Device and method for calibrating outdoor power equipment and quality of cut
AssigneeMTD Products Inc
InventorJohn Coleman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Calibrating and optimizing settings of power equipment devices are detailed throughout this disclosure. A mobile device application can be connected with a control device of a power equipment, and data pertaining to current environmental conditions (e.g., turf moisture), turf characteristics (e.g., type of grass, etc.) or machine parameters can be entered into the mobile device application and utilized for generating improved setting value(s). Also disclosed are algorithms for correlating these conditions, characteristics and parameters with adjustment data for adjusting machine settings to achieve a desired performance of a power equipment device.
Claims17
A mobile device, comprising:
- a processor for executing instructions to perform operations of the mobile device;
- a communication interface for communicatively coupling the processor to a processing device external to the mobile device;
- and
- a memory for maintaining the instructions executed by the processor, the operations comprising:
- receiving, by the processor, input parameter data representing a characteristic pertaining to an instance of vegetation or a machine for mowing the vegetation;
- determining, by the processor, a value of a mechanical parameter of the machine as a function at least in part of the input parameter data, the mechanical parameter of the machine comprising:
- a cutting reel cassette identifier of a set of cutting reel cassette identifiers, a rear roller position, a bedblock eccentricity position, a number of blades on a bedknife, a bedknife attitude angle, a behind center distance (BCD) of bedknife, a reel motor counterbalance of a set of reel motor counterbalances, a parallelism metric of the bedknife, a drive speed, a cutting reel speed, a frequency of clip metric in units of distance, or a type of bedknife of a set of bedknives;
- and
- outputting, by the processor, additional data representing the determined value of the mechanical parameter of the machine, the outputting further comprising:
- establishing, by way of the communication interface, a communication link with an electronic control device of the machine;
- and
- updating, by the communication link, a data field of the electronic control device with the additional data representing the determined value of the mechanical parameter of the machine;
- wherein the electronic control device is operable to adjust the mechanical parameter of the machine, or adjust a second parameter of the machine dependent upon the mechanical parameter of the machine, consistent with the determined value of the mechanical parameter of the machine.
A method of generating adjustment data for a machine for mowing vegetation, the method executed utilizing a processor and memory of a mobile device comprising the processor, the memory and a communication interface for communicatively coupling the processor to a control module of the machine by way of a communication interface of the control module, comprising:
- receiving, by the processor coupled with the memory, input parameter data representing a characteristic pertaining to an instance of vegetation or pertaining to the machine for mowing the vegetation;
- determining, by the processor, a value of a mechanical parameter of the machine as a function at least in part of the input parameter data, wherein the mechanical parameter pertains to:
- a cutting reel cassette identifier of a set of cutting reel cassette identifiers, a rear roller position, a bedblock eccentricity position, a number of blades on a bedknife, a bedknife attitude angle, a behind center distance (BCD) of bedknife, a reel motor counterbalance of a set of reel motor counterbalances, a parallelism metric of the bedknife, a drive speed, a cutting reel speed, a frequency of clip metric in units of distance, or a type of bedknife of a set of bedknives;
- and
- outputting, by the processor, additional data representing the determined value of the mechanical parameter of the machine by transferring the determined value of the mechanical parameter of the machine over a communication link to a control device of the machine for mowing the vegetation, and updating a data field in a memory associated with the mechanical parameter of the machine with the determined value, the data field utilized by a control device of the machine for adjusting the machine according to the determined value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.