[Terry] sent in the first of his projects that he’s posted on his site. Having grown up in the midwestern US, I can’t even express how badly I wanted to build one of these puppies when I was a kid. His remote control lawnmower is essentially the bastard child of a three way between a R/C car, a wheelchair and the lawnmower. The radio is interfaced with the control box from a wheelchair, otherwise it’s a good welding project.
Nice work. I’ve one suggestion – a safety circuit that disables the mower if radio control is lost. There are a few devices designed just for R/C projects that’ll do the trick. (Update: ok, there’s a failsafe in the design but I wouldn’t call it optional!)
If you read the “user guide,” it says he does indeed have an auto-shutoff feature on transmitter signal loss.
Good Thing or it might be like the run away car on mith busters.
honey i shrunk the kids.
it would be even better if her hooked a regulator to pull a 12v line to a charger, then keep the drive battery topped up with it
You need some sort of failsafe in the event that your children have been shrunk and gotten lost in the lawn and the kid controlling the mower can’t hear your frantic yelling for him to stop the thing.
Duh.
he should Roomba that shit
love his warning
@5: agreed, I’d love to see this extended as a robotics project on top of the mechanical stuff. Sitting on the porch driving it may be fun but I’d rather sit on the porch with *two* beers in hand and watch it drive itself around…
Put a couple wireless cams on that sucker and hook it to the internet. Charge 50 cents a minute to allow people across the net to mow your lawn for you. Maybe even charge extra to allow them to mow out back where the bunny’s nest is!
Couple of things I would add:
1. Height adjustment.
2. A way to disengage the drive wheels and add a handle in case I need to take over. Steep hills are a killer.
3. Remote camera setup.
out of transfer?
Looks like his page died – I may have to start using coral caches for everything if this keeps up.
Actually, iRobot (makers of Roomba) are working on a lawnmower:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/23/irobot-cooking-up-lawn-mower-bot/
I also heard that high security sights have an automated lawnmower (so they do not have to do security clearances for minimum wage workers) with a camera on it (to add to their grounds surveillance).
I may be making this up, though. I cannot cite my sources at this moment…
It’s back now.. If you’re going to cache it, I’d say now’s a good time.
BTW, there IS height adjustment. If you look, you’ll see that the frame attaches to the mower via the factory wheel hubs, which allows for adjustment of height on the front/back.
pkm: that was my thought exactly, crazy.
good to hear that irobot is making one, although a simple google search will bring up more than one that have already been built that appear to do similar things.
This could also be applied by simply modifying the control box, and leaving the chair intact. This could be used to drive patients that are paralyzed from the neck down, mentally unstable, etc. On as larger scale similar methods while replacing the r.c. car remote with a central transmitter and controlling computer. When coupled with radio positioning within the hospital and SONAR, nurses and medical staff could simply select a location for the patient to travel to, and the patient would be automatically conveyed there.
joey y – I heard that too – security clearances are expensive, and a courtyard like the pentagon would be an ideal enclosed places for robot lawnmowers.
That is so cool. I want one. What is the range on RC?
There actually was a remote controlled lawnmower manufactured back in the 70’s. My Dad bought one. But it was wired. And had a round type push mower blade. Which was good for the wires cause you ran over them it didn’t really hurt them to much with that style blade. Most of you won’t remember that there once were lawnmowers without motors. that’s what I mean by “push mower blade”. It was gear driven by the force of you pushing it.
the remote control powered one was electric and a ton of fun. But very hard to get accurate enough to do perfectly straight lines. It would mow alot of grass and real fast. But guiding the things is just like trying to guide a remote control car in the exact line you need to cover row after row of grass cutting.
People would stop in the front of the house in amazement. Fun toy. don’t remember what he bought it for or what he did with it.
I don’t see the point of making a remote controlled lawnmower when there are robotic lawnmowers that can run by themself without you controlling them. You can program them to run anytime including nights. They mow the grass for a few hours, then find their docking station to recharge. Prices start at only $1,749 so it’s not that expensive considering all the time you’ll save and never have to buy gas, change spark plugs and etc. Check out http://www.lawnbotts.com
here’a a commercial one:
Evatech Remote Control Hybrid Drive Lawn Mower Robot -E
http://cgi.ebay.com/Evatech-Remote-Control-Hybrid-Drive-Lawn-Mower-Robot-E_W0QQitemZ7747000627QQcmdZViewItem
I have wanted to build one of these for the longest time… Ever since I first watched “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” when I was a kid.
I began the project but still waiting for the v2.0 of the controller. It’s been a long time since the last update on the site (feb 2007). Does the v2.0 exist or everything is aborded?
thanks in advance and im sorry for my english…
check out our remote control lawn mower
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lwbtGtjpU4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnpAhcRo7CQ
Has any thing been done since 2007 on the circuit board v.2 I am quite interested.
Our circuit board has been tested beyond the extremes anyone can dish out at Southern RobotX. Have you seen our line up of ready to go remote control mowers?
I wonder if anyone has tried this with a reel mower or electric mower, you know for lazy environmentalists