Came home to my Litter-Robot in the upside down position and the yellow flashing (2 flashes per second) and I cannot get the globe to turn at all to try to reset itself. There is power to the unit because the yellow light is flashing but regardless of which buttons I press or turn power on/off no movement of the unit can be made.
I have cleaned and emptied the unit and even reset the spring in the key. The unit is only 18 months old. Can anyone help out there PLEASE?
Hi,
If the yellow light is blinking twice per second:
The Anti-Pinch safety feature is two pin connected to the motherboard that must touched each other continuously.
If they are separated, you will have an alarm(yellow blinking light). The Anti-Pinch safety is located in the top back left of the Litter-Robot base. You will need to unplug the unit, remove the bonnet, the globe and the drawer.
It is ‘‘Two Metal’’ pin. With a flashlight, you should be able to see if they are touching each other or not. If they are not touching each other, try to reposition it with a flat screw driver by pushing them upwards.
Thanks for the reply. I have ensured the 2 connectors are indeed touching and if I could post images on here I could show you. When I switch the Robot off/on the blue light flashes (but the litter is not full) then if I then press the RESET button (or any other button) the yellow light (2 flashes per second) stay on. I cannot get the system to come off the yellow light fault.
Please can someone help!
The blue light blinking is related to the DFI sensors.
Since these sensors are wired to the anti-pinch sensor, it can gives the yellow error code too.
The DFI sensors are covered by two plastic lenses on each side of the top of the drawer.
You may first clean them, it can happens they get covered with debris or litter.
Else, I suggest that you replace the DFI sensors.
Thank you for replying and your help so far Pyutras
Are these sensors actually connected to the drawer? What do they do, what are they for? I need to be 100 % sure that it is these sensors before I start ordering parts.
During all the time I have cleaned and reassembled the Litter-Robot I have not seen the motor turn once and I wonder if the fault is motor related. As I say when I power on the blue light flashes but as soon as I press the RESET button the unit reverts to the fast flashing yellow lights.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Kindest Regards
Martin
The DFI sensors are two lenses facing each other on each side of the drawer.
Each time something is dropped into the waste drawer, it will trigger the sensor and let the robot know there is something in the waste.
If you cannot reset the sensors with the ‘‘Reset’’ button, the DFI sensors will probably need to be replaced.
Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD3dsJsVVsc
Replacement part: https://www.robotshop.com/en/litter-robot-iii-open-air-dfi-hardware.html
I hope this will help you.
Thank you very much for your time and efforts in helping me. Its greatly appreciatted.
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Do not hesitate to use this thread if you have any other questions regarding the Litter-Robot.
This topic will be left open in case someone else run into this kind of problem with the product.
Hi, I’m having this same problem, and I saw a similar message thread at:
What was the result of that trouble ticket anyway?
I really don’t want to replace my DFI sensors, because I already replaced them 13 months ago. Do these DFI sensors need to be constantly replaced or something?
What else could my problem be? And if it is the sensors, can I please have a new free set under warranty?
If you have an issue with the yellow blinking light, it isn’t due to the DFI. It’s either the motor, the anti-pinch or the bonnet connections, depending on the flashing speed.
If the yellow light is blinking twice per second:
The Anti-Pinch safety feature is two pin connected to the motherboard that must touched each other continuously.
If they are separated, you will have an alarm(yellow blinking light). The Anti-Pinch safety is located in the top back left of the Litter-Robot base. You will need to unplug the unit, remove the bonnet, the globe and the drawer.
It is ‘‘Two Metal’’ pin. With a flashlight, you should be able to see if they are touching each other or not. If they are not touching each other, try to reposition it with a flat screw driver by pushing them upwards.
Hi, thank you for the response. Many other things I read talked about the anti-pinch feature, and I did have a problem with that around a year ago which was resolved by removing them and cleaning them up and replacing them. But it doesn’t seem to be working any more. I even tried taking them out, and then just connecting the two lead wires together to see if this was the problem, but I still had the light flashing. The light is only flashing once per second however.
