Robot mowers

[jmsgld]

My Mcculloch Rob r100 ( same as flymo 1200r) is not wanting to wake up from winter slumber.

Actually put it in the garage for winter this year but forgot to turn it off, battery was reading 14.4V and wouldn't charge. I connected the battery directly to the charging station for 10s to try and put a surface charge on it to allow the charger to recognise it... That didn't work so bought a new battery, now unit not recognising charging station in expert mode. Think I may have fried the charging station, only reading 2V...

Anyone have a charging station they want to sell me posted to Dorset?
I have changed so many parts on the thing I don't really want to chuck much more money at it, it has done 4.5k hours cutting time, may just be time to cut losses and buy something newer...

[kentlad]

spikeyhead said:

I've got the landroid 700 plus for a similar lawn but slightly bigger.

It can get stuck if it,s front wheel drops in a hole, so if you your bumpiness includes holes then it may struggle

Interesting…had a chap out today who basically told me not to buy one (he was quoting to do a years worth of treatments, weed control, fertilise, scarify & holotine)…apparently our soil is quite acidic & needs a ph balance mode desperately than more nitrogen going in…anyone else heard of that before?

[Frimley111R]

jmsgld said:

My Mcculloch Rob r100 ( same as flymo 1200r) is not wanting to wake up from winter slumber.

Actually put it in the garage for winter this year but forgot to turn it off, battery was reading 14.4V and wouldn't charge. I connected the battery directly to the charging station for 10s to try and put a surface charge on it to allow the charger to recognise it... That didn't work so bought a new battery, now unit not recognising charging station in expert mode. Think I may have fried the charging station, only reading 2V...

Anyone have a charging station they want to sell me posted to Dorset?
I have changed so many parts on the thing I don't really want to chuck much more money at it, it has done 4.5k hours cutting time, may just be time to cut losses and buy something newer...

I do. I'm having issues too and tried a new (used) charging station. They are on eBay for a lot of money but mine was something like £50.

[Ean218]

jmsgld said:

My Mcculloch Rob r100 ( same as flymo 1200r) is not wanting to wake up from winter slumber.

Anyone have a charging station they want to sell me posted to Dorset?
I have changed so many parts on the thing I don't really want to chuck much more money at it, it has done 4.5k hours cutting time, may just be time to cut losses and buy something newer...

You don't need the whole charging station, just this PCB:
https://www.lsengineers.co.uk/printed-circuit-assy...

[jmsgld]

Would you be willing to post it for £50 + postage? thanks

Thanks for the link to the PCB, might see if I can find it anywhere else cheaper.

[jmsgld]

Or if you need an alternative part for swap I bought an almost unused bare mower unit for spares a couple of years ago.

[Frimley111R]

jmsgld said:

Would you be willing to post it for £50 + postage? thanks

Yep, sent you a PM

[Redmax]

I'd appreciate some installation advice please.

My lawn is square, and I'd like the charging station to be on a porcelain-tiled area outside of the lawn area, i.e. off to one side. The porcelain will be the same height as the lawn so I'd don't see any problems with the mower moving from the lawn to the porcelain and vice versa,

I'm planning on laying the guide and boundary wires directly underneath the porcelain (they haven't been laid yet) so they're hidden.

Obviously the guide wire will come straight out from the charging station, with the boundary wires to the left and right of that. Once the boundary wires reach the lawn, one will go one way, the other will go the other and they'll join up somewhere to create the boundary.

My question is - is there are defined distance the boundary wires need to be from each other (and also the guide wire which will be between them) on that journey under the porcelain and into the lawn?

It's a Flymo mower, if that makes a difference.

Many thanks.

[Semmelweiss]

Lay the wires in conduit under the tiles, so that if you need to pull new ones you can. Lay at least an extra pair of unused conduit for future.

If your grout lines are wide enough lay the conduit under the grout.

Space between wires will be in the instruction manual.

[dirtbiker]

We have the boundary wires running in the same trench (i.e., directly next to each other) in our setup. I think you'd get away with running all three wires in one conduit although as suggested it's worth putting in a spare when you have the chance!

[Redmax]

Thanks guys. Conduit is a particularly good idea that I hadn't thought of!

[durbster]

I'm still waiting on a new charging station so I'll have to dig out the petrol mower this weekend (if it'll stop bloody raining for five minutes). This is doing terrible damage to my robot-mower-smugness rating.

