Rise of The Robo-Mowers

William Saletan, a Slate writer, exhibits an impressive level of paranoia regarding robot lawnmowers. One example: Kyodo says the LB3500 comes with enhanced safety features: “a higher sensitivity, free-floating, 360° bumper shell, blade stop proximity sensor, and an on-board alarm system should an unauthorized user pick up the Lawnbott.” Still, we’re talking about a slicing machine that runs around by itself and can’t even be stopped by power depletion. You really have to read the whole thing
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A Rough Spring

As I wrote previously, I was planning to redo Betsie’s front yard wire. Strangely enough though, when I started her up for the first mow of the spring, the wire was connecting perfectly and I didn’t have to fiddle with anything at all. I was quite surprised. After getting the grass short I planted some grass seed that the previous owners of the house had left in the shed. I just tossed it around by hand on the bare spots under the trees (it was a shade grass mix). It had been dated spring 07,
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Talking to myself versus to an audience

It is strange having a blog that you know people read. My livejournal, which I’ve had since 1999, has never had many followers, so I just talk to myself and feel free to complain about things. It’s actually been “friends only” since I discovered a co-worker reading it a few years ago, I didn’t want to have to worry about what I might have said about my job being too public. Betsie’s blog, this blog, started because I wanted to tell people about my cool new creature. I talked about her in so ma
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[RoboMower] Replacement battery for RL500

Amazon has two batteries, a RL17H http://www.amazon.com/Friendly-Robotics-Robomower-RL17H- 80101/dp/B0009KM23O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1210545251&sr=1-1 and a UNT0009A http://www.amazon.com/Friendly-Robotics-Spare-Power- UNT0009A/dp/B00008VE49/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1210545251&sr=1-11 Will both of them work with the RL500? ———————————— Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group
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[RoboMower] The world’s first solar electric hybrid robot lawn mower

Nice swedish lawnmower. http://www.automower.com/ ———————————— Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RoboMower/ Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RoboMower/join (Yahoo! ID required) To change settings via email: mailto:RoboMower-digest@yahoogroups.com mailto:RoboMower-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.
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[RoboMower] New wheels on RL500

Just got a set of new wheels/tires for my RL500-B mower. Picked up a can of spray-in lithium grease, sprayed it in the axles with the wheels off and replaced the wheels with the newer knobby types. First, the mower is a good bit faster. Makes sense, bigger tires=faster mower. Makes a bit less noise with the grease, which is good. Turns *much* better when it hits the wire now. Also had to lower the rear end with the adjustment lever, seems to mow nicely. Overall, well worth the cost and time
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Re: [RoboMower] Friendly Robotics

I wanted to know, I think someone has answered this one before, but, I wanted to know if it was possible to leave the batteries joined in series, but connect two separate 12 volt charges to the individual batteries, or, in order to charge the two batteries in the battery pack individually, if you have to disconnect them from series and then charge them. ———————————— Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
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RE: [RoboMower] Re: UB12220 battery review

“as I found out a long time ago you get what you pay for!” Minor correction. Over the years I’ve corrected this to read “you always pay for what you get”. Unfortunately, I don’t always get what I pay for! Dan _____ From: RoboMower@yahoogroups.com [mailto:RoboMower@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob and Barbara Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 5:14 PM To: RoboMower@yahoogroups.com Subject: [RoboMower] Re: UB12220 battery review Hey Dan, I’m exactly with you on this also. I need 3+
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[RoboMower] Re: UB12220 battery review

Hey Dan, I’m exactly with you on this also. I need 3+ hours of mowing also to get my lawn mowed well. Anything less than that and Robo is not much of a use to me because I’d have to go around and “tidy” up the missed spots with the lawn tractor. Sure the cost of the batteries is a factor as long as it’s reasonable for what I am getting. I’m Not looking for cheap, as I found out a long time ago you get what you pay for! If I get better than a season out of a set of batteries and they do th
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RE: [RoboMower] UB12220 battery review

Hi Danny, Re: 15% more mowing time being important. To me both mowing time and cycle life are important. In fact, if a battery doesn’t get 3 hours or so mowing, it doesn’t matter to me if it lasts 1000 cycles. Of course the converse is also true. a battery that lasts 5 hours for 10 cycles isn’t much use either. While economics are important, my lawn just doesn’t get mowed well if the mower doesn’t run a long time. Dan _____ From: RoboMower@yahoogroups.com [mailto:RoboMower@yahoogro
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