Discussion
V8_GWA said:
Before you replace the PCB in the Flymo, strip down the charging station and check the loom. I thought it was the former, but it turned out to be very obviously the latter after I'd taken it apart.
Also note there's a 2013 and a 2016 version of the loom; I accidentally ordered the wrong one first time round!
Good shout, thanks!Also note there's a 2013 and a 2016 version of the loom; I accidentally ordered the wrong one first time round!
Yep, I think time to bring him in then. I do still have a mower in the shed, and I'd normally do the first cut of the season with that anyway so I guess it's fine to leave cutting it at this point. Also I do want to take good care of the robot, in the hopes I can also get 5 or 6 years out of him!
He's done incredibly well so far, in all weathers on a small but quite challenging couple of bits of lawn. Way better than I expected. Smaller leaves he seems happy to just chop up but I do have to clear the horse chestnut leaves out of his way at this point in the year.
He's done incredibly well so far, in all weathers on a small but quite challenging couple of bits of lawn. Way better than I expected. Smaller leaves he seems happy to just chop up but I do have to clear the horse chestnut leaves out of his way at this point in the year.
gregch said:
Is anyone's robot still out there mowing, or have you brought it in for the winter already?
It's been so wet for so long that our (usually pretty capable) Flymo kept getting his blades clogged up with soggy grass clippings, so I manually stopped him going out a couple of weeks back.
Of course the grass kept growing for a bit so now a bit longer than I'd like, but not sure about setting him going again at this point, given at this time of year the grass a) doesn't dry out at any point during the day and b) will have pretty much stopped growing now.
So... interested to know if the cutting season's officially over and I just need to clean him up, charge him up, and put him away for the winter, or if it's OK to keep him going a bit longer.
I brought the Husky in at the weekend.It's been so wet for so long that our (usually pretty capable) Flymo kept getting his blades clogged up with soggy grass clippings, so I manually stopped him going out a couple of weeks back.
Of course the grass kept growing for a bit so now a bit longer than I'd like, but not sure about setting him going again at this point, given at this time of year the grass a) doesn't dry out at any point during the day and b) will have pretty much stopped growing now.
So... interested to know if the cutting season's officially over and I just need to clean him up, charge him up, and put him away for the winter, or if it's OK to keep him going a bit longer.
About 3 weeks ago I gave him a clean, as he had been out in the very wet weather and was covered underneath in clippings! He wasn't going out very long, then returning to charging station. I think all the clippings had caused extra resistance, and therefore used more battery.
So gave him a good clean and prayed for dry weather, as grass was still growing.
We got a couple of days of dry weather, so let him go out for a couple of days, still incredibly wet though, then hosed him off and called it done on Saturday.
I swear it is still growing though, but we have had that much rain, I don't even want to walk on the grass, let alone send him out again! He is in until next year now. Unless we have a very very dry December.
I still need to physically bring ours in, but it hasnt run for maybe two months now.
We have a lot of trees, so there are literally mounds of leaves, and the grass has slowed right down. So switched to the petrol rotary a did a high pass to chop up and collect the leaves having removed the worst of the horse chestnuts,
We have a lot of trees, so there are literally mounds of leaves, and the grass has slowed right down. So switched to the petrol rotary a did a high pass to chop up and collect the leaves having removed the worst of the horse chestnuts,
mikeiow said:
In news regarding our Landroid....
As mentioned earlier, the keypad is stuffed.
Only place I could find offering them (see here) only ship to Denmark & Finland........plus if we did get one sorted, chances are the battery will be next (6 full seasons worked - saved us perhaps £200+ pa in gardening costs at the holiday cottage).....
....so we spotted this Einhell FREELEXO 1200 for under £500.
Claims to cover 1,200 sqm. More than enough for our 700-800sqm area.
Hard to find ones that can cover over 600sqm for a reasonable price. Reviews look okay - not sure if anyone here has one?
Due to arrive tomorrow, but won't get a chance to deploy it until after Christmas.
With any luck, it will also last 5-6 years or more. Fingers crossed!
So, we are at the cottage sorting stuff out, & have the Einhell deployed As mentioned earlier, the keypad is stuffed.
Only place I could find offering them (see here) only ship to Denmark & Finland........plus if we did get one sorted, chances are the battery will be next (6 full seasons worked - saved us perhaps £200+ pa in gardening costs at the holiday cottage).....
....so we spotted this Einhell FREELEXO 1200 for under £500.
Claims to cover 1,200 sqm. More than enough for our 700-800sqm area.
Hard to find ones that can cover over 600sqm for a reasonable price. Reviews look okay - not sure if anyone here has one?
Due to arrive tomorrow, but won't get a chance to deploy it until after Christmas.
With any luck, it will also last 5-6 years or more. Fingers crossed!
Pretty simply - existing guide wire works fine, 5.2Ah battery, happy days
Or are they?
I've been forcing him out a bit: grass is damp but cuttable, and he is going out on my command.....
....but just now I found him stuck, looking like he was returning home.
Looked like he was powered off.
Carried him back to base, plugged in.
Used the Einhell App, expecting the battery to somehow be empty.....but it immediately told me it had 30% charge, and very quickly went to 40%.
