Cutting The Grass With Frickin’ Lasers
We techie sorts are rather usually a great deal more comfy in entrance of a keyboard knocking out code, than out in the property splitting logs for wintertime, and even the minimal careers like chopping the grass are often just also a lot like really hard guide labour for our liking. The clear remedy is a robotic mower, but they’re kinda dull, with their minimal-tech spinning metal blades. What we need to have is a major frickin’ laser. YouTuber [rctestflight] has been experimenting with utilizing a 40W blue diode laser module to minimize the weeds, (Video clip, embedded beneath) and it form of functions, albeit in a fairly unsafe vogue.
The very first check used a fastened assembly, mounting the laser to a digital camera lens, on a rotating gear driven by a smaller stepper motor. An Arduino controls the beam scanning, pretty bit by bit, burning the grass in its sights. But with a variety confined to about eight feet best scenario, sitting down in a single location just is not going to reduce it. (sorry) The noticeable up coming phase was to mount one particular of the tested laser modules onto a moveable platform. Immediately after tweaking a person of his before tasks — a tracked rover — with a new gearbox structure, it could now travel gradual more than enough to be beneficial for this gradual undertaking. The laser was mounted to a straightforward linear rail slider, with an endeavor at a vacuum pickup program to suck up the clippings, eradicating them from the beam path, and halting them impeding the slicing performance of the laser.
Clearly this vacuum idea did not get the job done, and given that the contraption normally takes the most effective part of a week to cut just just one little area, we reckon it would possible be developing quicker than that! Nevertheless, it have to have been entertaining to build it anyway. It just goes to demonstrate that despite the march of technological progress, possibly the uninteresting aged spinning blades of aged are still the ideal way to get the position done.
Lawnmowing is evidently one particular of individuals employment we adore to hate, and do so with hacks. Here’s a way to avert your mower sucking up international bodies and hurling them at you at ballistic speeds, and for all those who seriously want to be arms off, insert RTK-GPS to a robot mower, and just go away it to do the dirty do the job.
Thanks to [Måns], [electronoob] and [Ostracus] for the suggestion!
