I felt it was important to make this video to try let people make an informed decision on whether they should back this project or not. Just to add some clarity to my point about me not having one. The issue is not that they didn't send one to me specifically, but that there are no unrestricted reviews about the product available. I wouldn't have had a big issue with this point if there was a genuine 3rd party review from a different channel.
Yeah I totally agree. I've heard too many stories - mostly from 3D printing TH-cam people like Tom Sanladerer and those he retweets/comments on - about companies' shady behaviour regarding reviews, so it seems prudent to be generous with the scepticism in situations like this :) Incidentally, as cool as the tech is (and I'll have to look into RTK and OpenMower some more!), I'd have a hard time justifying the cost of one of these anyway - from _any_ manufacturer. For the 9 years we've lived in this house, our landlady's handyman has mowed our lawn every couple of weeks when it's growing. What we're paying for that now is complicated, but originally I think it was something like £15 each time. At that rate, and even with generous estimates, it'd take almost a decade to match the £2k-ish of these things ... and I'm just not convinced that a robot lawnmower would even _survive_ that long tbh (the battery or the rest of it), especially from an unknown company(?) in a relatively new market 🤷♀️ (And by what we're paying being "complicated", I just mean that it was rolled into the rent after a few years and that's gone up and down over time as friends have moved in and out. I don't feel that we're being ripped off - not any more than is generally implied by renting one's home, anyway...)
@@mammotiontech Thanks for taking the time to reply. While I do appreciate you have done your own testing, a review from a 3rd party is realistically the only trustworthy source from a consumer point of view. It is a shame that the other folks you sent the Luba to have not posted anything. Something 2LookAt's video *is not a review*, he even says so himself in the comments. Other than showing the Luba moves and seems to stay within the boundary, that video has very little value to potential customers. A review should have the Luba set up in a real world environment and being put to use over the span of few weeks minimum. Again, I do appreciate that there are a lot of benefits to you as a company for doing a kickstarter, but I felt it was important to inform people what are the risks of a kickstarter as I think the majority of people do not know. As I mentioned in the video, I do genuinely hope this is a success for everyone involved and we'll be seeing the Luba available from retailers in the future. I would be open for reviewing it in the future if you still wanted, you have my email and my terms :)
@@BrianLough Thanks for your suggestions. Something 2LookAt's video is only dedicated to the RTK function, and other 3rd party KOL review videos will be coming out soon. We will keep in touch. Looking forward to working with you in the future :)
I plan on buying one was going to back it but didn't have the money for it. The suspension is not really suspension it's just a tilt axle with some very soft springs for looks. A neighbor of mine has one.
There has been a increase of people leaving me similar messages in the last few weeks. Which I guess means backers are getting them, which is great, but they were meant to start shipping in July of last year. I said in this video I hoped people got them, but it was a huge risk and even though it seems to have worked out, it was still 9 months late
Hi Brian. I want to put in my 2 cents here. I will talk to you if you ask me questions. This mower of course is not on the market yet. It's not ready for a full review video. The machine as a piece of hardware is quite solid and quite strong and capable, but the firmware is still being developed. If anybody were to do a full critical review on a beta, it would perform as though it was a beta. During the course of several 12 hour difference Zoom meetings (yes, I ran it at night), their engineering team fixed some issues that made it possible for me to make a video on the RTK tracking. There was some weird GPS thing happening on this side of the planet. That is all I was asked to do. I have filmed it doing many things, including cutting much thicker grass and climbing a slope. Worth mentioning is that the Luba is incredibly strong. Once it is ready for market, i. e. the firmware is working perfectly, they may ask me to do a full review. Now, since I have one here and I've used it, what would you like to know?
Hey, thanks for your comment. (For anyone else reading, Something 2LookAt is the person with the only 3rd party video on the Luba) I disagree that mower couldn't be tested now, why shouldn't potential backers get to see what the current state of the thing they are about to spend $1200 on? Sure there are things that might not work right now, or features that they hope to add by the time the product ships, but giving a clear view of where they are now and where they would like to be in a few months is the open and honest thing to do in my opinion. It may be a terminology issue, but it doesn't even sound like it is a beta yet. A beta should feature complete with maybe some minor issues or niggles that need to be ironed out, not something critical like the GPS wasn't working in North America. To be honest, I'm really surprised you didn't mention in this in your video. It's great that you were able to work with the Luba team to get the issue resolved, but it highlights that the Luba team have not done extensive (any?) testing outside of their region, so are we to expect that other regions might run into problems too? There is no indication on the kickstarter that this is anything but a completed product, so why wouldn't backers expect something that works out of the box. I have lots of questions! More than I could fit in a TH-cam comment! Like, how does it work in a real garden (with actual boundaries and obstacles it needs to avoid), Does the RTK get interrupted by trees and so on, but basically it just comes down to that I would like to see an actual review. The fact that you (or the Luba team) don't feel it's ready for a review in it's current state is fairly telling though. A review after the kickstarter closes isn't going to be much use to the nearly 2000 backers.
I thought for sure you were gonna comment on the need for a ground station, and what performance can be expected from RTK in reality. True, no underground wire is needed but that doesn't mean no supporting setup at all. In my experience RTK still suffers from reception issues near walls and buildings just like peasant's GPS. The accuracy is astounding but I had huge problems regaining full assisted lock after a dropout, sometimes 3 minutes or more even when close by the ground station. And this was in a rural location without any other radio noise around. Presumably these units will be frequency hopping with a globally unique id otherwise using them within range of another one will mess them up. As a slightly less important point of skepticism, the tread pattern on those wheels doesn't look right at all for grass, certainly not like any other ride-on or powered mowers I've seen. Finally (nearly done) the suspension seems pointless and is the last thing I would want on a mower. It's not moving fast enough to need shock absorption, and I'm skeptical that allowing a more conforming contact with the ground is desirable, certainly not at the extra cost it will necessitate.
I unfortunately don't have any experience with rtk of any setup so don't have the knowledge to give any feedback on how well it operates in reality, so thank you for sharing yours! regarding suspension: I have a fairly uneven lawn and the worx gets on fine so I would also have my doubts of it's use, the original line in the script was "it has suspension for some reason" but I got feedback that people wouldn't know that lawnmowers don't typically have it 😅 That's interesting regarding the thread, it would also be be interesting to see how it works out with the realities of a went lawn in Ireland, the way the mower rotates itself in something 2lookAt video looks quite unusual, but I was just putting that down to the 4x4ness of it Thanks for the comment! And I'm sure I've said it to you at some stage but also thanks for your box2d content back in the day (if I'm remembering correctly)!
I am not an expert on tire treat patterns, but earlier versions had another design, then they changed to this. Maybe this allows it more easily to rotate on the grass, but still. This way of turning is going to be interesting to follow. It looks like it is putting quite a lot of stress on the grass, because it actually has to slide over it, and it doesn't take much accidental slipping from my mower to tear up some grass when it is wet.
