Can the E maxx help mow the lawn?
 

Ok, here's another brainchild of mine.

After tieing for MT Build of the year for 2008, I have to come up with something unique for this year also.

Here are the first pictures. I'll add more pictures as things begin to evolve more into the build.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07538.jpg

Here we have mounted rails on the body posts, and designed a battery box in the back to help balast the weight of the attachment that will be going in the front. The shocks have been beefed up some, but I have a feeling they will need replaced with much stiffer versions.

The Truck itself is setup on 10,000mah 4S Lipo with a MM modded with a Cap and a CC BEC. The Motor is an AXI 2826/10 12 pole outrunner. Making 920kv, it has a fan mounted that pulls air through the motor to keep it cool. Being geared 20/68, it shouldn't have a problem pulling this, even with the huge tires.

I have a 52 tooth Mod 1 spur on it's way. I may choose to go 12/52 with the gearing. Top Speed is not a priority with this build. In fact, this will be geared in the 10mph to 15 mph range.

Noticed the 4"x4"x 1/8" aluminum angle hanging off the front?

Well here's the rest of the deck that will be hinged from that.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07539.jpg

This will form the mowing deck. Trial and error will come into play I'm sure.

Now for the power plants:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07541.jpg

The Blue motor will not be used. Instead, let's go with the gold motors. They are a pair of AXI 4130/16 outrunner motors. On 4S, they will spin the weed cutters at over 6000rpms. They will be powered by a pair of 80amp airplane esc's.

Each motor is capable of about 1.5 hp. I'll mount the AXI cooler fans to the motors to control temps.

The plan is:

Hang the mower deck from hinges, then mount two 200oz servos to raise and lower it. In the up position, it will be turned off. In the down position, it will be powered.

How might this be accomplished you wonder?

Well, since servo's and esc's alike are both controlled by pulse width modulation, I discovered something.

The 3rd channel can turn off, and also turn on at full throttle, airplane esc's. This third channel will raise and lower the deck, and also turn on and off the motors. All accomplished by the thumb trigger on a 3 channel tq3 radio. :yes:

I'm using 3/16" aluminum pop rivits to hold everything together. It has a long way to go, but I'll keep you updated as progress develops.

Rc weedeater, I love it!

Great idea!

Fun...
 

Looks like a fun project for sure. You can mow your lawn and have fun doing it this way as long as you can keep things up and running. Good luck with that.:lol:

if you get good at making these, im sure you can sell it as a kit haha

That's cool.

Do you ever post anything that has value to it?


Will the mover have height adjustments?


something like a winch servo that compresses the suspension so that it lowers the cutting deck?

Also, I'd be looking at rear-wheel steering to get a sharper turn radius. Or, implement something that allows 0-turn radius like "tank mode" or something like that. Otherwise, looks neat.

Thinking.
 

Come to think of it a mower usually does not have any kind of cushy suspension, so you will have to limit your suspension travel or you will just jam the blades into the lawn as it goes over bumps and such. The zero turn radious is another good idea for sure. Nice idea though. If you install a video camera for driving you could also mow your lawn from the comfort of your eazy chair while watching the NBA playoff games. Go Orlando, Go Denver, Booooooo LAL.

This thing is going to be sweet! I can imagine it now..

http://www.spoonersturf.co.uk/Images/StripedLawn.jpg

I almost forgot: Make sure you have a good radio! Since this thing has potentially fatal blades spinning at high rpm, you don't want to have a runaway or glitches and possibly run over someone's pet, or worse, a kid.

Depends???
 

That really depends on wheather or not he likes his neighbors, or their kids & pets???? I use those same blades on my weedwacker and I can tell you that they are deadly if used in the wrong situation. Plastic or not they can really do some damage, but man can they cut through the crapp.:lol:

The suspension will be pretty rigid to make for a smoother cut. The blades should remain at the same height throughout the ride. LOL

The mower will have some height adjustments in the body post adjustments.

About 1" or a little over of adjustment there.

I plan on trying the rear wheel steering a different way.

Reverse the Throttle channel, reverse the steering channel, then it will drive normally, backwards. Only the steering will be in the rear.

I've tried this before just playing around and it makes for a wild "feel".

Another thought is, guide rails along the sides to hold the blades just off that thing that you wanna trim close to. Or maybe a guide wheel on each side of the mowing deck.

Thanks Jerry,

The Camera idea did cross my mind. In fact, I have a wireless camera here that is up to the job.

I'll get the mower working first and possibly move onto playing around with that also.

I remember hooking up a bumper cam to an E maxx and driving all the way around the house while watching the cam on TV from my living room.

I know the cam idea will work and it does get pretty hot out there. :yes:

I've often wondered what Dogs/Cats think when they see things like this out in the yard? They always look at it like "WHAT THE HELL?" :lol:

Thanks, I think it will be sweet too.

