RC Lawnmower Ideas

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:37 pm

In the GC IDE Interface thread, Electric Rain mentioned building an RC lawnmower.

Electric Rain wrote:We can't afford a riding mower, and that 2.5 acres is all grass... sooo... I'm thinking about building my own remote-controlled lawnmower. Seriously. If I ever have the money for THAT, I'm gonna seriously deck it out. Stereoscopic camera and all.

That has always been me dream, being able to sit inside and mow the lawn. I'm sure most of us have the same dream. So lets post ideas we've had for making that dream come true, so that maybe someone will have the money and time to make them a reality.

I was thinking of having a headless laptop with a CF card for memory (hard drive+vibrating lawnmower=bad), a webcam for video, get a motor controller thats controlled by the serial port, and a wifi connection to a computer inside my house using VNC to control the laptop on the mower. Add remote start and then I wouldn't even have to be home to mow the lawn, I'd just need an internet connection.
But then would it be best to have the lawn mower propelled by the gas engine with a servo to control the drive speed, or have an electric motor instead, so that reverse will be easier? Then theres steering, would probably be best if it was car-like instead of skid steer so that you don't rip up grass.

So now post your ideas for making an RC lawnmower and/or discuss the ideas of others.

Super Cameraman · Post by **Super Cameraman** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:46 pm

Throttle wouldn't be too hard, you just buy an RC car radio, a ESC (Electronic Speed Control), somehow connect the servo to the motor (If the mower already has one. Mine does) and use an RC car controller (Comes with the radio) to control the speed. You'd need a controller with a lot of buttons and levers to control both speed and controlling the blade part.

Steering... No idea.

SCM

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:58 pm

That would be AWESOME!

Some stuff tho.
-Most lawnmowers the front wheels don't turn.
-They do not propel themselves forward.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:10 pm

Super Cameraman wrote:Throttle wouldn't be too hard, you just buy an RC car radio, a ESC (Electronic Speed Control), somehow connect the servo to the motor (If the mower already has one. Mine does) and use an RC car controller (Comes with the radio) to control the speed. You'd need a controller with a lot of buttons and levers to control both speed and controlling the blade part.

Oh sorry, I wasn't clear on that, I meant the drive speed control (changed).
I think that the lever that engages the wheel drive system is hooked up to a clutch, so when I hold the lever down part way it only partially engages so it slips and the wheels turn slower. Only one servo would be needed for that, because the throttle is a constant. Then another servo for the kill switch lever. Using the current drive system would only allow for forward travel though, so if you have to go into corners, you might not be able to get out. So I think an electric motor would be best for that, with either a large lead acid battery or generator on the lawnmower's engine to power it. If a generator is used for the power, a battery would still be nice for driving with the engine off, like driving over gravel. Maybe replace the gas motor with an electric one for the blade and have it full electric. For the steering system, maybe that could come from a go-kart.
And it might be best to have the camera on the handle, or if thats removed, some other elevated spot. I'm assuming that none of use have much experience driving a lawnmower from a 1st person view, and the 3rd person view would show more without needing to turn the camera, to see how far away it is from a wall, for instance.

Does anyone know of a place to get cheap serial port controlled motor controllers?

@Dr. Killgood, most lawnmowers have a part time propulsion system for lazy people or hills. You have to pull a lever and then the wheels will spin, and they can be front or rear wheel drive, we have one of each (the rear wheel drive one we have is older and not used much, so it might be the base for my RC lawnmower, if I ever build it).

dman762000 · Post by **dman762000** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:31 pm

OK easy automatic lawnmower:

pushmower+ roomba+ invisible dog fence= no work yard mowing

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:06 pm

Not to brag but we have a riding lawn mower and now I will brag. It's a zero turn, 24hp, 61" deck Scag mower. I mowe two acres and use it for mowing jobs on the side.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:01 pm

cowsgoquack101 wrote:Not to brag but we have a riding lawn mower and now I will brag. It's a zero turn, 24hp, 61" deck Scag mower. I mowe two acres and use it for mowing jobs on the side.

But is it air conditioned like my house? Because with an RC mower, I could use it from the coolness of my house.

NiN^_^NiN · Post by **NiN^_^NiN** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:30 pm

Sounds more like ur lazy :p

Do what we use to do in the old days stick a pole in the ground get a rope long enough and let the mower move around and tangle the rope up on the pole so it mows in a circle to a spiral pattern.

Hell if you have a electric go kart u can hook it onto the back like a trailer and cut the grass like that.

gamemasterAS · Post by **gamemasterAS** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:45 pm

NiN^_^NiN wrote:Sounds more like ur lazy :p

Do what we use to do in the old days stick a pole in the ground get a rope long enough and let the mower move around and tangle the rope up on the pole so it mows in a circle to a spiral pattern.

