My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

SchrodingersCat

As long as you are doing what you mentioned: keep it clean and change/sharpen the blades when needed, you should be fine. In particular it should be cleaned before storage during the winter.

fanzhiyidan

Hi All,

I purchased a Husqvarna 315X automower at the start of this cutting season (March/April I think) and had it installed by the dealer.

It's a fairly average sized lawn around a bungalow house.
The largest section is at the front, there's another section at the back and a narrow section at the side.
They're all interconnected.

I've been going back and forth with the dealer since about a month after it was installed because it wasn't cutting all the sections.
They have been back to my garden about 4 times trying different setups including moving the charging station to a different location.

Once they moved the charging station it went from only cutting the narrow section once maybe every 15 cuts to only cutting the main lawn once every 10-15 cuts.

I've also been on the phone to them countless times trying different settings.

They tried changing the motherboard on the lawnmower.
This did nothing.

Then they changed the mower for another 315X.
Again, this made no difference.

Following their instructions over the past 4 months, the mower has been on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as they always recommend leaving the mower cut away for 2-3 weeks and see how it goes.

I have been extremely patient.

About 3 weeks ago they told me they were talking to one of the main Husqvarna guys in Dublin about the issues.
I have had an extension cable bring power to the shed in the garden for the mower.
This had been running along the ground where the mower drove over.
He told them that this could be causing a conflict with the Automower and to raise the cable off the ground or when I would be bringing permanent power to the shed to keep the cable buried 2 feet under ground.
They also told me that if this wouldn't work then the only other option would be to upgrade to a 430X as it has 2 guide wires, whereas the 315X only has 1.
I've been holding off on bringing permanent power to the shed until after the mower issue had been resolved.

I raised the cable 2.4m off the ground and again this made no difference.

They have told me that the difference in cost between the 315X and the 430X is €600.
Even though I feel that I should not have to pay extra for something that should work, I told them that I would meet them half way.
They have now come back to me saying that they'll give me the 430X for €500, a 420 with the Automower Connect module added for €100 or give me my money back and take back the 315X.

I don't want to go with the older 420 model.
I don't know if I can stretch to €500 for the 430X and also feel that I should not have to as the first time I was ever told that the 315X might not be suitable for my garden and that a 430X might be needed was about 3 weeks ago.

I have gone 6-7 months of having a Husqvarna mower installed without it working properly and have been extremely patient and reasonable.
I have also refrained from posting here about my experience as I wanted to give the dealer a fair crack at sorting out the issue as they probably keep an eye on this site.
It still seems to me that it is an installation issue.

Sorry for the long post.
Just looking for some advice.

KCross

I cant see how the 430X is going to be any better than the 315X. They both have GPS mapping and so the 315X should have no excuse for leaving patches. Since they have tried replacing the mower I'd be thinking the boundary wire or some other electrical interference is the problem.

So, I'd agree with you more likely an installation issue.


How narrow is that section at the side of the house?

Is it cutting the area where the docking station is fine?

How many sqm is the total area? Is it well within the spec of the 315X... i.e. <1600sqm?


I wouldnt be handing over any extra cash until you see it working properly. So, maybe tell them install the 430X and if it is proven to work you will pay then, but not before!

Tails142

If it was me I'd be getting a cat scanner and I'd scan the ground the mower isn't passing over to see if there is a buried cable causing the interference.

Frankirish

It sounds to me that there are buried services in your garden that are interfering with the Automower boundary wire signals. You could check to see if you have a ESB pole in the corner of your site, if so you could trace the direction of the buried power cable to your meterbox on the gable end of your site. If this crosses the area that is causing concern then this could be the issue.

If the dealer is serious and genuinely interested in sorting out your issues then he should be able to get his hands on a demo 430X, and trial it on your site for a week or so. This will provide evidence that it’s a automower size issue or not!

If it is, and he supplied you an under spec machine for your site, then I feel it would be fair if you could split the financial difference 50/50, and give you the option to pay it off in installments that suits you. He may not be an experienced agent and he is finding his feet in the auto mower world. It’s could be a valuable lesson for him, unfortunately at your expense. Hold out and keep trialing until you get it right because you won’t regret it. You’ll never look back and say “I wish I bought a petrol mower” so I can spend money on petrol so that I can walk around in circles every week and have a silage pit out the back in your garden ☹️.

Auto mower all the way!

fanzhiyidan

Thanks for the responses. I do want to stick with an Automower because the areas it has been cutting regularly look great. It’s just that depending on where the charging station was located it wasn’t getting to some areas as frequently as required and seemed to just go over the same areas again and again.

How would buried services cause an issue and would it be more likely that the mower wouldn’t get to areas beyond this interference at all rather than just go there once in a while.
If I did find some cables what should I do?

