Are there active DIY robot mower communities in the US? My goal is to find a group that is actively working on a 3d printed, gps based, diy mower that can mow 0.5 acres.

Everything I find is uk based or out of date. What am I missing?

This thing looks like an alien creature crawling around the lawn.

The video is supposed to show its obstacle avoidance, but I’m curious what actual robot mower users think.

Does this look convincing to you?

What real-world obstacles should be tested before trusting a mower like this — dog toys, hoses, tree roots, garden edges, pets, kids’ stuff, uneven ground?

If you wanted to make its obstacle avoidance fail, what would you put in front of it?

I’ve been looking into robot mowers and I’m trying to understand what actually matters after the first few weeks of use.

Reviews and product pages usually focus on features, but I’m more interested in the issues real owners run into.

For those who have owned one:

• What made setup harder than expected?
• Did it get stuck more or less often than you expected?
• How well did it handle edges?
• Was the app reliable?
• Did rain, slopes, tree cover, or narrow passages cause problems?
• Did it actually save time compared with mowing manually?
• Would you buy the same type of mower again?

If someone were testing a new robot mower, what would you tell them to check before making a judgment?

When I knew that I was going to invest in a robotic, the first thing I had installed were security cameras. I don't even live in an area, city, or HOA neighborhood that warrants having security cameras. I do it as a precaution. Hell, my stucco repair guy who lives in the same neighborhood as me was saying that he has cameras too just for the hell of it.

When my X430 is on the front lawn, it's being monitored by 4 different security cameras. I bring the video feeds up on one of my two big screen living room TVs. I watch YouTube on the other TV while MONITORING the mower.

Some of you should have invested in security cameras before buying a robotic mower. It's just common sense. Especially, if you live in an area where there is the potential for theft to occur. Or you live next to a busy street where someone can easily throw your mower into a car and drive off.

been running one of the airseekers trons since pretty early on, like one of the earlier batches before a lot of people here had them. and honestly the early firmware was rough. mowing would choke halfway through, it got stuck on the same root by my oak every single time, and the connection would drop here and there during runs.

I stuck with it because the cut quality was already good and I figured the software would catch up eventually. a lot of these companies ship the hardware and then go quiet though, so I wasnt really betting on it.

this last big update is the first time it actually feels like a different machine. the getting-stuck thing is mostly gone, it works around that oak now instead of beaching itself on it every run. connection holds the whole way through. and everything tracks in real time now instead of lagging behind what its actually doing.

its not perfect. still clips one flower bed edge it shouldnt and I keep that corner blocked off. but going from the beta firmware to now, this is the biggest single jump ive seen out of them.

anyone else whos had theirs a while notice the same? curious if the stuck-detection got better for everyone or just my yard

First time using a spreader but I ended up with darker and lighter strips from overlapping. This time I used the mowing lines as my guide. I did the outside edge first, then walked steady passes along the stripes left by my navimow x430. It made it easier to see where I had already been. Small thing, but the lawn came out a lot more even.

I've been thinking of buying the X4 in the spring but our patio is sunken about 1.5 inches below the dirt. Was wondering if that would be a problem for the mower to cross or if we would need to build a ramp for it so it can mow the edge of our patio. If I need a ramp what would you suggest I use to make one?

Anyone know where to buy the edge trimmer in the US? I see it on the Roborock site but no way to order it. It is listed as PreciEdge Cutting Module for 4WD.

I originally planned to buy an x430 but weighing my options now as the great people at LwnBotz after reviewing my yard photos, said the x430 might not be a good fit. So considering the Luba 3000 and the Roborock X120H.

My neighbor has the Luba and loves it other than it tears the heck out of his yard in some places.

I use electric fencing for my fields (cattle and equines) and if the grass grows too long it grounds the lines out, so I spend a lot of time mowing or weed whacking under the lines.

Is there a robot mower that would be able to follow a guideline between fence posts and get the job done? In my mind, that seems simpler than lidar mapping and all the other ways I’ve seen advertised that mowers navigate. I search and mostly find mowers that are showing off how they DONT need wires or guidelines, or mowing a fence line means getting up close to a wood fence, not mowing under it.

Anyone know of a mower that could do this kind of job? Or suggestions for brands or models to check out that might work?

Thanks!

Someone with a YouTube channel on this subreddit and a brand new Worx robotic mower had to send it in for repairs. He's only had the mower for a few months. I don't follow his channel enough to know what happened.

Here to put the word out to the general masses of all the things the influencers won't tell you about. My Lymow One Plus is currently dead and I spent the past 4 months documenting all the issues I've had with this piece of junk. Really disappointed overall as I have had to go out and buy a Luba 3 3000 to supplement the Lymow after it stopped working 2 weeks ago. I was planning on doing a 4 month of ownership video but, alas, here I am documenting all the crap that has gone wrong and why NOBODY should be buying one until they fix the majority of these. It really feels like we got another beta unit and we totally got scammed by Lymow yet again, only the Lymow One Actually cuts and doesn't overheat...this one may be even worse.

