My Suggestions after ~1 month

Support & Solutions
1

I’ve had my machine functioning properly for about a month now, and have been able to map my lawn for mowing and blowing, and my driveway for snow blowing and leaf blowing (for light snow falls). I’ve compiled a few suggestions of what I think would be big improvements to user experience and efficiency. Please let me know if there are solutions or workarounds in place for any of these!

1. Map with the implement running

a. It would be very useful to be able to map an area with the implement (lawn mower, snow blower, etc) running. Mapping would be simplified if I could map to the edge of where Yarbo cuts, rather than mapping an area and then trying to adjust work area and NGZ area settings to get a clean edge line.

b. Example use case: I have multiple mulch beds within my lawn. It would be straightforward to map them as no go zones with the mower running so I can map the actual cutting edge. No need to adjust work boundaries afterwards.

2. Straightening lap on perimeter work

a. I’m not good at driving Yarbo in straight lines. What I’ve noticed is that each little ‘correction’ in mapping an area gets carried through to every ‘lap’ when Yarbo creates a work map for the area. This makes Yarbo very inefficient as it does these same little adjustments during every pass. It would be great if there was an option to, for example, mow three perimeter laps first, and have the last perimeter lap be a ‘straightening’ lap; where Yarbo straightens out the perimeter lines and then re-creates the work map using the straight border lines.

3. Efficiency heat map

a. Rather than highlighting completed lines on the map (how yarbo currently highlights the completed lines in white), it would be nice if it could highlight the area covered by the implement (i.e. highlight the actual area covered by the mower, etc). This seems straightforward to me, as the width of each implement is fixed. Additionally have it overlap the highlighting, creating darker areas where Yarbo is overlapping the work area. This could be used to adjust work plans and make yarbo more efficient.

4. All mapping options for all implements

a. It would be nice to have all of the same options (sidewalk, dead end, etc) on each implement. I learned today that the snowblower can do dead ends, but they are called something else. I’m just asking for standardization across the implements.

5. Hot-Swapping Implements

a. I know this has been discussed on the forums a lot already, but what I mean here is more having the ability to drive the core with no module attached. These implements, particularly the snow blower, are pretty heavy and awkward to manage for one person. It would be nice to be able to drive Yarbo to where I want to store the implement, disconnect it, then drive the core to the next implement.

6. Set the start point manually

a. I think this one is in the queue already, but it would greatly improve efficiency and reduce yarbo tracks in the lawn.

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2

You can map with the module running. I do that every time.

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3

me too

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4

How?

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5
  1. you could use the physical controller to turn on the implements motor while mapping. Can also use it to increase the speed.
  2. This has been discussed and they are supposedly working on something.
  3. I would like something like this too.
  4. I agree
  5. You can absolutely drive the core without a module attached. It just can’t do it autonomously.
  6. Agree!
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6

Ok, but I have problems using the physical controller when mapping. Likely from me not doing something correctly. But when I put it in map mode and then try to switch to the manual controller it suspends the mapping.
What am I missing?

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7

Also re:#5

My understanding is that the unit has to be powered down to swap the implements to avoid power faults, etc.
Do you mean that you power down, remove implent 1, power up, drive to implement 2, power down, connect implement 2, then power up?

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8

when you go in and want to make a new one or want to edit. then you press start. and after you have done that you press the square in the lower right corner and unlock the controller. then you can change the speed and turn on the mower. then you can’t see the map at the same time.

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9

Thanks dude, ill give that a shot this afternoon.

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10

This would be my recommendation currently, yes. But perhaps @Yarbo-Forum could take a feature request to R&D for having an in app toggle to turn off power and data to the module cables so that hot swapping could be done safely. You could alternatively just hot swap and reboot before you start a plan. But I personally think it’s better for the electronics not to have the power surge when connecting the cable.

As for using the physical controller when mapping, you’d have to switch to phone pairing and pair it to your phone to do this.

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11

When I use the physical controller I just have it connected to Yarbo, both for mapping and normal use.

