammotion from HK I bought on kickstarter must be 18 months ago! Was out with a friend for dinner on Saturday and by chance he’d ordered one too, and it had just arrived. So mine should be here by end of the month. Someone else on here did the same…

[gregch]

gregch said:

Anyone had an issue with the base station where the LED just doesn't light at all? I noticed yesterday that there's no green light (so I guess there also wouldn't be a blue light if the wire got broken?). All still works OK, he's out right now cutting the grass as usual. Just no LED.

Don't mind me, just answering my own question, in case anyone else has this issue at some point. Unplugging one of the loop connectors gave me the blue flashing light; plugged it back in again and now have the green light. So I guess it basically needed a bit of a reset to get the LED lighting again. All been fine since!

[M1AGM]

Had my Mammotion Luba delivered yesterday and set it up today from unboxed to first cut in circa 2 hours. Will report back on performance in due course, only issue at the moment is the wifi connectivity doesn’t allow for remote management (only by BT) but a software update is due…

Its a big heavy machine, 20kgs! Very ph, you can drive it around like a RC car using the app.