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Buried Wire Fence — Parallax Forums

Buried Wire Fence

tkeenantkeenan Posts: 24
edited 2006-05-30 22:54 in BASIC Stamp
All,

I have been reading the archives looking to see if any one has built a buried wired fence system or connected into a dog collar.·· I can’t figure how and this is my last step to finish a robot lawn mower.

Thanks

Tim

Comments

  • JaxJax Posts: 10
    edited 2006-05-27 09:13
    A robot lawn mower you say? Maybe a few ideas from me will help. So here are a few thoughts off the top of my head.

    To keep a robomower from leaving a yard with no fence you could try rigging up a center RF transmitter and reciever. The transmitter kicks out a certain amount of RF and can be adjusted for range. Once the robot detects when the RF is low (where it roughly passes the yard limit) it can turn and drive back to the signal. The setup may only work limitedly though as it tends to be a circular transmission radius. There are a few RF schematics out there if you google for it.

    One other idea is to have a visible reflector that is (for example) about 3 inches high and made of white raincoat and wire to anchor it every few feet. A trip to Walmart and some glue should work well. Once the mini border is setup, the robomower could have IR sensors that detect reflection. I dont know how well IR sensors work in sunlight. So this might work on low sun conditions. Also I dont know if you would favor the look of the white border. Maybe a green border could work and still server as being detectable by either the IR sensors or some other detector.

    Another idea which could work is a string setup. The string is held high enough and stretches from one edge of the yard to another edge. Tied to a plant or fence edge or something along those lines. The string can be used to trip a sensor atop the robot telling it to backup and change directions. The string can be setup whenever you need to cut the grass and removed when needed.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2006-05-27 14:27
    I would recommend checking out the following website.· I don't believe these guys sell over here in the States for liability reasons, so you may or may not be able to get some information from them.· They use a simple buried wire system like you're looking for.

    http://www.robotshop.se/micro/robocut_us.html

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • tkeenantkeenan Posts: 24
    edited 2006-05-29 23:09
    Chris Savage (Parallax) said...

    I would recommend checking out the following website.· I don't believe these guys sell over here in the States for liability reasons, so you may or may not be able to get some information from them.· They use a simple buried wire system like you're looking for.

    http://www.robotshop.se/micro/robocut_us.html

    ·
    Thanks for the response.· I agree these guys have such a nice web site with so much information.· I have followed their information for some time now.· I wonder why they or someone else does not sell a kit like they do here.
    ·
    ·My robomow is similar in that it uses a stamp and is much the same size.· I want to use a buried wire sensor but cannot make one work.· Robocuts site does not talk about what size coil they are using.· Their wire transmitter is easy in they are using a common 555 to create the waveform.·
    ·
    This really has me stumped.· Any other ideas?
    ·
    Thanks,
    Tim
  • tkeenantkeenan Posts: 24
    edited 2006-05-29 23:10
    Jax said...
    A robot lawn mower you say? Maybe a few ideas from me will help. So here are a few thoughts off the top of my head.

    To keep a robomower from leaving a yard with no fence you could try rigging up a center RF transmitter and reciever. The transmitter kicks out a certain amount of RF and can be adjusted for range. Once the robot detects when the RF is low (where it roughly passes the yard limit) it can turn and drive back to the signal. The setup may only work limitedly though as it tends to be a circular transmission radius. There are a few RF schematics out there if you google for it.

    One other idea is to have a visible reflector that is (for example) about 3 inches high and made of white raincoat and wire to anchor it every few feet. A trip to Walmart and some glue should work well. Once the mini border is setup, the robomower could have IR sensors that detect reflection. I dont know how well IR sensors work in sunlight. So this might work on low sun conditions. Also I dont know if you would favor the look of the white border. Maybe a green border could work and still server as being detectable by either the IR sensors or some other detector.

    Another idea which could work is a string setup. The string is held high enough and stretches from one edge of the yard to another edge. Tied to a plant or fence edge or something along those lines. The string can be used to trip a sensor atop the robot telling it to backup and change directions. The string can be setup whenever you need to cut the grass and removed when needed.
    Great ideas here.· Thanks for the response.

    Tim
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2006-05-30 19:12
    Tim, don't ask the same question in more than one place (cross-posting), did you notice I responded to your other thread? (That's why you shouldn't cross-post [noparse]:)[/noparse])

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    1+1=10
  • tkeenantkeenan Posts: 24
    edited 2006-05-30 22:54
    Paul Baker said...
    Tim, don't ask the same question in more than one place (cross-posting), did you notice I responded to your other thread? (That's why you shouldn't cross-post [noparse]:)[/noparse])

    I thought it wouldn't be a problem if you·were posting in·different subject areas.· Sorry
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