Discussion
My blue light turned out to be a broken wire. It looks like it was dug up by a fox but subsequently covered over when they dug a second hole near it. I tried using a radio to find the break but couldn't get it to work so ended up making myself a test wire and working my way around the circuit with a multimeter until I found the break. Took a couple of hours but at least it's up and running now.
My Flymo Easilife had an issue yesterday when I switched the base station on, the green light didn't come on so I spent ages checking each connection with a multimeter. Eventually I just started the mower and everything worked as expected, so it must just be the green LED that failed?
S'funny as I ran it a few weeks ago and it was fine.
S'funny as I ran it a few weeks ago and it was fine.
So I changed the battery on my Flymo 1200R.
It is now a 4 year old unit. If you select "Menu" on the 1200R, and then press and hold number 7 and 9 for a couple seconds, it enters "Expert Mode". This adds more information in the menus. Here are my stats:
Flip the mower over, and there are 4 torx screws to remove the battery cover
Having removed the battery (simply pulls out), it became immediately clear that the existing battery is slightly different to the replica I bought from internet. Whilst the physical batteries look the same, the original pack also has a circuit board attached. This presumably performs some battery management facility. Original on the right, new replacement on the left.
However, looking on the genuine Flymo parts website, the original replacement doesnt have the circuit board attached either:
It would be a relatively simple soldering exercise to remove this circuit board and resolder to the new battery, as can be seen in the photo below, but I decided not to bother.
Having fit the new battery, I looked on the Expert Mode Menu again, and I notice that the 'Capacity' of the battery had not changed. It still stated 1227mAh, which happened to be exactly the same as the capacity of the old battery in the photo above. Not sure what is happening here, as the original battery was a 2100mAh capacity, and my new battery was 2500mAh. Similarly, having charged it for 24hrs, the charge level was only showing 1200mAh. I'm not sure how accurate these figures are.
Anyway, the proof will be in the pudding, and the mower is out there and working. So I'll know if it is not performing well. But for now, its a good day.
Hope that helps others.
It is now a 4 year old unit. If you select "Menu" on the 1200R, and then press and hold number 7 and 9 for a couple seconds, it enters "Expert Mode". This adds more information in the menus. Here are my stats:
Flip the mower over, and there are 4 torx screws to remove the battery cover
Having removed the battery (simply pulls out), it became immediately clear that the existing battery is slightly different to the replica I bought from internet. Whilst the physical batteries look the same, the original pack also has a circuit board attached. This presumably performs some battery management facility. Original on the right, new replacement on the left.
However, looking on the genuine Flymo parts website, the original replacement doesnt have the circuit board attached either:
It would be a relatively simple soldering exercise to remove this circuit board and resolder to the new battery, as can be seen in the photo below, but I decided not to bother.
Having fit the new battery, I looked on the Expert Mode Menu again, and I notice that the 'Capacity' of the battery had not changed. It still stated 1227mAh, which happened to be exactly the same as the capacity of the old battery in the photo above. Not sure what is happening here, as the original battery was a 2100mAh capacity, and my new battery was 2500mAh. Similarly, having charged it for 24hrs, the charge level was only showing 1200mAh. I'm not sure how accurate these figures are.
Anyway, the proof will be in the pudding, and the mower is out there and working. So I'll know if it is not performing well. But for now, its a good day.
Hope that helps others.
So it turned out the installation of an Easilife 350 at my Dad's didn't immediately go too well!
Found the perfect place to site the base, in a border just off the edge of the lawn. I'd bought a longer low voltage cable and was able to route that (with a bit of careful SDS chiselling) across a paved area from outside socket to base location. All good.
Laid out the boundary and guide wires, and was so cocky after the ease of doing ours that I went ahead and put the wires an inch or two into the ground with an edging tool and poking device. Solid green light on the base. All good.
Let the mower ("Dr. Mow") do the guide calibration. He came out of his base, turned right, sat there for a while then immediately attempted to return to his base which took several attempts before giving up with the message "guide calibration failed". Gave up and went to the pub.
That evening, came across an earlier post on this very thread in which a PHer with the same mower and a base in a similar location explained that before letting the mower do his guide calibration, he's increased the "starting point" distance.
So the next morning I tried that and (along with digging up the wires to the right to tweak the distances to edges, and setting "avoid mower house collision" to "on") he did his guide calibration successfully. He's now been out mowing according to schedule every day, without issue - and Dad is very pleased with him, to the extent it's given him the confidence to get out and enjoy his garden a bit more. Success!
