Since there is not a newsgroup just on mowers, I am hoping that someone might
be able to steer me in the direction of getting my electric lawn mower working
again. It's a Ryobi electric lawnmower, and I don't have any manuals or
schematics.

I posted some sketches and photos that I hope will help he
http://www.geocities.com/hbcalifornee2002/mower.html

Here's the problem:

This problem started all at once. One day I mowed for an hour with no trouble,
then the next weekend, it would only run 5-10 minutes before draining the
battery. Battery is less than six months old.

Another strange thing is that when I plug the mower in to recharge, the
"charge" light indicates that the battery is fully charged, while the
"Empty/Full" meter shows it as being "Empty." (The "charge" light is connected
to the charger board, and the "Empty/Full" meter is connected to the relay
board.

After charging overnight, the "Empty/Full" meter shows "Full" and the "charge"
light still shows fully charged. After running again for 5 minutes, the meter
goes to "Empty." Plugging in again, and the "charge" light still shows fully
charged.

Please send me an email if you have any idea of what might be causing the
problem.

Thanks very much!

On 23 Mar 2003 07:13:02 GMT, ilter (HBYardSale)
wrote:

Since there is not a newsgroup just on mowers, I am hoping that someone might
be able to steer me in the direction of getting my electric lawn mower working
again. It's a Ryobi electric lawnmower, and I don't have any manuals or
schematics.

Can one assume that you have contacted the manufacturer?

[...]



--
Polar

Thanks for the suggestion. I wish I could contact the mfr but it's the weekend
and the grass need mowing. Also, Ryobi also no longer makes this mower, so many
parts are no longer available. The local mower shops don't have the time or
expertise to troubleshoot this kind of problem. That's why I'm having to
troubleshoot it board-level.

So.... here I am back to where I started.

Here's some more info...

After going over the voltages again after dinner, it looks like the charger is
only putting out 18-21VDC, which is too low to give a decent charge. Seems like
I remember troubleshooting something else on this mower a few years ago and it
was putting out 27VDC.

So, I went back and look at the little rectifier board, which is just 4 diodes.
The input there is 35VAC and the output is 107VAC and 46VDC. Does this look
weird? I'm wondering where the AC is coming from and why it's up so high.

The diodes all checked out OK with an ohm meter, but I’m wondering if one of
them is breaking down when AC is applied (?)

Polar

Can one assume that you have contacted the manufacturer?

[...]



--
Polar

I can't help you with your question, but I can say that my DR electric mower
has done some serious justice for me when it comes to cutting my grass!!!
If you can't fix the Ryobi, I recommend the DR - I bought it as a 'demo'
model, therefore I paid less, however it comes w/the same warranty as new --
this will be its third summer.

LeeAnne

"HBYardSale" wrote in message
...
Since there is not a newsgroup just on mowers, I am hoping that someone
might
be able to steer me in the direction of getting my electric lawn mower
working
again. It's a Ryobi electric lawnmower, and I don't have any manuals or
schematics.

Thanks to all who sent me email. The problem was a bad charger circuit. I
bought a trickle charger at the local auto parts store ($28) and modified the
circuit. Works fine. (I don't recommend doing this unless you are familiar with
battery charging. It can be dangerous if it's not done right.)

Also, an electric mower is the ONLY way to go as far as I'm concerned. I bought
this one for $25 thru the paper, replaced the battery ($70 by mail/net) and got
several years out of it before the charger went out. While it was down, I
borrowed a friend's gas mower and I had forgotten how quiet and smokeless the
electric ones are.

I can mow the front and back yards twice on one charge. That's a total of about
12,000 sq ft. If you have much more than that, an electric mower might not be
the way to go. Also, mine is a push-type, so if you need a self-propelled, I'd
guess you get a lot less on a charge.

"LeeAnne"

I can't help you with your question, but I can say that my DR electric mower
has done some serious justice for me when it comes to cutting my grass!!!
If you can't fix the Ryobi, I recommend the DR - I bought it as a 'demo'
model, therefore I paid less, however it comes w/the same warranty as new --
this will be its third summer.

LeeAnne