(Posted originally in Yarbo Users and Community on FB on May 19, 2025. Lots of updates since.)
Especially for those just unpacking their Yarbos, here are answers to your first head-scratchers, gotchas, FAQs, … :
RTK antennas are on top of the tall masts – they are not missing, they unscrew.
The hand controller is in the battery compartment. You need to pair it to the rover – see the documentation. Turning on the blades (mower) or auger (snowblower) is done by holding the two triggers for five seconds (you may then let one trigger go).
“Core” and “Rover” - same thing. That’s the main unit.
You can drive the rover out of its box and don’t have to lift it up.
The little chain that hangs down under the rover is there by design to help with electrostatic discharge. Do not remove it.
The Data Center is packed into the foam tight in one of the boxes. Don’t rip out the foam and watch it fly across the room like really dumb people do (thankfully it’s a tank and didn’t break on me). You may ground the Data Center using 6 gauge copper ground wire.
You may have multiple Docking Stations or use the same Docking Station in multiple spots, but only one Docking Station or spot may be enabled at a time in the App. A use case for this would be having a Summer Docking Station at the edge of your lawn out back and a Winter Docking Station nearer your driveway outside the fence front. If you have just one Docking Station, you can physically move your Docking Station for each season, just make sure it winds up in exactly the same spot you’ve already mapped so you don’t need to re-map anything. Enable the spot you want to use in the App.
SAM is held on only by the top pins, and it’ll be loose at the bottom. The Smart Assist Module (SAM) is the small module you get with the core. It clips onto the core with the top pins, and there are no latches with the bottom pins, so it’ll wiggle, and that’s OK. To remove the SAM press up on a bar at the bottom of the SAM to unhook the latches.
Do not “hot swap” modules. Power off first. Shut down the rover/core using the App or by pulling the battery cable (recommended for safety) when you swap modules. In addition to the safety aspect, if you “hot swap” modules (with power up), the cameras may not work, and the new module may not be recognized. So shut down the rover’s power before detaching or attaching a module. To power it back up, make sure the battery is attached and click the power button in the back under the hatch cover.
If things aren’t working, pull the PoE power and unplug the rover’s battery. Plug it all back in after half a minute or more. Power cycling sometimes helps. If a no-go, look at and maybe power cycle your network equipment as well.
Yes, you can use a WiFi Extender with an Ethernet port. If it gives you trouble, set it to 2.4GHz or 5GHz only and turn off the WiFi radio so nothing can connect to it (that worked for my old piece of junk WiFi Extender…my new extender (from this century) is working OK without these workarounds). Going hardwired is preferred/recommended. Make sure the Ethernet port in the WiFi Extender is not just a “backchannel” to a router and will allow devices plugged into it access to your network.
Can Yarbo work without Internet? Yes for general functionality – mapping, mowing, snowblowing, and so on, once your configuration is set up. The rover and Data Center normally communicate over a local HaLow network. Internet is required for:
- Initial setup
- Firmware updates
- Yarbo Support to remotely diagnose and make corrections to your machine
- Features requiring updated data from the Internet like snowfall totals to advise the rover when to go out and do snowblowing
You can mount your Data Center on a fence post, a shed, or way high up on your house, always ensuring 120 degrees of view to the sky. Mount it as high up and open as you can, especially if you have uneven ground the rover can duck behind, as the rover can lose HaLow if the signal to/from the rover can be blocked by metal (like a metal roof) or a small hill. The rover will try WiFi and Cell if HaLow drops, but aim for great HaLow coverage by installing the Data Center in the best location.
Some people report luck with the Data Center inside an attic or garage. It is not recommended. Give HaLow and GPS every chance of success by mounting the Data Center and Docking Station in accordance with Yarbo’s recommendations.
Yarbo is designed to live outside 24/7 within specified temperature ranges. This has been confirmed with Yarbo Engineers. People do move Yarbo inside temporarily in extreme weather/hail/heat/cold. I sometimes move mine into the garage in bad winter weather and put it on the wired charger, then drive it out manually into the driveway to start the snowblowing Work Plan. Up to you - Yarbo is designed to hang outside on its Docking Station sun, rain, or snow. If there are temperature extremes beyond the specifications and you can’t get the rover out of the extreme cold or heat, grab the battery and keep that comfortable.
