Neato Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Battery Error Repair & How it Works

Rosy our beloved Neato XV-11 robotic vacuum is sick and has a battery error message that says "Please Press Okay To Restart. Battery Issue (0002) (0008 (0009) (0005) (0006) . In this video you can learn how to repair this problem yourself with a simple fix.

For those who like to know how thing work, we also did a complete detailed tear down of the entire machine and explain how all the sensors, motors and electronics work together in unison to navigate this complicated vacuum cleaner that is a truly technological wonder.

Using a specially modified camera you will get a first hand visual look at how the on-board infrared laser sensors operate and aid in the navigation of the unit.

We have created a separate supplemental video showing how we modified a cheap digital camera to operate in the infrared spectrum by removing the IR blocking filter that can be watched here... http://youtu.be/ANUIUe-Y2Wo

MAIN PROCESSOR DETAILS
On board is a Atmel AT91 SAM 9EX 128 Processor.
The processor is running Linux as it's OS platform.
160 MHz speed - 128 Flash Rom
217 pin package
CPU= ARM 926 (9)
96 IO pins
USB interface
Atmel site: http://www.atmel.com/devices/SAM9XE12...

Music scores courtesy of: Incompetech.com
Neato Official Website: https://www.neatorobotics.com/

Neat product support reference: https://www.neatorobotics.com/support...

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Closed Caption:

