I am surprised I can’t find this as a topic. My feeling is that a work plan should include some of the area adjustments, and the area settings should just be default for the plan. I understand things like pattern, but even that should be subject.
Speed, height, no go zone mowing, laps etc should be part of the plan.
If pattern is parallel then angle should also be part of the plan.
Currently the plan is just an area selection. One must modify the area each time before a plan runs to modify. Seems backwards to me.
I have two properties to run my Yarbo on. Right now, the “Home” work plan consists of 4 work zones (soon to be 5). The “Farm” work plan will be about 8 or so work zones once my new mower pro arrives.
I like the fact that the attributes of a work zone are separate and unique from other work zones. I have a zone that is diamond pattern, two zones that are parallel, and one that is spiral (and might change to parallel). I also set one zone with a higher cut height. Each area has its own requirements. They are chained in the work plan and re-ordered as weather and growing changes. They are disabled and enabled based on the same variables.
If the work plan is to have the aforementioned attributes assigned as an overarching policy, then maybe it can be set as you describe, and opt-in each of the work zones to that main policy. Else, the work zones will use their locally set parameters. If that is what you are describing, that could be a worthwhile feature for a baseline that all zones of the plan can participate in by opting-in.
I like the concept of global settings to override the Yarbo defaults. And then area settings, where you can override the global default. Ideally, there would also be a push button toggle to reset all area settings to the global settings for a quick change on all areas. very much like parent and child relationships with inheritance.
I never considered propellerheads scenario. I guess all of my areas are pretty large and not done in away that I would have so many areas in a work plan. Typically I want my property to look the same. I will not lie, part of this is so I can just use parallel and set my angles so all areas stay aligned. Another reason is I adjust speed depending on height and possibly mow height as well. Sometimes I don’t want to mow around no go zones and other times I do. This is to “catch up” with rain and fast growing grass, as well as maintenance and not wearing patterns. My areas do not grow at the same rates. Bryan’s suggestion would indeed satisfy both scenarios. I very much agree with parent child way of working.
I mostly was confused by “work plan” . There was nothing, but choosing the area. Then you can schedule that area, seemed redundant. I find myself going everywhere in the app. Part of it is being a newb. Propellerheads comment does make me see some benefit in by area.
+12 to this. Now that my Yarbo is well setup, I’d really, really like to refine my workplans… Continuous mode, “work hours” “non mow hours”, customize settings depending on the workplan, etc…
Alternatively we could program our own scheduler… If only they provided an API access…
The work plan is more of a grouping. Like you could add 3 areas, 2 dead ends, 4 sidewalks to one plan and then schedule or execute the plan. I do see utility in being able to have different settings for each work plan too. Summer mode, cut my grass at 4 inches. Spring/fall mode, cut my grass at 3 inches. I don’t even have to think about it. Just execute summer plan or schedule it.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful suggestion! You’ve made some great points, and I completely understand how having those settings tied directly to the work plan would make things more efficient. I’ll be sure to share this with our product team for their consideration!
Your comment about workplans seeming to be redundant hits hard. If you want to just run 1 area you have to add it to a work plan and then schedule it. The preview is already in the settings why can’t you just click run now, or after run after X time or at X time? Then after it starts it could ask you if you want to set it up as reoccurring or not…or leave that in the menu…
I am going to try and revive this. I say this despite propellerheads scenario as I am feeling his use case while relevant is less the norm. I am back in full swing of mowing and trying to be both efficient and create a nice lawn and realized all the app actions to do this. I am going to restate why…
It’s rainy season…
Due to some minor shortcomings of robot mowers to have a pristine looking mow as @bryan.wheeler often suggests mow 2x in checkerboard. This in fact makes for an amazing cut.
Problem - no need to boundary lap, redo around NGZ, or mow at a slower speed.
Requirements to get around this to achieve fast efficient results?
Go into each “area” modify all above settings. Then execute the so called “plan” - again I think the use of the term plan here is pretty loose.
Once it is complete, in my case many hours later, or before the area is again scheduled to run…don’t forget to go back into the area and undo EVERYTHING you had to do to make this work…otherwise you will wonder why the next mow is so horribly off. Every week rinse and repeat…
While I respect and understand the comments of propellerhead, I have to wonder if I am out of the norm? I know my previous mower it was all in the plan, allowing for quick situational plans to execute as needed. I have to assume that even propellerhead would find this also very workable, while maybe slightly more plans for him to hit his typical scenarios. He clearly doesn’t mind going in and modifying the areas continually. Perhaps queuing would resolve his issue if this were to be implemented. In that a plan could be set then each plan is in a queue to run to have various mow settings for his areas.
Sorry for the long rant, just annoyed at the moment.
I agree. You bring up great points and also disabling things like NGZ edges and perimeter laps or perimeter only mows are a common request. Having the ability to have profiles that you could apply to scheduling and or work plans for each area would be very useful. Also being able to add the same area multiple times to a work area. Lots of requests for all of this and your profile option would make sense when those features are available.
Thanks Bryan, I certainly appreciate the comments and adding I am not on an island in this thought. As I continually say I am pleased with Yarbo and especially the continued focus on improving and taking end user feedback in their plans. I of course have my frustrating moments
As a systems engineer and an application developer I can certainly sympathize with the Yarbo team.
I will note that experience with other brands also plays into my thoughts whether it is better, worse, or common implementation. In fact I still help my father with my old mower now at his residence. So experience in 2 stays relevant for me.