Back home, our own Easilife 350 (purchased at knock-down price as an open-box from Amazon Warehouse) continues to also work perfectly. Early days, but good so far - and the recent posts of these things still going after 3 or 4 years does inspire confidence. Next stage is wiring a "second area" for a separate bit of lawn.
Found the perfect place to site the base, in a border just off the edge of the lawn. I'd bought a longer low voltage cable and was able to route that (with a bit of careful SDS chiselling) across a paved area from outside socket to base location. All good.
Laid out the boundary and guide wires, and was so cocky after the ease of doing ours that I went ahead and put the wires an inch or two into the ground with an edging tool and poking device. Solid green light on the base. All good.
Let the mower ("Dr. Mow") do the guide calibration. He came out of his base, turned right, sat there for a while then immediately attempted to return to his base which took several attempts before giving up with the message "guide calibration failed". Gave up and went to the pub.
That evening, came across an earlier post on this very thread in which a PHer with the same mower and a base in a similar location explained that before letting the mower do his guide calibration, he's increased the "starting point" distance.
So the next morning I tried that and (along with digging up the wires to the right to tweak the distances to edges, and setting "avoid mower house collision" to "on") he did his guide calibration successfully. He's now been out mowing according to schedule every day, without issue - and Dad is very pleased with him, to the extent it's given him the confidence to get out and enjoy his garden a bit more. Success!
Back home, our own Easilife 350 (purchased at knock-down price as an open-box from Amazon Warehouse) continues to also work perfectly. Early days, but good so far - and the recent posts of these things still going after 3 or 4 years does inspire confidence. Next stage is wiring a "second area" for a separate bit of lawn.
alock said:
All instructions I've seen seem to hint at 1m+ of available space either side, and all videos on YouTube place the docking station on the grass, which seems bizarre to me 
The docking station doesn't have to be on the grass but you do need space either side as the mower runs out and back at random offsets to the central guide wire to avoid continual wear in the same place.Ean218 said:
alock said:
All instructions I've seen seem to hint at 1m+ of available space either side, and all videos on YouTube place the docking station on the grass, which seems bizarre to me
The docking station doesn't have to be on the grass but you do need space either side as the mower runs out and back at random offsets to the central guide wire to avoid continual wear in the same place.The trick is to set the right starting point on the mower's settings. Then the mower will come forward from his hidey-place that set distance onto the lawn, then he'll start moving away from the guide and mow the grass.
You also need to run the boundary wires down either side of the docking station at the minimum distance of 30cm from the guide wire, and to be absolutely sure you can also set the "mower house" on to stop him attempting to get either side of the docking station.
Hope that helps; wisdom I picked up from here - and it does seem to work just fine having the base station well outside of the lawn area.
gregch said:
I agree putting the docking station on the lawn itself (as in Flymo's pictures and videos) does seem bizarre to me too. And a quick look at google tells you there's a lot of people that have put the docking station outside the lawn area. It does need clear space to the side of the guide wire, but only once it reaches its "starting point".
The trick is to set the right starting point on the mower's settings. Then the mower will come forward from his hidey-place that set distance onto the lawn, then he'll start moving away from the guide and mow the grass.
You also need to run the boundary wires down either side of the docking station at the minimum distance of 30cm from the guide wire, and to be absolutely sure you can also set the "mower house" on to stop him attempting to get either side of the docking station.
Hope that helps; wisdom I picked up from here - and it does seem to work just fine having the base station well outside of the lawn area.
I dug mine into a bit of an earth bank down one side of the garden and built a little shed for it. I was going to cover with dirt but then realised that I would have to dig it out every time I needed to get to the back of the docking stationThe trick is to set the right starting point on the mower's settings. Then the mower will come forward from his hidey-place that set distance onto the lawn, then he'll start moving away from the guide and mow the grass.
You also need to run the boundary wires down either side of the docking station at the minimum distance of 30cm from the guide wire, and to be absolutely sure you can also set the "mower house" on to stop him attempting to get either side of the docking station.
Hope that helps; wisdom I picked up from here - and it does seem to work just fine having the base station well outside of the lawn area.
