Installation of a Lawnbott is not difficult.

The installation is not hard. As you are here, you have some interest in just how it works. I'll lay it out for you.

If you want to have the lawnbott installed for you and are in my local area of Iowa, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin or Southern Minnesota we can arrange that.  Fees will apply.

If you live out of this area and want installation, we can work with you on other options.

• Average yard takes about 3 hours to lay the wire and charging station.
• Tools needed are a rubber mallet or hammer, wire cutters and electrical tape
• A little thought on layout is required.
• Know your yard boundaries.

Let's look at the basic layout of how the robot works its way around your yard. A simple picture will explain a lot of how your yard gets laid out and where the installation of the wire is.

The picture of an installation above shows a red line running around a few things. This red line represents the wire that needs to be laid out to tell the Lawnbott where it can and cannot mow.

You don't want to mow

• Pools
• Ponds
• Ditches
• Rocks
• Roots
• Flower gardens (well, that depends on how much you like the flowers)
• Gardens
• Driveways
• Sidewalks
• Your son's beanie baby teddy bear (I would just pick this one up!)

Installation of a perimeter wire around an object, like in the picture below

will tell the mower that this area should be treated just as if it were outside the yard. When you put the border wire 1cm apart, the mower will drive right over it as if it weren't there.

Distances from Objects

There are a few distances you need to remember for the installation of your perimeter wire:

• 12" from a wall
• 14" from a hedge
• 16" from a pool, pond or hole (your mower is water resistant but not submersible more than zero times)

If you don't follow these you could find your mower bumping into walls, hedges or underwater. This is a pretty important installation point.

Hills

You have to pay attention to hills in your yard. No more than a 27 (30 with LB3500) degree maximum slope in your yard. Either of these are pretty darn steep. You'll know if you have a slope like this in your yard, it isn't your typical sloping back yard, this is steep.

Here's a picture to help you visualize a 27 degree slope. Your typical riding lawn mower will not safely mow a 15 degree slope. A 27 degree slope rises1 foot for every two feet you travel. This is steep. Lombard Street in San Francisco is 27 degrees. Not a lot of people have hills like this.

Objects in your lawn that interfere with blade

You want to make sure that when you do the installation of your perimeter wire you avoid things that could impact the blade. This could be from a height difference between the lawn and sidewalk, border bricks or rocks in the yard. The pictures below will make it clearer.

If your height difference is more than a few inches, you will need to place the perimeter wire as if the sidewalk or other object were a wall, 12 inches. You don't want to break the blade off or take a chance damaging the motor.

Here is basically how to put down the perimeter itself

1. Start at the charging base and begin to walk around your yard clockwise. Tack down the wire as you come to corners so you don't pull the wire too tight and you end up being short.
2. When you come to an object you want to exclude from the mowing area, like a flower bed or garden, tack down the wire with pegs and lay out the basic amount of wire you think you will need to go around this object.
3. Keep paying out the wire until you get back to the original boundary area you began the exclusion zone.
4. Work your way all the way around the yard until you get back to the charging base. If you run out of wire in the middle of the yard during the installation (you probably will need more than comes with the kit), you'll need to splice the joint. It's best to use a stranded wire, like comes in the kit, rather than a solid wire if you decide to go out an buy some. The factory gave me this advice so I'll believe them. You can order more wire here.
   1. The best way is to solder the joint and wrap it with a self healing electrical tape (available at Home Depot).
   2. You second best choice is to use a wire nut that is rated to be buried. Again you can get these from Home Depot or Lowes. Just plan on paying a bit for them as they are specialized wire nuts. Not the same as those you would use in your house. What happens if you use any old wire nut. Well, eventually water will work its way into your connection and you'll have issues.
5. Go back out and tack down your wire to the lawn every 3 feet. If you are doing corners you'll want to do it a little less to make the corners smoother. This is where the real time of installation is involved. It takes some time to install all of the pegs. You'll probably need more pegs than comes with the kit as well.You can order more here
6. Hook up the wires to the base as outlined in the manual
7. Connect the wire from the base station to the signal generator and the signal generator to the transformer you placed in a weather proof location.
8. Turn on the power.
9. Put your Lawnbott in the charging base and put the "on" button.
10. Push the Pause button and walk away and let your mower fully charge.
11. Once fully charged, push the "Charge" button to force the mower to begin the mowing cycle. It should back out, turn and say "Sync" on the display. Once synced it will start the blade and take off.
12. You are mowing and the installation is done. More detail can be seen in the actual installation manual.