I feel like I’m getting to the end of this one, at least the 1.0 release. There are a few pieces left.

Shifter: the shifter is large and probably over designed. All it does is push a small rod into the transaxle to change from forward to neutral to reverse. With an electric motor, this isn’t really required. The motor is easily turned off and even reversed. All that said, it isn’t in the way and it could be useful, for instance, to put the transaxle into neutral. Tempting to take the mechanism down to simplify things but it will stay, for now.

Brakes: there is a brake lever on the transaxle very near the shifter. In the photo it is connected to the spring. This is connected to a rod and to the large pedal. This pedal was a combination brake and clutch and had some complex mechanical and electrical interlocks to the old blades and engine. The pedal works well enough but needs some springs to keep it in place. Looking at repurposing some of the old springs. Will also have to put in a stop using a bolt. My other concern is braking with the motor engaged. It is possible to mount an electrical switch to turn off the motor when the brake is engaged. We will see if that is necessary in practice.

Blade Height: the metal bits are the original blade deck lift mechanism. I intended to use it, even though it was overkill, but the mounting of the motor made me take it down, piece by piece. I may yet use some or all of these pieces and mount points to control the mower blade height, but this is still open. Perhaps the last open design issue.

The blades are just some 24V scooter motors with heavy duty weed whacker blades mounted on them, all mounted into some 2″ PVC pipe. Wired it up using my fancy new WAGO lever nuts and hooked it up to the new controller. Need to put in a safety cover and figure out the mounting and lift mechanism but it looks up to the job. Still haven’t ridden the direct drive yet. Going in a few different directions at once.