I don’t have see if it’s possible to define working hours.
Don’t mowing from 8pm to 10 am for example.
It could be great if it’s also possible to have this on each zone. in order to do shadow zone in the afternoon not in the morning with the dew
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The functionality of the Work Plan Schedule feature isn’t very clear (questions about it pop up regularly, and I’ve never even looked at it), but it’s theorized that what it does is set working hours – an “end time” doesn’t make much sense for a Schedule of this nature, but it does if the intent of the Schedule is to define working hours.
So what you’re requesting may be there. Have a look at the Schedule in where the Work Plan is.
For your mowing Area rotation, you can define multiple schedules and include a different Work Plan in each.
Please have a look and let me know how this actually works! I’m curious and will be starting to look into this myself to rotate Areas and mow everything twice a week or so.
I like to experiment and figure stuff out (too many years of Mustie1 on YouTube), but @bryan.wheeler will probably jump in and explain it to the class. He’s well-versed in Yarbo.
Scheduling is something I haven’t played around with much except on the snow blower. When my test run finished with the snow blower and the battery was over 80%, I was confused that it docked, and then went right back out again (since the battery was over 80%). This is what support told me back then about scheduling:
The Lawn Mower will only run once per day, whereas the Snow Blower will run multiple times within the schedule until the end time is reached (or the battery runs out).
They also released in the 3.15.1 App Update today an enhancement to scheduling:
- Improved Schedule Timing: The dates for the mower and patrol schedules now adjust based on your time zone, helping you plan more accurately.
We understand your needs, and this can likely be fulfilled using the scheduling feature. You can set different schedules for each area, allowing the lawn mower to operate at different times throughout the day.
Note: The scheduled plan will be automatically executed by Yarbo once it reaches the designated start time. And will return to the docking station once it reaches the end time.
You can consider the estimated duration of the work plan when setting the appropriate start time for each area.
Would this solution meet your needs?
Yarbo I can’t speak for the author but many customers have noise ordinances and or want to be home and awake when the machine is operating. Some have stated they want it to run when there is no dew on the grass. Having it pause automatically and resume during the next scheduled window would be the expectation of the current scheduled end time. Perhaps implement it that way but have a toggle that says “allow an active plan to finish outside of the schedule window” or something to that effect.
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Probably in need of consideration:
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“Working Hours” window when Yarbo can do things, with a “no limit / 24 hours” option
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Schedule in days and times for starting individual Work Plans
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What happens if a Work Plan is running and another gets scheduled/queued
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What happens if a Work Plan is running and there are others queued when the Working Hour limit is hit…you could wind up with a system that’s always behind!
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“End Time” seems to cause confusion. If the idea is to let Yarbo work for a set number of minutes/hours on a Work Plan, pause the Work Plan, and then come back when the Work Plan is scheduled again and resume the Work Plan, that would be useful, maybe some wording changes would help make that clear. This way you could mow a big Area an hour at a time over the course of a few days, or just schedule one massive Work Plan with all your stuff and have it constantly mowed in a rotation. Heh, I may not understand what “End Time” means, but I now like how it is in my head now…if that’s how it is.
Anyway…
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I’m in the @bryan.wheeler camp now: End Time in a schedule actually ends the job, unlike what the documentation seems to indicate.
I scheduled two jobs and gave them five minute slots – start 10:30 / end 10:35, then start 10:36 / end 10:41. I thought I’d see if Job 1 is allowed to complete and if Job 2 is queued up and starts.
Spoiler alert: No.
The 10:30 job kicked off, did a small bit of the job, and tried to go back to recharge 5 minutes later, during which time the 2nd job kicked off, the rover went to the new place, had enough time to knock over some dandelions, then went back to recharge at 10:41.
Bryan is correct: End time ENDS the job.
This means the documentation is incorrect, @Yarbo-Forum. The scheduled job does not continue until the Work Plan is done. It cancels the job and goes back to recharge.
The wording in the documentation is:
- The work plan in the schedule is still being executed when Yarbo reaches the end time, and it will return to recharge when the work plan is completed.
…which could use some refinement but I take it to mean that when the End Time is reached, the Work Plan continues until done, after which the rover returns to recharge. This does not appear to be the case.
UX: Because the job is canceled, when I schedule a job, I have to “guess” how long it will take, and make sure there’s a “buffer” so it doesn’t get ended early. Job 1 says it takes 1.5 hours, I will have to give it 2 hours. That half hour of “buffer” will be spent idle (OK, recharging, which is not the worst thing) when the rover could have moved on to something else.
Also UX: I’m betting that if you need to recharge during a scheduled job, the End Time may expire, so the running job will just be canceled. I haven’t tried that, but it would follow from the behavior I observed today.
I know Yarbo has indicated that the scheduler behavior needs a re-think. Yeah, some stuff to think through now that we’re all using it for mowing season!
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It should complete the job during the next scheduled work plan for that area IMHO. Or at least make that configurable for what to do IE cancel and start all over or finish and then start all over, etc.
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Thank you for taking the time to test and share your detailed observations. We apologize for the earlier misinformation. After confirming with our product team, the lawn mower is indeed designed to return to the docking station when the scheduled end time is reached. We understand this may cause inconvenience, and we will work on optimizing the scheduling feature to make it more user-friendly for mowing tasks. We truly appreciate your effort and feedback!
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