It had to happen eventually. I have never been under any illusion that the Robomower would be, in fact, a a maintenance-free device. With all the rattling and shaking going on, something was bound to come loose. Just as I might have suspected, the first part to go was what I had always considered a . . . → Read More: Robomower part 12 – Things start breaking, and I’m famous!
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Something awful has happened to the Robomower! In an attempt to start getting my side yard under control for an upcoming patio project, the bot got high-centered on a dirt bump. The wheels were spinning frantically in a valiant attempt to un-stick themselves, but succeeded only in churning up a gigantic cloud of dust. Naturally, . . . → Read More: Robomower part 11 – On motors and their control… 
It has now all come together! One last trip to radio shack to get some connectors, heating up the soldering gun to splice together some 24 volt wires and some ground wires, applying some Velcro, a few more wood screws, and I’ve got a lawn mower! After the successful test of the mower motor controller, . . . → Read More: Robomower Part 10: It all comes together! This is the home stretch! The robot moves, it has a lawn mowing attachment hanging beneath it, and if I go out and actually hook the wires from the mower motors to the bot’s batteries, it will actually mow the lawn. Trouble is, since it’s an electric mower, I really want to be able to . . . → Read More: Robomower Part 9: Turning on the mower attachment. 
A couple of posts ago, I promised a reciprocating saw. Today I discovered that somewhere in that whole “Measure Twice, Cut Once” thing, I seem to have missed something: The mower deck was just a bit too long to fit within the length of the frame. The way I saw it, I had couple of . . . → Read More: Robomower Part 8 – Mowing something… 
Today turned out to be a good day. Despite daytime temperatures in the mid to high 90’s (roughly 20 degrees f above my personal cranky threshold), I made some significant progress. It sure seemed like most of what I did was just sitting in the hot sun, and all I got done was to install . . . → Read More: Robomower part 7 – It’s Alive! This is getting fun! Putting the frame together is, for me anyway, a very important part of any project. Up until this point, the Robomower has been a stack of angle iron, a box of electronic bits, a crate full of wheelchair parts, and a rather daunting pile of random-looking fasteners. Today that will all . . . → Read More: Robomower part 6 – Assembling the frame The weather was cooperating today, and I had some time to spend with the Robomower project, so I was able to make some progress. The first major step was to connect the Sabertooth 2×25, the BR6000, and one of the wheelchair motors to the wheelchair battery pack and see if I could make something move. . . . → Read More: Robomower Part 5 – Lawnmower teardown and first control test! Today was the day to tear down the Invacare Torque SP, and see what parts could be used in the construction of the Robomower! . . . → Read More: Robomower Part 4 – Wheelchair Teardown After some careful consideration and examination of the original Lawnbot design, I was able to make some decisions: First off, after pricing the components for the original design’s H-bridge board (including the supplies and equipment I would need to acquire in order to start etching my own PCB’s), I decided to go with an off-the-shelf . . . → Read More: Robomower part 3 – Controls |
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