Husqvarna 265ACX (or 260ACX) Automower.

1 Lucky Texan

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not trying to thread hi-jack, maybe borrow?

What would folks look for nowadays in a robotic mower? In the States, I think we also get McCulloch but, is that the same as Husqvarna?

I'm moving and, while many homes we've looked at have small yards, 1 or 2 have been large enough that the idea of a robotic mower seems attractive.

seems like there are some units now under $1000 USD.
 

Perry

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Re: Husqvarna 450X Automower.

Coxy 2

To my great anguish and dismay, Coxy 'died' recently. Aged 4.5 years. RIP.

Electronics beyond repair, caused by moisture ingress and consequential damage.

So Coxy2 is now on the job. (23 Mar 2018) He's a 450X model. His forerunner here was model 265ACX.
attachment.php

Smaller, lighter, three instead of five blades, reduced blade disc diameter so a reducing cutting width (310mm down to 240mm), less transformer-to-charging-station cable length, but - despite that - he's doubtless a technological advancement.
:confused3:
Oh! That's right. It's got LED strip headlights!

attachment.php


Really?!

At least the existing boundary wires did not need replacing. And the price is unchanged from 4.5 years ago! No cable, pegs jointers or the like supplied, so that likely explains why!

You want wheels with that? Mag wheels, at that! (Well, coloured, anyway)

The existing mains-transformer-to-charging-station cable and transformer were not interchangeable. A great piece of built-in obsolescence. And the battery packs are different! Having just bought new ones for the 265ACX a few months ago, that's not great news.

But Coxy2 has a few significant software changes. Among them is spiral cutting mode and GPS mowing location data management. Supposedly, that means the guide wires are redundant. He's been set to work 24 / 7 for three days, to get his grass / GPS / star fix sorted.

Looking out the window, after dark, one has to wonder at the sight of this illuminated, mini-digital-dinosaur gobbling away at the grass.

The manual that came with it was rather brief. A proper, full operator's manual had to be downloaded via the Internet. All 100 pages of it.

More later, as I learn more. Literally.
 

1 Lucky Texan

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can you keep the new battery packs for the new one?

can you get a replacement PC board?
 

Perry

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can you keep the new battery packs for the new one?
From what I can tell, the battery packs are quite different. If you look at the pic below, you can see the extra pair. Coxy did not have those extra two piggy-backed. Chevy (what he's been named) mows for over 4 hours between charges and spends an hour re-charging. Coxy was 2 hours mowing 30 mins. re-charging. But 5 blades and and extra 4 inches cutting disc diameter likely explains that differing behaviour of Coxy.
Nov-17_Akku_Husqvarna_Automower_320_330x_420_18V_Li-Ion_6800mAh_UD10-G-01_3ebay.jpg


can you get a replacement PC board?
The problem is that mower shops are not yet electronics engineers / repairers.

I plan to inquire of people who are.
 

1 Lucky Texan

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Perry, what kind of grass is your lawn and what cutting height(s) do you use?
 

Perry

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Re: Husqvarna 450X Automower.

Perry, what kind of grass is your lawn and what cutting height(s) do you use?
Hybrid dwarfing rye, mostly (lolium perenne) with some agrostis stoloniferous (creeping bent) and - more recently - some over-sown chewings and creeping red fescue. (Festuca rubra xxxx)

Supposedly, fescue is more resistant to Rhizoctonia solani (brown patch) and - with luck - dollar spot (Sclerotinia homoeocarpa).

Although an off-lable application, I'm going to try and control paspalum in the lawn with haloxyfop-P (trade name here is Gallant), if / when the fescue gets established. My information is that fescue is resistant to Gallant. If that works, it may allow the fescue to become dominant. One drawback is that the fescues aren't good in shade. Trouble is, no one can define for me, what exactly shade is, in that context.

We have many trees, but they are standardised, so the lawn areas beneath them do get sun and open light from one direction or another, as ol' sol moves across the sky.

I'm not keen on short lawn length, so tend to have longer-grass-length than most. Chevy's range is 2 to 6 cm cutting height. The numbers used in the cutting height menu are a bit abstruse: 2(min) - 9(max). Presuming #9 to equal 6cm [2.36"] and #2 to equal 2cm [0.79"], then the numbers in the menu do not directly correlate with the centimetre graduations. Chevy is presently set to cutting height #5. My best guess is that's around 1.4" [3.5cm] so a bit above the half way mark.

I may eventually drop that to #4, which should be close to the 1" [2.5cm] height - a figure I regard as optimum for most domestic lawns.
 

bertsmobile1

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Actually that will vary with your rainfall.
As you are from the shakey Isles where it rains more then the UK I guess that 1" might suffice but over here anything less than 2" requires heavy watering twice a week during summer.
 
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not trying to thread hi-jack, maybe borrow?

What would folks look for nowadays in a robotic mower?

Building on the things that these mowers already do well, I would sum it up as "more mowing with fewer interruptions."

Less need to clean mulch goop out of the cutting deck. Automatic battery swapping to enable simultaneous mowing and charging, given enough battery packs.

Moving to wish-list stuff:

weekly/monthly/seasonal stats in the control app
camera to shoot selfies in locations where the computer must employ the most obstacle avoidance and extraction subroutines- learn where a landscaping change might help or at least get a pic of the deer that kicked it
mars explorer mode for the kids
printer driver to mow messages along the curb
 

Perry

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Re: Husqvarna 450X Automower.

The new chum - Chevy - has GPS capability, when the signals are available.

Battery swaps are not really an option or need - because it returns to base for re-charging.

There's also a function that allows Chevy to self-regulate its mowing behaviour, to some degree.

I have not activated this feature, yet.

Manual said:
This function allows the robotic lawnmower to automatically adjust its mowing times based on how quick the lawn grows. When the weather is good for grass growth, the robotic lawnmower mows more often and when grass growth is slower, the robotic lawnmower will automatically spend less time on the lawn. The robotic lawnmower will however not operate longer than the time that is set in the timer settings.

From that, I glean that setting a maximum time would allow Chevy to cut down the mowing hours in winter (here) when grass growth is minimal.

There's a caveat in the manual about blade status. From that, I suspect that an aggregate of the load on the blade disc motor over an extended period would be what determines if Chevy is going to stop mowing earlier than his timer requires.
 

Perry

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Re: Husqvarna 450X Automower.

Spring is upon us, here in New Zealand.

Chevy is having his hours increased and the cutting height has been dropped from the winter setting of five, to the summer setting of four.

We had a few days of solid rain, a while back, so I told Chevy to 'park up' until that was passed. Even allowing for the seasonal changes which would accelerate grass growth, it did take Chevy longer to subdue the three days un-mown growth than it would have taken for Coxy. I put that down to the blade disc diameter. Coxy was 310mm; Chevy is 240mm.

On a few days, I invoked the timer override option so that Chevy worked for 24 hours before reverting to the normally programmed times. It looks a bit odd, seeing him wandering around, after dark, LED headlights ablaze.

Chevy seems to make quite frequent use of circular cutting mode - something that was disabled in Coxy. I may be able to show a pic of that behaviour, soon.

This coming southern hemisphere summer will be the first for Chevy, so there may be a few lessons to be learned, yet.

As mentioned some time back, we have a pond around which Chevy mows.

Anyone with an affinity for 'cute,' might enjoy the pix to be found here. The little quackers are a Mallard / Pekin cross.
 
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