It's going to have a 20" cut! :yes:

@ Brian: The Best safety on this creation is the remote stop switch.

Sure.
 

We are sure you will have some fun, as your projects are always a blast to monitor. I like the idea of putting guide wheels or 360 casters under the mower deck as that is the method used on most commercial mowers now a days. That would be the best way to face off with the neighborhood pit bull, is by viewing it from your lounge chair while you face off with a snarling killer. At least no one gets hurt that matters:oops:. That would make an awesome video on UTube or facebook. Fighting it out on video between a brushless project and some mangie old pooch:lol:. Too funny:rofl:.

I would think your guide wheels around the cutting blades idea would be the way to go (basically like most conventional ride-ons). then they would support the cutting deck and you could almost leave the suspension stock. The car would just push the cutting deck along. You would still have to beef up the suspension and add weight to the back if you still want to be able to lift the deck though i suppose.

Are you going to run some really thick oil in the diffs so it won't get stuck as easy?

Ok, we have updates.

I got the cutting deck built and installed. Also installed the motors, esc's, and the cutting heads.

The wiring harness is complete. It even works.

The 3rd channel on the radio does successfully turn on and off the cutting deck.

It's still untested, but that will be coming soon. :yes:

It appears like housing 20,000mah of Lipo on 4S will be pretty easy.

Here's some pictures.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07552.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07555.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07558.jpg

What wheels, tires are those - What hex do they have?

PS do the blades overlap otherwise you will have a gap in your cut...

Do the blades spin out to stop the grass filling up under the car?

Here's a thread showing some pics of the wheels and tires when they were new.

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10674

I'm pretty sure they are 23mm hex adapters. They are pretty big.

They are currently set to counter rotate outwards, front and center. I'm with you on that line of thinking.

It should help sweep the grass away and to the side, instead of humping it up underneath.

Neat-O prodject ! Look forward to more progress reports and Video.

Highly Recomend wearing Hockey shin Protectors and steel Toed Boots for Testing ?

Looks good Sike. I need to get some work done on my 0 turn as I have the motors now!

Nice striping! I'll bet it was done by a Walker mower or some kind or reel mower w/rollers.

Thanks Linc.

I took the underside picture for you Linc. It shows the prop adapters.

In the pack of goodies that comes with the cutter head, choose a spacer that's too small, then drill the hole to fit the thread.

I also added a large pan washer and a lock washer. If this doesn't hold, I'm thinking Blue Loctite on the threads.

The Prop adapters are aluminum. I wish they were steel. But afterall, they do pull around some really large air planes. There is a fear of over-tightening for me here.

If there is a problem, Red Loctite between the Collet and shaft would lock it down. (And also make things really tough to disassemble)

Linc, I'm really looking forward to your zero turn mower. You may convince me to redo this one.

Are you going to use free floating swivel casters in the front, just like the big boys?

Not my yard, but it's done by a lawn roller (like a mini, handheld steam roller) or by tying a piece of pvc pipe filled with lead shot and having it drag behind the mower.

Dang it's HOT outside today.

Just got back in from testing. This thing will definately cut! :yes: Even the big stuff.

About 20 minutes into mowing the right cutter head began starting and stopping, and generally acting erratic. Then the "Mystery" 80 amp ESC let out the smoke. UGH! POS!

I researched this esc before it was installed and couldn't find information on weither or not it had an internal bec. I'm thinking it does and this may have been the cause of it's death.

The other ESC is a RC Smart 80amp esc and is definately opto. It performed like a champ. In fact, it has some really desireable things built into it. If you hit something really hard and stop the blade, this ESC will shut off. It wasn't thermaling, because it ran cool. Then just turn it off, and back on again. Ready to go again. Cutting head motor temp is fine.

After about an hour of mowing and playing around, I was about to melt.

Cell voltage at rest is 3.82 after an hour of running. 20,000mah on 4S total.

Cutting head speed is good.

One thing I don't like about this setup, it's too bouncy.

To stiffen up the front, I replaced the shock oil with silicone. This makes the front end like a straight axle.

There's more weight in the front, than in the rear. Hmmmm............I'll have to work on this.

Time to get another ESC on order. I'll have time to think about this.

Any Suggestions guys?

Just remove shocks and fit it with turnbuckles.

Lead weights on rear axle / on wheels

wow, that's going to be very cool when it's all done!

Good luck!

Use lead acid batts from a scooter or something Won't be bouncy at all then.

I plan to not run any suspension on the zero turn that I am building. Maybe weight the wheels as well. I plan to use 40 series wheels, and mulcher tires for grip. I may line the inside of the rim (not inside the tire, just inside the rim) with sticky lead weights if it bounces too much.

Hopefully my quark escs work better than that mystery esc did...

Did you ever finish this and do you have any videos, pretty freaking cool!