I replaced my old dead ZT with this one and I love it. Quiet and battery size aligns very well with my mowing schedule. But I am struggling on finding a way to setup the mower to charge when I want it to when leaving it plugged in rather than having to go plug it in at certain times. I know the mower firmware definitely does not have this functionality. So looking to use some IFTTT and solar setup. I want to be able to leave the mower plugged into a smart plug that will turn on when my house is over producing power and charge the mower at those times. But, it seems like there is some sort of handshake between the mower and charger that does not happen if the mower control is not on that I cannot find a way around.
For example, proper procedure is to plug charger into mower then plug charger into wall. I am guessing CubCadet intended this to happen within a close timeframe because when you plug the charger into the mower, the control panel lights up and becomes active. Then when you plug the charger into the wall, the charger will flash a few times and then charging starts and displays on the charger and control panel.
But, if you plug in the charger to the mower and the control panel activates, then wander off for a while to get a drink and let the control panel shut down, if you plug the charger into the wall, it flashes a few times then shuts off. I am guessing that there is a communication handshake that failed as the mower control panel is turned off. At this point you either unplug it all and start over or you can insert and remove the key to activate the panel. At which point the panel waking up starts the charger and charging takes place just fine.
Does anyone know of anyway around this to allow a smart plug to turn the plug on at a setup schedule having the mower and charger already all plugged in but everything turned off and allow charging to start up? Or a way to wake the mower control panel up at a given time with everything already plugged in to start charging? Seems like waking up the control panel is the key here.
(my assumption here is that this is the intended way the charger works and my charger is not somehow defective as the manual says nothing about this specifically and the local dealer started staring at me with a blank face when I asked about this)
Just put a timer on the mowers charging plug
Set it for 12-2pm when your solar system should be at peak production.
Once the battery is fully charged the charger will not draw any power
Just put a timer on the mowers charging plug
Set it for 12-2pm when your solar system should be at peak production.
Once the battery is fully charged the charger will not draw any power
That is how it is setup now. But when the plug turns on the charger just blinks a few times and then does not charge at all. I have to turn the control pad on the mower on for it to start charging. Similar to when you first plug the charger into the mower and the control pad turns on for about 2 minutes. I figure the control pad has to be on to tell the charger if it is ok or not to start charging. Since the control pad times out and turns off after a short period, when the plug turns on if the charger is unable to "ping" the control pad to know it can charge, it doesnt. Seems odd to me as I would have figured the charger has all the controls built into it like a charger and BMS, but not sure. My brothers Ryobi ZTR100 reacts the same way once the control pad times out and shuts off. Guessing sense these are so new, they haven't really thought of functionality like this. Not like these things drink that much power, but offloading what I can from the grid is nice.