Yarbo will move the snowblower’s chute and turn the auger periodically while idle to prevent snow/slush from freezing the workings of the machine. If you remove the battery to bring it inside during extreme temperatures, get all the snow and slush out of your snowblower so the auger and chute won’t freeze up.
There are plastic side covers (over the track wheels), and you may get some metal ones I think with the snowblower. I don’t know if we really know why. Possibilities: In addition to saving a little on shipping weight with the rover, it is believed the thinking is the plastic ones are for summer use and the metal is more durable for the winter and adds a little weight. But…yeah, pick a reason you like or make up your own, I guess. Yarbo may discontinue sending both plastic and metal side covers.
Some folks put the Docking Station under a “large tarp doghouse” (it’s an open tent, basically) which is fine, but make sure it won’t block GPS. Careful with the snowblower, which has the tall chute and (now optionally) clears the Docking Station when it returns to charge.
Yarbo is designed to be Charging when not working. The battery management handles it, so don’t worry. Your App should always say “Charging” when the rover is on the Docking Station or wired charger.
Battery Management stops rover operations with high temperatures. The BMS watches the temperature of the battery, which you can see on the Diagnostics Page (it’s in C). When the battery temperature exceeds 50C, the rover will stop operating or charging until the temperature drops to 45C. (Note: Some users have noticed their batteries continuing to charge a little above 50C and resuming charging a little above 45C. Whatever it is, if you notice the rover stopping doing its usual things when it’s very hot out, check the Diagnostics page for the battery temperature.)
The rover has ONE map. The map is shared by ALL modules. You will notice different mapped items and Settings when you swap modules. The basic mapped item is the Area where each module does its work. Pathways provide navigation among Areas. No-go Zones tell the rover to stay away. These three things are shared across all modules.
You can save the map in the app, but it doesn’t save Settings, Schedules, or Work Plans. There is no good way (currently) to “back up” your map with all the other items and restore it intact. You cannot “clone” your map to another rover yourself; Support must be involved, and they will warn you it may not work, including for a replacement core, so plan to re-map. If your Data Center moves or you reinstall it, you must re-map.
Moving and reinstalling your Docking Station will delete your Pathways from the Docking Station, all Work Plans, and all Schedules. Make notes and re-create. Other mapped items and Settings will remain intact.
Rover in the middle of nowhere on the map, may even be outside the mapped boundary in real life. Message about the rover being “4.x feet” outside the boundary. At best seeing your rover way outside of your mapped locations is amusing, but at worst your rover is somewhere other than where it should be. Generally this happens with a weak GPS signal where the rover attempts to continue on. The GPS condition usually corrects itself, returning the rover to normal function where you can simply resume your Work Plan (if the rover is in your mapped Area). If the rover is outside the map, drive it manually or through Smart Vision to where it should be. Confirm visually the rover is in the same spot on the map as it is in real life. If GPS is again green and stable, resume your Work Plan, and keep an eye on the rover “just in case.” If it happens frequently in the same location, you will need to look into the Diagnostics page for the GPS and Data Center communications conditions and deal with that if things don’t look right. Yarbo is always tweaking GPS reliability and how the rover uses it, and with that and Vision enhancements, Yarbo’s unplanned time spent Off The Ranch should see improvement.
Map Drift: For some reason the Data Center and the rover stopped agreeing on where the Docking Station is. If you get this error, try to let it resolve itself by waiting, driving the rover off the Docking Station and locking onto GPS and then back onto the Docking Station (and waiting), or power cycling the Data Center and rover. Using map drift correction when not absolutely necessary can shift your maps and unhook them from the real world, and you’ll need to re-map. See Yarbo’s related KB Article for more information about map drift.
There are major disadvantages to having two rovers on one Data Center, the worst of which is only one can use HaLow, the other must use WiFi. So it’s not really a great – or useful – idea. You can manage multiple Yarbo Systems in your App.
Big specs: One Data Center has a range of 32 acres in ideal conditions. Also in ideal conditions the rover can mow 6.2 acres a week…twice.
How long track grease lasts “depends” on your rover activity, of course. Yarbo requires silicone-based track grease so the nubs on the tracks ride smoothly on lugs on the drive wheels. For me the grease lasts just under a month with the mower. With the snowblower it was a short season, and I didn’t do anything with the grease from the factory but will grease up the snow tracks when I put them back on. You’ll know it’s time to grease up the tracks when you hear a thumping sound as the tracks go around, especially when turning. It happens more often as the grease is used up. See Yarbo’s web site for the recommended grease.