I will need to bring permanent power to my shed and was going to use an SWA cable. Could this cause issues even if the cable is carried in a duct.
I have put a duct in about 10” below ground and it is running beside one of the boundary wires.
No cable ran yet but I’d rather not have to dig this duct up and start again.

As for the width of the passages, they’re about 900mm to 1000mm

Tails142

Electric cables buried underground could be causing electromagnetic inference that the mower is interpreting as the guide wire. It's unlikely but possible. If there was less current going down the wire at some time, the interference could be less and this is when the mower passes over it intermittently. I don't think anyone is saying for definite this is your problem but it's worth investigating as you've ruled out a lot of other problems.

Getting the next mower up on a trial basis and seeing if this has the same issue seems like a good idea

fanzhiyidan

It is passing over all areas but it seems like the GPS doesn't work properly. There's always a section that the mower just doesn't spend the required time cutting. And that's with it on 24/7

When it was originally installed (see the red square in the image) it would cut sections 1, 2 and 3 no problems but had issues cutting section 4 to the extent that I had to cut it all with a strimmer as it had become unmanageable.
Even if I picked the mower up and brought it to this section it would just drive around without cutting and then go back to the charging station.

Then when the installers moved the station to a new location (see the blue square in the image) it would cut sections 2, 3 and 4 no problem but very rarely go to section 1. Pretty much the reverse of the first charging station set up.

the section highlighted in yellow on the attached image is tarmac. I had dropped kerbs at this area to allow the mower to pass between section 2 and 3.
I had an extension lead running along the ground from the house to the shed (between the original and second charging station locations....hard to see on the attached image).
I have since raised this from the roof of the house to the roof of the shed and it has made no difference.

There is a fence at either side of the house (shown in light blue on the image). I have "cat flaps" made in the fence to allow the mower to run through. I manually put these down when the kids are out and the mower was scheduled to be off (as the mower has been out 24/7 for the last few months they haven't been put down).
This was all agreed with the installer/dealer before they installed.

KCross

So, the docking station is currently at the blue square location?

Where is the guide wire? Looking at that pic it would have to be going through section 2, under your cat flap and then on out to the far reaches of section 1.... is that where it is? If its not I cant see how the mower would navigate properly otherwise.

fanzhiyidan

KCross wrote: »

So, the docking station is currently at the blue square location?

Where is the guide wire? Looking at that pic it would have to be going through section 2, under your cat flap and then on out to the far reaches of section 1.... is that where it is? If its not I cant see how the mower would navigate properly otherwise.

yes it's currently at the blue square.
Originally the charging station was at the red square and the guide wire was just going to the middle of the lawn in section 1.

They then changed the location to the blue square and changed the guide wire so that it was going to section 4 (about 2/3 of the way to the main road) looping back up through section 3, crossing the tarmac, into section 2 and continuing along to the middle of section 1

KCross

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

yes it's currently at the blue square.
Originally the charging station was at the red square and the guide wire was just going to the middle of the lawn in section 1.

They then changed the location to the blue square and changed the guide wire so that it was going to section 4 (about 2/3 of the way to the main road) looping back up through section 3, crossing the tarmac, into section 2 and continuing along to the middle of section 1

That sounds odd.

So, the guide wire goes out through the cat flap into section 4 and then loops back on itself under the cat flap again at the same location?

I dont think that will work. The guide wire is not supposed to loop back on itself as the signal across the two strands will interfere with each other AFAIK.

The guide wire also has to be 30cm or so from the boundary wire.... how wide is the cat flap and how far apart are the loops of the guide wire under it?

And that long loop of guide wire might be too long for the mower as well. There is a max distance that the guide wire can do from the point it leaves the docking station out to where it connects to the boundary and then back to the docking station (walking anti-clockwise).... you should walk that route and see how far it is.... I think it needs to be less than 400m or something like that.


There is a "Test Guide wire" option in the menu that tests the "Following in" and "Following out". Have you run those to see that the mower is able to follow the guide wire in and out to the full length of the guide wire?

fanzhiyidan

KCross wrote: »

That sounds odd.

So, the guide wire goes out through the cat flap into section 4 and then loops back on itself under the cat flap again at the same location?

I dont think that will work. The guide wire is not supposed to loop back on itself as the signal across the two strands will interfere with each other AFAIK.

The guide wire also has to be 30cm or so from the boundary wire.... how wide is the cat flap and how far apart are the loops of the guide wire under it?

And that long loop of guide wire might be too long for the mower as well. There is a max distance that the guide wire can do from the point it leaves the docking station out to where it connects to the boundary and then back to the docking station (walking anti-clockwise).... you should walk that route and see how far it is.... I think it needs to be less than 400m or something like that.


There is a "Test Guide wire" option in the menu that tests the "Following in" and "Following out". Have you run those to see that the mower is able to follow the guide wire in and out to the full length of the guide wire?

