I’m trying really hard not to turn the height adjustment mechanism into a science project. All it needs to do is (1) support the mower deck and (2) allow the height of the deck above the ground to be easily adjusted.
You can find some exciting mechanisms out there to adjust the height of a mower deck. Google Scag Tiger Cat Height Adjustment if you want to see one of the more interesting ones.
A lot of mowers have a mechanism that lets you adjust the mower deck with one single lever. While I like these mechanisms I don’t think they’re necessary for the robot mower. How often do you typically adjust your lawn mower’s height? I do it once a year, if that.
For this project, having to adjust the height in four places versus one is a small price to pay compared to the time it would take to both engineer a mechanism that would work for our robot mower. Not to mention the cost to make it. Springs and linkages get expensive quickly, and the risk it won’t work right goes up fast when you start adding lots of moving parts.
I like simple. I’m not that bright, so I figure if I can envision something working, chances are it will probably work okay in real life. To adjust the height of the deck, pull the quick release pin, rotate the lever to the appropriate height, and put the pin back in. Do that in four places and your done. Simple!
The Mower Project 