WTF
No reason for him to have stopped: no obstruction, almost flat, nothing stuck in the wheels etc.
Now I read the manual and see when it drops to 30%, it heads back to base.....but surely he should have made it?
Worry times
Tomorrow I will let him go out on schedule (forecast is fair), and see how he behaves when left to his own devices (as he would be most of the time).
Anyone else with an Einhell?
I do wonder if a bigger battery might be useful, but frankly he should just work & go home - I have seen him do it a few times already!
Frimley111R said:
Still struggling with this issue. Also tried a different base. Any ideas?
All I can think to do is to lay a new cable....
Do you have a multimeter, or even an old torch or the like, you could use to test the continuity of the cable.All I can think to do is to lay a new cable....
If its broken, its likely not the base! You can then cut it in a few places, and narrow the break down to a smaller area?
dhutch said:
Frimley111R said:
Still struggling with this issue. Also tried a different base. Any ideas?
All I can think to do is to lay a new cable....
Do you have a multimeter, or even an old torch or the like, you could use to test the continuity of the cable.All I can think to do is to lay a new cable....
If it's broken, it's likely not the base! You can then cut it in a few places, and narrow the break down to a smaller area?
I'm going to re-lay the wire as I can't think what else to do and it'll be quicker than messing around further. At least I know the base and the mower work fine
Frimley111R said:
It works in the garage on a dummy loop set up
and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
As in, the base works wiith a new wire.and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
AND the tester says the old/garden wire is ok? What tester?
What happens if you split the existing wire and just part of it with the base.
You can use the 'home' wire and one half, or the other half, to create a half size boundary.
Frimley111R said:
It works in the garage on a dummy loop set up and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
I'm going to re-lay the wire as I can't think what else to do and it'll be quicker than messing around further. At least I know the base and the mower work fine
Do you have a Landroid? If so and you kind in Frimley, I'm in Camberley and have a Landroid... You can bring it up here to test on my loop?I'm going to re-lay the wire as I can't think what else to do and it'll be quicker than messing around further. At least I know the base and the mower work fine
Frimley111R said:
It works in the garage on a dummy loop set up
and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
Had a similar issue with mine, the problem was with one of the snaplok connectors, all appeared ok when off the dock, but failed when connected to it. Trimmed wire, re applied snaplok and connected to dock - all okand the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
NuisanceFactor said:
Frimley111R said:
It works in the garage on a dummy loop set up
and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
Had a similar issue with mine, the problem was with one of the snaplok connectors, all appeared ok when off the dock, but failed when connected to it. Trimmed wire, re applied snaplok and connected to dock - all okand the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
dhutch said:
Frimley111R said:
It works in the garage on a dummy loop set up
and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
As in, the base works wiith a new wire.and the gadget that checks for a broken wire shows that it is all fine.
AND the tester says the old/garden wire is ok? What tester?
What happens if you split the existing wire and just part of it with the base.
You can use the 'home' wire and one half, or the other half, to create a half size boundary.
Hmmm might try that suggestion on replacing just a section of it....
Bah. A few more months and I would have made it to five years without a single issue from my McCulloch Rob, but when I tried to use it at the weekend he'd seemingly gone on strike and I found the LED on the charging station flashing red. McCulloch told me that basically means it's dead.
I always put the mower itself away for the worst of the weather but the base station has always been left out. I've looked out of the window a few times during the relentless, stormy and torrential rain we've had over the last few months and thought it's probably not sensible to leave it to the elements but never quite got round to moving it, so I guess I'm paying the price for that.
Trying to source a replacement charging tower now, which isn't proving as straightforward as I expected.
So my message to fellow robot mower owners: look after your base stations.
I always put the mower itself away for the worst of the weather but the base station has always been left out. I've looked out of the window a few times during the relentless, stormy and torrential rain we've had over the last few months and thought it's probably not sensible to leave it to the elements but never quite got round to moving it, so I guess I'm paying the price for that.
Trying to source a replacement charging tower now, which isn't proving as straightforward as I expected.
So my message to fellow robot mower owners: look after your base stations.
Just a quick update on the above. After checking the cable and the mower and the base I realised that the quickest option was just to lay a new perimeter cable! I'd spent so long trying to locate the fix that 40 mins relaying the cable was just easier. Nearly done (but ran out of cable).
Well my 1200R has reached it's 5th season, which going by previous posts in this thread, seems to be when the troubles start.
Took it out of hibernation at the end of January and it worked fine, 1 hour cut/1 hour charge. It had a temporary hiatus in early February due to the snow. When I tried it again this weekend it would only cut for around 15 mins then charge for a similar time then head back out, still doing the same today even though the battery charge displays 100%.
Battery voltage seems fine but temperature high although it has been through almost 3000 charging cycles.
Any ideas before I bite the bullet and buy a new battery?
Took it out of hibernation at the end of January and it worked fine, 1 hour cut/1 hour charge. It had a temporary hiatus in early February due to the snow. When I tried it again this weekend it would only cut for around 15 mins then charge for a similar time then head back out, still doing the same today even though the battery charge displays 100%.
Battery voltage seems fine but temperature high although it has been through almost 3000 charging cycles.
Any ideas before I bite the bullet and buy a new battery?
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