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12

There should be a small controller icon on the screen. From memory, you can start mapping, switch to full control using the small controller icon, then turn on the blades, go in high speed, change the lights, whatever you want - the app is still recording the whole time. I can’t remember this working for deadends, but I am pretty sure it works for regular mapping.

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13

Good thread of info here. Learned something new today!

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14

Hi there,

Thanks so much for sharing your detailed feedback and insights after using Yarbo for a month — we really appreciate the time you took to put this together!

Regarding your suggestions:

  1. As some community members have mentioned, you can use the controller to operate Yarbo while mapping, which allows you to map with the implement running.
  2. We’ve already received feature requests for straight-line drawing, and we do plan to add this capability in a future update.
  3. Your idea about an efficiency heat map is a great one — I’ll pass this along to our product team for further review.
  4. We also appreciate your suggestion about standardizing mapping options across all implements, and I’ll make sure this feedback is shared internally as well.
  5. As others have noted, it’s possible to drive Yarbo without any modules attached, which can make switching implements easier.
  6. I’ll share your interest in the manual start point feature with our product team too. The upcoming update will also include some improvements related to start point handling.

Thank you again for your thoughtful feedback — please feel free to share more ideas anytime!

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15

Re #5

Understood. Im asking to not have to power down the unit to remove/install implements. Having to power down twice to be able to drive the core while switching implements (the process described above) is sub-optimal.

As was suggested, the ability to power down the implements rather than the core would do.

Thanks for listening!

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16

I “hot swapped” modules many times before I read the forum and the recommendation to power down. It never caused me any issues. But I don’t know all that’s inside Yarbo, so now I power down as recommended, even though I don’t think it makes any difference.

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17

I did early on too and noticed weird software glitches. When I stopped doing it, those weird glitches stopped occurring. Every time I hot swap I just picture plugging in a heavy load into an electrical outlet and it sparks and surges when you connect it. Especially if it doesn’t click in quickly. There is a high voltage line and a data line on the harness and modules. I don’t think a surge would be good for any of them personally.

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18

I too hot swapped before it was stated that it’s best not to. I never saw any issues that I attributed to hot swapping. But I could have been blaming strange things on other possibilities.

I would suspect the initial power draw of connecting a module wouldn’t be all that much current. I haven’t experienced the module coming ON during hooking up the cables. (mower blades running, cut height motors running, leaf blower blower running, etc.)

I think the leaf blower draws the most current (I haven’t ran the snow blower much but it could be a large pull also) but its not like they are “ON” when you plug them in. They seem to go through and organized boot up process exercising each motor I assume testing for range and I would guess current draw.

That would likely prevent any arcing and sparking.

Bet let me be clear, Yarbo has stated Hot Swapping is not recommended.

19

I was more trying to provide some visual reference to it. I haven’t experienced that either, but it is what runs through my mind every time that I did do it. Like did I push that connector on quick enough or was it sitting there making minimal contact and flicking on and off repeatedly. Electronics love that! Software even more so.

Sure, it does go through a boot up process and isn’t actually turning on the motors or anything but it’s the equivalent of plugging in something with the power switch in the on position. I’ve dealt with some network switches in my career and they had some blades that would slide into a chassis and back plane. The modules and back plane were all hot swappable. But if you didn’t get it lined up quite right or you took a few extra seconds pushing that board in and locking the pins, it would stall the entire switch during the insertion process and drop the network until the board was fully inserted. Seen a few techs not quite have it lined up right on the rails, struggling to push it in and the switch is stalled waiting for the complete insertion of the module. Not a fun situation to deal with. Hey, why is the network down?

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20

@OhCanada Hi, thank you for your feedback! Currently, we don’t recommend switching modules while the unit is powered on. One key reason is that if the module is switched without powering down, the Yarbo system may not be able to quickly pull the parameters for the newly installed module, which can lead to issues with obstacle detection and overall performance during operation.

We highly value your suggestion and have made a note of it. Our development team will seriously evaluate it, and any updates will be included in the release notes for future versions.

Thanks again for sharing your valuable input!

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