Here in my area (Denmark), summer is approaching and a robot lawn mower is the next step.
And then the question - which one to invest in ? And doing home automation with Home Assistant it would be fun to get one that integrates with this platform.
I do believe that I have read all that I can find in the forum, and this is my conclusion:
-The only ‘formal integration’ or component for lawn mower is ‘Worx landroid’ which is working with models Worx Landroid WG796E.1 or WG797E .
So Worx is the only platform with some kind of HA integration ? right conclusion ?
And going down the Worx path:
-There is a ‘Worx Landroid Package’ project that builds on top of the ‘Landroid Bridge’ which gives a nice LoveLace interface.
-Models WG796E.1 and WG797E are not sold any more (at least in Denmark). New range of products, and the most popular in Denmark is ‘Worx Landroid M500 WR141E’ for 500m2.
-’Worx Landroid M500 WR141E’ is reported to work with the ‘Worx Landroid Package’.
So, is the conclusion:
-Nothing is really supported ?
-but the robot lawn mower with the highest change for success is ‘Worx Landroid M500 WR141E’ with the ‘Worx Landroid Package’ ?
I think, (but please read the component docs to confirm) that that component only reads the status of the device and thus you are not able to control (start stop dock etc) but just check again.
I have a bosch indego which is great for cutting the lawn in lines, but terrible for getting stuck often…
So I would recommend, that you don’t base your criteria on what can be integrated to Home Assistant, but rather the features/reviews instead… As long as it is a connected model, I am sure that you will be able to connect to Home assistant at some point, even if only by custom component…
It took a bit to set it up properly, but it works perfectly fine atm. It updates the data every couple minutes (10?). You can also control most of the basic things: Start/Stop/Home, schedule, rain sensor.
The Landroid-Bridge (requirement) also allows you to setup automated schedules based on Dark Weather API. I don’t use this, as I have it go even in the rain since it’s normal here to rain for weeks, sometimes months non-stop.
If at first things don’t seem to work, just make sure you’ve filled out ALL the data you can find in the configs mentioned during installation and then restart the device your Hass is running on. I had it running at first, but then it stopped after a small config change, a restart fixed it all.
There is a nice add-on card for many mowers that allow you to integrate your mower into HA via MQTT. I added the card to my Husqvarna 310 and it is working perfectly. It took 20 minutes to install.
Here is the list of compatible devices per their web site:
All of the one’s abalakov listed belong to Husqvarna. They’re usually pretty robust and don’t care about rain, so they’re a great pick for Nordic (rainy) conditions.
The main reason I went with Worx is that my lawn has a wall on all sides, so while it took forever to set it up right (4-5cm closer to the wall than recommended), it cuts the grass less than 1cm from the wall (pretty much all of it) with Cut to Edge. It doesn’t cut 90 degree corners, but that’s fair enough, still better than any other model would’ve managed.
If you don’t have a lot of walls around your lawn, there’s plenty of models that may or may not be a better pick (depends on your place)
For it to always be connected you’d also need wifi-coverage over your lawn (you won’t be notified of problems otherwise), M500 seems to have some sort of 1km coverage extension (RadioLink) you can buy, but it’s not available in all countries yet.