Hell if you have a electric go kart u can hook it onto the back like a trailer and cut the grass like that.

They did that on the Red Green show.

This sounds so cool, I want a remote controlled lawn mower. Wouldn't it be hard to control though, or what if something went wrong and the lawn more just kept going and ran away.

Post by **bicostp** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:48 pm

Dr. Killgood wrote:Some stuff tho.
-Most lawnmowers the front wheels don't turn.
-They do not propel themselves forward.

Steering is easy. Replace the front wheels with big casters (shopping cart wheels), then mount a motor to each back wheel. Independently control each motor, letting them go forwards and backwards. (Make sure you have analog controls.) Run the wheels at different speeds to steer. Problems solved.

You could probably use a car battery and wheelchair motors.

If you want to get really fancy, mount a camera to the front (use an anti-vibration mount of some sort) and have it send the signal to your TV, and you'll have the most realistic "you have to mow a lawn" game ever!

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:45 pm

NiN^_^NiN wrote:Sounds more like ur lazy :p

Hell if you have a electric go kart u can hook it onto the back like a trailer and cut the grass like that.

I'm not lazy, I've been using a regular lawnmower since I started mowing the lawn back ~5 years ago when I was ~11.

And I was thinking of putting both lawnmowers next to each other and pulling them behind the 4 wheeler, but that would only work in a larger space. I can barely turn just the 4 wheeler around in the backyard, so with a ghetto lawnmower trailer I'd end up taking out a tree or something. So if I had an area big enough to use a riding mower I might try it.

I figure I could get everything (laptop, webcam, wifi card, motors, battery) but the speed controller for less than $200, maybe I'll find a dead wheelchair for the motors and speed controller.

And the reason to do this is that I can.

dman762000 · Post by **dman762000** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:24 am

again, automatic lawnmower, that way you don't even have to worry about paying any attention, just start her up and let her go,

Felino · Post by **Felino** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:28 am

I did this!

For electonics project anyhoo. Got a cheap rc car, blades on the bottom, stam transmitter to controll the lot, and lights!

Bit dangerour though, exacto knife blades on a motor, fun fun.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:04 am

Hey cool... I directly inspired someone to start a thread because of something I said.

I have lots of ideas. As far as cameras, I wanted something more than a webcam. I said stereoscopic because I would imagine it would give a much better viewing angle, and better depth perception. Something like this, maybe?

For steering... heh... I got a little crazy here. I haven't worked it all out yet, but I was thinking caterpillar tracks! Like a tank...

I would think this would be harder to build (Where would I even get the tracks? I've looked... I don't know...) but easier to steer, and it will make the ride much smoother (thus a much steadier video feed). There must be a reason why this isn't practical... but what is it? That's what I'm trying to figure out right now.

Of course if I were going to do this and get this elaborate, all of the electronics would be done from scratch. No hacked up RC cars or anything like that.

I was thinking pretty crazy on the actual cutting of the lawn too. First of all, I want it all to be electric. I don't care how big of a lead-acid battery I'll need. I hate gas (except for the smell... we all like the smell

). You know how weed wackers always seem to be able to power through thick, tall grass? Ever take a weed wacker to a section of grass where maybe you can't fit a lawn mower or something? Even cheap ones power through tall grass and even those humongous tree-like weeds.

But of course... you go through the string like it's grape flavored floss that you're trying to suck the taste out of (Am I the only one that used to do that?

). So, rather than one large, metal blade like you'd find in a regular lawn mower, I was thinking of multiple weed wacker-type assemblies instead, with 3 or 4 of those steel weed wacker blades or something like that on them.

Something like this:

The blue being the "base" that the blades (not shown) are mounted to, and the gray being the coverage area. I figured that if I use blades that were 7.2" long, I'd get a 72" (6') coverage area.

That said... I don't know if the blades will somehow be too long... I don't know how I'd know that.

That's my idea, anyway.

Thoughts?

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:23 am

I had a great idea when we moved into our new house 10 years ago - I got a contractor in to remove all the grass, lay plastic semi-permiable plastic sheeting and cover the whole thing with pebble stones (small stones, covering about 2 inches thick); with various bedding areas lined with paving slabs, beds which quickly grew and stopped any weeds coming through, lots of heather and some palm plants. Nice cottage look, barely any maintenance - twice a year a bit of hedge cutting and plant hacking! (due it again about now, a few weeds on the patio need burning)...

I hate gardening, and hated having to deal with moss on the lawn and having to cut the grass when it was inconvenient to do so just because it was dry! I hate it, so I solved it!

(pic only shows half the garden, took pic from window (so quality not great). Anyway, I designed the garden myself and got some blokes in to do the work.