@george1’s Eric has a cousin, Erica, who lives with us. The reason she hasn’t done things like that is because she rarely ventures out of her hut.
She keeps resetting her clock to 1/1/2021 so it’s the wrong day/time and, if forced out she complains that it’s raining so she can’t or even that it has been raining so she’ll have to leave it at least 3 hours.
If by some miracle, she emerges and starts to mow, the chances are she’ll drive straight into a tree or a bush or a tuft of grass and, rather than take evasive action, she keeps pushing against the obstacle until her wheels have formed deep grooves in the ground and she’s run out of battery.
If I try to get her to go to her hut and charge up, she says she hasn’t enough charge to get there and will have to be carried.
I wonder if George’s Eric’s new home would like to rehouse his cousin…
This could be caused by a duff battery - not the main mower one, but a small battery that keeps all the programming set (normally such things are part of a printed circuit board). If such a battery fails then the programming reverts to factory default. Of course your mower may not have such a thing; this is just a guess.
At lot of robot mowers will cut in rain or shine. Ours certainly does.
This is clearly ridiculous. AFAIAA all robot mowers have collision detection in order to work around either temporary obstacles or permanent things like trees. Ours works around several trees, the post for our postbox, a rotary clothes line & a telegraph pole, none of which are included/avoided by the main boundary loop.
It sounds to me as if you have a very faulty mower, or bought something that is overly basic.
Interestingly, i had previously bought an earlier model of Erica and was so pleased with it that I bought this second one. However it has all the hallmarks of some of the Windows releases - far less reliable and functional that the previous one!
A friend with the same version as Erica got the manufacturers to repair it but it’s still nothing like as good as the similarly-priced alternative he bought in the meantime.
We will be retiring Erica and getting a completely different brand in the spring.
Would the collective advise against getting one of these robotic mowers for a house that is currently a holiday home? I would dearly like to be able to have a robotic mower looking after the grass while we are not there.
We program ours for when we are away, but it has got stuck a couple of times and then the battery died, so it probably depends on the complexity of the area you intend to cut.
One annoying thing we’ve experienced with the Mammotion Luba mini 2 AWD is that Mammotion will push RTK software/firmware updates to the reference antenna without warning, irrespective of whether the mower is working or charging - if working, the mower just stops, as it loses connection to reference position, and then the battery gradually runs down.
Depends how secure your property is in addition to the point that they can get stuck. Ours have basic security built in and more expensive ones likely more however its potentially asking for trouble unless your space is secured.
That’s a really good point.. Mammotion’s app doesn’t seem to permit the option of declining all software updates - their community forum seems to suggest this is a common problem. AI suggested turning off the internet (!) but of course that comes with problems such as not being able to monitor progress, not being able to change start and stop settings remotely etc.
Good point about additionally securing the site. The Mammotion Luba and Yuka models mowers include real-time GPS tracking, geo fencing, airtag compatibility and remote lock, making them less interesting to steal for resale or reuse
I have been reading up on the Mammotion Luba 3 AWD and it certainly looks like it could be a contender for the job. Our garden is relatively secure (fences, walls, gates, high hedges - bounded on 3 sides by good neighbours and a private road to the front) but, if I did get one, I would probably house it in a little garage of its own when not actually doing its job.
Flo’s concern was that it might take itself off to the bar at aperatif time or pop over and mow the neighbour’s gardens .
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