How to lay a guide wire in an Automower® installation

In an Automower® installation, the purpose of our patented guide wire is to lead your Automower® robotic lawn mower back to the charging station when necessary. This will reduce the time spent searching, especially for complex gardens. Guide wires are also used to guide the robotic lawn mower to remote work areas and handle passages as narrow as 60 cm/2 ft wide. If a passage is less than 2 m/6.5 ft wide, we always recommend using a guide wire to lead the mower through the passage. On its way to and from the charging station, the mower varies its route to avoid leaving tracks in the lawn.

For some models, using a guide wire is required. For other models it is optional, but we always recommended installing one or more guide wires. The number of guide wires supported by your Automower® robotic lawn mower depends on the model.

How to lay a guide wire

The guide wire should start from the back of the charging station and be placed in the centre underneath the base plate. One end of the guide wire should be connected to the charging station and the other end should be connected to the boundary wire.

Use the same type of wire in the installation kit as the boundary wire. The difference between the guide wire and the boundary wire is how you connect them to the charging station.

The Automower® connector and Automower® coupler are part of our range of high-quality Automower® accessories, used to connect the guide wire to the charging station and the boundary wire.

1. Put an Automower® connector on the end of the wire and place it on the G1 pin on the charging station (or G2 or G3 pin if it is the second or third guide wire). It is a good idea to tag the wires with wire labels. This makes it easier to reconnect the wires correctly when, for example, the charging station has been stored indoors for the winter. Note, that for Automower® NERA models, all connectors are available from the front instead of the back.
   
2. Lay the wire at least 2 m/6.5 ft (for Aspire™ R4: 1 m/3.3 ft) in front of the charging station in a straight line. Use pegs to attach the wire to the ground all the way up to the planned point for connecting to the boundary wire.
3. Cut the boundary wire using a pair of wire cutters at the connection point with the boundary wire. Connect the end of the guide wire to the boundary wire using an Automower® coupler. See How to use an Automower® Coupler
   
   
   
   If you planned for the connection spot when you placed the boundary wire, you’ll have extra wire to connect the guide wire with the boundary wire. If not, you may need to extend the wire with another coupler.

The guide wire is now installed. We recommend that you calibrate the guide wire and verify that the mower can follow the guide wire to the charging station and easily dock.

*Automower® 320 NERA and 430X NERA have three guide connections, but they only support using two guide wires, so only G1 and G2 can be used. Connecting a guide wire to G3 will not work.

Good to know:

• If you have an open lawn, lay the guide wire from the charging station to a central point on the opposite side of the lawn.
• Do not lay the wire at sharp angles (above 45°). This can make it difficult for the robotic lawnmower to follow the guide wire.
• The robotic lawnmower always runs to the left of the guide wire as seen facing the charging station, so ensure that as much space as possible is provided to the left of the guide wire.
• If you lay the guide wire on a slope, place the wire diagonally so that the mower will have optimal traction.
• Do not let the guide wire cross the boundary wire, for example where the boundary wire goes to an island.
• The distance between the boundary wire and the guide wire must always be at least 30 cm/12 in.
• If the guide loop is longer than 400 m/1300 ft (150 m/490 ft for Aspire R4) the robotic lawn mower may have difficulty following the guide wire.

Guide wire installation — example

In the diagram below, two guide wires are used; one to lead the mower all the way around the house to the garage. The other leads the mower through the fence, down the slope and all the way through the passage and down to the greenhouse. Of course, the guide wire will also help the mower find its way back again.

Guide wire settings

After installation, we recommend changing the lawn coverage settings based on the complexity of your lawn.

To ensure that your mower covers all areas of your lawn, you can use GPS assisted navigation (if supported by your mower) or set lawn coverage settings that use the boundary and guide wires to direct the mower to specified areas in your lawn.

GPS assisted navigation means that your mower uses a built-in GPS to automatically determine which areas need to be mowed next.

The lawn coverage settings are made in the Automower® Connect app under More > Settings > Installation > Lawn coverage or using the mower display under Installation > Lawn coverage. Read the operator’s manual for more information.

Please note that if your mower supports AIM technology, you gain increased control of the lawn coverage, as you can easily create work areas with unique schedules and cutting heights using the Automower® Connect app.