Solar Lawn Mower

this Instructable will show you how to mow you're grass using solar power to charge the mowers batteries

-battery operated lawn mower
-12 volt solar cell
-wire (red and black)
-multi meter
-multi tool (I used my leatherman)

you'll need to cut off the cigarette lighter plug in and then strip your wires .you will also need to cut two lengths of red wire and two of the black and strip both ends of those .when using stranded wire its best if you pull the insulation away slowly as you twist it to keep the wires neat

locate the positive and negative terminals on each battery and connect the wires accordingly .it uses two 12v batteries connected in series circuit and you have to undo that connection .and wire it in parallel circuit to charge .then you must undo that and reconnect it to mow

now that you have those connected you will need to connect the red wires together and connect the black wires together

be sure you disconect the the jumper wire so theres no short and the solar cell is able to charge the batteries

once thats done you'll need to connect the solar cell to leads

once you've hooked it all up all you need to do now is set it in the sun and let it do its thing .it doesn't have to be a cloudless day for your solar cells to work but they do work best in direct sun .it takes about 4-6 hours to charge depending on how clear the day is and position of the sun in reference to the solar cell .and it is about to cut thick grass for 20-30 minutes on the mulch setting so that time would be greater if you were collecting it in a bag

the solar cell does not stay connected for use of the mower (it is only for charging) .and the batteries have to be hooked back up to the manufacturer's specs .but for free power the 3 minutes it takes to do that is worth it

.it only took me about 45 minutes to complete this project since I had all of the stuff just laying around (my father is a "junk" collector)

I'm sure you will be able to locate a battery lawn mower online .my dad bought this one on clearance for somewhere around 75 dollars ,and you can purchase a 12 volt solar cell for around 65 dollars from harbor freight



I hope this is helpful and I would like any feedback and criticism you would like to offer as this my first instructable