15:54 Hey, Luba. If you’re watching this, I have no qualms about compromising my nonexistent internet integrity for a free robot mower. I don’t don’t have a TH-cam channel, I don’t make TH-cam videos, or even have any social media accounts to promote your mower on, but send me a free robot mower and I’ll gladly make a positive review video for it. My only stipulations are as follows- 1. All font present in my video will be neon green comic sans (color negotiable). 2. Background audio will only consist of the hamster dance looped on repeat. And 3. I get to keep the mower after review. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you for this well-articulated confirmation of my concerns with the Luba as a kickstarter product. I have a complicated garden comprising several lawns with steep banks and dotted with multiple obstacles and features. The lawns are separated by granite chipping driveways and the area to be mowed needs to be dynamically changed to exclude areas of daffodils, primroses and meadow plants in the spring and early summer. Currently I use a 53cm walk behind mower, the lawns being too uneven for a zero-turn ride-on and too complex for a ride on low-profile AWD mower (which I have for the orchard and brush cutting). However, I am well past retirement age and am finding the 10,000 steps just to do the major lawn every week a bit of a burden. Even more so now my cordless Stiga is in for warranty repair and the drive gearbox on my 20yr old Honda has failed! I have been looking at several robotic mowers for several years now but their limitations in slope handling, dynamic adjustment of area to be mowed and ability to stop mowing whilst crossing the granite chipping drive, let alone the complexity of the perimeter have dissuaded me from taking the plunge. In short none seem to match my aspiration, so I'm really hoping the Luba comes to fruition. I have several concerns about the Luba itself. Firstly, I doubt I would be able to site the RTK such that there are no signal black spots, especially when working close to the building. It is possible this could be avoided by deploying several RTKs but I have yet to hear whether this is possible. Secondly there are trees on the perimeter of the lawn, one of which is a Sweet Chestnut, so I'm not a great fan of the whirling razor blades most of these robotic mowers use, as I'm unconvinced at how effective they would be at mulching leaves and chestnuts.
I have 2 Husqvarna Automowers for about 4 years, and they do a good hob. Husqvarna's tech has been around for a decade but there is still a pretty good learning curve. I really do not trust Luba's claims. All the videos are pretty much on flat ground with the RTK station out in the open in the middle of a field. I have hills and trees with a large house in the middle. I'm sure there would be a good number of places were the mowers would lose signal. I hope Luba figures it out and does well. I will certainly be a customer. I like my Automowers but the boundary wire is a big issue.
I'm in central Texas and have 6 mowers made by Ambrogio to mow my 5 acres of grass. I have four 4.36 Elites and two 4.00 Elites. The only bad thing I don't like about them is the fact that they leave a path on the grass from the wheels as they go around the wire. It doesn't look professional. I too am working on modifying my mowers with my own RTK boards. I purchased an Ambrogio L50 for that purpose. After I get it working as I want, I will modify all of my mowers with my custom boards. I do like the Ambrogios as they are very well built.
I'm following the open mower project closely and it looks very promising, but people taking it on need currently need to be able to solder surface mount components which rules a lot of people out. I will probably make one next year, I bought the yardforce for it already
@@BrianLough My plan is to go with an ArduPilot or a Pixhawk controller because they seem to have a bigger developer community, cost less, and seem more plug-and-play ready. As far as I know, there's nothing about either that requires soldering to a PCB
Hello Terry, we use 4 movers from Ambrogio in Germany, 3 -times A350 an one 4.36. The 12 pieces of grass covers 7 acres (30,000 m²). To avoide the path on the grass around we recommend to drive with different offsets the the start point (up to 100 cm are possible) of different areas. Home to the charge station we choose 1 meter offset. The mover swing up to 1 meter (40 in) on the way home. The paths are disappeared. The Luba robot works with 4 fixed wheels without steering. The steering only works like a tank steering and will destroy the grass. Bad idea.
You make some good points in this video. I certainly wouldn’t back the project, but will keep my eyes open for the mower if it ever goes on sale in stores, as the specs are decent.
I backed it, I've been building a rtk mower Rep_Al but it is taking me a long time, then came acoss this. it looks like a ready product already in production, as long as i get the machine ill be happy, and then hope to at least be able to use parts of it, if it doesnt work. ive backed kickstarter before and yes some are duds, but some have been great. Sometimes you just take a risk. I really value your opinion, and love the work you do. Thanks for sharing.
Best of luck with it Lawrence! Fingers crossed it works out. I am definitely really curious to see what the consensus is when genuine reviews come out I plan to try build the open mower project next year as I've put a self I put a self imposed ban on myself buying components for 22!
I’m over my old manual mower, and smart mowers are trending right now! 👀 I came across one called ANTHBOT for $599 with auto mapping. Could you review it? That would be awesome!
I haven't looked into them too much but my opinion so far would be: Similar pros I guess but a little bit more expensive. I am surprised by how little coverage they are rated for. They seem sold out anywhere I've looked, are they available local to you?
Might give this a second look. Manufacturer is BYD and owner of the company has stated two other successful companies - one of them a large robotic vehicle company (both in China).
For information not all current robot mower have random cutting pattern, for example Honda and Bosch, as far as I know, have planned cutting route (they map the lawn area to begin with on the first startup)
All of you folks complaining about Brian's beard; y'all are just jealous of the international treasure that is Brian Lough's face. You folks would probably want to paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa....
Hey Brian guy, have you looked at the Kress mowers that the worx design is based off of? they have some damn cool dual cutters o nthe Kress Mega series.
I'd have loved to see how this performs in Irish weather. I'm wondering how well it'd cope with sticky wet cut grass building around its wheels in April! Especially with the rc style suspension. The rtk gps sounds promising, I had seen other wire free offerings in the ether about 3 years ago that used gps along with beacons staked into the lawn to allow the mower to get a position fix, not sure they ever made it into production.
Kickstarter, though a bad platform, is upfront about it. I was a backer of the UVMask which actually started they had a money-back guarantee. I never got my reward (even though they are now selling v.2 of the mask! ) That money-back guarantee made a difference, though I had to get the California attorney General involved to get the company to refund my $ said of the guarantee. If not for that, I, and all other backers would have been out the full amounts of our pledges.
Good to know! I would imagine UVmask being based in the US made that a lot easier, I assume mammotion being based on China would make doing something like that next to impossible
Interesting video. I bought a Stihl imow 632PC and I had a nightmare first year with it. Thankfully Stihl are based in Dublin and they replaced it with a brand new unit. Fingers crossed this unit will work without any major issues.
I may be interested in buying the final product but I am not going to "buy" through kickstarter for all the reasons stated in the video. I realized this the moment they claimed 60 patents. There is only two possibilities, either it is a scam or it is a well established company that has no need for using kick starter. In the later case I want my usual consumer protection when buying a product, thank you very much. Also the product is too expensive for me to buy without watching some unbiased reviews of the final product.
This has now become available as mainstream to buy. It now includes three sizes from 1000m2 up to 5000m2 coverage. Any more thoughts on it? I'm tempted after a disastrous Yardforce experience
I still don't see any genuine reviews of it so I don't know. I don't even know how none of the Kickstarter people have given it some sort of review. What happen to the yardforce? I bought a c500 and it was working great for a few weeks and then just stopped, I need to trouble shoot it
@@BrianLough I had the 1000 LuvRi. Suspected sensor packed in as it kept giving false readings. Mower would start, stop immediately and not go any further. In the end I got my money back and all the larger Yardforce mowers have since disappeared from sale. Bare in mind I have a small Yardforce for the small front lawn which is working fine. The less tech I feel is better on the random pattern mowers.
@@miller_63 I'd be tempted to pick up a luba for testing, but it's too much money to try it out, I wouldn't even come close to making my money back on it and I'm happy with the worx one
@@BrianLough The Yardforce I feel have issues with the sensors which they cant resolve so have removed them for sale. It may be a case of trying to salvage models to make one work. See following your reviews I was nearly settled on the Landroid, I watched the Luba through the Kickstarter but held off until now when the next wave were released....The landroid wins given its available direct here with a small warranty!
