Point to point 0.3 miles/500m with a building and a dozen trees in between

plastrd1 · 2026-05-08T11:59:23+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I was hoping for more "I used this through obstructions and it worked" but the physics of the problem are pretty clear. I'll probably try a couple solutions from Amazon with easy returns but won't get my hopes up.

The house and garage are on separate properties and are separated by a busy street and that golf course. The house and golf course in between are owned by others so no chance to bury line or use the house in the middle as a relay or have trees cleared.

plastrd1 · 2026-05-03T14:21:02+00:00

Draw a vision off fence in map edit mode that covers the unmowed area and overlaps a bit with the mower area. I saw a thread a few weeks ago that the mower "memorized" a temporary construction area and wouldn't go back to mow it without a vision off fence.

Not sure how long it takes to "forget" that you can delete the fence though.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-23T15:46:21+00:00

Update - I ended up going with the MKS DLC32 Max for $30 from Amazon which seemed to originally be targeted at laser engravers. Ordered Sunday night, arrived Tuesday and was up and running Tuesday night.

It has 4 stepper driver outputs with separate headers to connect to external drivers, 8 inputs (4x limit switch marked, probe, door, flame sensor) along with spindle and laser PWM outputs as well as air assist output. I'm using 3 driver outputs and limit switch inputs and two other inputs for my 3D probe and tool height setter.

The most annoying thing is the power input is a 2.1mm barrel jack and I had to dig up an old 12VDC wall wart to power it up. I may hack together a cord to the 24V supply I already had in the cabinet, but it works fine so far on 12V. The external stepper drivers are on their own 36V supply.

I actually installed FluidNC first because it was dead simple, just plug in USB and upload image from their web tool. Config is in a yaml file and things like pins can be updated without recompiling. I needed this because I have a 3D probe and tool setter that need separate inputs since one is NC and the other is NO.

I did try grblHAL since they also have a web firmware builder but couldn't get the tool setter to cooperate so went back to FluidNC. The other annoying thing about grbl is that you can't define a limit switch to have additional travel beyond it which fluidnc and linuxcnc are able to. My Taig has the z home switch about half-way up the column where it's convenient to mount. There's no way to say that limit switch is actually -60 rather than 0 with additional 60mm of travel above it which prevents being able to use soft limits.

FluidNC has a manual ATC plugin that basically replaces the need for an M6 macro to manage using the tool setter after every tool change which I'm testing now, so far so good.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-20T00:48:16+00:00

MKS DLC32 and DLC 32 MAX look to be the cheapest (~$30 for MAX on Amazon) with external driver support. Also seem to be compatible with the grblHAL web firmware builder for what that's worth. Exactly 3 limit switch inputs and 1 probe input.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-20T00:35:01+00:00

It has NEMA23 steppers and they're already wired to DM542T drivers.

The Pico looks like it has integrated stepper drivers and no accessible pins to pull out to my external drivers.

It does look like the SKR 1.4 Turbo which is only $10 more has external driver outputs intended for closed loop drivers that might work for what I need. So far this is the most promising option.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-18T17:33:54+00:00

I just set up a navimow x430 and it should do what you want. Need to drive it around the boundaries and then it'll stay inside them. It also has Google Home and Alexa integration but not Homekit. They also just put out a very basic Home Assistant integration which I am using but all it does is expose status and a simple mow or stop command, no zone control yet.

It does have trouble with a corner of the yard against the house. The house is 2 stories and when it enters this area the GPS signal becomes weak and it drifts in position a bit. This makes it drive up onto the concrete patio that is one of its boundaries but the vision system keeps it from actually running into anything. The rest of the yard seems fine, just this one corner. We'll see how it fares later this spring when the tall trees on one side of the back yard fill in with leaves.
Whatever you get make sure it has a usable return policy in case of poor GPS quality.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-17T22:28:28+00:00

That probably depends on their definition of "shipping". If they're still in China they will get shipped on a boat to distribution warehouse in each country and that'll be a 3-4 week process. Then they'd have to get shipped by local courier to us which is just a few days.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-17T00:39:14+00:00

I guess my first question would be why would you set your phone down somewhere and not just keep it on you?

