China Connectivity

[swankcr]

Hey all,

I wanted to reach out and see if I'm the only one that missed this. I saw one other discussion about it, so that's why I posted here. I didn't catch any reference to china-hosted endpoints and I dont want to unblock china for a mower. When I was purchasing the I wanted something that I can integrate with home assistant but am probably a bit more lax with my security position here just because it's mostly just outside. But anyway .... I am having performance issues with their website and home assistant integration.

The user login fails and all I see are timeouts in my log:
Unexpected error during login: Connection timeout to host [https://api.link.aliyun.com/living/account/region/get?x-ca-request-id=reallylongstring

My unifi network blocks a number of countries, and China is one of them. I have zero intention of changing that, and creating device-specific exceptions really isn't something I want to entertain. I talked to their support and they are escalating to see, but at this point I figure I would rather return the mower.

Am I the only one that didn't catch this?

[mikey0000]

They are a Chinese company... Your choices are ble only, how on earth did you manage to setup the mower on the app?

[Sooty70]

I use script to pull settings from dashboard…

alias: Johnson - Start mow based on dashboard settings
mode: restart
sequence:
  - variables:
      selected_areas:
        - >-
          {{ 'switch.johnson_area_6668069686903605018' if
          is_state('switch.johnson_area_6668069686903605018', 'on') else none }}
        - >-
          {{ 'switch.johnson_area_4801727667711258361' if
          is_state('switch.johnson_area_4801727667711258361', 'on') else none }}
        - >-
          {{ 'switch.johnson_area_5175509040492743930' if
          is_state('switch.johnson_area_5175509040492743930', 'on') else none }}

  - variables:
      selected_areas_clean: "{{ selected_areas | reject('eq', none) | reject('eq', '') | list }}"
      blade_height: "{{ states('number.robomow_blade_height') | int(45) }}"
      working_speed: "{{ states('number.robomow_working_speed') | float(0.3) }}"
      channel_width: "{{ states('number.robomow_path_spacing') | int(14) }}"
      toward: "{{ states('number.robomow_cutting_path_angle') | int(45) }}"
      toward_included_angle: "{{ states('number.robomow_crossing_angle') | int(90) }}"

      channel_mode: >
        {% set v = states('select.robomow_cutting_path_mode') | lower %}
        {% if v == 'zigzag path' %}
          0
        {% elif v == 'chessboard path' %}
          1
        {% elif v == 'adaptive zigzag path' %}
          2
        {% elif v == 'perimeter only' %}
          3
        {% else %}
          0
        {% endif %}

      toward_mode: >
        {% set v = states('select.robomow_cutting_angle_mode') | lower %}
        {% if v == 'optimal angle' %}
          0
        {% elif v == 'north angle' %}
          1
        {% elif v == 'random angle' %}
          2
        {% else %}
          0
        {% endif %}

      border_mode: >
        {% set v = states('select.robomow_mow_order') | lower %}
        {% if v == 'perimeter first' %}
          0
        {% elif v == 'zigzag/chessboard first' %}
          1
        {% else %}
          0
        {% endif %}

      ultra_wave: >
        {% set v = states('select.robomow_obstacle_avoidance_mode') | lower %}
        {% if v == 'direct touch' %}
          0
        {% elif v == 'slow touch' %}
          1
        {% elif v == 'less touch' %}
          2
        {% elif v == 'no touch' %}
          10
        {% elif v == 'sensitive' %}
          11
        {% else %}
          2
        {% endif %}

      rain_tactics: >
        {% if is_state('switch.robomow_rain_detection_on_off', 'on') %}
          1
        {% else %}
          0
        {% endif %}

      mowing_laps: >
        {% set v = states('select.robomow_perimeter_mowing_laps') | lower %}
        {% if v == 'none' %}
          0
        {% elif v == 'one lap' %}
          1
        {% elif v == 'two laps' %}
          2
        {% elif v == 'three laps' %}
          3
        {% elif v == 'four laps' %}
          4
        {% else %}
          1
        {% endif %}

      obstacle_laps: "{{ mowing_laps }}"

  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{ selected_areas_clean | count > 0 }}"
        sequence:
          - action: mammotion.start_mow
            target:
              entity_id: lawn_mower.robomow
            data:
              areas: "{{ selected_areas_clean }}"
              modify: false
              is_mow: true
              is_edge: false
              border_mode: "{{ border_mode | string | trim }}"
              job_version: 0
              job_id: 0
              speed: "{{ working_speed | float }}"
              ultra_wave: "{{ ultra_wave | string | trim }}"
              channel_mode: "{{ channel_mode | string | trim }}"
              channel_width: "{{ channel_width | int }}"
              rain_tactics: "{{ rain_tactics | string | trim }}"
              blade_height: "{{ blade_height | int }}"
              toward: "{{ toward | int }}"
              toward_included_angle: "{{ toward_included_angle | int }}"
              toward_mode: "{{ toward_mode | string | trim }}"
              mowing_laps: "{{ mowing_laps | string | trim }}"
              obstacle_laps: "{{ obstacle_laps | string | trim }}"
              start_progress: 0
              plan_only: false

    default:
      - action: persistent_notification.create
        data:
          title: Johnson start blocked
          message: No mowing areas are selected on the dashboard.

[mikey0000]

Your going to have to check your values being set, likely toward_included_angle is zero
Going to have to debug your script and get the final numbers

[Sooty70]

@mikey0000 Thanks for the steer on checking the values, that pointed me in the right direction and I added a debug view to my HA script so I could see exactly what was being sent to mammotion.start_mow, and it turns out several of the dropdown selectors don’t translate 1:1 to the expected payload values.

For reference, here’s what I observed from the UI vs what actually needs to be sent…

Cutting path mode (select.robomow_cutting_path_mode):

• single_grid → channel_mode=0 (zigzag)
• double_grid → channel_mode=1 (chessboard)
• segment_grid → channel_mode=2 (adaptive)
• no_grid → channel_mode=3 (perimeter only)

Cutting angle mode (select.robomow_cutting_path_angle_mode):

• random_angle → toward_mode=0
• absolute_angle → toward_mode=1
• relative_angle → toward_mode=2

Obstacle detection (select.robomow_obstacle_avoidance_mode):

• off → ultra_wave=0 (direct touch)
• standard → ultra_wave=10 (no touch)
• sensitive → ultra_wave=11

Mow order:

• border_first → border_mode=0
• otherwise → border_mode=1

I was previously passing the wrong values (looked right in HA, wrong on the wire), which explains why chessboard was only cutting in one direction. After correcting the mappings and confirming via debug output, everything is now working as expected, including proper chessboard cross-cut!

One more question while I’m here:. Do you know what parameter/value controls Turnaround Mode (Zero turn vs Multipoint turn) in the start_mow call? I can see the device entity but not developer tools so don’t know what to add into the payload…

[mikey0000]

Turnaround mode is mower setting not a mowing setting if that makes sense, you'll just have to flip the dropdown on its own

[Sooty70]

That makes sense. It sits in the same category as the light/LEDs etc. Although I wonder why the obstacle avoidance setting is a mowing rather than mower setting! Anyways thanks for your help, even my Mammotion cloud account has been unblocked today!