My autonomous lawn mower thread/blog

MY friends mower went out one day and never returned. Insurance didnt want to know. It was found by a neighbor about a month later smashed to bits in a ditch about a km down the road. Looks like someone saw it going around and decided to get into a bit of vandalism.

Insured it with AIG in the end, they accepted that it would not be locked in and put a 3000E specific item value on it, unlike previous insurers because it was not over 3000 it did not effect the premium.

Was just onto their customer service. They've had to cancel more than half of their pre-orders due to the shortages. Segway also need to hold back various parts as spares. The 3000 model is the one with tightest supply. It's pot luck for that one but first come first served for the other models.

Seemingly my order for the 1500 will still be fulfilled and they expect them to arrive in Belgium on 20th May.

60cm is the smallest distance you can have between boundary wires. Can I ask why the mower goes over kerb edge sometimes? You can reduce the distance the mower goes past the boundary wires in the settings. If you reduce the distance it should prevent this. Maybe I am misunderstanding the situation.

Having desperate problems with our Stihl imow and looking for advice.

Have it three years. The local Stihl dealer came out with an imow rep who told us our lawns would be suitable. Bought the dearest imow 3k but it was clear the installer was inexperienced not looping off big trees etc. The dealer came out to move all the wires which were still wrong so I replaced it at my own cost.

I spent the first summer moving the robot as it kept getting stuck on the back lawn. The grips on the rear wheels wore away and the wheels had to be replaced. It became obvious that the back lawn wasn't suitable so it only cuts the front.

I got it serviced for the season and it wouldn't charge saying battery temperature too low. The dealer has it a month now. We were told the battery is ok and that they were trying to bypass the temperature sensor. Now they say that it needs a €300 repair including a new battery. I have asked them to go to Stihl head office about it because something is not right. They just say no word back.

What are our options here? Such a disappointing experience with a Stihl product and a Stihl dealer.

Unless it's broken and doing something funny why are people servicing the mower . Would you bring a washing machine off for a service.

Genuine question.

Surely you can clean it yourself. Change the blades and put it back in it's house.

Back to my point, unless it's malfunction leave the software alone tbh. Working in software myself we generally play with to update the firmware to play nice with new hardware varients.

Usually say if it ain't broke don't fix it. Specifically for hardware like this. Obviously I would have a different opinion for UI based stuff . But for mowers. Leave her as is.

For the battery seals. Open and put slim but of grease around them.

Picked up a 415x, my house is a new build and hope to have lawn set over the next few weeks. Regarding setting up, it says to place the docking station in the center of the lawn, I have a socket at one side of the lawn that I especially put as it would be out of the way and not visible and offer some shelter. Is it vital to have the docking station in the center?

I would prefer to keep it off to the side where I have the socket. I can run a new socket no problem but obviously would have the cost of the new cable ect.

I checked in on update for delivery today and got a reply about restructuring.......website down and they closed my customer service thread ...not good.

Is this myrobotcenter? Doesn't sound good at all...

First world problem here, but I’ve had my 430X running now about 7 or 8 weeks and it’s flying it. The only minor issue I have is that it isn’t chopping down the dandelions 😂, so I have a perfectly cut lawn with numerous dandelion stems about 6 inches high ! Blades seem ok. Has anyone come accross that issue before ?

Thanks guys.

Have that Problem sometimes. Eventually gets them it's the season for swift growth of dandelions.but it will find them give it a week.

I'm still waiting for my refund. They wont reply to emails since their last reply on the 11/04/22.

I have applied to BOI Mastercard for a charge back. Lets see.

Out of interest, I emailed the myrobotcenter's CEO and got an OoO until the 15th May. I've already left a 1 star review on Trustpilot - which they usually do reply to. I will be leaving 1 star reviews in as many online rating sites as possible, including those in UK, Germany and Austria which seems to be their largest markets.

Yea they're in trouble. I got a big long email talking about restructuring proceedings and regional courts etc.

What's the deal with claiming money back? Debit card might be a battle, but what about credit card or PayPal?

Spent the day on Sunday filling in holes in the garden - some related to the dog digging and some related to the automower getting stuck and digging a little rut for itself. Used a mix of compost and topsoil and then grass seed - rain last night came at the right time.

There was about 20 holes in total to fill in.

I'd identified a couple of spots where it was getting stuck, slipping off the side over the past few weeks and made up some small wooden barriers (kinda like small fence panels).

Hopefully I will have the place obstacle free before I go on holidays in a few weeks - the last few years I had to get my in-laws down to check and rescue the mower !