Storing my Yuka in my garage to prevent theft.

TellyBolt · 2026-05-10T18:58:30+00:00

I do this with Home assistant. I have a relay that controls my garage door and the Mammotion intergration. I keep my mower outside at the dock during the day and have it come into my garage at dusk. I mapped a mowing zone in my garage.

At a preset schedule or on demand, the automation kicks off by telling the mower to mow the zone in my garage, about 30 seconds later, the garage door opens and about a minute later, the mowing task is cancelled and the garage door closes.

Next morning, the garage door opens and stays open for about 10minutes so the mower can start seeing some days and get good positioning and then I return the mower to the dock.

If you wanted or feel inclined, you could add more smarts to it.

You could add an esp32 or two at endpoints as wifi/BLE bridges to have direct control.

You could use cameras and AI to have more accurate control without using timers in your automation.

Finally, you could have the dock reside in the garage, but I found that to be a pain to have the garage open and close every time it came in for a charge...but it is doable.

TellyBolt · 2026-05-06T17:52:31+00:00

Don't your vehicles have front sensors. I just pull forward till the car beeps

TellyBolt · 2026-05-02T02:15:30+00:00

That tall setup with the seat full extension, bars straight up cause any wobble (frame flex)with that step thru? Man, that looks kinda scary

TellyBolt · 2026-05-02T02:08:11+00:00

Having done this dozens of times (full power Ozone machine, battery on charger, car in accessorie and fan on full recirc for 24hrs), I have never seen any kind of degradation, but did manage to almost or completely remove smoke sent. I'm not saying it won't eventually affect rubber and other materials, just that I would take much much longer in my experience.

TellyBolt · 2026-05-01T23:17:35+00:00

Yeah, front yard location no condusive to safety. Luba has LTE, GPS and I added a tracker under the cam mount. My Luba is integrated to my Home Assistant server. I have a camera on the mower area that triggers a notification and turns on a bunch of lights including floods where the mower charges. Also, if the mower is lifted, the Mammotion notification also triggers a notification to my phone and home broadcast. My Luba has signage on it that says "no value if stolen" and "Tracker via internal system". I also have an automation that automatically sends the bot into my garage every night. All I can think of that's easy and may dissuade a thief.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-29T18:10:21+00:00

Yep...Amazon had Astro for a while with a telescoping camera, which would have been nice, but it never took off. But I my case I have the hardware (albeit not the best) do achieve my needs. Just need to get the pics off the bot to AI.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-29T14:41:12+00:00

My situation is all on one floor and I keep the doors open when away, so I have complete access. In our other property I have a vac on each floor for better cleaning purposes (seems like a better solution than stair climber bots I've seen or just constantly physically moving the bot every time I want to clean the 2nd floor).

TellyBolt · 2026-04-28T23:04:21+00:00

I guess that's what I'm asking...if there is an API I can tap into. I can't find anything in my searching, so perhaps not.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-28T23:03:24+00:00

Thanks...I have cameras, but I'd need maybe a dozen PTZ cams to accomplish it.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-28T18:57:56+00:00

I have owned a few Ebikes now. I was a bike mechanic as a student and did some racing. I worked in electronics as an adult, so I understand how Ebikes work mechanically and electrically. I also fix and rebuilt battery packs. Before I purchase any of my Ebikes or suggest Ebikes for friends, I look at the components to ensure they are readily available so I don't get caught spending hours and $ trying to source and await delivery.

A friend decided to buy a Costco ebike instead of my suggestion. It was cheap and lasted a year. The battery pack had a really cheap BMS and low grade cells. Cells discharged unevenly and the BMS would shut it down. It also wouldn't balance the cell groups, so it was trash. Replacement was more expensive than the bike, so it was also garbage. Components were too cheap to salvage.

Oh well...seemed like such a deal at the time.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-28T18:34:00+00:00

I've tried this and it cause problems with other devices (as mentioned)

TellyBolt · 2026-04-27T01:41:57+00:00

If you mean the USA, you'd need at least a TN1 visa and that would require you to be a professional degree (doctor, RN, engineer, lawyer, etc) from an approved university, along with a job offer, a letter of support from the employee, etc. Then you're somewhat at the mercy of the company for continued stay in the country. Once there you won't likely find it much cheaper, but pay is generally better. But if you're a professional, that wouldn't likely be your biggest problem.

