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Remote Controlled Lawn Mower

by | May 13, 2020 | DIY, Technology

RC Lawn Mower

Work in Progress

This build and page are a work in progress.  As I progress, I will document my progress here.  Stay tuned!  More great content is coming!

RC Lawn Mower Build – Work in Progress

While I love my EGO 56V Lawn Mower, I wanted to start a new DIY project and build a remote controlled lawn mower with enough power to replace professional grade lawn equiptment.  After careful consideration and review of criteria including the following:

  1. Build quality
  2. Price
  3. Variety of tools
  4. Third part battery support
  5. DIY potential

I have decided to do the RC lawn mower build out of the 80v Greenworks mower.  Part of this project will include the RC mower, which at 80v is powerful enough to be sent into the high grass and brush without halting the cut and needing restarting.  The mower throtles the blades depending on the amount of resistance experienced by the blades.  This means it doesn’t spin at the same speed all the time, and only pulls extra power and not waste power.

The new chassis will be welded steel and this bot will have multiple functions.  It will serve as a motorized platform / wagon for moving heavy loads.  I also plan on adding an arm or mount that will facilitate a brush cutter / weed wacker attachment.  This bot will drive into the woods and cut the grass.  When the brush is too thick, we will deploy the blades!   

Of course, once you start on a product platform you start to acquire the remaining products… it won’t be long until I owe all the 80v greenworks products.  Not to mention, Greenworks and Kobalt (and Snapper and many others) share the same platform.  The battery internals are the same and with slight modification, can be used interchangably!

This bot will drive into the woods and cut the grass.  When the brush is too thick, we will deploy the blades!  

The Remote Controller

To control the BOT I’m using a FLYSKY FS-i6X 10 Channel controller with the FS-iA6B receiver.  As this controller allows for connections to 8 receivers, I will use it on multiple projects.  Currently I’m planning on building multiple bots and will use this one controller to switch between them.  Pairing only needs to happen once, and then switching between receives is a quick few steps on the controller itself.

When building a BOT such as a lawn mower, safety must be a top consideration.  But after safety, its fun to think of all the neat things you can do with a BOT like this.   These are the things I’m keeping in mind during my build.

  1. Safety
    1. Physically push putton kill switches on the BOT to completely shut it down
    2. Trigger shutdown when connection to controller is lost

    3. Introduce a safey key.  SHOCKINGLY, this 80v mower does not have a safety key.  Unlike their other mowers, (40v and 60v both have red safety keys), this “pro” mower is without a key.  This means that my young and curious 8 year old son could simply read the instructions on the handle and start the blades!  Its electronic, no hard pull strings necessary!   I can’t believe there is no safety key that I can secure when the unit is not in use.

  2. Storage
    1. Unit needs to have the smallest footprint when not in use.  Possibily be able to be hoisted off the ground to sit against the wall and not on the floor.
  3. Cleaning
    1. Ability to lean back to clean and sharpen cutting blades
  4. Convenience
    1. Use one set of batteries to power both mower and pulpulsion – this might be a phase 2 feature
    2. Integrate charging so battery can remain in the unit.  Removing, charging and replacing the battery is harder than simply plugging the unit in

 

Flysky FS-i6X 10CH 2.4GHz AFHDS RC Transmitter w/ FS-iA6B Receiver

2PCS Flysky FS-iA6B 2.4G 6 Channel Receiver

To Be Continued…

This build and page are a work in progress.  As I progress, I will document my progress here.  Stay stuned!  More great content is coming!

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