I couldn’t find any reference to the Ego Z6 battery zero turn mower in the forums so I thought I’d post a few photos of my own conversion in case anyone else is looking to do this…
Also, as this is my first post, I’d like to say thanks to the developers of Ardupilot and to all those who’ve provided so much helpful information.
Nice and clean, but I must ask…why on earth are you using linear actuators to control electric motors?!
It just turned out to be much simpler and quicker without having to take anything apart. The control levers use hall effect transducers, rather than simple potentiometers, and in the absence of any schematics it was easier to just do it mechanically. I will probably delve into the control circuitry at some point in the future but this was the fastest way to get it up and running.
Thanks for sharing these photos @MartinRob
I’m looking to do a very similar conversion and am shopping around the various electric zero turn options to see which model is best suited for this sort of conversion. Do you have any more info about your experience with the Z6? How difficult was it to tap into the drive controls mechanically like this? Anything you would do differently next time?
In my opinion, it’s pretty useless to drive controls mechanically like that on an electric mower. If that’s the only workable solution, find another brand that works with direct electronic control.
It is very easy to drive the control levers mechanically. You just need to remove the dampers and replace them with linear actuators. The black 3D-printed adaptors on the ends of the linear actuators allow them to bolt straight in. The red blocks (also 3d printed) hold back the reversing springs. With these in place, and the dampers removed, there is next to no resistance on the levers so low power, fast moving actuators can be used. The ones I chose have a standard 5V RC interface so they can be driven directly from an RC receiver. I also added a relay in parallel with the seat switch so the mower will run without a passenger.
The rear mounted module containing the electronics drops into the 2 holes designed for accessories and everything is powered from the on-board USB socket. The means that everything can be put back to standard in a matter of minutes, which is useful as this was a brand new mower still under warranty.
One slightly more intrusive addition I made later was to put a relay across the cutting motor switch. This isn’t essential but it enables Ardupilot to turn the cutting motors on and off.
As for the Z6, it’s a great machine, very powerful and very well built. I still need to do some work fine tuning Ardupilot as the mower tends to wander a bit and the turns could be improved. I just got it to the point where it worked well enough to do the job and then moved on to other projects.