well our robotic vacuum cleaner that I
call rosie has a problem and so I've
taken are apart and I think I know what
the problem is and i wanted to share
that with in case you have the same
problem with your back and cleaner
I looked up the error message online you
know it seems that other people are
having the same problem
so this is the neato XV 11 and it's a
robotic vacuum cleaner that works really
well and i'll put a link in the corner
of a another video that i did is an
introduction to this that shows its
operation and stuff it's very
interesting how it works and this is the
base of if you will and i pretty much
stripped it down
i'm interested in the battery terminals
and how it's hooked into the power
roller and we'll go over that in a
minute
the error that the LCD screen was
showing was it said battery issue then I
had some numbers
00 2008 2009 and if you looked at air up
on the need to website that says the
battery not connected and sometimes it
also flash a 0 0 3 and 0 0 for and
that's battery low
and there's also a zero zero five or so
sorry
0005 and that says battery issue and
there's an awesome 1000
six anyway all these points to some sort
of a power problem
and so I stripped it down to this point
and I think I found out the problem
let's go ahead and look at that real
quick and i'll show you how you can fix
it if it's yours
and really I don't think I had to strip
it down this far but i did so we'll have
a look inside and see how this thing
works as soon as a show you the the prom
let's go ahead and flip this over
yeah
so this is the underside here and you
can see these connectors inside here let
me grab a battery we required
so these are the battery packs that it
down here and then these connectors
they have four pins on them connected in
here and I replace the battery is
completely i bought brand-new batteries
so that's not the problem in the air
still comes up but on closer inspection
i noticed that one of the pins
so when you gonna shut up right here
one of the pins is been pushed down and
it's the third pin from the bottom
coming up i'll try to get a tighter shot
here anyway that pen is not touching
inside this when you plug this in and
that just so happens to be these two
yellow wires and I did some testing and
found out that the two wires are a
thermistor setting up inside this pack
and what that does is it measures the
temperature and of course of this gets
too hot it will shut the power down so
it doesn't fry the batteries you know
and then the two outside wires is you
know you're positive and negative
anyway the computer recognize that the
thermistor wasn't
connected properly and they gave the
error message of you know like 0005 or
whatever
anyway I think all i have to do is take
a pair of needle nose pliers and just
pull up on that connector a little bit
so it's making contact and perhaps since
i'm learning in here i can go ahead and
pull the heart of us which is down here
going the whole way down there
you know maybe put some
some hot melt glue or some on the
backside of these so that doesn't happen
again
anyway um short answer if you're having
this problem is to take a pair of needle
nose pliers and grab the Piron that is
down and then pull up on and i think
that would solve most any problem
now if you feel more ambitious you can
open yours up now I didn't film how I
did them but there's other videos about
that but you you can pull it apart like
I've got it and then go ahead and put
hot mall on the other side and I'll go
ahead and do that to my now and then
since i have this open and stuff it's
pretty interesting
I thought I'd go ahead and do a little
tour of all these little parts and
what's inside this thing that makes it
tick
I've got some extra parts over here that
i took off the top
- and we'll just go over briefly and
we'll also take a look at this
on-board computer this is actually a
computer that's running a version of
linux that controls you know the
navigation of the same and it has lots
of sensors and stuff and motors and that
sort of thing
so let's get into it a little deeper ok
so now that I have all my pens level
i'm going to go ahead and take some hot
glue and just put it on the back side of
that connector so that it doesn't pull
out again hold on
I hate to do this but i don't really
want to change that connect girl
now of course if you don't take care of
the part you're not going to be able to
do this but if you feel the need you
know you can certainly take years apart
just like I did
so let that dry up and i'm also going to
do the other side too
that should fix it
so for those of you that are watching
this video because you want to fix your
vacuum you can go ahead and skip to near
the end of the video and see if my fix
worked i find this vacuum so fascinating
it has so many switches and motors on
and even a computer that I thought I'd
go through some of the pieces and show
you what they all do
so if you're not interested in that just
skip to the end of the video
anyway let's go over some of these
sensors that are on here and now I think
you'll get a better appreciation for
this vacuum so on the front side here we
have some micro switches
there's one here one here and there's
two on the sides and those are for
bumpers and it's not on the area no but
there's a bumper that sits on here
so if it taps an object to the wall from
either the front of the side
it lets the computer know that not to do
that again and you let me grab the cover
real quick right here
there's a sensor it's an infrared sensor
and it shines out the side right here so
it's shining out this side and there's
an infrared light and a receiver and it
measures how close it is to the wall
you can see there's the wire for that
all this stuff comes back and plugs into
this computer
if we flip it upside down here there's a
window here and a window here and these
are also infrared sensors and these are
called drop sensors and if it's going to
fall like if it comes too close to his a
stairwell or something like that it will
stop it from falling
so these are also infrared right here in
the front
this is a a been sensor and the vacuum
has a they pick up in like this and all
your dirt and dust goes in there
there's a filter on the back and if this
isn't present this sensor will let you
know that you need to replace this
before you can use the vacuum and
there's also a sensor that lets you know
when this is full and that must work off
pressure
I haven't actually found the sensor for
that but I know what exists for sure
now on the back of this this is a laser
guidance beacon and this actually spoons
and you can see there's two holes here
and one of them is the receiver and one
of them's the actual beacon and if
you've ever used one of those electronic
levelers were makes like a line on the
wall
that's what this does but it makes like
a graph and it
it's able to measure the room basically
and figure out works out
it maps and navigates in so it makes up
a picture of your room in the memory and
that way if this thing is to go back to
a particular place it
it has the map of that room
in the memory quite fascinating really
also has a sensor
I don't know if it would call it a
sensor but on the back there's two
prongs and these are the problems that
back into the docking station to charge
you can also charge from the charging
port that's here you can see that but it
also will bump into this and you know
there's a ground in a positive lead here
there's a big resistor here I'm not sure
why they have that there may be so it
put a load on the power supply . not
really sure
also on these wheels these wheels fit in
these slots right here
there's also two microswitches down here
and so if this wheel is up off the floor
it detects that and it knows if it's you
know off its wheels
if somebody picked it up or it's going
over an object and gotten stuck it knows
it because each one of these wheels has
a sensor this one here and one here so
you can see there's a ton of sensors on
this thing
let's go ahead and talk about the motors
this first one right here is for the
beater bar
let me grab that and this is the bar
there rotates and you know flicks the
dirt up into the vacuum and this works
on a hard floor as well as rugs and I
noticed that there's also a sensor on