I’ve tried cleaning the bonnet connections thoroughly, but it’s still flashing 1/second, and the nightlight isn’t coming on, so it sounds like the bonnet circuit board may be the culprit this time.
(Didn’t notice I can’t reply to your email until now; this email was written last night. A follow-up email will follow)
Hi, thanks for the response. I found the problem; in one of my prior debugging efforts with the pinch sensor, I had opened up the motor/circuit board panel, and apparently one of the connectors had popped off when I reassembled it. I was checking the bonnet connection and couldn’t find a problem, but then checking it with a voltmeter showed no apparent connection at all (it should show 4.5V normally, to feed the LEDs in the bonnet), and checking the wire harness connection to the bonnet connectors showed no trouble, so I opened up the main circuit board panel again and found the connector wasn’t on. Replacing this solved the problem, and now it all works fine.
To answer your question, though, no, I bought this unit used on Craigslist, but I did buy the DFI sensor replacement kit from your company a little over a year ago, as the original DFI sensors had failed somehow. The new ones seem to be working fine now.
Thanks again,
Dan
(this is the email I tried sending this morning)
Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. Reconnecting that harness connector fixed the slow-flashing yellow light, and the box worked OK overnight, but now this morning it’s back to its original behavior, which is the fast-flashing yellow light indicating the pinch sensor is bad. But it isn’t: I disconnected the pinch sensor terminals, and then connected them together with one of the pinch sensor pieces, so they’re always electrically connected no matter what. Yet the problem remains: it insists the pinch sensor is being tripped. What’s the problem now? Is the DFI sensor assembly bad again? Remember, this is the replacement DFI sensor kit I bought from you not very long ago.
Honestly, I’m really disappointed in the reliability of this product: I’ve had to replace the DFI sensors once, the cat sensor once, I’ve had to clean up the pinch sensor contacts once (last year), and now the pinch sensor circuit seems to be completely failed. I’m an engineer, and I shouldn’t have to be doing all this to keep this going; anyone else would have thrown it in the trash.
Thanks,
Dan
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Hi, have been having this issue too. The unit overshoots the hole, stops and the yellow light flashes very fast continuously. This is intermittently. It may work find for several ‘empties’ and then lock up.
Have followed all the advice within the forums here: reseating bonnet, cleaning pinchers, etc…
Have had the unit 3 years so well out of warranty. Please advice the next trouble shooting steps and then how to repair/replace parts if not?
Thank you.
Stuart.
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Hi @StuNew,
Please have a look at this troubleshooting: The three lights on the control panel are blinking
Generally, the root cause for this issue can be:
- wrong power supply
- magnets in the globe
- hall-effect sensor in the base
2 Likes
Hi,
Am not getting three lights blinking. But followed the troubleshoot and checked pins.
When I put the unit back together and switch on. It’s fine. However after several cycles, again, the unit gets stuck (upside down/open) when emptying (the hole overshoots) and the yellow light flashes quickly.
Hi,
I spent all day trying to capture the unit cycling into the fault. But everytime I filmed it worked fine. However when I left it, I would come back after a couple of hours and find it like the video enclosed. Please note ‘hole overshoot’ inside. When I try to film it, it’s without a cat having been in it since reset, but when it faults, it would have been after a cat was in it - in case that is a clue.
Thanks.
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Hi @StuNew,
This looks like a problem with Hall-effect sensor which is responsible for globe position detection. If the position not detected properly, globe will rotate too much and activate anti-pinch safety (yellow light blinking quickly).
You can buy new sensor here: https://www.robotshop.com/en/litter-robot-3-open-air-wiring-harness.html
You can use this instruction to help you replace it: https://community.robotshop.com/blog/show/litter-robot-iii-the-hall-effect-sensor
Feel free to ask anything else.