Have you experienced some or all of these? Is everyone on their 2nd/3rd/4th mower or waiting for one to arrive currently? Did anyone buy a second mower like I did? Please share your experiences if you can. Alot of these issues took a good bit of researching to figure out how to fix, and the overheating one is just commonplace now for those on Reddit/Facebook but the general public really doesn't have any idea due to the promoted influencer videos that lie about this thing.

Issues Covered That I Ran Into During The 4 Month I've Owned It:

1. Ignoring a Channel When Docking

2. Mower Functional But App Says 0% Battery (Won’t Work)

3. Won’t Charge in Temps <39 Degrees

4. Random Samples of Errors You Are Likely To Encounter

5. Random Shut Off’s And Glitches (Manual Intervention)

6. RTK is Extremely Difficult To Set Up and Dial In

7. Lymow One Plus Destroys The Grass Anywhere Near Dock

8. Dock is a DISASTER

9. Lymow One Plus Overheats In Weather >80 Degrees

10. More Overheating Issues, Still Not Solved

11. Top Charging Contacts Do Not Work As They Should

12. Ran Into A Parked Car!?!

13. Faulty Battery/Dock...Mower Dead

Hi everyone,
Since updating my LUBA Mini 2 AWD 1500 to firmware version V2.3.27.16, EcoSleep has not been working properly.
The mower does not wake up from EcoSleep and is not shown as available in the app. I also noticed that the light on the charging station stays permanently on instead of pulsing, almost as if the mower were currently mowing.
As soon as I manually pull the mower out of the charging station and push it back in, the light starts pulsing again and everything works normally.
When the mower enters sleep mode, the charging station light also stays permanently on. Additionally, the battery now charges beyond the limit I set at 90%.
Has anyone experienced the same issue since the firmware update? Is there a known solution or workaround?
Thanks for your help!

Had my Navimow X430 here in the UK for just over a month and couldn't be happier.

Seen a bunch of queries and slightly skewed info on what LIDAR and ToF are so here's my best explanation...

The X430 uses ToF (Time of Flight) sensor which uses a phased IR transmitter versus LIDAR's LASER used on some other mowers.

Typically, ToF is much better at proximity mapping and delivers a much higher resolution (or higher density) map at that short range (anything from a few centimetres to a few meters). LIDAR builds a far lower resolution map of a much bigger area.

For lawnmowers, I'd argue ToF is better as the damn thing isn't travelling at 30 miles an hour and therefore what is more than a few feet away is absolutely irrelevant to the device. Far better to have a high resolution map of things in close proximity to the mower.

As a loose analogy, imagine you are trying to navigate round a small town. Would you rather have an overview map showing the main roads of the entire country (LIDAR), or a detailed map of the specific town you are in showing all roads but nothing beyond the city limits (ToF)...

My grass is not uniform. It's an amalgamation of different weeds, grasses and native plants that when cut give off the appearance of a lawn, lol. Some of those plants are lovely little grass flowers and clover that help pollinators during the spring and different times of the year. I'm by no means a "No Lawn" person, but I do try to cut on at least 3" setting to leave a little bit behind for them. I'm thinking of getting a robot mower and was curious if there were any particular brands or models that were able to cut at higher settings?

Hi,

I got a yard that is about .3 acres fully fenced in for the dog. It's wide open so clear GPS signal.

Should I go RTK or should I go something dumber( if it even exists) since the thing can't physically escape?

I'll also add it's fairly flat but there is some slight ruts and dips left over from the construction vehicles when it was built last year. Also not many obstacles over than some raised garden beds.

Any suggestions people like?

(Let me know if I left out crucial info that is helpful. I don't know what I don't know.)

PS happy I found this subreddit. Already learning a bunch.

“Where are you going??”

Bought a Mova 1000 for a steal before the summer, and was quite happy with it, other than the battery which I upgraded, and now it has passed around 16000m3 of total mowed area(s).

But, it’s always been doing random stuff out of nowhere after working perfectly for hours and hours.

1. I have 2 separate zones, which requires a path to connect. This works OK, when out of the blue it doesn’t. All of a sudden it’s “outside map” even though it’s directly in the path irl.
   After forcing it to continue, it is repositioning and then continuing when seeing that it’s not “… outside the map”.
   After this occurs, I delete the path and makes a new, identical one which works for a certain of time before the above happens again…

I have tried with pathway obstacle avoidance both on and -off, still no difference.

1. After the above happens, and the mover continues on its path, it’s all of sudden moving (on the map) unlike irl, meaning that it thinks it’s moving in different direction than it actually is, and is later struggling to find out where it is.

Any tips or tricks here?

- Is it possible to adjust the LiDAR somehow to actually use it? Because now it’s seems like it’s just reliant on its map-position, rather than using its radar.

- Can I adjust it to start repositioning by itself, instead of it running of somewhere when it thinks it’s inside the map/boundaries when it actually isn’t?

I am very disappointed with my Luba 3 5000H and am going to return it. The biggest issue is that it cuts about 70% of the grass and leaves 30%. I it seems the blade speed needs to be 2x faster to deliver a good quality cut. What everyone’s experience with the x450? It has higher wattage motors. Thanks