My Flymo 1200R has been soldiering on like a little trooper. All was well until my wife bought a trampoline and set it up in the middle of the garden. Now I've got to redo the boundary wire to stop the poor little mower from grinding its blades on the trampoline legs at 3 o'clock in the morning!
ETA - I'm not alone with this problem, and some good potential solutions here:
https://robolever.com/robotic-mowers-and-trampolin...
ETA - I'm not alone with this problem, and some good potential solutions here:
https://robolever.com/robotic-mowers-and-trampolin...
Edited by SlimRick on Friday 25th March 11:19
Today is George's first outing this year. Battery had held about 80% charge over the winter (I removed it & kept it in the house), so with a couple of hours on the charger and new blades he's out and about charging round like a trooper. I think he's got a bit of a spring in his step as well.
SlimRick said:
My Flymo 1200R has been soldiering on like a little trooper. All was well until my wife bought a trampoline and set it up in the middle of the garden. Now I've got to redo the boundary wire to stop the poor little mower from grinding its blades on the trampoline legs at 3 o'clock in the morning!
Do you really have it running in the night? Mine only does 9-5.I build simple wooden blocks that sit over my tramp legs. Works just fine. Certainly no point faffing with the boundary wire!
Every year I think about getting a robot mower. And as I get older, the lawns, while occupying the same pace, seem to get larger. But it seems to me that this whole malarkey of burying a wire seems rather Heath Robinson - particularly as I have two separate areas with numerous trees - and that something more sophisticated, such as accurate enough satnav at an affordable price, must be just round the corner.
Am I in for a long wait ?
Am I in for a long wait ?
Lily the Pink said:
Every year I think about getting a robot mower. And as I get older, the lawns, while occupying the same pace, seem to get larger. But it seems to me that this whole malarkey of burying a wire seems rather Heath Robinson - particularly as I have two separate areas with numerous trees - and that something more sophisticated, such as accurate enough satnav at an affordable price, must be just round the corner.
Am I in for a long wait ?
You don’t bury it, you just peg it down with clips and a rubber mallet. It’s noticeable for a month or so.Am I in for a long wait ?
We just got the mower from hibernation for second season and wires now invisible.
Do all the robotic mowers rely on a wire system?
Apologies for being a late joiner to the thread and if it’s been covered before. Background, is I have a smallish lawn, and a trusty Honda Izy, which will be coming to the end of its life soonish. So I want to go battery. I was holding out for the upcoming Milwaukee mower( already have Milwaukee kit and batteries) but they keep putting it back, and allegedly price will be north of £1k. So, I’m also considering a robotic mower. My garden has walls on 3 sides, and two sections where the grass is edged by concrete edging strips instead of wall. There are no obstructions on the lawn whatsoever. Are there any systems that will recognise this boundary without a guide wire, or by mapping or other sensors to stop it mounting the edge strip and heading off into the yonder?
Thanks for your input.
Apologies for being a late joiner to the thread and if it’s been covered before. Background, is I have a smallish lawn, and a trusty Honda Izy, which will be coming to the end of its life soonish. So I want to go battery. I was holding out for the upcoming Milwaukee mower( already have Milwaukee kit and batteries) but they keep putting it back, and allegedly price will be north of £1k. So, I’m also considering a robotic mower. My garden has walls on 3 sides, and two sections where the grass is edged by concrete edging strips instead of wall. There are no obstructions on the lawn whatsoever. Are there any systems that will recognise this boundary without a guide wire, or by mapping or other sensors to stop it mounting the edge strip and heading off into the yonder?
Thanks for your input.
Edited by normalbloke on Saturday 26th March 15:55
I've got a Worx Landroid M500 that I'm about to install but I'm struggling to work out where to put the charging station.
My favourite location is in a narrow dead end strip between the veggie patch and some raised decking and I'm just wondering if it will be able to go up one side, turn around and come back down the other side to the dock. The strip is 80cm wide. I can't find any reference to how much space these take to turn around.
Anyone know if this is doable?
I could potentially make the strip a bit wider but I'm not entirely sure that would help as it would still need to turn fully round at the end of its run.
My favourite location is in a narrow dead end strip between the veggie patch and some raised decking and I'm just wondering if it will be able to go up one side, turn around and come back down the other side to the dock. The strip is 80cm wide. I can't find any reference to how much space these take to turn around.
Anyone know if this is doable?
I could potentially make the strip a bit wider but I'm not entirely sure that would help as it would still need to turn fully round at the end of its run.
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