Starring robot mower: Zucchetti Ambrogio L200 Evolution, just starting its third year of patrolling our garden
and camera: Drift HD170 Stealth, the latest toy on the block
They just had to be tried together, obviously!
The only real problem was with the cheap rubber suction mount from ebay that held on well but swivelled during use, hence a couple of pauses to try to jam with Blu Tack.
The camera battery lasted 2 hours 24 minutes. The mower battery lasted much longer despite not having been charged for 4 months, but then it’s much bigger!
For those interested in the mower, basically it navigates a random route around the lawn, but will execute a spiral if it detects longer grass (ie all grass on this occasion). It mulches, so cuts the grass very finely while criss-crossing the lawn, leaving the cuttings to rot down as natural fertiliser. There’s a wire laid around the perimeter of the lawn, carrying a weak electric current, which is how it knows not to leap, lemming-like, onto the patio (most of the time). When it detects that it is finding no more grass to cut it follows the wire clockwise until it parks itself in its garage under the decking, where it re-charges and waits for its next programmed cut. This time, with camera on its roof, it was not going to fit in its garage! If you watch carefully towards the end you will see a heavy cobbler’s last positioned at the entrance of its garage, so it would bounce off and prevent destruction of the camera!
The lawn will look much better after a few more cuts, and with the blade lowered, so maybe I will post a follow-up video.
Background music found via achive.org :
Johann Strauss: The Blue Danube – Waltz.
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Georg Szell, conductor.
HMV 78rpm disc C.2686 (32-4795, 4796).
Recorded June 23, 1934.
Digital transfer by F. Reeder
Video compiled using Windows Live Movie Maker and dedicated to my mum & dad whom I’m sure would have loved it. Yes, my strange sense of humour is inherited :o)
, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_9y1VrH5bbU/hqdefault.jpg
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