This was the first robotic lawn mower I’ve ever used, and I was honestly super excited to get the Ecovacs GOAT A2500 RTK home, set it up, and see if these things are finally worth seriously considering. In this video I walk through what comes in the box (charging base, RTK antenna, mounts, and all that), where to place the RTK so it actually grabs satellites, and how I mapped my yard. The auto mapping works really well, but I chose manual mode because I like to take control and define my own boundaries—especially in spots without fences, like between houses or when you need a route across a sidewalk. I also go over the smart features that matter: Lidar-enhanced RTK that connects to 40+ satellites, claimed 2cm accuracy, dual blades, edge mowing, obstacle avoidance, rain detection, and the camera view in the app (which is basically like having another security camera out in your yard). I show the app modes (auto, area, edge, manual), scheduling, mowing height, speed, avoidance settings, and how it handles returning to charge and picking back up. My big takeaways: it’s a lawn maintainer, not something you send out once a week on tall grass. It did miss a few spots early on (like around a tree), but it learned and got more efficient after a couple mows, and it will go back and hit what it missed. Biggest challenge was base/RTK placement and power access, and I do wish the max cut height was higher than 3.6 inches for my Midwest cool-season grass.