@dwright361 Doug, I have bought a lead screws and electric screwdrivers and 10-turn pots to make my own. At the moment, after I connected a USB cable to the control board for the linear actuators I have and made a change to the parameters, it is much improved as far as drive-ability, so I am just using those. I expect them to fail at some point. I will be able to testify to their worthiness I guess when that happens. So far, so good.
Kenny: That is Good. I envy your progress. I am just starting and I am havig issues but am working through them. My mower is much simpler and smaller than the ones you and the others are using.
Wish me luck.
33 inch single blade 19.5 Hp 2 cyl B/S engine.
drives are 2x60 Sabertooth controller with a couple of 24volt wheelchair motors
Radiolink AT 10 TRx and a Radiolink Pixhawk Clone.
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Doug,
That is very nice looking. I would be very interested in understanding the details of your design: motor type, etc. If you decide to post additional info on Youtube, here, or anywhere, please let me know! If I can help in any way, don’t hesitate to ask. I plan to post more videos. I have been sidetracked with a sprinkler system install for a couple of weeks and haven’t done much with my mower. I’m itching to get it back in service with the newest release of Ardurover. It promises to have improved Pivot Turns which should be great.
Wishing you luck! It was a HUGE amount of work for me, but worth it, so don’t get discouraged! Folks on this forum are amazingly helpful.
Thanks Kenny.
I am using RadioLink equipment but having transmitter to receiver calibration issues in ardurover software. Can get connection right now. I posted pictures and description on the forum a few days ago.
Kenny: Here are two examples of building high torque actuators .
DW
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Well, the time has come for me to build a better actuator! One of my linear actuators has bit the dust as expected. It lasted for a lot of grass cutting, though. It is locked up and blows the fuse on my 12V line from the battery to my controls. I already have he parts to try a lead screw, multi-turn pot and a cordless drill motor. So, that is what I will try first. I will report back in a couple of weeks!
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Adding a pixhawk to a Evatech mower and all this great work will hopefully help me now.
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What telemetry unit are you using and what kind of range do you get? I’m always looking to increase my range.
I bought the RFD 900 plus. http://a.co/d/5Emwq89 . They have 10km range but I don’t have enough land to even properly test that range. On my 7 acres, I have never seen the signal get past 99%, even when I have my laptop in my house and the mower is way back in the yard. The kit I linked from Amazon has cables too which is very convenient if you’re are like me and don’t like making cables.
I think I can see that in my future! I bought mag mount antennas for one of the low cost 433Mhz units which has given me about 1/2 kilometer maybe. For what I have done so far that has been ok, but I have 500 acres and plan to build a spraying rig eventually and will need farther coverage. Thanks for sharing!
Doug,
Have you been able to get your mower going? I’m looking forward to comparing notes since our mowers are so similar.
Vincent:
Yes ,I was able to find the issue and it us now working pretty well. I want to go to rtk soon
Doug
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Vincent; Are you having issues getting your mower to work properly?
I will help you with anything I can,This forum was very good to me in working out my problems.Please post your progress, videos ,questions. I see you bought an Evatech mower. This is very close to my mowers design so setup should be very close These folks are a great help.
Doug
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Doug,
I was having some issues but I think I have things tuned correctly now or at least closer. I will hopefully get a chance in the next day or two to video it cutting grass. Do you have any videos to share? I’d like to see if yours drives similar to mine.
vince
One problem was that my mower would do wild swings when getting to way points. I found that my speed controller (which is mixing steering) would drop from mixed steering to pivot mode if the throttle was too low. I increased the minimum cruise speed, now the mower goes through waypoints without losing control.
Vince: here are some videos of mine on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClQmytv2fMlzSk5Qg0t18ww?view_as=subscriber
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Kenny : When you went to the RTK development kit from Ublox did you remove the dgps completely or can you run them both?
Hi Randy,
I’m trying to trigger some 5v relays with Cube outputs to handle ignition, start, PTO for my mower. Could probably do without start. Controlling ignition to use as a remote stop, and PTO so I’m only spinning the blades when I need to seems worth having working.
Other options would be welcome!
Here is mine just yesterday. Still pretty curved paths though. How striaght are your paths? Love the huge wheels on yours. https://youtu.be/eMcQdq4n67w
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Have you tried more waypoints in the middle of the long runs? That keeps the compass from having to resolve a heading on a long run. ie Higher resolution
Just a thought.