@@BrianLough I've finally gone with the Landroid instead....couldn't wait that long plus the uncertainty. Heavins have an extra 10% off this bank holiday weekend too which tipped me over the edge with the decision.
Hello Brian! Is there any chance that you can create a video using filter in ArduinoJson, its easy to use for simple Json but when you have 24 rows with 21 columns inside in a array its not so easy to figure out. I'm woundering if there is a way to get for instance all the 24 rows and only columb[11] number 11 with for instance the temperature variable. I would greatly appreciate if you could make a little more advanced video for the filter function :)
There might be much simpler explanation. For the kickstarter money, they built 1-2 machines and now have a queue of reviewers. As such review takes time, they might be simply flooded with emails. Not that this explanation is any better than the ToS silent rejection...
My only regret was not backing a dollar so I could see the backer updates! I already have a robot lawn mower that's now in it's 4th year of service and still going well, so it's not like I'm missing out on having my lawn mowed automatically by not backing!
I just saw this video and hindsight is a great thing I took the gamble and I am so pleased with it. And after being sent a beta version I am even more pleased I took the risk.
I wish I had a garden. I'd leave it to grow wild and hope to see butterfly's again. Haven't see a single catapiller or butterfly this year so far. But I did see a moth 2 days ago, so that's something 😟
Kickstarter has become a vehicle for 2 things: 1) advertisement for products that are already finished and 2) scams. Neither of these should be allowed on Kickstarter. The idea behind Kickstarter was a good one: allow funding of risky new projects which otherwise wouldn't get funding. For that use the risk for your investment was also logical and similar to investing in stock of a startup. However, the platform is now being abused more than used and apparently the Kickstarter owners have no problems with this as long as they get their cut. I think this will be the downfall of the platform, as both the advertisement and scam use of Kickstarter is giving them bad press and they would better invest some effort in ensuring projects they host have a decent business plan fit for use of Kickstarter.
I decided against it, if something is too good to be through then proceed with extreme caution, into kickstarter with no guarantees or consumer protection. No information on dealers anywhere 🤷♂️
Sounds like your biggest problem with the Luba is that they wouldn't send you one for free. You need to research a bit more on GPS. There are ways to get more accuracy with civilian GPS and its the same thing drone manufacturers do. You think my DJI is only accurate within a meter? Its a lot more accurate than that. Ecoflows mower is one to keep an eye on. That is all I am at liberty to say on that lol.
My biggest problem with the luba was they didn't send anyone a Luba to review. They sent one to a guy and specifically said he couldn't review it. I don't think that's reasonable for a company asking for over $1000 of a non refundable payment for something that was meant to ship in a few weeks (surprise surprise that didn't work out) First result for "DJI GPS accuracy" indicates it is only accurate to 1M. Maybe you have a different model, seems like some have the ability to do RTK, but even if that is the case, I don't see how that invalidates anything I said in the video
@@BrianLough what you said was valid to a point. If they use one civilian GPS system they can only get within a meter accuracy. Not sure if you are old enough to remember the dialup internet days. But we shotgunned 2 telephone lines for that whopping double speed lol. GPS can be used in a similar fashion. If you utilize multiple GPS systems at once AND you lock as many satellites as possible in the process you will get better accuracy. Not like military accuracy but within 6 inches or so. That is all DJI is allowed to claim by law just so you know. We arent supposed to fly out of line of sight but their drones will fly miles away. As for the Kickstarter I am not a fan of the idea even used in the correct manner. Ill never back one. You are right about sending the unit out to multiple people for review. They may still do so. I know this video is a bit dated by now but the chip thing luckily is working itself out for now. I am not holding my breath for the future as international tensions flare. I am glad you replied because there was something important that I did to include in my original comment. Going back to the GPS argument. I don't know anything about that Luba beyond what you said in the video. I do know the Ecoflow mower uses all kinds of technologies beyond the GPS to make sure it is dong the right thing. Everything from camera sensors to LIDAR. I have to be limited in what I say and have to remain in the parameters of what they have publicly said. No matter what this new tech is amazing stuff. Kinda scary too lol.
Kickstarter should really be thought of more like it's your cousin that you might see twice a year who has a great idea but no practical experience to get it to market. In exchange for believing in your cousin, you may get a first generation product at a hefty family discount price...but you also may just end up with a cousin that you USED to see twice a year but now always seems to be "busy". Kickstarter always has been and always will be a gamble. People who blindly dive into things should probably stay away from Kickstarter, and the internet, and social media, and.... The couple of Kickstarters that I've backed have all paid off and I saved about half the cost over the eventual retail product cost. Just like buying stocks, only put in what you're willing to completely lose.
The boundary wire not being a big deal? Are you kidding me? I had boundary wire mowers. Now that I've gone RTK with Luba, I'll never go back. It's like night and day. And if the mower has issues somewhere, I don't have to dig up my wire and reinstall it. All I have to do now is modify the boundary in the app, and I'm done. Fortunately, they didn't need you to back them. Nor did they need me, although I bought one later anyway. They did just fine and now have trouble keeping up with the demand. But in my opinion, this mower is superior to any other brands. And my only regret is not backing them on kick starter for the discounted price.
that vid didnt age well. May as well delete it. I got mine delivered today in Ireland and I backed them on Kickstarter. While I agree with the risks of Kickstarter campaigns you point out, I did a lot of research ahead of backing the Luba. The partners/companies behind the project were quite well equipped to make this work. But it was a risk yes, even though a calculated one. Now lets see how it works 😉
What exactly did I say that didn't age well? My major points: "It is a big risk": it was a risk, looks like they are getting delivered now so it looks like the worst didn't happen, doesn't mean it wasn't a risk at the time. You spent $1200 or whatever it was on the project and you *could* have ended up with nothing and there would have been nothing you could have done about it, how is that not a risk? "It could be delayed": it was delayed, they were meant to start shipping in July of last year. "There are no reviews": I stand by this, they were claiming this thing was pretty much built, would be shipping out in a few weeks, yet there was no unit available for someone to review? It ended up they sent one to one person and specifically told him to not review it. And there was problems with it when he got it. I'm glad you got it and hope it works out for you. But you got it late (I assume when you backed it you weren't expecting to get it in 10months time), haven't even tried it and you're coming here claiming victory?
@Brian Lough of course it was a risk. I stated the same. A calculated one after doing extensive research. I did not expect the Luba to arrive until mid this year tbh. Yes it got a bit delayed but I was not suprised by that at all. I now got it a month ahead of schedule. I'm not claiming victory here. just saying this video is now outdated and could be removed. I agree with your reservations at the time, I just found the risk to be worth while after doing my own research back then. I also watched your video last year before I contributed. Just came across as a bit of a revenge thing as well bec Mammotion did not send you a mower to test. Which is probably not the case but left the impression. But I get it. Now it turned out all ok. cheers
I was definitely disappointed that it didn't work that I didn't get one, who wouldn't want to get a new toy like that to play with, but my video was not at all motivated by revenge. I was motivated especially to share that part of the story, not because they didn't send me one, but that upon seeing the most basic terms for doing a fair review of a product, they just stopped engaging. I felt like I had more information than the average person had. It didn't feel right to me that they were claiming the product was basically done and they seemingly had no review models. I wasn't a backer so I don't know exactly what did happen, but from the outside it does seem like they were further away from launch than the original dates and the kick starter suggested If Luba had sent me one, basically all of kickstarter portions of the videos would have still been included. The part about not having any review models would have been replaced with an actual review. A company claiming to represent a different robot lawnmower company reached out to me last week to review a mower with similar tech to the luba. I'll only review it under the same terms as I offered mammotion (I don't want money or creative input from them). It's not a kickstarter though, so if it doesn't work out, I almost certainly won't be making a video as I don't see the same level of risk for the end user. If someone bought this, they could just return it under Irish/EU law if it was bad!
