Full local/open source lawnmower?
Full local/open source lawnmower?
Anyone have any current recommendations for an open source (or one that works without internet) robot lawnmower?
I've got 1,300m3 of grass around my house and it's been a pain to cut with a push mower.
So far I've only seen:
My issue with the openmower one is that I don't know how to solder and I'm too afraid I'll break some very expensive components, so it would be nice if I could buy something mostly pre-built.
As for repalmaker, I worry not having GPS won't work since my garden is quite large and a robot bouncing around randomly would probably never finish, I also have a separate front and back (there's a path between them) and I'd like the robot to finish one area then, go to the other area by itself.
Anyone seen any other options available?
Some more projects here: https://hackaday.com/blog/?s=lawnmower
Maybe skip the first one (running DooM on your lawnmower), I don't think that will help.
Speak for yourself. I need my lawn mower angry enough to cut down trees.
Torn. This is clearly a cool idea, and it would save a lot of work (which I would immediately offset with all the work putting it together) But then it will be that much easier to keep a traditional lawn going, which I'd love to get away from over the long term.
That's a great point I didn't even think about. It would be a lot of work up front but it would be much cheaper and less maintenance for me to dig up the grass and plant native plants like clover.
Of course don't let me dissuade you. My wife would much prefer a robo mower with "normal" lawn over a no-lawn solution
The biggest hurdle I've ran into is that GPS resolution just isn't accurate enough. If you want something that can follow a planned route without having to rely on a bunch of obstacle avoidance (which is difficult enough in itself) then you'll have to set up some sort of local RTK in conjunction with the GPS.
Currently I'm just setting my mower up like a FPV drone that I can drive around remotely from the comfort of air conditioning. Hoping someone comes out with a good automated solution.
You can root the Gardena gateway and control their mowers locally with this: https://github.com/andrexp/gardena-local-control
I don't think they have mowers with GPS though. Also, some of their mowers don't use the gateway.
Ardumower is the one I've always intended to roll with. Eventually lol. The original nav method is a buried perimeter wire, but they do offer a GPS-RTK kit.
You want an open source, complete system? If you are not willing to do it yourself, the only chance I see is paying someone to do it for you.
Just because the software is open source doesn't means a product running it is going to be free. Heck, even some FOSS projects have financial contributors who get perks like software support, access to pre-released software, and input into feature development.
So are there open source lawn mowers then?