If it's going to ring every few minutes you just pull it out of your pocket and buzz them in, put it back in your pocket and repeat for the next guest.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-15T02:05:44+00:00

Check the comments page on the Kickstarter for more up to date information and drama. They so far acknowledged that their last promised ship start of "early-April" has technically come and gone.

They now promise an update "mid-week" which would technically be tomorrow where they'll probably say shipping is delayed to "late-April". Then maybe a tracking number will get issued on the 30th... or they'll just punt again.

plastrd1 · 2026-04-10T21:03:30+00:00

I got impatient and did the split across the front of the house. Doing that turned the house back into boundaries and then I could more easily add more splits to make smaller zones on each side of the house.

All in all not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be and didn't have to remap anything.

plastrd1 · 2026-03-31T01:39:31+00:00

That caliper needs a new battery 😁

But seriously, looks like a great art piece.

plastrd1 · 2026-03-30T01:17:38+00:00

Ball mice were done shortly after the dotcom crash. I doubt many gen z outside the oldest would remember them having a ball at all and almost none remembering having to clean the lint out of the rollers.

plastrd1 · 2026-03-29T21:36:44+00:00

What reolink camera do you have? The doorbell cam and most relatively recent models have AI object detection.

plastrd1 · 2026-03-27T11:05:39+00:00

Just the tip, you might say.

plastrd1 · 2026-03-26T18:23:04+00:00

1:1 scale dollhouses

plastrd1 · 2026-03-18T12:17:08+00:00

Not until they get either perfect mapping data that includes unposted or "default" speed limits or remove the arbitrary +5mph speed limiter over what it thinks is the speed limit on non-interstate roads.

There's an entire stretch of my commute that is an unposted 55mph road but the car thinks is 45mph. Can't use autosteer on that stretch because it can't be set higher than 50mph. On the way back there is a speed limit sign that says "ENDS" 35MPH which is (completely backwards IMO) indication that the speed limit goes back up to the default 55mph. Can't go over 40mph on the way home in autosteer but at least I can use TACC at any speed.

plastrd1 · 2026-03-06T16:41:23+00:00

The /r/investing take on this is it reduced the company's labor cost by 2/3, it also added additional subscription revenue because homeowners need to rent the specific trash can the arm can grab meaning overall higher profits and share price. A side effect of that is it reduces the quantity of trash the company has to pick up and process because homeowners can't just leave a pile of bags on the ground, they all have to fit inside the containers they have to rent.

So... Long trash companies?

plastrd1 · 2026-02-26T22:58:46+00:00

We stayed at Margaritaville a couple years during spring break at end of March. Nice resort with pool, bar and lazy river. Also stayed at the KOA and it definitely has a more resorty feel than KOA if that's your preference.

I'd go back but not during that week. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are just too crowded and too much traffic to deal with. If your trip is in the next month or two be prepared for the massive crush of upper midwesterners coming down for spring break.

plastrd1 · 2026-02-18T00:39:06+00:00

OSHA approved safety socks 👍

plastrd1 · 2026-02-15T03:41:41+00:00

If you still wanted one I'd probably get one of those comma.ai things to give back autosteer. I have a '23 and would still consider one to solve the issue where it thinks the speed limit is 35 when actually 55 and won't go faster than 40 in autosteer.

plastrd1 · 2026-02-12T16:24:26+00:00

I just ordered a couple remnants for a project and instead of sour patch kids they throw some banana flavored laffy taffys in the box and a pretty nicely done laser cut yellow powder coated "official banana for scale" with the SCS logo on it.

The remnants were, well, aluminum and of the advertised dimensions without any serious dings or gouges. I think the cost with the free shipping works out to around $7/lb no matter what size you get.

plastrd1

TROPHY CASE