In Ireland I think we would call them "fields" and you would plant crops or let animals graze on them 😅 Even just one football field would be a monster garden here that basically only mansions would have!
TL;DR - "The unit has great features, more capacity than other mowers, more efficient, better battery, better navigation, and a reasonable cost. However, I won't be buying because it's a Kickstarter and they wouldn't send me a unit to test beforehand."
My issue is not that they wouldn't send me one for review, it's that there were no reviews at all. Why would a company not want reviews of their product? The obvious answer is they think reviews would damage sales, which isn't a good sign. The only person we know for sure had one is Something 2lookat and he says in the comments in the video that they were specifically asked him not to make any more videos before the campaign ends. So we have 1 video, driving around a small square of an already cut piece of grass. Again, why would a company not want a bigger test of their product than that? He also completely omited from his video that the unit didn't work out of the box and required software changes from the Luba team. Doesn't really matter now anyways are pledges are locked in. So I guess we'll just have to find out how it goes
Well in fairness, I have a worx one and I don't think I'd be able to get it serviced anywhere in Ireland either! Mine is now entering it's 4th season and other than change it's blades and cleaning it, I haven't to do anything else with it and it's still going like a trooper!
Your terms sounded very reasonable to me , i guess they are just looking for good reviews not honest reviews.Channels that promote products they got for free or some other rewards should make that clear to their viewers.
I backed the project. Dumb mistake? Maybe, but the specs make all other robotic mowers obsolete especially if you have hills in your yard. Regardless, this video came across like a guy that's upset that he didn't get his free mower. The fact that the company is interested in sending units out for review tells me that they are close to production ready, which supports their claims. Stipulating a bunch of conditions in a long winded email will send all but the most desperate businesses running. They have tons of real videos, more every few days. Bottom line, this guy is just salty. You want to learn about the mower, just join their fb page. It still might be a risk but for me, no other mower will mow my lawn for this price so it's luba or nothing.
I'm not sure "salty" is the word I'd use, but but as mentioned in the video I would have loved to test it and disappointed it didn't work so maybe it is fair to say I'm a little salty. But I don't need the Luba, my lawns are already automatically being cut so while the Luba would have been cool and new, the end goal of the grass being cut would be the same. Maybe I didn't do a good job getting my point across of why that interaction was a problem for me. My issue wasn't that I didn't get a mower, but that they were on board with sending one and something in that email made them change their mind, so what did they have a problem with? So if they have review units, where are the reviews? Since there are no reviews, I'm guessing anybody with similar terms to mine were also looked over .... Why would that be? Getting more info from their Facebook is fine from a spec point of view, but they are hardly going to tell you anything negative about the mower. You are right about it basically being in its own category spec/price wise. But for me I would be happier to pay more money to buy it on Amazon or wherever when it becomes available. Are we just taking their word that $2400 will be the price when they have shown they can sell it for $1200, again we'll see how that works out. Best of luck with the Luba, I hope you get it on time and it works well!
" _The fact that the company is interested in sending units out for review tells me that they are close to production ready_ " That is a fatal misconception. That's not how manufacturing works. Especially on Kickstarter. That they have units for review only shows that they have built a few units. Doesn't say anything about their readiness for 'mass' production. Building a few prototypes is easy. For prototypes (or review units) the cost per unit doesn't matter. So they can basically be handmade. The step from hand-building a few units to full production is huge. And a lot of companies fail at that step and either go bankrupt or they realize that they hugely underestimated the final production cost for their product - and therefore are never able to ship the product. And especially with Kickstarter the problem is that companies need to build hype before they even start the manufacturing. So for them it makes sense to build a few units as fast as possible and send them out to reviewers to build up that hype and get more backers on Kickstarter. And that long before they are even close to being ready for mass-production.
I’ve been getting ads for the Luba for a while as I’ve been searching for robotic mower for over a year so I was excited when this video came cross my feed. I think you touched on a very important aspect of Kickstarter projects with a low funding goal, this a huge red flag to me. I look for a realistic funding goal. How much would it take them to secure the manufacturing and does it match the funding goal. This is helped immensely by a detailed project plan that outlines where the money will go. But also common sense helps, $6k to bring a product to market is obviously way low. But if it was a $250k goal? Seems more reasonable. I think the low goals are also for bragging rights and gaming the system, Kickstarter has a thing where it’ll say 400% funded or 80% funded. So these creators set a low goal so their projects appears more successful. They can then use this in marketing. Funded in 20 minutes! 1000% funded! Numbers that tell nothing but sell interest. It’s dishonest. What also turned me away from backing it was that almost all of their promotional material is CG. There’s some footage of the real thing but then the ads transition to a robot mower. I’ve backed several projects on Kickstarter, and I think 2 or 3 didn’t meet their goal or failed to deliver. I also remember the Toadi, I never did follow up on that project as I forgot about it so thanks for including it. My issue with them was that the mower body’s as 3D printed and used (I think) wireless charging solution. In the meantime I’m really hoping the Segway Navimow comes to the US and that iRobot revives their Terra lawnmower.
![The Most Common Problems with Mammotion Luba [SOLVED!]](/img/n.gif)
I felt it was important to make this video to try let people make an informed decision on whether they should back this project or not.
Just to add some clarity to my point about me not having one. The issue is not that they didn't send one to me specifically, but that there are no unrestricted reviews about the product available. I wouldn't have had a big issue with this point if there was a genuine 3rd party review from a different channel.
Yeah I totally agree. I've heard too many stories - mostly from 3D printing TH-cam people like Tom Sanladerer and those he retweets/comments on - about companies' shady behaviour regarding reviews, so it seems prudent to be generous with the scepticism in situations like this :)
Incidentally, as cool as the tech is (and I'll have to look into RTK and OpenMower some more!), I'd have a hard time justifying the cost of one of these anyway - from _any_ manufacturer.
For the 9 years we've lived in this house, our landlady's handyman has mowed our lawn every couple of weeks when it's growing. What we're paying for that now is complicated, but originally I think it was something like £15 each time.
At that rate, and even with generous estimates, it'd take almost a decade to match the £2k-ish of these things ... and I'm just not convinced that a robot lawnmower would even _survive_ that long tbh (the battery or the rest of it), especially from an unknown company(?) in a relatively new market 🤷♀️
(And by what we're paying being "complicated", I just mean that it was rolled into the rent after a few years and that's gone up and down over time as friends have moved in and out. I don't feel that we're being ripped off - not any more than is generally implied by renting one's home, anyway...)
@@mammotiontech Thanks for taking the time to reply.
While I do appreciate you have done your own testing, a review from a 3rd party is realistically the only trustworthy source from a consumer point of view. It is a shame that the other folks you sent the Luba to have not posted anything.
