Husqvarna 265ACX (or 260ACX) Automower.

[Perry]

Further Developments

That's what Coxy's charging station looks like, when Coxy's not at home
and the charging station is not at home, either! It's waiting for the dealer
to come and take it away, so that Coxy and his charging station can be
sent back to the NZ distributor.

Why's that?

Well, back a few posts ago, you'll find mention of the stress fracture in
Coxy's cowling. Subsequent to the cowling replacement, Husqvarna NZ
asserted that the damage was not covered by the warranty, as it was
damage resulting from abuse.

HHmmmm, I have been frustrated by some aspects of this protracted
experience, but abusing the mower, physically, was not one of the stress
release options I made use of. I may have muttered darkly, under my
breath about a certain company and it's local distributor, but kicking
the living crap out of the mower was not an option that I considered!

Subsequently, my response was to ask about a couple of things:

* What was the assessment protocol and methodology used;

and

* What were the qualifications of the person carrying out the assessment?

I followed that up with the (repeated) comment that Coxy did not always
slow to half speed prior to hitting an object and that it was inconsistent
in that behaviour. I also wondered if the plastic cowling was up to the
number of full speed collisions that Coxy was experiencing.

Then there was an offer from Husqvarna NZ to buy back the mower at
full retail! Huh? I suggested that supplying a replacement mower would
be more cost effective, but . . .

As many wont know, the 265ACX is (AFAIK) the only automower model
that has two speeds. All the smaller models run at (or about) what is
the equivalent of Coxy's half speed.

Coxy has two ultra sound sensors intended to detect an object in its
path and prompt it to slow to half speed, before impact.

The hapless and seemingly indefatigably patient dealer collected Coxy
last night, after previously obtaining replacement sensors and even
a replacement motherboard, in case they were needed to fix the problem.

Alas, the problem may be deeper. Dealers have a computer-based program
called autocheck. But, the dealer told me, it can only peer so deeply into
Coxy's electronic brain. After that, it's boldly go where no dealer's laptop
program has gone before . . .

Which is why Coxy's charging station was not where it usually is. It was
removed and cleaned so the dealer could collect it and send it, along with
Coxy, back to the NZ agents, who do have a computer program that can
look deeply into Coxy's e-brain, in an effort to find out why the sensor
psychosis problem is what it is.

Once again, we wait. All the while, watching the grass grow unabated,
with no fear of some wickedly scything razor blades wielded by a grey
monster, whizzing by, seeking to emasculate any gay young blades.

 

[Lawnboy18]

Re: Further Developments

Very interesting thread!

This mower has seem to give you manny problems. I hope it gets fixed.

 

[Perry]

Ancient Advert

Many, many years ago, in the days of black and white TV in New Zealand,
a company took a bold step with it's advertising. The owner appeared in
the advert and commented along these lines:

It's not right the way some salespeople don't seem to care.
It's the putting right that counts.

If you bought it from us and it doesn't do what we say it should,
we'll replace it.

And if you don't get the right response when you bring anything
back to our stores, ask for me by name - Alan Martin.

That man and that advert became household bywords. I once visited
one of the LV Martin stores with a problem product and the response
was as advertised. The salesperson showed genuine concern, asked
no questions, offered a replacement or anything else from the shop
to the same value; even expressing greater contrition because the
item was a birthday present to me.

I accept that some products of this era, in any particular model line,
with many mass-produced components, will have the odd defect.
As the dealer says: "that's what warranties are for."

All well and good, but supplying it with a software fault that should
have been detected as part of a pre-distribution check, either in
Sweden or in New Zealand, plus the NZ distributor sending it out with
the wrong boundary and guide wire connectors - ones that required
a special tool*, as opposed to the pliers press-fit type . . . are far more
than I class as a reasonably acceptable number of defects in a new
product of this nature. Especially when the other defects are added
to the total, like wheels falling off.

The dealer has certainly done the right thing by me. I'll give him all
the reasonable latitude he needs, as a consequence. But it's a shame
that the NZ distributor is not the same.

It's the putting right that counts.

---

* Being an amateur electrician, I had such a tool.

 

[MowerMike]

Re: Ancient Advert

Many, many years ago, in the days of black and white TV in New Zealand,
a company took a bold step with it's advertising. The owner appeared in
the advert and commented along these lines:


That man and that advert became household bywords. I once visited
one of the LV Martin stores with a problem product and the response
was as advertised. The salesperson showed genuine concern, asked
no questions, offered a replacement or anything else from the shop
to the same value; even expressing greater contrition because the
item was a birthday present to me.


