[Vineyard & Winery Elf EN](https://help.vineyardelf.com/index.md) / [VineyardElf](https://help.vineyardelf.com/vineyardelf.md) # [Mammotion mower - status, control and camera preview](https://help.vineyardelf.com/vineyardelf/mammotion-mower-status-control-and-camera-preview.md) Mowing the inter-rows eats up a lot of hours over a season, and a Mammotion robot can drive them on its own. The **Mower** module shows what state the robot is in and what it is doing right now, lets you send it a start, pause or return-to-dock command, and gives you a live view from its camera. You issue the commands - Elf does not steer the mower automatically and never starts it by itself. The module is in beta. What is described below is what the screen does today; it is being actively developed, so expect it to gain more over the next releases. The module belongs to the VineyardElf brand and sits in the menu as **Mower**. It needs a connected Mammotion bridge - a small service that sits between Elf and the manufacturer's cloud. ## Where to find it - status and control: **Mower** - connecting the robot: **Settings > Sensors (IoT) > Mammotion (mower)** - turning the module on or hiding it from the menu: **Settings > Modules** ## What the screen shows There are four cards along the top: **Battery** - charge level in per cent with a status badge. From 40 per cent up it is OK, from 15 to 39 per cent Warning, below 15 per cent Alarm. When the robot is sitting in the dock and charging, you get a "Charging" line under the number. **Mode** - what the mower is doing at this moment: Idle, Charging, Ready, Returning to dock, Locating dock, Paused, Mowing, Raising blades, Lowering blades. While it works, the card carries a "Mowing" badge. If the robot reports a mode outside that list, Elf shows the raw code rather than guessing a name for it. **GPS (RTK)** - the number of satellites in view. The robot needs a stable position: below 5 satellites the position is unusable and you get an Alarm, from 5 to 11 satellites a Warning, from 12 up OK. A dozen or more satellites means comfortable work. **Task progress** - how much of the current mowing plan is done, in per cent. Below that, the **Control** card carries an Online or Offline badge, and next to it the robot's model, the blade height and the GPS position. Clicking the coordinates opens Google Maps at the spot where the mower currently stands. ## Control, step by step 1. Open the **Mower** screen and check the badge on the Control card. It has to say Online. 2. Click **Start mowing**, **Pause** or **Stop and return**. Pause halts the robot where it stands and the task can be resumed with Start; Stop and return abandons the task and sends the mower back to its docking station. 3. Confirm the question Elf asks. Every command needs a confirmation, so that a stray click does not set the machine moving out in the rows. 4. Give it a moment. The robot needs a few seconds to change mode, so Elf re-reads the status shortly after the command rather than instantly. You can also refresh it yourself with the **Refresh** button. When the mower is offline, the command buttons are greyed out. That is deliberate: the command would not reach the machine anyway, and Elf does not pretend it sent something. ## Camera preview Click **Show preview** to see the picture from the robot's camera. The stream goes through the Mammotion cloud over the mower's own 4G link, which is why it only starts on demand and never runs in the background - it uses data. **Stop preview** ends the transmission. There is one condition: the mower has to be online. ## Connecting the robot 1. Go to **Settings > Sensors (IoT)**. The section is visible to the account administrator. 2. In the **Mammotion (mower)** card, fill in **Bridge address (URL)** with the full address including the port. 3. Click **Save**, then **Test connection**. A working bridge answers with an OK message. The bridge is a separate HTTP service (pymammotion) that someone has to set up and keep running. It has to be reachable from the Elf server. If it sits on a home network, expose it through a tunnel or a VPN rather than straight to the internet. This part is usually done once, at the start, by whoever looks after your IT. The chain is: Elf sends to the bridge, the bridge talks to the Mammotion cloud, the cloud reaches the mower over 4G. ## Limits worth knowing about Elf sends no notifications about the mower. There is no text message and no e-mail about a flat battery or an interrupted task - you check the state by opening the screen. Elf does not plan the mowing either, and does not start the robot at a set hour. The schedule and the task map stay on the Mammotion app's side; Elf shows how they are being carried out and lets you interrupt or resume the work. With no bridge configured you get an empty screen with the message "No connection to the mower" and a **Show demo preview** button. The demo shows sample readings so you know what to expect from a real connection. Commands and the camera are switched off in demo mode. ## The most common mix-up "Status outdated" gets confused with "Mower offline", and they are two different things. "Status outdated" means the bridge is answering but has no fresh data from the robot - usually it is enough to wait a moment and click Refresh. "Mower offline" means the robot is not reaching the Mammotion cloud at all, so check that it is switched on and has 4G coverage. If instead of either message you get an empty screen, the problem is not on the mower's side but in Elf's connection to the bridge - go back to Settings and use the Test connection button.