Episode: 3693
Title: HPR3693: Fixing the automatic cutoff mechanism to an electric mower
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3693/hpr3693.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 04:10:40

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3693 for Wednesday, the 28th of September 2022.
Today's show is entitled, Fixing the Automatic Cut-Off Mechanism to an Electric More.
It is hosted by Rowan and is about five minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is Rowan describes Fixing the Safety Mechanism to his Electric More.
Hi and welcome to another episode of Hacker Public Radio.
Today I will be trying to fix the start and hold bar for my lawnmower.
It is the safety bar you hold in to keep the mower running.
The button was getting very finicky.
Sometimes you press the start button and you have to pull the lever back and then the mower will start.
And then you keep holding handles, but it would not always stay on.
You hear this little click and it would go out.
And so I took the handlebar apart. There are pictures and the show notes to help understand.
And basically there is an orange button on the outside.
You push down, this presses down on the slider mechanism.
Then let's the handlebars slide forward, which then pushes a plastic prong into a switch.
And I think what was happening is that the spring that provides some resistance for the slide mechanism wasn't...
I don't know if it was all the way down in, but anyway it was letting the prong that pushes into the switch sort of slide up and over top of the switch part and then it would turn off.
I'm hoping I tightened the spring up a little bit and I sort of tested it in a disassembled state but sort of put that together.
And it feels like I'm not hearing that clicking noise I would hear when I would hold the handles and then it would pop off the switch.
So I'm hoping that by tightening the spring up a little bit and maybe repositioning it, that that will take care of it.
There was also a crack in the plastic casing that holds this all together.
And so I took some super glue and I'm super gluing that.
So right now I am letting it dry and then later tonight I'll put it back together and see if it works.
Okay, we're back.
I reassembled the upper arm part, the starter stuff on the bars.
The biggest thing was making sure to get the wiring back in the right place.
I put it back together.
I now have this assembly attached back to the lawn mower and it's plugged up and this is the electric lawn mower from my previous episodes.
And so far so good, the light that shows that the battery is on and the key is in.
So I'm about to try if I can start it up and hopefully it will keep mowing if I hold the bars in.
Not a good sign. I held it in and nothing.
Okay, well, something is not right.
I don't know if it's not touching.
Okay, well, I don't know.
I guess it's a little better and that it's completely broken now instead of partially broken.
But I guess I'll have to take this apart and try again because it's not making any contact.
There's no motor trying to kick over or anything.
That is very unhandy.
Alright, well, I'll be back at some point with an update.
Alright, well, I got myself again.
So this mower has the front attachment so you can actually attach a weed wacker to the front of it or an auxiliary tool.
And I was looking down because it's like now nighttime so I'm sort of doing this by porch light.
And I'm like, oh wait, the switch and it was on auxiliary and not mower.
So when I put it on mower, hold the button in and pull the lever.
Ah, the sounds of mowing.
Alright, and it's now staying.
I didn't have any problems with it clicking out or stopping.
I'm going to call this success.
Thank you for listening.
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