Ambrogio Typical USA Suburban Installation with Fences

Spring was early this year! So early, in fact, that it has been difficult to keep up with blog posts. Interest in Ambrogio continues to grow as people learn about its advantages.

We continue to seek new dealers in five states. Since we lack dealers in many areas, on occasion I will do an installation for new customers who do not have a dealer nearby. 

People often wonder how to deal with physical and electronic fences. The easiest answer is "leave the gate open for the robot to travel from the back to the front", but what does a robot owner do who owns a dog? The whole point of the fence for the dog owner is that the dog cannot run away.

For a physical fence, there are two main options: 

• Most dogs can be trained to go outside on a schedule. By programming work times around the dog's yard use, you can make yourself available to open the gate when the dog is not using the yard. When the gate is closed, the robot will bump into the gate if it tries to go to the front yard and will simply continue to mow the back. Use the "Work Until" command to tell the robot to drive to the front and select the desired area.
• Some customers even develop their own automatic fence gate. We have the skills within our company to design the electronics for such a gate if we wanted to, but it's not a business we would like to get into at this time. I am confident there will be an aftermarket solution at some point that hopefully we can offer as a product to our dealers.

For electronic/invisible dog fences, it is a bit more technical. People often ask if the electronic dog fence and the robot can use the same wire. The answer is: "No". Why? The short answer is the invisible dog fence wire is typically not placed precisely around the grass, in other words there will be unmowed grass. But let's say it was installed at the same time as the robot, what about then? Still "No". The dog fence wire contains a "null" section that allows the dog to enter the lawn. The robot needs the "null" section to be energized with its signal. And, on top of that, both signals cannot co-exist on the wire, unless Zucchetti (the manufacturer of Ambrogio) decides to make their own invisible dog fence solution. 

Here is an overview of the electronic dog fence issues and how to overcome them:

• Typically the robot will work fine because its signal is very strong. The dog fence signal gets depleted by the robot's signal. After installing the robot's wire, take the dog collar and walk around the yard. Insure the collar beeps at the expected 4-5 feet level, not only 1-2 feet off the ground that will enable the dog to run away. 
• Bear in mind that the dog fence signal zaps the dog so if the dog fence wire is layed very close to the robot's wire, the robot's wire can become energized with the dog fence signal. Since the robot's wire must border all edges of the grass, the dog will get zapped when it tries to enter the lawn. Overcome this by setting the robot on a different signal channel. The robot uses one frequency with up to eight channels that can be tried one at a time. If this does not work, separate the wires by at least 1m/3 feet.
• If the robot still interferes with the dog fence, try switching the dog fence frequency. A very good brand of invisible dog fence to use with Ambrogio Robot Mowers is Pet Stop brand invisible dog fences. It has an extra frequency that has been proven to work even with very old Ambrogio robots with the analog transmitter that cannot have its frequency changed.

I will write a separate post about invisible dog fences in the future with more details to help my readers understand.

Ok, back to the topic: "typical suburban lawns with fences". How should the wiring be done around the fence and the fence opening? What would a typical fenced yard wiring diagram look like?

First let's review where the grass is on a typical USA suburban yard on this graphic:

Typical USA Suburban Lawn with Fence

Grass is shown in green, there is a driveway and a sidewalk that cuts through part of the grass. The brick is a typical sidewalk to the front door and leading from the driveway to the back yard. These typical configurations usually have one tree in the grass between the sidewalk and the street. The narrow spaces bring forth challenges that thankfully are usually overcome by Ambrogio robot's incredible tight space mowing capability.

Wiring a typical suburban yard with a fence is fairly straight forward and is explained completely in my book, "Ambrogio Robot Mower Professional Installation Guide", that is for sale on Amazon. The best way to wire such a lawn is with two openings in the fence, one on each side of the home. It is the best because the robot does not cross the driveway to reach each main grass section.

The "anti-clockwise" trick to enable the robot to drive to the front through the right-side gate opening can be used to allow the wire on the right side to be centered on the gate. The small amount of wire shown in yellow becomes a "don't care" section of wire, because the robot will never drive on it. The robot only drives clockwise back to the base and since it drives counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise) to the front right, the section of wire marked yellow is never driven-on by the robot.

For maximum programming flexibility, however, sending both wires through the opening the required distance away from each fence post is a better way to do it. 14" is the required distance for most Ambrogio robots, but the distance could be as small as 8" away for the very small L15 and L20 robots.

Ambrogio Robot Mower Typical USA Fence Wiring Two Gates

Some homeowners prefer not to cut a hole in the fence if it does not already have two gates. In this case, the robot will cross the driveway as shown in Case 2. Crossing the driveway is not ideal and should be avoided whenever possible. Ambrogio robot mowers are very quiet and can easily be run over by a car, even by the homeowner. An alternative is to wire the driveway crossing as a closed area so the homeowner will place the robot there instead of having the robot cross the driveway on its own.

Ambrogio Robot Mower Typical USA Fence Wiring: One Gate

The wire shown on the sides of the driveway are "keep out" wires that will keep the robot from treating the driveway as a mowing area. Note that for each narrow passage, a special wire configuration called a recall-on wire "antenna" will ultimately be needed. An easy solution is to have the robot navigate on top of the wire. Although no antennas are needed in this case, over time, ruts will form in the grass. Antennas are required if the homeowner desires to eliminate the ruts.

Let's talk about sidewalks. It is not recommended to have the robot cross the sidewalk on its own for safety reasons. The manufacturer would like a 3 foot distance between the wire and the sidewalk, too. Many homeowners do not like this because they do not want to use a traditional lawn mower on the remaining grass. Some homeowners choose to be present while the robot mows the front yard. They carry the robot from section to section until the whole lawn is mowed. This is a good compromise because the homeowner will be present to warn pedestrians.

Homeowners that really want the robot to cross the sidewalk on its own will be doing so at their own risk. All Ambrogio robots that have a touch screen can be programmed to mow certain areas at a specific time. The touch screen robots can be set to mow areas beyond the sidewalk in the "wee hours" of the morning, when no one is expected to be on the sidewalk. All other Ambrogio robots can be set to only mow at night. When purchasing a non-touch screen robot for a typical suburban yard, it is important to choose a model that has extra capacity to ensure it will have enough coverage to maintain the grass in less time. For example, choose a 1/3 acre robot such as Twenty Elite S+ for a 1/4 acre yard.

Watch my YouTube video Ambrogio Robot 4.0 Elite Typical USA Suburban Lawn w/Fence to see a real example. 

If you are reading this blog and are located in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan Ohio or Wisconsin, think about becoming one of our dealers! The threshold to enter the business is currently very low. We need smart, dedicated people who are passionate about robot mowing. Apply now!