May 2008
Monthly Archive
Monthly Archive
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 19 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
From: Don
To: Sara
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 07:31:46 -0400
Betsie finished by the way! The lawn looks great!
………….
Yeah! The weeds were knee high on Friday night when I got home and found the package from KA.
I set Betsie to charging. When she was ready (or maybe before since I am impatient) she came out, did a spiral, crossed the yard, and went home. Total time, less than 10 minutes!
I began to fear for the battery. However, she was cutting better than ever and not getting stuck in the tall weeds. So I decided not to worry yet.
I’m not sure if it was the new blade, the new software, or maybe the fact that my grass isn’t too thick… but I have never seen a lawnbott do so well in such overgrown grass. I’m pretty the fact that the grass wasn’t too thick helped a lot.
I’m going to try over-seeding when I get home next week (I have a bag of seed that the previous owners of our house left, so might as well use it). Betsie keeps things a bit shorter than I’d like, and that lets the weeds come in more. Anyone have advice about dealing with that?
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
Check the stickam.com box on the right side… if it’s black then Betsie is in her house charging. If it’s a photo then we’re offline. But maybe, if you time it right, you’ll see her out mowing!
If you are seeing this in your feed, come visit the site to see the cam. 🙂
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
Betsie, Back in Action!
Originally uploaded by sajego.
I let her charge for about 20 minutes and then got impatient. That was when I realized the charger was on the wrong voltage setting. I switched it, waited 5 more minutes and then sent her out. She made this lovely spiral, crossed the yard to the driveway and must have been cruising because she slipped out of bounds and stopped. I turned her around but she said Low Battery so I sent her home.
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
Betsie, Back in Action!
Originally uploaded by sajego.
Guess what FedEx finally left me! I was all ready to break down and ask the neighbor’s teenager to mow my lawn (he does my neighbors) since I’m out of town next week. But the charger is here and Betsie is working again!
In other news, the rose bush (they are Bright Pink) has a couple dozen blooms on it!
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 10 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
As I wrote previously, I was planning to redo Betsie’s front yard wire. Strangely enough though, when I started her up for the first mow of the spring, the wire was connecting perfectly and I didn’t have to fiddle with anything at all. I was quite surprised.
After getting the grass short I planted some grass seed that the previous owners of the house had left in the shed. I just tossed it around by hand on the bare spots under the trees (it was a shade grass mix). It had been dated spring 07, but I figured I might as well try it since it was left behind. It has been growing well since then.
Of course the wire around the side yard was broken, and then something disconnected on the main loop too. I placed an order for wire. It hadn’t come by the next weekend so I looked up the tracking number.
“Delivered”
???
“Pasadena, Maryland”
Oh no. That was Betsie’s first home. 3 hours away and who knows who lives there now! I had changed all the addresses when I checked out, and my email confirmation from the company had only the right address on it. I contacted them and complained. I told them they could just refund my money. I ordered from McMaster Carr and had the wire the next day.
My next free evening I installed it. Wow, no wonder I had had so many problems with the wire. In less than 500 feet I had at least 8 different pieces. Now it was all one piece all the way around. I got to visit with my neighbors who came out of hibernation to chat for the first time since fall.
I connected the new wire to the stranded pig tails and went to check the connection. The light on the transmitter that is either solid green or blinking green wasn’t either. It wasn’t even lit.
Betsie wasn’t charged.
Something had gone wrong in the week and a half of waiting for the misdirected wire.
At first I suspected the transmitter, but after measuring the voltage across charger I realized that was the likely culprit, only 5 volts instead of 25.
I checked all the fuses, cleaned off some dirt, and it worked again!
For about 5 minutes.
Now the lights on the charger were out too.
This is why Bamabots was having new parts sent to me. What’s happen since then? Well, I got a new transmitter, but they didn’t send a new charger. I’m still waiting.
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 10 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
It is strange having a blog that you know people read. My livejournal, which I’ve had since 1999, has never had many followers, so I just talk to myself and feel free to complain about things. It’s actually been “friends only” since I discovered a co-worker reading it a few years ago, I didn’t want to have to worry about what I might have said about my job being too public.
Betsie’s blog, this blog, started because I wanted to tell people about my cool new creature. I talked about her in so many emails and IMs that my friends got tired of hearing about “Betsie this, Betsie that” all the time. So I set up a livejournal account for Betsie and sent emails to that instead.
It was a surprise when people started commenting, and a huge surprise to be contacted by the lanwbott company (KA) because of this blog. Subject matter blogging was just starting to really catch fire at the time, so I guess we fit right in.
Now days I don’t write quite so much. CBS Sunday Morning never did do their story with my interview and Betsie. I know that that happens with TV, but they did act like it would definitely air last summer. My neighbors are still asking me about it.
They are also asking me why Betsie hasn’t been out much this spring. Is that the new polite way of point out how tall the grass is in your lawn? That’s another entry though.
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 06 May 2008 | Tagged as: General
Still no package with new power adapter. I guess my last post jinxed it… or maybe it went the way of my original wire shipment… to the last place I lived in Maryland. Hope not.