Testing the Hookii Neomow X 2 Pro: 3D LiDAR Under Tree Cover

[00:00:00]Hi, it's Jason from Fraser Valley Rose Farm. Today I'm doing a product evaluation on this. This is the Hookie Neomo X2 Pro Robot Lawn Mower. I'll give you some close-ups of this and also the specs on the screen as we begin to talk here. One of the first points I wanted to make about this is that robot lawn mowers have changed over time. It used to be when they first came out that you had to go around the outside of your uh property, the perimeter, and lay a wire around help it to navigate. It's come a long way since then. The next step, the next stage that I saw, and I've evaluated these, are the ones that have an RTK base station. It's basically a satellite station that sits out and navigates the robot from a distance. The problem with that, of course, is that if you lose the signal, the robot gets lost around the property. So, one thing that they've done with this, and I think maybe the evolution of the technology, is that they've built that satellite signal into the mower itself, and they've also given it lidar navigation around it. So, what it means is that this one is far less likely to get lost.

[00:01:04]It also does not need that satellite RTK base station elsewhere. So, I can place the mower inside the house here on its charging station, which no longer has the base station for navigation. It can live in here and then go out to the lawn and then return back to a secured area at the end of the day.

[00:01:22]Let me give you some overhead and ground level views of the mower in action. Uh first thing I wanted to cover is that training it was no problem. I'm familiar with doing this with other lawn mowers where you do a training step where you bring it around the perimeter of the mowing area. And on the app, it will help to you to map that. Oh, it's a pretty easy process, and I do find that doing it yourself instead of relying on it to do a sort of its own automated mapping is probably the best way to go because you have some decisions to make about the boundaries that you want it to operate within. I also find that if you have permanent obstructions in place, like this chapel that I'll show you in the pictures here, then I map that off as well so that it just has a very clear idea of where it's going. Now, it navigates using that lidar and the cameras, the AI cameras that are on the mower, so it has no problem identifying obstructions. So, I stood in front of it, had no problem, it navigated right around me. I also had my dog volunteer to do the same. So, even if I left something out like a wagon on the lawn, it has no problem navigating around that. Another thing I tested was whether it can go up and down hills. So, the area that I have it mainly mowing here is pretty flat and even, uh but I tried it up and down a hillside and it had no problem uh going through that either.

[00:02:37]Third thing I wanted to comment on was how loud or how un- lack of loud it is, how quiet its operation is. Really, you hear the wheels moving more than you hear the mow- mower going. Uh I think on the site they call it 60 dB. I don't think it gets even close to that. It's very quiet, non-obstructive as it's running. So, uh I found that very good.

[00:02:57]A note on how these disc cutting lawn mowers are supposed to work, it can leave substantial clippings. You can see this was tall grass, but ideally it shouldn't be used that way. You should be scheduling it on regular trips through where it's doing small clippings and going over regularly, and that way you get your best quality lawn without having to uh mow the deep grass, which it could be hit or miss on.

[00:03:21]Okay, I've been running it on this big lawn behind me here for a couple of weeks now. I want to give you some footage and some feedback on how it works. Kind of my minimum requirement is I want to run it a few times and see how it does. But before I do that, I'm just going to go flip this over, wash it, show you how easily it cleans, then we'll get a close-up look of the machine. Okay, so I brought it up on the table here for a closer look. Uh it did clean up nicely. One thing I'll show you underneath here is that this mowing deck, this part here, this uh this whole plate here sort of floats above the ground and there's not a lot of dead space in here. So, the cutting disc just is mounted on this floating plate and that doesn't leave a lot of spot for grass to accumulate inside there. No deep recesses that way. So, it was just a quick rinse down. The other things I'll show you underneath here. The back wheels here are not powered wheels. It's not like a four-wheel drive mower. It's these just pivot on on like dolly wheels or pulley wheels here. These front wheels do have nice little spikes on the front of the wheel like cleats on there.

[00:04:20]So, they don't slip that much on the grass. On the front and top of the mower, you get exactly the things you might expect here. This is the bumper in case it runs into an obstacle. But, to stop it from doing that, you have the lidar navigation up here. That's like a a radar, but it's a lidar. Uh and then you also have the AI cameras on the front.

[00:04:40]Here's the control panel here.

[00:04:41]Obviously, you can tell it to mow or to go home, uh power it on or off, and that's the emergency stop button in case you needed to stop it. I will say that this material on the outside and this plastic material seems tough and resistant to staining. Of course, I've only been running it for a couple of weeks here. But, like I say, it did hose off very easily. Looks still quite clean. Just wanted to get you some before and after perspective here and you can see that this section of lawn is the unmowed area with some tall grasses and clover flowers. Now, swing over this way here and you can see this is the area that the mower has done. You see that clover is gone. It's mowed. All you're seeing is a little bit of light clippings across the surface there.

[00:05:25]Before I wrap up the video, just wanted to show you my final use case here, which is this area here underneath some trees. So, while it is wonderful to show you the kind of quality it can do on a flat space of open lawn there, this area here plays to its strength because it's navigating using that lidar and cameras instead of the RTK. So, these overhead trees that I have here and there are plenty. Where other mowers are getting lost, this one is maintaining its signal and mowing the area just fine, which is exactly what I need. So, if the RTK signal does restrict where you can use it on your property, if you're concerned about overhead structures or trees, this guy solves that problem for you while doing a great job on the lawn, being safe, and being quiet. Highly recommend.

[00:06:08]Thanks for watching. If you have any questions, please drop those down in the video bottom of the video, and I'll see what I can do to help.