Husqvarna's SMS-enabled Automower 260 ACX: ur lawnz mowed kk?
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 23rd 2009 3:23PM
posted April 23rd 2009 3:23PM
Good news for unmanned lawnmower enthusiasts (we know there are at least two of you out there). Husqvarna's latest, the Automower 260 ACX, can be programmed to send you an SMS text message if something should interrupt the mow job -- because sometimes looking outside to see if your robot is still tending to the lawn is just too much to ask. This bad boy gets an hour on a single charge -- which should be plenty of time to take down about half an acre of lawn -- and upon returning to its docking station, the battery is recharged in roughly forty minutes. Recommended retail price: €4,000 (that's over $5,200). No word yet on a stateside release.
[Via News Market]
[Via News Market]
I worked for a guy in New Jersey that sold these things....
They are freaking awesome.
With regards to cats and dogs, I tried so many time to get the bloody thing to run over my foot, and if were to happen, if the blades where to encounter anything harder then grass they turn in and won't harm the object they encountered.
It has two forms of anti theft protection, a 4 digit code that you can't turn the thing on unless you have, and a loud alarm in the event that it senses its being taken away.
With regards to concerns about grass sticking up and such, my boss has one, his yard looks wonderful.
Those in the North Jersey area interested in buying one check out peggnet.com, they don't have this model, but they have the standard one.
Yikes chief, you tried to get it to run over your foot? I mean I know its important to really test out a product but seriously??
I remember looking into buying a robot lawnmower at a price of $1,800 and that was two years ago. Seems to me that these manufacturers are out to repeat the error of the Great Depression of the 30s, when their ilk began to raise prices of their goods and for the public to begin to refuse to buy them at the inflated prices. That, of course, was what started the manufacturers laying off their employees and the downward spiral began. There goes that greed again.
I have an older model (looks the same as the current ones though), bought in 2005. It has been running non-stop except during winter months. Besides replacing the battery last year and replacing blades every other month, I had to do nothing - and the lawn looks simply awesome.
Also, they have a cheaper model that's around EUR 2400.- which should be enough for most gardens.
Considering my Husqy garden tractor ("tractor" being a term for slightly upgraded riding mower) cost me $3000 and I have to run it myself for 3-4 hours each week, $5200 for one that runs itself sounds like a bargain.
Lessee, $40/hr x 3 hours = $120, the extra $2200 pays for itself in 18 1/3 weeks. Or to put it another way, just about the time the weather gets blisteringly hot in late July, the lawn mowing becomes "free" and I can watch it from the shady back porch with a beer in hand instead of sweating my arse off. Of course, I'd prefer a young hot guy in cutoff shorts and a pushmower for sheer watching entertainment, but that's not really feasible when you have acreage.
As for security... for heavens sake, put a lock on your shed door already.
I don't know about anyone else, but, I find the idea of a robot with cutting blades to be kind of creepy! :/
Why do people keep mentioning the size of their garden? You don't mow your garden, you plant veggies or flowers there. You mow your lawn. (Or yard if you prefer).
Honestly, it's almost as if these people are from a completely different country or something.
It's the lawnmower Batman would use.
All we need now is dildo robot which will go in any hole it finds and do the job.LOL.
The problem with this stupid thing, is that it just rolls around your lawn aimlessly, and by bumping around, the hope is that it'll eventually mow your entire lawn without leaving patches of grass all over that weren't touched by the blades. But this approach will never ensure that the lawn will be mowed completely.
Husqvarna had a simulator on their website of how this thing would work. Out of curiosity, I let the simulator run all night long while I slept. When I woke up, the thing was still running and there were patches of lawn all over that it never touched. Now granted, that was a simulator, but there's no reason to believe that a moving blade with two wheels and no brain, bumping around aimlessly, is going to do any better in real life. But hey, you get to spend five grand for the privilege.
I don't know what all this particular model can do specifically, but if they insist on making these things, then here's a direction (as I've mentioned to them long ago): They'd need to design it so it works with ground sensors of some sort (to also be designed and provided by Husqvarna) that you could install on your own and that outline your lawn to indicate to the lawnmower where the boundaries of your lawn are and not to go beyond. Then additionally, they'd need to give you the ability to program the lawnmower perhaps with a wireless remote control that would allow you to drive and steer it around your lawn once in "programming mode" for instance (as you walk behind it with the remote), and have it remember the path you took it on, working in conjunction with the perimeter sensors, which could then allow it to mow your lawn with some direction from that point on each time you set it loose on its own, which would ensure that it hits every square inch of the grass and in a minimal amount of time. Throw in some obstacle avoidance detectors (which it would absolutely need), and it could then do a reasonable job. But even with a defined perimeter, the whole "bumping around aimlessly" approach is stupid because it's ineffective and a waste of time and energy.
As it currently stands, you could do a better job mowing your lawn yourself than this mindless thing, do it in a fraction of the time, and get some exercise and fresh air on top of it. Then reward yourself with a cold drink. Anytime there's a human brain providing direction to a machine, tasks will be accomplished faster and with greater effectiveness than if the machine were let loose on its own. But honestly, what ever happened to just some good old fashioned hard work? Mowing a lawn isn't hard!