yet and it looks to be magnetic so it's
probably measuring the RPMs of the motor
if it gets stuck you know let's say this
picks up some some hair so I'm gonna get
stuck
this will sense that the motor stopped
and of course another motor that's on
years for this
Lane's laser guidance system and you can
see it's a belt driven by a motor that
sits here and this is designed to run at
lower rpms and we're going to try to get
this going
you know using infrared camera and
hopefully we'll be able to see the
pattern
this projects on the law and it's always
moving like this but we'll see if we can
see that later in the video that will be
exciting
also I took it out but here is the
actual suction motor and that also has
two sensor wires on a probably for rpm
it's probably like a computer from you
know a big computer fan
except the blades are shaped more for
vacuuming and if we flip this over you
can see where this fits in this poll
here just like that and that's what
creates the suction to go this way and
it actually goes to the filter that
would sit here and of course i showed
you the battery compartments are ready
and again they also have a sensor here
you could probably see on this one where
that strip is in there
just under the plastic and that's
probably a thermistor on guessing that
measures the temperature and if that's
not present you know this thing where
that's what it was doing anyway
all these sensors have to be controlled
and monitored
how do they do it all done right back
here this is the main board and I'm
gonna have to actually take this sensor
off so you can see underneath there and
we'll talk about the main board a little
bit
what it knows and how all this works let
me get my screwdriver
well there it is here's the board that's
responsible for running this entire
vacuum if we look over here this is
where the power comes in all these
discrete components and voltage
regulators then you know o'clock sit and
over here is our processor and that is
an eighty ninety one processor
it's a 212 pin package and that is the
brain of this machine
now this is running linux according to
their website and it runs at a hundred
60 megahertz and it has onboard 220 mega
Flash RAM and there's another two are 56
that's under this board a flash chip
that he can't see and it also has a USB
interface and this processor is actually
capable of running up to 96 devices
there's actually 96
I opens on which is pretty huge but it
needs to be
for all these sensors
now like I said the OS it's running on
this is Android but there's also
platforms with us can run actually
windows and android too but they chose
the linux and like I said there's an
additional tour 56 mega RAM underneath
this board
I'm not going to pull the board out but
it's saved under here somewhere over
here it looks like the motor controllers
in these two packages here
one for the beater bar and the other for
the suction fan
I would imagine i'm guessing you never
really i really like how they the bundle
of all these wires it looks quite neat
this was actually made in the USA - so I
think they did a really good job other
than these connectors I think they've
got a newer version of this now and
hopefully they've got better connectors
on there it just come out I think it'll
be fine after you know
yeah after I glued those and it could be
fine
anyway let me go ahead and put this all
back together and I want to concentrate
on this infrared sensor
I want to see if i can get this to
actually shine on the wall and I've got
a modified camera that will hopefully
pick that up
we'll be able to see that beacon as well
as the side and drop sensors hopefully
let me go ahead and but this back up and
we'll see if it's working correctly
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ok I know you can't see it but it's
saying it's battery is low and to charge
it
so that's what I'm going to do and we're
going to test out this infrared but it's
not giving a battery air it's just
saying it's low which makes sense so
i'll charge it and be back as a
follow-up to my LCD repair and i'll put
a link in the description where I fix
the LCD monitor the purpose for that
monitor was to put it on my light bar up
here you can see the image from my nikon
camera right up there
so what I'm doing videos back here you
know I can just look great up there and
see the monitor makes it nice i'll show
you the back in how I'm honored that
well this is the back this is the back
side of the monitor and I made a
homemade bracket here
this is a piece of metal out of a
computer
I think it was to hold the hard drive
and then I just took some of this
threaded rod and I made a bracket out of
some metal on some screws and it goes
right up there
that way I can turn this monitor this
way and i can also pivot it
I used an old hinge here and I did
something new on this side too
so you can see on my side your i have a
wireless microphone transmitter and I've
got a he level there might be a clip to
my shirt
let me show you where the receiver is so
right up there on the light bar you can
see there's the receiver in the antenna
for the wireless microphone receiver and
irie on the wires down and i'll show you
how i plug my camera
I still have to do a little work with
the managing all these wires but I've
got two wires coming down and they go
right into the camera and one of them is
for the audio and one is for the monitor
so this works out really good everything
self-contained and there's no wires to
trip over anything like that
if I step back you can see there's
plenty of room here and now the only
thing that's connected to this this
tripod on Wheels is this wire and as
soon as I get this side of the room down
with the green screen
you know i can then just move this
around and not worry about tripping over
lights or wires
well that's what I'm up to ok let's get
back to that vacuum cleaner
so here's what I have rigged up to see
the infrared
this is a security camera that i bought
it harbor afraid that i never used and
they're capable of seeing infrared and
I've got it wired up to this
RCA monitor can you can
probably see my hand yeah and then I've
got my camera pointed at the screen
yeah I know it's kind of a ghetto way of
doing but to get to work and then I got
Rosie over here right to go soon as
she's charged up i'll turn the lights
off and we'll see if we can see that
laser
so let's go ahead and turn this on and
see what happens
we'll just do a quick spot clean here
yeah
yeah
yeah
I can see that the lights are at the
bottom shining on the floor
and I can just the inside that turret is
blinking
this infrared system that i have for
pickup isn't very great
I was hoping for better i would actually
have to modify a camera to be able to
see
deal
light coming on that turret
if you've ever used a line level or
laser line level or with the lines on
the wall
that's what this is actually tradition
this is not really short off but you can
see the drop sensors on the bottom and
you can also see on the right side there
that there's a wall answer
there's those are showing up Sean . nice
one
look up at the turn I think you can see
it's like they're a little bit
there is a big shot of the wall centre
but anyway
this is my he will attempt to
show the infrared sensors
this point
again anyway that's how work
ok i decided to go ahead and modify this
camera so that we could probably see the
infrared laser sensor better on the back
and cleaner
so I'm going to put this video as a
supplement a second video to the the
needle vacuum cleaner for anybody wants
to learn how to modify their camera and
hopefully when we're done we'll be able
to see the laser sensors better for this
modification
so anyway I think it's modified enough
to go ahead and do the job now this is a
very cheap camera
so I'm gonna have to just do my best and
try to catch the infrared laser on the
vacuum cleaner
so let's go ahead and get going on him
okay here we go
well i hope you enjoyed this video on
the neato robotic vacuum cleaner
this truly is an amazing little machine
with a lot of sensors and even a
computer on board so please give us a
thumbs up if you liked this video leave
us a comment below if you'd like to see
more of this kind of video and thanks
for watching we'll see you next time bye
for now
and