OpenMower

Preserve the component revisions together

The entrypoint commit is 0e11044fb316e179de029f9cdbf551bdfa171387. Its gitlinks identify the YardForce carrier-board revision 17e06696e046fd63da448bbfbb7e3ee1c5d85f46 and xCore firmware revision d87c8277807c7d239d20d2397642a8337b274c6a; both were separately archived for this review. Other ecosystem repositories and nested dependencies remain separate collection work. [S002] [S005] [S006] [S009]

The board repository names Classic 500(B) and SA-series mower compatibility and contains KiCad board and schematic sources. That is a carrier-board package, not complete fabrication CAD for the commercial mower chassis. Physical compatibility, board revision and wiring still require installation-specific verification. The official hardware guide distinguishes v1 and v2 and recommends v2 for new builds; mixing those generations would obscure the applicable architecture. [S006] [S008] [S012]

The firmware documentation has moved beyond the architecture page

The selected firmware runs on an STM32H723 xCore using ChibiOS, with a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 running higher-level ROS navigation over Ethernet. Its README describes a unified firmware binary with two-stage runtime identification: EEPROM detection for applicable platforms and a ROS-provided robot variant. It distinguishes YardForce and YardForce-V4, including a different mower ESC for the latter. [S009]

The architecture web page instead describes compile-time robot configuration. This discrepancy is recorded rather than silently combining the two procedures. For the pinned firmware, its own README is the relevant documented workflow, but no compilation or device validation was performed here. The exact carrier, firmware, motor controller and runtime selection must be reconciled for an actual build. [S009] [S011]

Build presets also matter: the README states that Debug enables a simulated input driver, while Release uses optimized output and bootloader reset configuration. A successful debug build would therefore not establish normal physical sensor behavior. The documented build needs an Arm toolchain, CMake, Make and recursive dependencies; network upload requires the xCore bootloader. None of these procedures was executed. [S009]

Separate the licenses and the incomplete cost estimate

The entrypoint documentation uses CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. The selected YardForce board declares CC BY 4.0, and the xCore firmware declares GPL version 2. Those declarations apply to different artifacts; they do not establish a single unrestricted license for the complete conversion or every bundled dependency. The ROS, OS and app licenses remain outside this scoped review. [S001] [S003] [S007] [S010]

The overview's approximate €700 shopping estimate explicitly excludes the mower and RTK base station. It is not a verified delivered build budget. RTK correction delivery and the physical GNSS installation are additional system dependencies. The catalog has not tested positioning, boundary behavior, protective functions or mowing performance. [S001] [S011]