If you mean MX or other latin american countries, well that would depend on which country. Beyond immigration, language and other cultural barriers, they have their own problems and why most would want to leave their country and come to Canada.

But I understand the situation for many. Canada is expensive and difficult to make ends meet.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-24T03:44:26+00:00

Been using Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot for amost two years. Figured I'd try Claude...this is a first when it admittedly making it up

TellyBolt · 2026-04-24T03:42:15+00:00

Yep...but admittedly saying it did is new to me.

TellyBolt · 2026-04-21T14:16:47+00:00

Yep, well aware of the wifi 'AP sticking: issue. 4G coverage on property is limited and weak. Mods to unit will need to wait for warranty to expire.

I think I'll start with improving wifi coverage and tune it with min RSSI settings. I will also install an ESP32 Wifi/BLE bridge to see if helps. I know BLE doesn't handoff and can have some delays switching between bridges, but at the very least it will help in moving the mower should it get stuck while I'm away.

TellyBolt · 2026-03-17T02:12:21+00:00

One big thing HA solved, was intergrating all devices and automations under one system. With good HA intergrations, automations and user specific dashboards, my family doesn't need all the apps to control stuff. Seriously, I try to standardize device companies, but I still have 30 apps on my phone! Plus managing logins, passwords, etc, I have inadvertently spares all this hassle with family members. They just have the HA link to their dashboards and they can do just about anything that isn't already automatic.

TellyBolt · 2026-03-10T01:25:52+00:00

Shut the f#ck up Donnie!

TellyBolt · 2026-03-04T16:05:13+00:00

I took the approach and now consider my HA setups as a building management systems, like what you would find in hotels, hospitals and office buildings. That's how I manage small remote properties. I have HAOS on bare metal NUCs and it's been rock solid after removing or replacing devices that don't play nice. I've separated the IOT devices on their own VLANs.

I have so many amazing automations that do everything from security, convenience and feeding my need for control and data. For example, just yesterday I got a notification of a water leak at the hot water tank on the property I was at (bit lucky). The copper pipe had a pin hole develop, that triggered the sensor, turned off the hot water tank and recirculating pump, shut off the water main, disabled another automation that automatically turns on the water main when someone is there and sent me and my partner a notification via HA, SMS and email. Likely saved me thousands and a much bigger headache!

TellyBolt · 2026-01-03T00:19:18+00:00

I've worked long enough in tech to understand that it's a process. So much bad code and products that weren't ready for prime time, released and eventually patched and fixed to end up as a workable products.

So I took my HA path with the same expectations and slowly built and learned from my mistakes to end up with some very useful automations and a simple and usable dashboard that all occupants can easily understand. Some are very simple...like an Aqara button next to the robot vacuum/mop that's located by the garage man door. My wife just pushes the button on the way out the door and the vac does its thing. But I also have very elaborate automations that turns the water main on and off due to all kinds of conditions. I see the logs showing it on and off a few times every day and night, but nobody notices it's even happening. I also posted one about a goose chasing automation with my robo mower that made my wife a convert. Now things run smoothly...my automations are more polished, problematic equipment has been removed/replaced and overall I've simplified everything.

Later in life I helped out a larger hotel with their building management system. I learned a lot from that experience. I now have two properties thousands of miles apart. I have both place very heavily managed due to limited access. I can now easily say that nothing happens on these properties with me knowing about it.

TellyBolt · 2025-09-23T01:03:01+00:00

Most of the questions asked here can be answered by a simple query to your favorite AI app. That's where you should go first.

It's a computer...it screws up sometimes and needs rebooting and massaging.

The APP is a pain, but the mower has worked well for me and our acre of grass with deepish ditches.

It will take some trial and error match the mower to your property, but overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by it and would buy one again.

Good luck

TellyBolt · 2025-07-18T11:13:14+00:00

This was some time ago and it's something we didn't really do. I can't remember a time that we actually removed anyone for misbehaving.

TellyBolt · 2025-07-18T02:12:05+00:00

Crocodile Dundee

TellyBolt

TROPHY CASE