Sorry, should have made it a bit clearer on the cat flaps....there's actually 2 cat flaps in the fence between section 3 and 4.
The guide wire goes to section 4 through one and back to section 3 through another, then continues on to section 2 and 1.

The cat flaps are about 900mm-1000mm.
there's a good 1500mm between the 2 cat flaps at section 3/4.
If the guide wire is going through the middle of the cat flaps (i would imagine they are) then there should be at least 600-700mm between the guide wire and the boundary wire.

I went through the settings with the dealer over the phone and set up 3 different distances to go to along the guide wire to try to get the mower going to section 1 more often (from the blue square).
I think from memory it was about 130m following the guide wire down to section 4, back through 3, 2 and then 1.
We set the mower to spend 75% of it's time in section 1, 10% in section 2, 10% in section 4 and the remainder around the charging station at section 3.
Left it like this for about 3 weeks, going 24/7 and it spent 85% of it's time in section 4, 10% between sections 3 and 2 and the rest in section 1.

The lawn in section 1 looked like I let my 2 year old cut my hair with an electric trimmer. A few patches scalped here and there and then lost interest after a couple of minutes!!

KCross

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

Sorry, should have made it a bit clearer on the cat flaps....there's actually 2 cat flaps in the fence between section 3 and 4.
The guide wire goes to section 4 through one and back to section 3 through another, then continues on to section 2 and 1.

The cat flaps are about 900mm-1000mm.
there's a good 1500mm between the 2 cat flaps at section 3/4.
If the guide wire is going through the middle of the cat flaps (i would imagine they are) then there should be at least 600-700mm between the guide wire and the boundary wire.

ok, that's better!

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

I went through the settings with the dealer over the phone and set up 3 different distances to go to along the guide wire to try to get the mower going to section 1 more often (from the blue square).

That means they are not using GPS anymore. They are using a % based system which disables the GPS AFAIK. Thats less than ideal. Why did they do that?

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

We set the mower to spend 75% of it's time in section 1, 10% in section 2, 10% in section 4 and the remainder around the charging station at section 3.
Left it like this for about 3 weeks, going 24/7 and it spent 85% of it's time in section 4, 10% between sections 3 and 2 and the rest in section 1.

The lawn in section 1 looked like I let my 2 year old cut my hair with an electric trimmer. A few patches scalped here and there and then lost interest after a couple of minutes!!

That to me sounds like the guide wire is not working. If you told it to spend 75% of its time in section 1 you should see it travelling the full length of the guide wire 7/10 times that it leaves the docking station. Clearly it's not doing that if you then say section 1 is not getting cut.

Did you try the "Following Out" test? I'd do that several time and see what happens. It should go the full length of the guide wire consistently to the point where it meets the boundary wire in section 1. If it balks at any stage then thats your problem spot.

fanzhiyidan

KCross wrote: »

ok, that's better!



That means they are not using GPS anymore. They are using a % based system which disables the GPS AFAIK. Thats less than ideal. Why did they do that?




That to me sounds like the guide wire is not working. If you told it to spend 75% of its time in section 1 you should see it travelling the full length of the guide wire 7/10 times that it leaves the docking station. Clearly it's not doing that if you then say section 1 is not getting cut.

Did you try the "Following Out" test? I'd do that several time and see what happens. It should go the full length of the guide wire consistently to the point where it meets the boundary wire in section 1. If it balks at any stage then thats your problem spot.

They told me that following a set distance on the guide wire would be turning off the GPS.
They tried this to see if it would get to the areas it was supposed to but this didn't work either.
After this failed, they replaced the mother board on the mower.
Then they cycle started again with try this for 2 weeks, try that for 2 weeks, try the next thing for 2 weeks.
After this didn't sort anything they changed it for a new mower and we went through the "try this" dance again for 6-8 weeks.

During this time where they changed the motherboard and then a new mower, I'm pretty sure they didn't alter any wiring.
I don't know much about the mower set up but to me it sounds like an installation issue.
That seems to be what Husqvarna are telling the dealer/installer too as the dealer told me that they wouldn't offer any discount on changing to a 430X.

fanzhiyidan

I've been taking screen shots on my phone for the last few months to show the dealer/installer that it's only getting to the biggest part of the lawn (section 1) about once every 20 cuts (unless it's going out there exclusively when I'm asleep :rolleyes:)

Out of every 20 cuts, on average it'll stay in:
section 3-4....14 times
section 3-2....5 times
section 1.......1 time

fanzhiyidan

Tails142 wrote: »

Electric cables buried underground could be causing electromagnetic inference that the mower is interpreting as the guide wire. It's unlikely but possible. If there was less current going down the wire at some time, the interference could be less and this is when the mower passes over it intermittently. I don't think anyone is saying for definite this is your problem but it's worth investigating as you've ruled out a lot of other problems.

