Providing some feedback on the mower project. I discuss a few of the things I discovered I liked and disliked about this design. I go over some of the design choices, and component choices and review some plans for going forward.
If you are interested in this same project, you can find it at the original creators site.
http://www.reprap-windturbine.com/index.php?id=20&L=1
Robot Mower Replacement Blades
https://amzn.to/2QlKVK0
High Current Motor Controller
https://amzn.to/2WmlvA4
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love to see a tutorial on the current checking to see if it has hit an obstacle. what component does it for the arduino to see the current?
Check this out – https://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-10000rpm-775-DC-Electric-Spindle-Brush-Lawn-Mower-Motor-With-2-Ball-Bearing/293657602051?hash=item445f5b6803:g:fi0AAOSw6vtfF~pY
I too made this project and ran into many of the same issues you did. I redesigned, after a lot of testing, most of this robot and now have a helper to cut my backyard. I will list the things I changed from the original plans. You are right about the cutter motor circuit, its junk. that high amp motor controller you showed is the same one i went with and its been great. I went with one 5200 lipo battery and it cuts for 3 hours. I went with an arduino nano and redesigned the electronics housing so you don't needs perf boards. I added a little gyro to detect if it tipped over then it will turn off motors. I never used the original boundary wire sensor as i know its not good enough. i went with a kit from robot shop for $10 . That cutting disk is junk and the way it connects to the motor doesn't last. I cut off the sides of the disk and made into a rectangle shape and got a metal motor coupler. I added a ultra sonic senor and two whisker sensors which are just a piece of plastic/rubber stuff connected to a limit switch these along with my boundary kit stop it when it hits my fence or bushes. i didn't want to bury a wire all the way around my property. The code that came with it is armature at best so i rewrote 90% of it. The biggest change i made was to totally dump the useless wheels. I found out in the first minute of testing that the front little wheel gets stuck in the root system of my grass. we have st. agustine grass here in south florida and this setup will NOT work. So i went with tank tracks and i have to admit it works great and looks really cool too. the tank setup will go over anything and the neighborhood kids love it. my robot has been cutting my backyard every weekend for about a year. let me know if you want some pics. i might be able to upload some video as well. reading other comments about adding weight to balance it is a bad idea. this is a light weight design so balancing with in my case, four cog wheels and the tank tracks solves the issue. also this is not a design made for tall grass. if its tall you needs to mow with a regular lawn mower first then use this robot to maintain. I have been using the same utility blades for months so no needs to use any other design.
Cool project. I also saw nylon blades on Amazon for weed wackers. After that I am thinking it’s possible to print blades.
Rocks in the front? Why not move the batteries to the front? Wheely screams lack of balance in my mind. Do like the idea of driving it backwards, good call there
Thankyou for your hard work here, great video. Subbed
Thanks for your video.
I just finished mine Robot Mower from reprap-wind turbine. And like you I would like to improve it. For now I just design a PCB for user an arduino nano because in the future I would like use Arduino Nano 33 BLE and develop an android app. Perhaps we can work togewer? Do you have an email adress ?
Excellent ideas. The drive wheels should lead on a three-wheeled robot for the reasons you give. Some people have even put a little foot on the back of that mower to prevent wheelies, but it gets stuck in the grass when the mower backs up.
Since you are a coder, you could just reverse the drive motors in code and mow the right direction. In the long run you will need to move the inductors to the other end of the robot.
But in the design you have, you could move the electronics or batteries forward to prevent most of the wheelie issues.
Since the mower motor may be either on or off I don't know the design, you could turn it on and off with a relay and solve the melting problem. However, every robot mower should start with a fully mowed yard. They are not made for tall grass especially this enimic design. And since they can run every day or two, they maintain the original height.
Thank you for sharing!
Love the update!
Is that cutting motor going to have enough Emmmmph ? Thinking it looks on the smallish size ? Counting on RPM ? Add second wheels with say 1 inch gap between them ?
Awesome. Thanks for the video. I have not finished my I got stuck last summer and the project fell down under the table . Looking for more updates.