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by Mountain_Skies 1524 days ago
That's a pretty neat project that has the potential to get a lot of interest. I haven't looked at robotic mowers very deeply; currently I use an electric plug-in mower, which is about as non-automated as you can get. But I'm wonder if there are any that support changing the deck height for different areas of the yard. From a software POV, this seems doable but is there any hardware out there that supports this feature without requiring manual intervention?
3 comments
sokoloff 1523 days ago
A worm gear driven by a DC motor with an end stop to “home” at max height wouldn’t be overly complex (and likely cheaper/more reliable than a stepper motor and screw thread as the worm gear can’t be back-driven, so you can power it down and it will hold position to well beyond the tolerances needed for mowing).

If you just wanted to switch between a small number of pre-set heights (and changing those heights could be manual), a cam arrangement is probably better.

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dicknuckle 1523 days ago
Kind of off topic but I'm currently working on a DIY project to add self-propel to a 110v corded mower.

The goal is to have an electric rope mower for the biggest part of my back yard that happens to have a 110v outlet in the very center (septic alarm pedestal).

https://youtu.be/dmCQkosIa2k

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bombcar 1524 days ago
I've never seen a mower with an automatic deck height adjustment, most require you to move a lever on the wheels to change the deck height.

Maybe a full size riding mower would have something automated there? So you'd turn that into a robotic one?

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