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The Lawnbot400 with an automatic bucket-lift motor.

I found a linear actuator on Ebay that was used to lift a reclining seat on a power-wheelchair. In about 30 minutes, the motor was mounted and lifting. The motor was designed to lift a few-hundred pounds, so it should hold up just fine. It lifts a full bucket of dirt with no problem.

Made the cover of MAKE magazine.

Check it out at make-digital.com (issue 22), Or you can buy it at Barnes and Noble.

The Lawnbot400 with it's new bucket.

I decided to put a proper bucket on the Lawnbot400 since I verified that it would in fact carry that much weight across the yard and still be maneuverable. So I got a few gate hinges and welded them to the front riser (angle-iron with bolts) that I had to add to keep the weight off the lights and mower engine. There is also a height-adjustable rear riser that holds the rear of the bucket. The original plan was of course, to put a linear actuator under the bucket and control it with a toggle-switch on the R/C remote. I found a few places that sold them, this one will give you an idea of what they look like. But I decided to hold out when my Uncle told me he had a linear actuator from an old satellite dish that sounds promising. Anyways, I can lift a full bucket of dirt with one hand, so it doesn't have to be automatic to be useful.

The Lawnbot400 clearing some land.

My buddy went through and cut down a bunch of trees on his property with a chain-saw, and asked me to bring the Lawnbot400 over to clear out the rest. It ran like a champ until we started hitting stumps... then I had to re-start the mower several times. Also I had the deck lowered to cut grass (not bush-hog), so it was not ideal for the terrain but still fun. Driving the Lawnbot400 out there always points out the weakest spots, but it drove home in 1 piece and is ready to go out again, so no complaints.

The Lawnbot400 being used to haul dirt across the yard.

The Lawnbot400 as it will be seen in MAKE Magazine.

In late 2009, I submitted the Lawnbot400 as a project for MAKE Magazine. I was surprised when Mark Frauenfelder (the editor-in-chief of MAKE) emailed me back saying they wanted me to write an article for the magazine. So, I painted it and they took some professional photos of it - I thought I would snap a few before it got all dirty again. Look for it in the April issue of MAKE - www.makezine.com.

Score 1 for the PicAxe

My best friend got me a PicAxe development board for my birthday, so I took that as a cue to start learning the Basic programming language. I learned enough in 1 hour to replicate the same code that took me 8 months to create with the Arduino in the C programming language. Given, that 8 months included some grunt work that would have been included in learning any type of programming language, but still... it was pretty easy and has 1/4th the code of the Arduino.

Check it out here.

The Lawnbot400 gets a paint job

I finally decided to paint the Lawnbot400 since the angle-iron already had some rust on it and it appears that it will, as hoped, be my primary (only) mower. So I asked my wife to help me pick out colors and came up with a paint-scheme on the fly. I had a favorite motorcycle that was black and yellow... so I decided to go with what I knew. The blue came as a suggestion of my wife, which turned out nice. I had to give props to Jesus Christ since He is the reason I'm here, so you will notice a few emblems on the mower deck.

The Open Source Motor Controller (OSMC)

I looked around at the open source motor controller for the Lawnbot400 before building the Triple8, but initially decided against it because of the $120 each price tag. I then looked at the OSMC bare PCB thinking I would roll my own, but they are $30 each! But since it is a proven design and it surpasses the limitations of my home-built controller with ease, I decided that I wanted one - I just didn't want to pay $240 to make my robot move.

After designing and etching several successful PCB's, I decided that I would use the schematic from the OSMC v3.22 and make a single-sided PCB layout with only through-hole components - no surface mounting and you can etch it at home. Check out the page here.

Some Pics:

This is the Isotope11 proto-bot.

Check out some kitty robot videos here.

Notice all the electronics are mounted underneath the plexiglass now. And it is ride-able, for very short trips.