Lawn Dog is an electric / robotic solar charged lawn mower project that evolved from my first robot lawn mower. Lawn Dog however can reach into ditches which is awesome . The new setup allows for a variety of attachments. A solar panel charges batteries during the day but can be charged by normal 110v outlet if needed It takes 2-3 days to charge by solar, which is fine.
The main goal is to make a product that is both versatile and useful outdoors. Lawn work is not always easy and many people have trouble if they have physical impairments , advanced age or sensitivity to outdoor heat or sunlight. Lawn dog is a work horse that takes the difficulty out of property maintenance and is also good for the environment!
I have additional attachments in the works like...
Leaf and trash recovery ( made from a modified electric sweeper)
Spiked aeration turf roller
Fertilizer/ seed spender
22 inch rolling magnet picks up screws, nails and more after projects.
I used a box of 100 screws and drive them into the solid rubber tire, the screws seemed to work really well at holding grip. I may consider moving to a all rubber tractor tire , but this is working fine. The screw heads stick out .5 inches. I will clean them off and coat the tire and screws with a thick coat of liquid rubber from plastidip so I can keep them from scratching the driveway and also have matching black wheels / tires. This guy also needs a paint job !!
First time out in the yard with high grass, I immediately noticed that the wheels are too slippery to keep any grip. I will try some other options to get good grip on the soil without damaging the yard.
These are 8 inch omniwheels, two meshed together I found online, andymart.com
I had to tap on bearings on the original axle the mowers wheels came off of. Two bearings support one wheel. one inner and one outer with a bold on the outside.
The jazzy has a lot of parts I wont need, like the stalk on the top for example. I want to do something to get more grippy wheels as well. In this picture I removed the center post that bolted in.
Ok so I picked up some hardware. 1/2" steel zinc threaded rod , nuts, wing nuts and lock nuts. Should be able to basically slide the shaft in or out by unscrewing a wing nut when done. I removed the original axle and it appears to fit in fine.
Next I need to pull out the grinder and cut away the center post that is in the way and drill out all the holes the shaft will slide through to 1/2"
started stripping down the jazzy and removing brackets , wires and controller that will not be used, it has a circuit breaker set for 30 amps , hmm I wonder if I will leave it in, 15 amps max per battery is not a very high ceiling.
so far I have mulching and leaf removal, I also want to setup a aerator spiked drum roller and inside that roller it would be hollow with holes to spread fertilizer. I tried to do a electric weed eater but both the electric weed eaters I bought died a horrible death , but I still have that idea in the back of my head.
Cool build!
Being a few years past, do you still use this? Do you have any improvements?
I am looking to make one myself and am curious if there is any good to knows for myself.