Something 2LookAt's video *is not a review*, he even says so himself in the comments. Other than showing the Luba moves and seems to stay within the boundary, that video has very little value to potential customers. A review should have the Luba set up in a real world environment and being put to use over the span of few weeks minimum.
Again, I do appreciate that there are a lot of benefits to you as a company for doing a kickstarter, but I felt it was important to inform people what are the risks of a kickstarter as I think the majority of people do not know.
As I mentioned in the video, I do genuinely hope this is a success for everyone involved and we'll be seeing the Luba available from retailers in the future.
I would be open for reviewing it in the future if you still wanted, you have my email and my terms :)
@@BrianLough Thanks for your suggestions. Something 2LookAt's video is only dedicated to the RTK function, and other 3rd party KOL review videos will be coming out soon. We will keep in touch. Looking forward to working with you in the future :)
You missed a huge advantage that would affect a lot of people - the ability to mow separated areas such as parking strips and across driveways.
They delivered!
I plan on buying one was going to back it but didn't have the money for it. The suspension is not really suspension it's just a tilt axle with some very soft springs for looks. A neighbor of mine has one.
You should now do an update describing how wrong you were.
There has been a increase of people leaving me similar messages in the last few weeks. Which I guess means backers are getting them, which is great, but they were meant to start shipping in July of last year.
I said in this video I hoped people got them, but it was a huge risk and even though it seems to have worked out, it was still 9 months late
Hi Brian. I want to put in my 2 cents here. I will talk to you if you ask me questions. This mower of course is not on the market yet. It's not ready for a full review video. The machine as a piece of hardware is quite solid and quite strong and capable, but the firmware is still being developed. If anybody were to do a full critical review on a beta, it would perform as though it was a beta. During the course of several 12 hour difference Zoom meetings (yes, I ran it at night), their engineering team fixed some issues that made it possible for me to make a video on the RTK tracking. There was some weird GPS thing happening on this side of the planet. That is all I was asked to do. I have filmed it doing many things, including cutting much thicker grass and climbing a slope. Worth mentioning is that the Luba is incredibly strong. Once it is ready for market, i. e. the firmware is working perfectly, they may ask me to do a full review.
Now, since I have one here and I've used it, what would you like to know?
Hey, thanks for your comment. (For anyone else reading, Something 2LookAt is the person with the only 3rd party video on the Luba)
I disagree that mower couldn't be tested now, why shouldn't potential backers get to see what the current state of the thing they are about to spend $1200 on? Sure there are things that might not work right now, or features that they hope to add by the time the product ships, but giving a clear view of where they are now and where they would like to be in a few months is the open and honest thing to do in my opinion.
It may be a terminology issue, but it doesn't even sound like it is a beta yet. A beta should feature complete with maybe some minor issues or niggles that need to be ironed out, not something critical like the GPS wasn't working in North America. To be honest, I'm really surprised you didn't mention in this in your video.
It's great that you were able to work with the Luba team to get the issue resolved, but it highlights that the Luba team have not done extensive (any?) testing outside of their region, so are we to expect that other regions might run into problems too? There is no indication on the kickstarter that this is anything but a completed product, so why wouldn't backers expect something that works out of the box.
I have lots of questions! More than I could fit in a TH-cam comment! Like, how does it work in a real garden (with actual boundaries and obstacles it needs to avoid), Does the RTK get interrupted by trees and so on, but basically it just comes down to that I would like to see an actual review.
The fact that you (or the Luba team) don't feel it's ready for a review in it's current state is fairly telling though. A review after the kickstarter closes isn't going to be much use to the nearly 2000 backers.
Should have bought one. It is fabulous.
Looking forward to your honest review.
This review is super thorough! Really appreciate the details, thanks!
Luba is so far the best product on the market
Looking forward to your honest review.
Thanks for the review! I’m definitely on the lookout for a more budget-friendly robot mower.
I thought for sure you were gonna comment on the need for a ground station, and what performance can be expected from RTK in reality. True, no underground wire is needed but that doesn't mean no supporting setup at all. In my experience RTK still suffers from reception issues near walls and buildings just like peasant's GPS. The accuracy is astounding but I had huge problems regaining full assisted lock after a dropout, sometimes 3 minutes or more even when close by the ground station. And this was in a rural location without any other radio noise around. Presumably these units will be frequency hopping with a globally unique id otherwise using them within range of another one will mess them up.
As a slightly less important point of skepticism, the tread pattern on those wheels doesn't look right at all for grass, certainly not like any other ride-on or powered mowers I've seen.
Finally (nearly done) the suspension seems pointless and is the last thing I would want on a mower. It's not moving fast enough to need shock absorption, and I'm skeptical that allowing a more conforming contact with the ground is desirable, certainly not at the extra cost it will necessitate.
I unfortunately don't have any experience with rtk of any setup so don't have the knowledge to give any feedback on how well it operates in reality, so thank you for sharing yours!
regarding suspension: I have a fairly uneven lawn and the worx gets on fine so I would also have my doubts of it's use, the original line in the script was "it has suspension for some reason" but I got feedback that people wouldn't know that lawnmowers don't typically have it 😅
That's interesting regarding the thread, it would also be be interesting to see how it works out with the realities of a went lawn in Ireland, the way the mower rotates itself in something 2lookAt video looks quite unusual, but I was just putting that down to the 4x4ness of it
Thanks for the comment! And I'm sure I've said it to you at some stage but also thanks for your box2d content back in the day (if I'm remembering correctly)!
I am not an expert on tire treat patterns, but earlier versions had another design, then they changed to this. Maybe this allows it more easily to rotate on the grass, but still. This way of turning is going to be interesting to follow. It looks like it is putting quite a lot of stress on the grass, because it actually has to slide over it, and it doesn't take much accidental slipping from my mower to tear up some grass when it is wet.
15:54 Hey, Luba. If you’re watching this, I have no qualms about compromising my nonexistent internet integrity for a free robot mower. I don’t don’t have a TH-cam channel, I don’t make TH-cam videos, or even have any social media accounts to promote your mower on, but send me a free robot mower and I’ll gladly make a positive review video for it. My only stipulations are as follows- 1. All font present in my video will be neon green comic sans (color negotiable). 2. Background audio will only consist of the hamster dance looped on repeat. And 3. I get to keep the mower after review. Thank you for your consideration.
Nice review! Do you have any tips on cheaper smart mowers? Would love some suggestions!
Awesome review, it feels super genuine and helpful! 😊 Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this well-articulated confirmation of my concerns with the Luba as a kickstarter product.
I have a complicated garden comprising several lawns with steep banks and dotted with multiple obstacles and features. The lawns are separated by granite chipping driveways and the area to be mowed needs to be dynamically changed to exclude areas of daffodils, primroses and meadow plants in the spring and early summer. Currently I use a 53cm walk behind mower, the lawns being too uneven for a zero-turn ride-on and too complex for a ride on low-profile AWD mower (which I have for the orchard and brush cutting). However, I am well past retirement age and am finding the 10,000 steps just to do the major lawn every week a bit of a burden. Even more so now my cordless Stiga is in for warranty repair and the drive gearbox on my 20yr old Honda has failed!
I have been looking at several robotic mowers for several years now but their limitations in slope handling, dynamic adjustment of area to be mowed and ability to stop mowing whilst crossing the granite chipping drive, let alone the complexity of the perimeter have dissuaded me from taking the plunge. In short none seem to match my aspiration, so I'm really hoping the Luba comes to fruition.