Getting the next mower up on a trial basis and seeing if this has the same issue seems like a good idea

I'll see if I can get a cable detector.
Is there a way of shielding cables to stop any possible interference?
Also, if I install an SWA cable to my shed for permanent power, could this cause interference and again, is there any way I could prevent this?

KCross

Start with the “Following out” test in the menus. Go from there.

fanzhiyidan

KCross wrote: »

Start with the “Following out” test in the menus. Go from there.

Thanks, I'll check that and see how it goes.

With the very little knowledge you have of my situation, what would be your gut feeling.
I would imagine that the few times they've been out to try and get it working that they've gone through all the steps including the "following out" but can't seem to find the problem.

Do you think the 430X would solve the issue or should the 315X be able to do the job?

They seem to want to wash their hands of it now and give me my money back unless I fork out €500 for a step up to the 430X

KCross

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

Thanks, I'll check that and see how it goes.

With the very little knowledge you have of my situation, what would be your gut feeling.
I would imagine that the few times they've been out to try and get it working that they've gone through all the steps including the "following out" but can't seem to find the problem.

Do you think the 430X would solve the issue or should the 315X be able to do the job?

They seem to want to wash their hands of it now and give me my money back unless I fork out €500 for a step up to the 430X

It sounds like the guide wire is not setup right to me.

I wouldn’t assume they tested following out at all. They might be new to it.

430x will be better as it has 2 guide wires but it’s overkill. I wouldn’t pay more until they prove it working.

fanzhiyidan

KCross wrote: »

It sounds like the guide wire is not setup right to me.

I wouldn’t assume they tested following out at all. They might be new to it.

430x will be better as it has 2 guide wires but it’s overkill. I wouldn’t pay more until they prove it working.

Thanks.
I don't think my garden is overly complicated and like I said in an earlier post, they never said anything to me about the 315X not being suitable.
The first I heard about the 315X only having 1 guide wire and the 430X having 2 was about 3 weeks ago when they suggested this might be the next step.

When going through the "Follow Out" sequence, does it just basically send it out to the end of the guide wire and back again?

KCross

"fanzhiyidan;111738485&#8221 wrote:

When going through the "Follow Out" sequence, does it just basically send it out to the end of the guide wire and back again?

It sends it out to the end and then stops.

You run the “following in” test to see if it can find the guide wire from wherever you place it and then follow it all the way back.

It should be able to do both tests 100% of the time.

NurseBridie

KCross wrote: »

My guess on that is that the dealer didnt seal it up properly when they changed the battery... i'd say he knows it but is slow to put his hand up!

I changed the battery, it is in a separate area and very easy to swap out.

fanzhiyidan

Hey, trying to figure out how to run the “following out” and “following in” tests. Can’t seem to find it on the mower or the app

Shaunoc

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

Hey, trying to figure out how to run the “following out” and “following in” tests. Can’t seem to find it on the mower or the app

check from onboard the mower unit panel itself

fanzhiyidan

Shaunoc wrote: »

check from onboard the mower unit panel itself

I went through all the menus on the mower and couldn’t find it.
Obviously missed it. What menu is it located in?

Shaunoc

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

I went through all the menus on the mower and couldn’t find it.
Obviously missed it. What menu is it located in?

i have a 450x and there is a Test feature for guide wire
not sure what version you have, but check the guide
myrobotcenter.eu/en/downloads/dl/file/id/952/husqvarna_automower_420_430x_450x_manual.pdf
see page 31

my machine is switched off and packed away - so cannot check

KCross

fanzhiyidan wrote: »

Hey, trying to figure out how to run the “following out” and “following in” tests. Can’t seem to find it on the mower or the app

I think the 315X is the same as the 330X/430X

Try this menu sequence...

Installation-->FindChargingStation-->Guide-->More-->TestGuide

If its not at that location you'll need to pull out the manual and see where it is.

fanzhiyidan

Installation_find charging station_guide_more_test guide.....”place the mower outside the charging station for Test IN”

I can’t find an option for Test OUT

It doesn’t have a problem finding its way back to the charging station so I only need to test the guide wire on the way OUT

fanzhiyidan

The other option next to Test Guide is “Reset”

Don’t know if I should select this or not

k mac

Have brought in my 430x after its first season, gave it a clean and into the garage. Does anyone take off the cover when cleaning, I just used a brush and cleaned what I could , worst was the mushed leaves around the wheels. I have heard people say they try to bring there mowers into the house as the battery will last longer but I don't know only place I will get it in is the attic and its a bit awkward for up there.
Also I have not brought in the base yet. What do ye do with the wires going to the base ?? Just tape them up I presume, can they be damaged if they get damp??