It's the putting right that counts.

This somewhat reminds me of this old anecdotal story:

"A London plutocrat was driving his fine new Rolls-Royce over the Alps when he heard a disquieting "twang." His front spring had broken.

He called the Rolls plant in London by long distance, and, in what seemed like no time flat, three gentlemen arrived by plane with a new spring and off went the plutocrat on his interrupted jaunt.

Now comes the really interesting part of the story. After six months the plutocrat had received no bill from the Rolls people. Finally he appeared at the plant in person and asked that the records be checked for "the repair of a broken spring in Switzerland." After a brief delay the manager of the plant appeared in person, gazed at him rather reproachfully, and announced, "There must be some mistake, sir. There is no such thing as a broken spring on a Rolls-Royce.""

 

[Potterer]

Hi,

A month ago we bought an Husqvarna 305 Automower.
We previously owned a Robomow (which was rubbish) and then a Mowbot (which was OK, but the dealer was rubbish).

Setting up Fido was very straightforward.
It's now running 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, and the lawn looks better and better.
On two occasions it manoeuvred itself outside the wires and asked for help, otherwise no problems at all.

Yes, it's a lazy man's mower (that's me), but I no longer get that guilty "Oh heavens, I should mow the lawns" feeling; it's done, and I hardly noticed.

Within a day or two my son bought the 304 equivalent (Flymo Automower, known as Marty McFlymow ) and he's delighted. It runs 1 hour a day, every day.

 

[Perry]

Interesting comments! You have more experience in across-brand
trials than I have! Possibly more than anyone else on the forum.
I did guffaw at the mower OK - dealer crap; mower crap - dealer
OK observations.

At least I have had great service from my dealer, here.

Two new [Husqvarna] models recently released in New Zealand.

Coxy is generally working fine, now. As we head into winter, his
operational hours are being cut back. Summer was 14-15 hours
a day, seven-days-a-week. Down to 9 hours a day, seven-days
for now. Once the frosts start and lawn growth slows even more,
I'll consider reducing the days of the week to 2-4, rather than
further reducing the hours per day.

I don't think the blades are stainless steel, so sitting unused for
a day may dull the edge as rust nibbles at their edges.

 

[Potterer]

Hi Perry,

I'm just a robot junkie! My elder son is a robotics engineer.

Your lawn is evidently much bigger than mine, hence the long hours of operation.
The manual tells me that I should minimise the hours consistent with cutting the grass adequately. It also tells me that I should let the lawn rest; hence 4 days a week.

I hadn't thought about the blades rusting (must look), but I suspect they'll need replacing quite often: any idea how often?
I didn't like the idea of electronic equipment sitting out in the weather, so I built a kennel.

As the Northern Hemisphere summer approaches Fido's hours will be cut (Cambridgeshire is officially classed as 'arid').

John

 

[Perry]

There were pictures earlier in the thread, but they've vanished from my posts.
It's not just rain or irrigation splash, but a kennel also reduces cowling UV ex-
posure. Here are the pix, again:

Believe the manuals? Yeah, right. Coxy's manual describes some lawn areas as needing the
mower running 24 hours a day, every day. My lawn area is circa 3500 square metres.

For the past summer & autumn, I've reversed/replaced the blades every three weeks, so far.
I have double ended blades, hence the blade reversal, alternate blade-change-days.

 

[Potterer]

Believe the manuals? Yeah, right.

The manuals are a good starting point: Setting up Fido is significantly different from George the Mowbot, or that awful Robomow. The return guide wire is a feature I've never seen before. By following the measurements given I needed to enlarge the narrow passage from the front to the back lawn.
But the wires are too far from the edges, and I'm progressively changing those.

Like you, Perry, I'm spending more time on lawn care! Amey-Cespa offer free compost, so I'll build a lute and smooth out the bumps and hollows!

John

 

[Perry]

I expressed that badly - sorry. I'm an avid manual reader. I downloaded
read, and re-read the manuals from ze interwebz months before I made
the purchase. The workshop manual was a saviour, as my mower came
with a pre-delivery fault installed. I mention the details in this post.

My mower/installation has two guide wires. Getting them positioned
adroitly, along with setting the corridor width, gets much more import-
ant when there are corridors to navigate. The esoteric aspects of corridor
width settings could do with more explanation in the operator's manual.
I got a much clearer understanding from the workshop manual, after
I was confronted with the mower 'porpoising' along the guide wire.

There's some clever and sophisticated programming on board Coxy!