I have several concerns about the Luba itself. Firstly, I doubt I would be able to site the RTK such that there are no signal black spots, especially when working close to the building. It is possible this could be avoided by deploying several RTKs but I have yet to hear whether this is possible. Secondly there are trees on the perimeter of the lawn, one of which is a Sweet Chestnut, so I'm not a great fan of the whirling razor blades most of these robotic mowers use, as I'm unconvinced at how effective they would be at mulching leaves and chestnuts.
I have 2 Husqvarna Automowers for about 4 years, and they do a good hob. Husqvarna's tech has been around for a decade but there is still a pretty good learning curve.
I really do not trust Luba's claims. All the videos are pretty much on flat ground with the RTK station out in the open in the middle of a field.
I have hills and trees with a large house in the middle. I'm sure there would be a good number of places were the mowers would lose signal.
I hope Luba figures it out and does well. I will certainly be a customer. I like my Automowers but the boundary wire is a big issue.
Sounds like this is a Kickstarter that should be backed with $1 and have the popcorn ready....
Hello Brian, have you heard about the Conga robot ?
I'm in central Texas and have 6 mowers made by Ambrogio to mow my 5 acres of grass. I have four 4.36 Elites and two 4.00 Elites. The only bad thing I don't like about them is the fact that they leave a path on the grass from the wheels as they go around the wire. It doesn't look professional. I too am working on modifying my mowers with my own RTK boards. I purchased an Ambrogio L50 for that purpose. After I get it working as I want, I will modify all of my mowers with my custom boards. I do like the Ambrogios as they are very well built.
Terry,
Have you considered retrofitting the mower with an off-the-shelf ArduPilot controller equipped with RTK?
Why Ardupilot? There are two OS projects (where I know) especially for mowers who use RTK technic. 1. ArduMower 2. OpenMower
I'm following the open mower project closely and it looks very promising, but people taking it on need currently need to be able to solder surface mount components which rules a lot of people out.
I will probably make one next year, I bought the yardforce for it already
@@BrianLough
My plan is to go with an ArduPilot or a Pixhawk controller because they seem to have a bigger developer community, cost less, and seem more plug-and-play ready. As far as I know, there's nothing about either that requires soldering to a PCB
Hello Terry,
we use 4 movers from Ambrogio in Germany, 3 -times A350 an one 4.36. The 12 pieces of grass covers 7 acres (30,000 m²). To avoide the path on the grass around we recommend to drive with different offsets the the start point (up to 100 cm are possible) of different areas. Home to the charge station we choose 1 meter offset. The mover swing up to 1 meter (40 in) on the way home. The paths are disappeared.
The Luba robot works with 4 fixed wheels without steering. The steering only works like a tank steering and will destroy the grass. Bad idea.
You make some good points in this video. I certainly wouldn’t back the project, but will keep my eyes open for the mower if it ever goes on sale in stores, as the specs are decent.
I backed it, I've been building a rtk mower Rep_Al but it is taking me a long time, then came acoss this. it looks like a ready product already in production, as long as i get the machine ill be happy, and then hope to at least be able to use parts of it, if it doesnt work. ive backed kickstarter before and yes some are duds, but some have been great. Sometimes you just take a risk. I really value your opinion, and love the work you do. Thanks for sharing.
Best of luck with it Lawrence! Fingers crossed it works out. I am definitely really curious to see what the consensus is when genuine reviews come out
I plan to try build the open mower project next year as I've put a self I put a self imposed ban on myself buying components for 22!
I’m over my old manual mower, and smart mowers are trending right now! 👀 I came across one called ANTHBOT for $599 with auto mapping. Could you review it? That would be awesome!
Was very close on pulling the trigger on this, but will give it some more thought.
What are your views on the segway one?
I haven't looked into them too much but my opinion so far would be:
Similar pros I guess but a little bit more expensive.
I am surprised by how little coverage they are rated for.
They seem sold out anywhere I've looked, are they available local to you?
Thanks for the review! 🙏 The price is a bit high for me... might hold off for now and see if it drops.
Might give this a second look. Manufacturer is BYD and owner of the company has stated two other successful companies - one of them a large robotic vehicle company (both in China).
For information not all current robot mower have random cutting pattern, for example Honda and Bosch, as far as I know, have planned cutting route (they map the lawn area to begin with on the first startup)
All of you folks complaining about Brian's beard; y'all are just jealous of the international treasure that is Brian Lough's face. You folks would probably want to paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa....
They are selling this from their website. I would buy it from Kickstarter but what about from their website?
segway has gps assisted mower without boundary wire
why they don't put a lidar, as done on robot cleaners ?
Hey Brian guy, have you looked at the Kress mowers that the worx design is based off of? they have some damn cool dual cutters o nthe Kress Mega series.
No I haven't actually, they look pretty cool!
I'd have loved to see how this performs in Irish weather. I'm wondering how well it'd cope with sticky wet cut grass building around its wheels in April! Especially with the rc style suspension. The rtk gps sounds promising, I had seen other wire free offerings in the ether about 3 years ago that used gps along with beacons staked into the lawn to allow the mower to get a position fix, not sure they ever made it into production.
Kickstarter, though a bad platform, is upfront about it.
I was a backer of the UVMask which actually started they had a money-back guarantee. I never got my reward (even though they are now selling v.2 of the mask! ) That money-back guarantee made a difference, though I had to get the California attorney General involved to get the company to refund my $ said of the guarantee. If not for that, I, and all other backers would have been out the full amounts of our pledges.
Good to know! I would imagine UVmask being based in the US made that a lot easier, I assume mammotion being based on China would make doing something like that next to impossible
Interesting video. I bought a Stihl imow 632PC and I had a nightmare first year with it. Thankfully Stihl are based in Dublin and they replaced it with a brand new unit. Fingers crossed this unit will work without any major issues.
I may be interested in buying the final product but I am not going to "buy" through kickstarter for all the reasons stated in the video. I realized this the moment they claimed 60 patents. There is only two possibilities, either it is a scam or it is a well established company that has no need for using kick starter. In the later case I want my usual consumer protection when buying a product, thank you very much. Also the product is too expensive for me to buy without watching some unbiased reviews of the final product.
Wow! Thank you for the excellent details review the mower. Please review the Ambrogio Robotic lawnmower. 🙏
Great review! 👏
This has now become available as mainstream to buy. It now includes three sizes from 1000m2 up to 5000m2 coverage. Any more thoughts on it? I'm tempted after a disastrous Yardforce experience
I still don't see any genuine reviews of it so I don't know. I don't even know how none of the Kickstarter people have given it some sort of review.
What happen to the yardforce? I bought a c500 and it was working great for a few weeks and then just stopped, I need to trouble shoot it
@@BrianLough I had the 1000 LuvRi. Suspected sensor packed in as it kept giving false readings. Mower would start, stop immediately and not go any further. In the end I got my money back and all the larger Yardforce mowers have since disappeared from sale. Bare in mind I have a small Yardforce for the small front lawn which is working fine. The less tech I feel is better on the random pattern mowers.
@@miller_63 I'd be tempted to pick up a luba for testing, but it's too much money to try it out, I wouldn't even come close to making my money back on it and I'm happy with the worx one
@@BrianLough The Yardforce I feel have issues with the sensors which they cant resolve so have removed them for sale. It may be a case of trying to salvage models to make one work. See following your reviews I was nearly settled on the Landroid, I watched the Luba through the Kickstarter but held off until now when the next wave were released....The landroid wins given its available direct here with a small warranty!