Applying track grease can be done by removing the tracks and smearing grease on the nub faces and down the center, but many people leave the tracks in place and use a grease gun to get the grease onto the center of the track in-place, drive the rover forward a few inches, apply more grease, and continue until grease is applied all the way around the center of the track. Quick and simple. If you remove the tracks, take the time to clear out any debris you see.
How long blades last “depends” on your mowing activity, of course. I think the “average” is 2-3 months per hole in the blade. You’ll get maybe a month or just a tiny bit more from one edge of a blade. Maybe. You’ll need to check for sharpness. When the edge has dulled, start using the other blade edge by swapping the discs, which rotate in different directions. You can also remove and swap all the blades, but swapping the discs is quicker. After both blade edges are used up, flip them to use the 2nd hole (if your blades have two holes), or replace them. Yarbo includes extra blades.
That strange plastic block shaped like an “L” is a mower stand. You tip the mower up onto it when doing maintenance work.
You may use a ceramic coating under the mower deck and inside the snowblower bucket and chute on pretty much everything to keep things less sticky and more slippy. Product Pioneer Scott G. recommends Adam’s Polishes. You can also ceramic coat your rover to help keep it spiffy.
Mapping strategy: Up to you! You likely already mentally break up your property into separate smaller mowing (or snowblowing) sections that “make sense” in your mind. These smaller sections can translated into Areas in Yarbo’s map. It is possible to have one huge Yarbo map Area covering your whole property, but mapping smaller Yarbo map Areas is recommended as being more flexible and easier to manage for Settings and Scheduling. My own Yarbo mowing map reflects how I mow my property in sections with the riding mower. I also use the “Chaining” technique described in “Navigation strategy” and have few very long Pathways.
Can I map with one module and use another? Yes. The rover has the GPS smarts, not the modules. Map with the module you will most commonly use in that location:
- Mapping with the most appropriate module allows you to account for the size of the module.
- Mapped items are available based on module. Deadends for the mower, Sidewalks for the snowblower – and so on. If you swap modules, you will not see module-specific items on the map anymore, and you will not be able to create a mapped item unless the attached module supports it. Areas, Pathways, No-go Zones, and (I believe) No-vision Zones are shared by all modules.
Edit Area allows you to change the boundary of an Area by removing slices or adding chunks. It is not possible to split an Area and keep all slices, however (an enhancement that has been requested).
What point on the rover determines the map line? The center of the core between the two RTK antennas is the mapping reference point. Leave adequate room for the rover to turn, and be aware that it can back up as well while doing its work. It’s best to map the same way the rover works, so study its habits, and refine your map.
Start small when learning mapping, create experimental areas. Get to know Areas, No-go Zones, and Pathways especially. Create a Work Plan and run it. Everything else starts from there. You can delete these experiments when you’re ready. You WILL re-map your “official” Areas, Pathways, Deadends (mower), and Sidewalks (snowblower) several times. And that’s OK.
Navigation strategy: The rover will calculate its navigation based on Areas, Pathways, and Sidewalks (snowblower).
- Chaining: You create at least one Pathway from the Docking Station to your first Area, and then you create Pathways from Area 1 to Area 2, Area 2 to Area 3, and so on. This is called “chaining.” It’s the way people most often create their navigation for the rover.
- Multiple Pathways from the Docking Station: If you don’t want to do chaining, you can create a Pathway from the Docking Station to each Area separately.
- Combination: Yes, you can use a combination of navigation strategies. As long as the rover can get around, it’ll figure out how.
- “Hub Area” strategy: A central Area with one Pathway from the Docking Station and many Pathways leading out across your property.
- Sidewalks: A snowblower’s Sidewalk can be used like a Pathway and will go one-way if it starts on one mapped item and ends on another. The neat thing is you add the Sidewalk to the Work Plan so it always gets done, unlike Pathways, which may not get done if the rover finds a shorter navigation path.
Pathway endpoints must not be in the overlap of multiple Areas: Create a Pathway by starting it in the “meat” of an Area a few feet in and ending it in the “meat” of another Area a few feet in. Starting or ending a Pathway in an overlap of multiple Areas should be avoided and often doesn’t work as expected, sometimes working, sometimes not. (Yarbo may update the behavior of Pathways started or ended in Area overlaps to be more consistent.) Pathways may go through overlaps and may cross multiple Areas, but long Pathways have been associated with navigation anomalies, so it’s best to use chaining and keep Pathways to a reasonable size. Avoid creating Pathways through No-go Zones, as Pathways and Deadends ignore No-go Zones.
