Lawn mower blade grinding machine with connected controls

Abstract

One aspect provides a control system for a lawn mower blade grinding machine, the control system including one or more control devices, one or more processors, and one or more non-transitory computer readable medium to store computer executable instructions. The computer executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the control device to perform operations including receiving user inputs from a first user device, the user inputs including parameters which define a requested grinding operation, directing performance of the grinding operation by the lawn mower grinding machine at least via the one or more control devices, and transmitting a status notification of the requested grinding operation to the first user device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A control system for a lawn mower blade grinding machine, the control system including:
 one or more control devices;   one or more processors; and   one or more non-transitory computer readable medium to store computer executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the control device to perform operations including:
 receiving user inputs from a first user device, the user inputs including parameters which define a requested grinding operation; 
 directing performance of the grinding operation by the lawn mower grinding machine at least via the one or more control devices; and 
 transmitting a status notification of the requested grinding operation to the first user device. 
   
     
     
         2 . The control system of  claim 1 , wherein the status notification includes an indication that the grinding operation is complete and an indication that the grinding operation has stopped due to an error. 
     
     
         3 . The control system of  claim 1 , wherein the first user device comprises a user interface. 
     
     
         4 . The control system of  claim 3 , wherein the user interface comprises at least one of a user interface onboard the lawn mower grinding machine and a wireless user interface local to the lawn mower grinding machine. 
     
     
         5 . The control system of  claim 4 , when the user interface includes an onboard user interface and a wireless user interface, the onboard user interface including limited functionality relative to the wireless user interface. 
     
     
         6 . The control system of  claim 1 , including wirelessly receiving the user inputs from the user device and wirelessly transmitting the status notification to the user device. 
     
     
         7 . The control system of  claim 1 , wherein transmitting the status notification includes transmitting the status notification to a plurality of second user devices. 
     
     
         8 . The control system of  claim 1 , wherein the second user devices comprise mobile devices, and wherein transmitting the status notification includes transmitting the status notification at least via a cellular network. 
     
     
         9 . A lawn mower blade grinding machine comprising:
 a grinding system including one or more grinding wheels controllable to perform one or more types of lawn mower blade sharpening procedures; and   a connected control system to connect via a wired or wireless connection to a network, the connected control system including:
 a plurality of control devices; 
 one or more processors; and 
 one or more non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the control system to:
 receive user inputs from at least one first user device, the user inputs including parameters defining a requested machine operation; 
 direct performance of the requested machine operation by the grinding machine; and 
 transmit data corresponding to performance of the requested machine operation to the at least one first user device. 
 
   
     
     
         10 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 9 , wherein the at least one first user device comprises a user interface of the lawn mower blade griding machine. 
     
     
         11 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 10 , the user interface including at least one of a wireless user interface local to the lawn mower blade grinding machine to wirelessly communicate with the connected control system and an onboard user interface integral to lawn mower blade grinding machine to communicate with the connected control system via a hardwired connection. 
     
     
         12 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 10 , wherein the requested machine operation comprises one of the one or more types of blade sharpening procedures, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the control system to further transmit the data corresponding to performance of the requested machine operation to a list of second user devices, wherein the transmitted data comprises a status notification of the requested blade sharpening procedure. 
     
     
         13 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 12 , wherein the plurality of second user devices comprises a list of mobile user devices. 
     
     
         14 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 12 , wherein the status notification includes an indication that the requested blade sharpening procedure is complete and an indication that the blade sharpening procedure has stopped due to an error. 
     
     
         15 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 10 , where the computer executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processor cause the control system to:
 perform data logging operations via at least the control devices, wherein the data logging operations include at least one of logging error events of the lawn mower blade grinding machine and logging operational data representing operational usage of the lawn mower blade grinding machine.   
     
     
         16 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 15 , wherein the requested machine operation is a data transfer operation, and wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the control system to:
 direct performance of the requested data transfer operation with the requesting user interface.   
     
     
         17 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 16 , wherein the requested data transfer operation comprises a download of logged error events, and wherein performance of the requested data transfer process includes transmitting the logged error events to the requesting user interface to enable remote error diagnostics. 
     
     
         18 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 16 , wherein the requested data transfer operation comprises a download of logged operational data, and wherein performance of the requested data transfer process includes transmitting the logged operational to the requesting user interface to enable preventative maintenance scheduling. 
     
     
         19 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 16 , wherein the requested data transfer operation comprises a software update, and wherein performance of the requested data transfer process includes updating operating software of the control system with software updates received from the requesting user interface. 
     
     
         20 . The lawn mower blade grinding machine of  claim 16 , wherein the user interface further includes a remote workstation in communication with the connected control system via network, the network including the internet.