My Automated Lawn Mower

[simong1993]

Hey all, so i don't know if anyone will be interested but i thought it could be fun. So i am lazy, i wont lie. If i don't have to i wont. I am tight too and these two don't go hand in hand well lol. I have a 3D printer and some parts so i am going to build a Lawn Mower 😀 The idea is simple and here is my parts list :-

3x Ultra Sonic Sensors, I plan to use these to guide it. One for the front and one for each side, my hope is to get a 180 field of view.
1x Camera, Just so i can watch it 😀
1x Pi Zero, I chose the Zero as it uses not a lot of electric but does what i need, it is a big laggy so i may upgrade to a pi4 later on.
3x DC motors, 2 will power my tracks and one will power the trimmer motor
2x Battery banks, 1 for the pi and one for the motors. I am hoping to hook these up to solar panels 😀
1x Level sensor, Simple idea. If it is no longer flat then turn off the trimmer motor 😀

The idea, is simple. To be able to sit at my desk and mow the lawn, so far ive got a little robot that can go, forward, left and right. My partner got me this kit for Christmas so its helped https://camjam.me/?page_id=1035 . I can also control it over the wifi so thats handy. I will upload a picture of it tomorrow and a link to my github in case anyone wants to follow along ow and i will be uploading my STL files for it too 😀

 

[BorkedSystem32]

Although I'm not a big automation fan, this is genius on a whole other level!

Will this be programmed in Python? If so, I'll be amazed at what you're going to do with it. Good luck with the project!

I'm definitely interested to see where this goes. Keep us updated.

 

[simong1993]

Yep i plan to do the whole thing in Python 😀 I am hopeful that by summer next year i can have a few of these doing the garden, like cleaning the pateo, mowing the grass etc 😀. there was a few things i have done different then the Camkit. instead of using 4 AAs in a battery pack, my motor controller is hooked up directly to a battery bank via a USB and i can remote into my PI and control it 😀

Here is a link to my GitHub code 😀 - https://github.com/simong93/LawnMower-Project

and here is some photos, kinda ugly at the moe but i still need to Finnish adding the ultrasonic sensors then ill move onto designing the body and the tracks 😀

 

[BorkedSystem32]

Yep i plan to do the whole thing in Python 😀 I am hopeful that by summer next year i can have a few of these doing the garden, like cleaning the pateo, mowing the grass etc 😀. there was a few things i have done different then the Camkit. instead of using 4 AAs in a battery pack, my motor controller is hooked up directly to a battery bank via a USB and i can remote into my PI and control it

Quite a reasonable time frame - I bet you it will be done by Spring next year, seeing as you're using Python. If you can get it doing all of that, then again, I will be impressed.

The battery bank is also genius - how long can it go before needing charged though?

Also, I love what I'm seeing in those photos. Making me want a Pi even more, even though when I think about buying one, the only thing that comes to my mind is: server, server, server, desktop, server, server, ...

 

[simong1993]

Quite a reasonable time frame - I bet you it will be done by Spring next year, seeing as you're using Python. If you can get it doing all of that, then again, I will be impressed.

The battery bank is also genius - how long can it go before needing charged though?

Also, I love what I'm seeing in those photos. Making me want a Pi even more, even though when I think about buying one, the only thing that comes to my mind is: server, server, server, desktop, server, server, ...

I haven't had a chance to full test it yet but the one powering the PI has been going for 3 days now and still alive lol but the PI zero does use minimum power so that's probably why. The motor battery bank i haven't had a chance to test yet, i probably could crunch some numbers lol but the power bank running it is so so old its probably half the capacity of what it was new :S

Lol thats why i had so many, ive got a Pi3, PI3b,Pi4 2x Pi Zero W with headers and one Pi Zero W without headers. Pi4 does my 3d printer but the rest just lay around now. They used to be servers but now ive got some I5s that do the job alot quicker lol

 

[BorkedSystem32]

I haven't had a chance to full test it yet but the one powering the PI has been going for 3 days now and still alive lol but the PI zero does use minimum power so that's probably why. The motor battery bank i haven't had a chance to test yet, i probably could crunch some numbers lol but the power bank running it is so so old its probably half the capacity of what it was new :S

Interesting. Just watch that power bank in case it goes, as you'll have to be doing the garden yourself in that scenario.

Lol thats why i had so many, ive got a Pi3, PI3b,Pi4 2x Pi Zero W with headers and one Pi Zero W without headers. Pi4 does my 3d printer but the rest just lay around now. They used to be servers but now ive got some I5s that do the job alot quicker lol

The Pis definitely amaze me in what they can do: desktop, server, robot, and now the lawn. What next? Spaceships(Pi CTRL-SpaceX???)?

Would definitely love to get one at some point, but I just need to find where to put it to good use. I'm sure something will pop up eventually.

 

[simong1993]

Lol, im making it so the battery banks can be swapped out easy 😀

Its funny, i was talking to Malcolm the other day out a Micro Satellite. My design will be using a Pi Zero and a PI4, I feel a pi zero would be enough as it uses next to no power and speed is no of the essence when its up there but at the same time what will handle the extreme cold/radiation better and will the extra ram/processing power come in handy. Just in the process of learning my Radio courses so i can do my radio licenses and communicate with it then ill start building but i don't see this being for a few years yet lol 😀

 

[simong1993]

Update 😀

So i got the Ultrasonic sensor installed and a new power bank. It run the PI Zero for 2 days and lost 2 out of 4 bars. once the motors where running it loses a bar an hour so 4 hours run time is long enough. Also now it has half the weight 😀 New issue i have found is even though the sensors are good there not good enough, it keeps bumping into things and not knowing there is anything there. To solve this i am planning to add a bumper to the front on a switch, when it bumps into something it will back up 30-40cm turn left and carry on its way. I am just doing the design but i will upload a new picture soon and code 😀