@@BrianLough I've finally gone with the Landroid instead....couldn't wait that long plus the uncertainty. Heavins have an extra 10% off this bank holiday weekend too which tipped me over the edge with the decision.
Hello Brian! Is there any chance that you can create a video using filter in ArduinoJson, its easy to use for simple Json but when you have 24 rows with 21 columns inside in a array its not so easy to figure out. I'm woundering if there is a way to get for instance all the 24 rows and only columb[11] number 11 with for instance the temperature variable. I would greatly appreciate if you could make a little more advanced video for the filter function :)
Join the discord and we'll see if we can help
There might be much simpler explanation. For the kickstarter money, they built 1-2 machines and now have a queue of reviewers. As such review takes time, they might be simply flooded with emails. Not that this explanation is any better than the ToS silent rejection...
Did you regret? Im thrilled with this thing.. Doing videos myself on it.
My only regret was not backing a dollar so I could see the backer updates! I already have a robot lawn mower that's now in it's 4th year of service and still going well, so it's not like I'm missing out on having my lawn mowed automatically by not backing!
I just saw this video and hindsight is a great thing I took the gamble and I am so pleased with it. And after being sent a beta version I am even more pleased I took the risk.
I wish I had a garden. I'd leave it to grow wild and hope to see butterfly's again. Haven't see a single catapiller or butterfly this year so far. But I did see a moth 2 days ago, so that's something 😟
hi have there been any more close calls with the robot lawnmower eg the dogs tail
Not really, they usually get out of its way if it's out!
My roomba robot once got out of the house and went on the street
hey Brian, subscribed your channel after watching GreatScott video. good luck
As you say Brian without independant tests and reviews then it could all be smoke and mirrors as a lot of these kickstarters are
Kickstarter has become a vehicle for 2 things: 1) advertisement for products that are already finished and 2) scams. Neither of these should be allowed on Kickstarter. The idea behind Kickstarter was a good one: allow funding of risky new projects which otherwise wouldn't get funding. For that use the risk for your investment was also logical and similar to investing in stock of a startup. However, the platform is now being abused more than used and apparently the Kickstarter owners have no problems with this as long as they get their cut. I think this will be the downfall of the platform, as both the advertisement and scam use of Kickstarter is giving them bad press and they would better invest some effort in ensuring projects they host have a decent business plan fit for use of Kickstarter.
Solid review! Gotta admit, though, it’s a bit out of my price range right now. 😅
I decided against it, if something is too good to be through then proceed with extreme caution, into kickstarter with no guarantees or consumer protection.
No information on dealers anywhere 🤷♂️
Sounds like your biggest problem with the Luba is that they wouldn't send you one for free. You need to research a bit more on GPS. There are ways to get more accuracy with civilian GPS and its the same thing drone manufacturers do. You think my DJI is only accurate within a meter? Its a lot more accurate than that. Ecoflows mower is one to keep an eye on. That is all I am at liberty to say on that lol.
My biggest problem with the luba was they didn't send anyone a Luba to review. They sent one to a guy and specifically said he couldn't review it. I don't think that's reasonable for a company asking for over $1000 of a non refundable payment for something that was meant to ship in a few weeks (surprise surprise that didn't work out)
First result for "DJI GPS accuracy" indicates it is only accurate to 1M. Maybe you have a different model, seems like some have the ability to do RTK, but even if that is the case, I don't see how that invalidates anything I said in the video
@@BrianLough what you said was valid to a point. If they use one civilian GPS system they can only get within a meter accuracy. Not sure if you are old enough to remember the dialup internet days. But we shotgunned 2 telephone lines for that whopping double speed lol. GPS can be used in a similar fashion. If you utilize multiple GPS systems at once AND you lock as many satellites as possible in the process you will get better accuracy. Not like military accuracy but within 6 inches or so. That is all DJI is allowed to claim by law just so you know. We arent supposed to fly out of line of sight but their drones will fly miles away. As for the Kickstarter I am not a fan of the idea even used in the correct manner. Ill never back one. You are right about sending the unit out to multiple people for review. They may still do so. I know this video is a bit dated by now but the chip thing luckily is working itself out for now. I am not holding my breath for the future as international tensions flare. I am glad you replied because there was something important that I did to include in my original comment. Going back to the GPS argument. I don't know anything about that Luba beyond what you said in the video. I do know the Ecoflow mower uses all kinds of technologies beyond the GPS to make sure it is dong the right thing. Everything from camera sensors to LIDAR. I have to be limited in what I say and have to remain in the parameters of what they have publicly said. No matter what this new tech is amazing stuff. Kinda scary too lol.
Kickstarter should really be thought of more like it's your cousin that you might see twice a year who has a great idea but no practical experience to get it to market. In exchange for believing in your cousin, you may get a first generation product at a hefty family discount price...but you also may just end up with a cousin that you USED to see twice a year but now always seems to be "busy". Kickstarter always has been and always will be a gamble. People who blindly dive into things should probably stay away from Kickstarter, and the internet, and social media, and....
The couple of Kickstarters that I've backed have all paid off and I saved about half the cost over the eventual retail product cost. Just like buying stocks, only put in what you're willing to completely lose.
The damn thing is amazing! Lol , I even run my business off of it for how reliable it is
The boundary wire not being a big deal? Are you kidding me?
I had boundary wire mowers. Now that I've gone RTK with Luba, I'll never go back. It's like night and day. And if the mower has issues somewhere, I don't have to dig up my wire and reinstall it. All I have to do now is modify the boundary in the app, and I'm done.
Fortunately, they didn't need you to back them. Nor did they need me, although I bought one later anyway. They did just fine and now have trouble keeping up with the demand.
But in my opinion, this mower is superior to any other brands. And my only regret is not backing them on kick starter for the discounted price.
that vid didnt age well. May as well delete it. I got mine delivered today in Ireland and I backed them on Kickstarter. While I agree with the risks of Kickstarter campaigns you point out, I did a lot of research ahead of backing the Luba. The partners/companies behind the project were quite well equipped to make this work. But it was a risk yes, even though a calculated one. Now lets see how it works 😉
What exactly did I say that didn't age well?
My major points:
"It is a big risk": it was a risk, looks like they are getting delivered now so it looks like the worst didn't happen, doesn't mean it wasn't a risk at the time. You spent $1200 or whatever it was on the project and you *could* have ended up with nothing and there would have been nothing you could have done about it, how is that not a risk?
"It could be delayed": it was delayed, they were meant to start shipping in July of last year.
"There are no reviews": I stand by this, they were claiming this thing was pretty much built, would be shipping out in a few weeks, yet there was no unit available for someone to review? It ended up they sent one to one person and specifically told him to not review it. And there was problems with it when he got it.
I'm glad you got it and hope it works out for you. But you got it late (I assume when you backed it you weren't expecting to get it in 10months time), haven't even tried it and you're coming here claiming victory?
