Posts by alanmcg

Latest El Reg project: Rise of the Robot Sheep

Weight distribution and augmented guinea pigs

Type of mower strikes me as important. If you want a roller to make stripes I guess you'll need some weight over that roller, so engine or battery packs over or behind the roller? (mid-engined or rear engined like a 911 sir?) If however you want a hover motor which has its advantages (moves more freely, look vaguely cool, blows stuff all over the place frightening bystanders) then weight will be a problem. I don't know if they do hover mowers that can do stripes though the old flymo I use does have a roller.

Or you could just use augmented guinea pigs. Strap a lawn cutting jacket to them complete with battery pack, head mounted camera, smart phone brain (might want to avoid using one of the new 4"+ house brick ones) and maybe a frikkin laser beam just because. Then spend your time trying to prevent the neighbours seeing your guinea pig cyborg minions and shopping you to the RSPCA.

Cutting blades

Why not use plastic ones? I don't mean strimmer wire, I mean plastic blades as supplied for various electric mowers. I use an old Flymo from time to time which has two plastic cutters about 3 inches long. At operating speed they cut very effectively, they eventually break but are cheap to replace and if you hit anything especially solid (rock, free roaming tortoise, fallen over elderly relative..) they disintegrate without causing any visits to A&E.

Getting a good cut seems to require speed more than power. Oh and the lawn needs to be not too wet, a moisture sensor might be good to include.

Honda US cops to vast data snaffle from marketing firm

Acura

Acura is a luxury brand owned by Honda, not merely a luxury car. Perhaps Honda uses VINs as a primary key/unique identifier for its customers.