Yeah I think the reflections off the garage door might affect it a bit
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Ooooooooooooooo I think you’re right. Mine would hit the garage in the same fashion you mention. I’m giving it a full Yarbo cushion along the garage for now.
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That’s not a setting, that’s default behavior from my experience.
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After a month or so working with Yarbo in the snow, on a gravel 400’ driveway, I feel your frustration. I picked up an Ego 2-stage snowblower with the same disappointment that Yarbo can’t handle everything that needs to be done. There are days when I can send it out and it’s mostly helpful, and other days when it’s warm and slushy and it’s easier to use the Ego.
The reality is that, whether we knew it or not when we signed up, we are early adopters of new tech, and it’s not always going to work. I went through all the DC / GPS challenges when setting everything up in the summer. With many trees on the property I finally had to break down, run some ethernet cables, and install the DC on the roof where it belongs. That’s been working well ever since.
As for blowing snow, It will be great to someday have a system that I can leave unattended and expect to have a clear driveway when I come home. We’re obviously not there yet, and Yarbo needs somebody around to drag it out when it zero-turns itself into a snowbank. Snow builds up on the insides of the track and packs into ice between runs if not manually cleared out. I need to keep it the garage to thaw out over night. Dealing with broken belts and non-standard shear pins is an unpleasant part of the early adopter experience.
Is the marketing ahead of the actual capability? For sure. There was a healthy dose of over-promise and under-deliver, as is typical for a tech startup. Especially when building hardware, the revenue and customer feedback from the early units is generally a prerequisite for getting the development right for the future versions that are as “plug and play” as originally envisioned for the mass market. Developing new features while trying to satisfy us early customers is like changing your tires while driving down the highway.
My hope is that Yarbo will have enough success with these units, and enough rigor in the product management department, to build a future version that really is as fully autonomous and efficient as their vision. I’ve seen it work well enough on the good days when the snow conditions are ideal, and enough incremental improvement in the software, to know that it’s possible.
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So, I’ve listened to some of the suggestions here and moved the DC to an area where I have a stable strong signal. I have zero tree cover so I have a clear view of the sky in all directions. I remapped my driveway and zero hiccups signal wise. Everything was great. App showed strong signal connection between Yarbo and DC. I placed Yarbo on charging dock once I was completed mapping and now I’m getting a GPS disconnected error. Wtf? The dock is literally 30 feet from the DC and all was well until the unit went on the docking station. Any one have any thoughts? Screenshots below of the diagnostics
It looks like your dock is obstructed. The rover has GPS antennas that need a clear view of the sky on the dock too. In your diagnostic, your GPS quality was lower than 0.5 and HDOP was over 2. That’s why it was “disconnected”. Quality can bounce around a lot. This is normal. When the core is idle for a while, it can take a while to wake up the GPS and find its location when the dock is obstructed. Try relocating your dock or just leave the app open for 5-10 mins before starting your plan. As long as your RTK status is 4, you should in theory be able to start your work plan. Your DC signal looks fantastic BTW.
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Thanks. That makes sense and is in line with exactly what happened. It took about 10 minutes for the GPS signal to indicate strong. I may look at alternatives for placement of the docking station. Appreciate the help from everyone and I’m crossing my fingers that everything works as intended during this weekends projected snowfall.
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Don’t get frustrated. Really. Initial set up is the most important part, and once done right, the rest should fall in line.
Before you know it, you’re gonna be posting videos of Yarbo running while you watch from the window in your house!
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Send another picture of your set up.
I’ll take some pictures tomorrow and hopefully I can post pictures of Yarbo actually removing snow this weekend. I’m cautiously optimistic.
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We are here for it.
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Definitely be cautious because it takes some tweaking. Once you get it dialed in, it’s pretty great. Pop in here with any questions or issues. The community will chime in and help.
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Yeah mine has moderate GPS on the dock, if I leave it there long enough it’ll get a strong signal eventually. The path I have leaving the dock goes ~10’ forward into a spot that gets really good GPS and 9/10 times I get a perfect fix. Every now and then in a cloudy/poor weather day it takes longer. If he’s been sleeping and I go to start a schedule occasionally I’ll get a pop up to wait for a fix. 10-30 seconds it’ll get at least a moderate lock that’ll let it start.
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Mine is the same way. My dock is right against the house.
GPS is marginal while docked, but when Yarbo has a job to do, it drives off the dock and sits in the yard for a few seconds to acquire a good GPS fix. That seems to work perfectly, so I have no complaints.
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So, I just posted a new thread titled 2nd snowfall-major success. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback and suggestions. They were all very helpful. It was all user error on my part and I retract the majority of my earlier comments. Yarbo functioned as intended and expected once I relocated the DC. I was very impressed that the unit took care of the snow all on its own. My only recommendation is to be careful where you place the data cable from the DC. Don’t place it anywhere on Yarbo’s path. Like an idiot, I placed it where Yarbo would go over it and of course it ended up (the auger) cutting the cable. I had the auger height at 2” but it still managed to snag the cable. Lesson learned.
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If that’s the worst thing that happens to you in life, you’ve got it made!
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I understand the importance of GPS signal and either I’ve missed it or it hasn’t been posted here or elsewhere. Does Yarbo use Active or Passive GPS Antenna on the DC and on the Rover?
Pretty sure it’s active
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yup
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