>
> Can we get some pictures? Drawings? plans? tutorials? etc...

Be careful what you wish for. I've been a member of the Mowbot mailing list
for several years. And just like bears, it sleeps in the winter and awakes
every spring with the new hope of robotic lawnmowers. But for some reason
it has stayed dormant this spring.

It's site with pictures, projects, and archives is located at:

http://members.xoom.com/Mowbot/

My slowly developing project is to outfit a Sears push reelmower with
drive electronics. I settled on this system because none of the cutting
systems I tried, including spinning cirular saw blades with a car fan
blower motor, ever gave anything close to satisfactory results.

My plan is to work a system live Dave Everett's or Steve Maziarz's listed
on the site. My current technology is a 33 AH Lead Acid battery powering
two windshield wiper motors.

I'm currently idling at getting the motors, chains, and spockets, firmly
attached. In my last prototype all my failure modes were at wood joints
or thin metal.

I found that on the mowbot list there was way too much discussion about control
systems and not enough about the basics, movement and cutting. There seemed
to be too much focus on total autonomy where simpler systems (beacons, maps,
bumpers) could easily solve the problems of directing the beast.

BTW James I've love to see a robot/mowbot specific tag here on the PICLIST
discussing drive systems and control electronics.

Just my 2 cents.

BAJ
>
> ---
> James Newton (PICList Admin #3)
> mailto:jamesnewton@piclist.com 1-619-652-0593
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Lawrence Lile
> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 11:11
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: [EE]: Mowbot Theft control (was Battery surplus)
>
>
> Last night I finally got a bank of Tim's surplus NIMH batteries hooked up to
> the motors of my mowbot, and actually mowed some grass.  The mowbot has no
> brains as of yet, just motors and batteries, so I had to pick it up and turn
> it around at the ends of the yard, but it was still a satisfying achievment.
> "May 7, 2001" I sez to myself  "The first day I mowed my lawn from an easy
> chair."
>
> Ironically, my neighbor across the street was mowing his yard the way the
> old-timers did, with a noisy, cantankerous, hard-to-start , smelly and
> polluting internal combustion engine.  I felt kind of guilty sitting in my
> lawn chair, sipping lemonade and reading a novel while quietly mowing my
> grass, whilst he sweated away.
>
> I've been mulling over different theft control schemes for the Mowbot.  I'm
> worried about someone lifting it while I'm not looking.
>
> The heart of my theft control scheme is going to be a 108 dB horn honking in
> the would-be theif's face.  With a 10 amp-hour battery, and 300mA draw for
> the horn, it'll honk about 33 hours before the battery quits.  Enough to try
> the patience of most thieves, and alert any nosy nieghbors ( I have several)
> . The PIC will not give up honking as long as it has power.  A bit set in
> EEPROM could also remember that it was in alarm mode when the power quit
> last time.  A nice keyswitch or a secret number typed in a keypad will
> disable the alarm.
>
> But how to sense the theif is stealing my 'bot? (without actually killing
> him)   Hmmmmmm......  I sense one of those [OT]:cows discussions coming
> up....
>
>
> -- Lawrence Lile
>
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