[jmsgld]

Frimley111R said:

Yep, sent you a PM

Many thanks, arrived today. Unfortunately mine is still not playing ball. The unit is not recognising the charging station (expert mode), and although it says "charging" it doesn't actually charge the battery.

I haven't checked yet but I suspect that the problem either lies with the transformer or with the wire between the transformer and base station. I suspect that your issue may be the same.

Mine also has "no loop" problem but I have checked the impedence of the loop wire and it is <2 Ohms (wire is approx 250-300m).

I am going to check the cable for issues next and then try and test the transformer...

[RossP]

I have retired my 1200R.

Replaced it with a Bosch Indego S500+ and so far very pleased! Nice to have app control and a mower that mows the whole lawn in an organised manner rather than random mowing.

Edited by RossP on Tuesday 19th March 12:51

[Moderator edit: no advertsing

[Frimley111R]

jmsgld said:

Frimley111R said:

Yep, sent you a PM

Many thanks, arrived today. Unfortunately mine is still not playing ball. The unit is not recognising the charging station (expert mode), and although it says "charging" it doesn't actually charge the battery.

I haven't checked yet but I suspect that the problem either lies with the transformer or with the wire between the transformer and base station. I suspect that your issue may be the same.

Mine also has "no loop" problem but I have checked the impedence of the loop wire and it is <2 Ohms (wire is approx 250-300m).

I am going to check the cable for issues next and then try and test the transformer...

That's frustrating, it does sound like we have similar problems.

Mine seemed to charge but then just wouldn't move. Then it did once but seemed to do some very jerky movements and then expired. I charged it again but it just sits there and won't do anything. I've spent absolutely hours and hours trying to fix it, swapping bases and even relaying the whole perimeter wire, but all to no avail. I also tried a new battery.

In the end I've given up and am ordering the Mammotion one which can do the front lawn too and does not need a guide wire (as the squirrels have chewed through mine twice).

Disappointing and I am sure I'll keep fiddling with it and getting nowhere while I wait for the new one.

[Somebody]

Frimley111R said:

In the end I've given up and am ordering the Mammotion one which can do the front lawn too and does not need a guide wire (as the squirrels have chewed through mine twice).

Luba or Yuka?

[Frimley111R]

Somebody said:

Frimley111R said:

In the end I've given up and am ordering the Mammotion one which can do the front lawn too and does not need a guide wire (as the squirrels have chewed through mine twice).

Luba or Yuka?

Yuka, it's about £1000. The Luba was double that.

Have to wait until June but it can drive down the side of the house and cut the front lawn too plus it mows stripes in the lawn which is nice. And no perimeter cabling either.

Interestingly it also can pick up leaves, collect them and dump them in a specific spot for collection later.

Quite a technical step up.

[mikeiow]

Frimley111R said:

Yuka, it's about £1000. The Luba was double that.

Have to wait until June but it can drive down the side of the house and cut the front lawn too plus it mows stripes in the lawn which is nice. And no perimeter cabling either.

Interestingly it also can pick up leaves, collect them and dump them in a specific spot for collection later.

Quite a technical step up.

The Yuka certainly does look like it offers the future of robotic mowing there with those features!
Be interesting to see how well it delivered on the promises.

[Frimley111R]

mikeiow said:

Frimley111R said:

Yuka, it's about £1000. The Luba was double that.

Have to wait until June but it can drive down the side of the house and cut the front lawn too plus it mows stripes in the lawn which is nice. And no perimeter cabling either.

Interestingly it also can pick up leaves, collect them and dump them in a specific spot for collection later.

Quite a technical step up.

The Yuka certainly does look like it offers the future of robotic mowing there with those features!
Be interesting to see how well it delivered on the promises.

Indeed, the more complex they are the more there is to go wrong in theory! I felt a bit more reassured knowing that they already make so high end robomowers already and so i assume a lot of the tech is already proven in those ones.

[dave_Sw1]

Frimley111R said:

Yuka, it's about £1000. The Luba was double that.

Have to wait until June but it can drive down the side of the house and cut the front lawn too plus it mows stripes in the lawn which is nice. And no perimeter cabling either.

Interestingly it also can pick up leaves, collect them and dump them in a specific spot for collection later.

Quite a technical step up.

Take June with a pinch of salt, i'm waiting on a luba 2 that was 2nd week of March delivery, thats now "Maybe end of April" i was counting on it to not have to go buy a manual mower to tide me over until it arrives but the grass is already out of control