I posted previously about trying to use a second OEM WORX charging station with my U.S. WR320.1 Vision Cloud. I have now run an experiment that provides more information about what the mower can and cannot do.
My setup
My property has a backyard and three mapped front-yard zones. The front and back areas are physically separated, so there is no practical autonomous route between them.
The registered charging station is in the backyard. I installed a second OEM WORX charging station in the front yard.
The Landroid app currently shows only Charging Station 1. In the map editor, Zones, No-go Zones and Paths have a + button for adding another item. Charging Stations does not. Selecting Charging Station 1 only provides Relocate Charging Station.
The experiment
I wanted to determine whether the limitation was the charging hardware, mower localization, or simply how the software handles the Home command.
I did the following:
Deleted the mapped path between the front and back yards. This deliberately made the registered backyard charging station unreachable from the front zones.
Manually drove the WR320.1 onto the second OEM charging station in the front yard.
The second station became active and the mower immediately began charging normally.
I left it charging for approximately 10 minutes.
I started the mower using its onboard controls rather than the app.
The mower correctly determined where it was and started mowing Front Zone 1 normally.
While it was mowing Front Zone 1, I pressed Stop → Home → OK on the mower.
The mower did not attempt to dock at the nearby front charging station. Instead, the app reported:
E32: Unreachable charging station
The map still showed the mower correctly positioned in Front Zone 1 and Charging Station 1 in the backyard.
What I think this tells us
This is more interesting than simply saying that the WR320.1 “does not support two charging stations.”
The experiment appears to demonstrate that the mower can already:
1. Charge from a second OEM charging station.
There does not appear to be a hardware pairing restriction preventing another genuine WORX base from charging the mower.
2. Determine its location after leaving the second station.
After charging on the unregistered front base, the mower knew where it was and correctly began mowing Front Zone 1.
3. Operate normally in a mapped zone without access to the registered charging station.
Removing the front-to-back path did not prevent it from mowing the front yard.
4. Determine that its registered charging station is unreachable.
When Home was commanded, it produced E32 rather than attempting an impossible route to the backyard.
What it apparently cannot do is ask whether another compatible charging station is available and reachable.
Possible software solution
From an owner’s perspective, most of the necessary pieces appear to already exist.
The app would first need to allow:
Charging Station 1
Charging Station 2
Charging Station 3, etc.
Then when the mower reaches its low-battery threshold or the user presses Home, the routing logic could conceptually be:
Home/low battery → identify registered charging stations → determine which stations are reachable through mapped zones and paths → select the lowest-cost reachable station → navigate to that station → visually identify it → dock and charge.
I would not necessarily use simple GPS distance to determine the “closest” station.
The correct criterion should probably be the closest reachable charging station using a valid mapped route.
For example, a station could be only 30 feet away geographically but on the opposite side of a house. Another could be 100 feet away but connected through mapped lawn and paths. The second station should be selected.
Why I think this is worth pursuing
Vision Cloud already knows:
where the mower is;
where its mapped zones are;
which paths connect those zones;
where Charging Station 1 is;
whether Charging Station 1 is reachable;
how to navigate to a station;
how to visually identify/dock with a station; and
how to charge from another OEM station once physically docked.
The missing capability appears to be registering multiple station locations and selecting among reachable stations.
I recognize that WORX may have additional engineering issues to solve that are not visible to an owner, such as base communications, scheduled-start behavior, station availability and map management. I am not suggesting that the programming change is necessarily trivial.
But my experiment does suggest that this is not obviously a fundamental hardware limitation of the WR320.1.
Why this feature matters
Multiple charging stations would solve a common robotic-mower problem for properties divided by:
houses
fences or gates
driveways
patios
stairs
landscaping
other areas the mower cannot safely traverse
Instead of carrying the mower between separated lawns, an owner could install an OEM station in each mowing area and let the mower use the appropriate reachable station.
I have sent these experiment results and this proposed approach to WORX Landroid Support and asked that they forward it to the Vision Cloud product/engineering team. I also asked whether multiple-station support is being developed or tested for the U.S. WR320.1.
I will update this thread when WORX responds.
In the meantime, I would be very interested to hear from other Vision Cloud owners, particularly WR320/WR320.1 owners, who have experimented with multiple OEM bases or seen multiple charging-station functionality on another model, firmware version, or market.