@Brian Lough of course it was a risk. I stated the same. A calculated one after doing extensive research. I did not expect the Luba to arrive until mid this year tbh. Yes it got a bit delayed but I was not suprised by that at all. I now got it a month ahead of schedule. I'm not claiming victory here. just saying this video is now outdated and could be removed. I agree with your reservations at the time, I just found the risk to be worth while after doing my own research back then. I also watched your video last year before I contributed. Just came across as a bit of a revenge thing as well bec Mammotion did not send you a mower to test. Which is probably not the case but left the impression. But I get it. Now it turned out all ok. cheers
I was definitely disappointed that it didn't work that I didn't get one, who wouldn't want to get a new toy like that to play with, but my video was not at all motivated by revenge.
I was motivated especially to share that part of the story, not because they didn't send me one, but that upon seeing the most basic terms for doing a fair review of a product, they just stopped engaging. I felt like I had more information than the average person had. It didn't feel right to me that they were claiming the product was basically done and they seemingly had no review models. I wasn't a backer so I don't know exactly what did happen, but from the outside it does seem like they were further away from launch than the original dates and the kick starter suggested
If Luba had sent me one, basically all of kickstarter portions of the videos would have still been included. The part about not having any review models would have been replaced with an actual review.
A company claiming to represent a different robot lawnmower company reached out to me last week to review a mower with similar tech to the luba. I'll only review it under the same terms as I offered mammotion (I don't want money or creative input from them). It's not a kickstarter though, so if it doesn't work out, I almost certainly won't be making a video as I don't see the same level of risk for the end user. If someone bought this, they could just return it under Irish/EU law if it was bad!
Its a great idea, but sooo expensive
also many people in the midwest us have MULTIPLE foot ball fields worth of yard!
In Ireland I think we would call them "fields" and you would plant crops or let animals graze on them 😅
Even just one football field would be a monster garden here that basically only mansions would have!
TL;DR - "The unit has great features, more capacity than other mowers, more efficient, better battery, better navigation, and a reasonable cost. However, I won't be buying because it's a Kickstarter and they wouldn't send me a unit to test beforehand."
My issue is not that they wouldn't send me one for review, it's that there were no reviews at all. Why would a company not want reviews of their product? The obvious answer is they think reviews would damage sales, which isn't a good sign.
The only person we know for sure had one is Something 2lookat and he says in the comments in the video that they were specifically asked him not to make any more videos before the campaign ends. So we have 1 video, driving around a small square of an already cut piece of grass.
Again, why would a company not want a bigger test of their product than that?
He also completely omited from his video that the unit didn't work out of the box and required software changes from the Luba team.
Doesn't really matter now anyways are pledges are locked in. So I guess we'll just have to find out how it goes
Thanks!
People making robot mowers need to get on to robot vacuum tech. My dreame can self correct if it is knocked off its path by my dog for example
One thing is obvious, it will never happen. 80 patents Blabla… something like this will come, but for sure not from them.
cheers Brian :)
just get a goat
Goats eat weeds, cows eat grass. You need both.
WHY dont people talk about SERVICE...there is NO place to get service for these kickstarter mower, zero..zip...none.
Well in fairness, I have a worx one and I don't think I'd be able to get it serviced anywhere in Ireland either! Mine is now entering it's 4th season and other than change it's blades and cleaning it, I haven't to do anything else with it and it's still going like a trooper!
@@BrianLough can you get parts? That becomes important. What size lot do you have?
Your terms sounded very reasonable to me , i guess they are just looking for good reviews not honest reviews.Channels that promote products they got for free or some other rewards should make that clear to their viewers.
If Jesus Christ was to return. This guy would find some negative to post up.
Would his return be a Kickstarter?
I backed the project. Dumb mistake? Maybe, but the specs make all other robotic mowers obsolete especially if you have hills in your yard.
Regardless, this video came across like a guy that's upset that he didn't get his free mower. The fact that the company is interested in sending units out for review tells me that they are close to production ready, which supports their claims. Stipulating a bunch of conditions in a long winded email will send all but the most desperate businesses running. They have tons of real videos, more every few days.
Bottom line, this guy is just salty. You want to learn about the mower, just join their fb page. It still might be a risk but for me, no other mower will mow my lawn for this price so it's luba or nothing.
I'm not sure "salty" is the word I'd use, but but as mentioned in the video I would have loved to test it and disappointed it didn't work so maybe it is fair to say I'm a little salty.
But I don't need the Luba, my lawns are already automatically being cut so while the Luba would have been cool and new, the end goal of the grass being cut would be the same.
Maybe I didn't do a good job getting my point across of why that interaction was a problem for me. My issue wasn't that I didn't get a mower, but that they were on board with sending one and something in that email made them change their mind, so what did they have a problem with?
So if they have review units, where are the reviews? Since there are no reviews, I'm guessing anybody with similar terms to mine were also looked over .... Why would that be?
Getting more info from their Facebook is fine from a spec point of view, but they are hardly going to tell you anything negative about the mower.
You are right about it basically being in its own category spec/price wise. But for me I would be happier to pay more money to buy it on Amazon or wherever when it becomes available. Are we just taking their word that $2400 will be the price when they have shown they can sell it for $1200, again we'll see how that works out.
Best of luck with the Luba, I hope you get it on time and it works well!
" _The fact that the company is interested in sending units out for review tells me that they are close to production ready_ "
That is a fatal misconception.
That's not how manufacturing works. Especially on Kickstarter.
That they have units for review only shows that they have built a few units.
Doesn't say anything about their readiness for 'mass' production.
Building a few prototypes is easy.
For prototypes (or review units) the cost per unit doesn't matter. So they can basically be handmade.
The step from hand-building a few units to full production is huge.
And a lot of companies fail at that step and either go bankrupt or they realize that they hugely underestimated the final production cost for their product - and therefore are never able to ship the product.
And especially with Kickstarter the problem is that companies need to build hype before they even start the manufacturing.
So for them it makes sense to build a few units as fast as possible and send them out to reviewers to build up that hype and get more backers on Kickstarter. And that long before they are even close to being ready for mass-production.
If they're so close to production how come they don't have any 3rd party reviews?
@@pietheijn-vo1gt they do have one guy with one that is doing reviews and testing but that guy isn't very good at doing reviews.
@@Jehty_ fair enough. Perhaps not production ready but at least finished prototyping.
I’ve been getting ads for the Luba for a while as I’ve been searching for robotic mower for over a year so I was excited when this video came cross my feed. I think you touched on a very important aspect of Kickstarter projects with a low funding goal, this a huge red flag to me. I look for a realistic funding goal. How much would it take them to secure the manufacturing and does it match the funding goal. This is helped immensely by a detailed project plan that outlines where the money will go. But also common sense helps, $6k to bring a product to market is obviously way low. But if it was a $250k goal? Seems more reasonable.
I think the low goals are also for bragging rights and gaming the system, Kickstarter has a thing where it’ll say 400% funded or 80% funded. So these creators set a low goal so their projects appears more successful. They can then use this in marketing. Funded in 20 minutes! 1000% funded! Numbers that tell nothing but sell interest. It’s dishonest.
What also turned me away from backing it was that almost all of their promotional material is CG. There’s some footage of the real thing but then the ads transition to a robot mower. I’ve backed several projects on Kickstarter, and I think 2 or 3 didn’t meet their goal or failed to deliver.
I also remember the Toadi, I never did follow up on that project as I forgot about it so thanks for including it. My issue with them was that the mower body’s as 3D printed and used (I think) wireless charging solution.
In the meantime I’m really hoping the Segway Navimow comes to the US and that iRobot revives their Terra lawnmower.
This company is much bigger then this guy make claim to. Check out their real company AgileX Robotics