Deleting Areas unhooks Deadends, Sidewalks, Pathways. If you delete an Area where Deadends, Sidewalks, or Pathways start, those items will no longer be usable need to be deleted and re-mapped, even if you map another Area back over them. (Unknown if Yarbo will change this behavior.)
Deleting a single mapped item deletes the Work Plan. Before deleting anything, remove it from all Work Plans. If a Work Plan contains an item that you delete, the Work Plan is deleted. (Yarbo may change this behavior.)
Running Work Plans without GPS at your Docking Station: You can put your Docking Station inside a structure, like your garage, and have your rover live inside. If no GPS, you don’t need to install the Docking Station in the App. Manually drive your rover to a mapped Area and start your Work Plan. As long as the rover can get to where the work is through your map, it’ll go on its own. When the Work Plan is done, it will stop. Manually drive the rover back to the Docking Station (or wired charger) for it to charge. SmartVision is great for driving your rover around manually.
Work Plan won’t run, error about needing to create the map per the documentation: Generally this happens because you are missing a Pathway from where the rover is to where you want it to go. Review your mapped items, especially Pathways.
Network issues can show up as GPS problems. Issues in your network can cause the rover to pause with GPS errors for over a minute, move a few feet, then pause again – and have similar issues. Network issues cause the Data Center and rover to rework how they communicate their GPS data, and it takes a minute or so with each network burp. You must ensure your network is working properly, especially if you go against the recommendation and use a WiFi Extender device.
Most folks turn off WiFi in the rover. It doesn’t have to be on and in some cases can cause instability as the rover goes in and out of WiFi range. Cell also doesn’t have to be on.
Your cell service is free for 2 years, from what we understand. Generally it’s used for tracking if the unit is stolen, but it can also come in to play if the unit moves out of HaLow range, in which case it appears (from my experience) to be turned on automatically as needed by the rover.
If you lose GPS during a Work Plan, have the rover wait a few minutes for satellites to move around. If still no GPS, you can Pause the Work Plan and use Smart Vision to move the rover into the open (try to keep it within the Area it’s in or in another mapped Area). Get GPS back, then (optionally) move the rover back “near” where you paused it, resume the Work Plan, and the rover will know where to go. Fingers crossed it’ll keep GPS for you from then on, but it is what it is, especially under tree canopy. You may be doing this a few times.
App, firmware updates: You update the App and the Data Center firmware manually. Yarbo updates the rover firmware. Get your entire configuration set up and updated (including the rover powered up and network-enabled) and let the rover sit idle on the Docking Station with your App closed, and after a while Yarbo should send the firmware update. If you don’t see an update after sitting overnight or so, contact Yarbo Support. The rover will reboot and announce “Ready to work!” after a firmware update, so be prepared for a spooky voice in the night.
Resources, social media: There are YouTube videos, Facebook posts, and Yarbo Forum posts (Yarbo Forum also has a summary of feature requests and status). Join the Yarbo Community on Discord for LIVE sessions with our fine Product Pioneers and Yarbo Tech Support and Development.
- Official Facebook:
– Official Yarbo Support & Solutions: Redirecting...
– Official Yarbo Community: Redirecting...
– Yarbo Account: Yarbo | Ronkonkoma NY - YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@yarboglobal
- Discord:
– Yarbo Community: Yarbo Community
Yarbo Support’s KB Articles on the Yarbo web site are easily searched and useful. Check out the recommendations for maintaining track grease and how to understand the diagnostics page.
Map, TEST, tweak, TEST, observe, dial it in.
(This came from a comment I wrote a short time ago, and I threw in some updates here. Please comment with corrections (be nice!). Stuff like this should be better formatted and in a FAQ for new folks and pinned along with other frequently asked questions and frequently encountered issues. Forum users have been in discussion with the Yarbo folks about this to see how the valuable feedback from new users and the experience from active users can be documented to help others. Hope this helped someone and actually proves to be factual. Cheers! - @Ken)
*With add’l contributions/suggestions from: @steve, @bryan.wheeler, @Yarbo-Forum, @dandbstephens *
