We had one of these Neato robots for a few months and it was acting up but was out of the 90 day warranty. They did replace it as a “one time exception” with a unit that has no warranty. The new unit ran great for 1 or 2 days and then started saying “My left wheel is stuck”. It could be restarted and run a few minutes and give the same error. After restarting 10 times or so, now it just kinda runs in a circle. Called and Neato says it is my problem (failed in 2 days and it’s my problem… Geeezzz). Anyway, I didn’t see anything in the wheel so took both wheels off, finding nothing wrapped around either. Turning the wheels by hand, both feel like they need the same torque to rotate (neither obviously stuck). Pulled bottom off and removed the left wheel, connected black and red wire to 9v battery and it runs smoothly. Is the encoder (I assume it is encoded) bad? How can I test it? No obvious dirt behind the wheel that I think is the encoder. but may take off and look again.
Usually, the warranty on the Neato robots is 1 year, covered by the manufacturer.
To verify if the problem is the motor, we would suggest you to swap both wheel motors. If the problem repeat itself for the same motor, then we suggest you to replace it. You can find a wheel motor on our website : robotshop.com/en/neato-wheel-motor.html
Swapped wheel motors and still get the “Left wheel stuck” error. Will reinstalling software fix this or is it a board problem that is driving the left wheel motor?
It can be caused by the motor controller on the board or maybe the software. We would suggest you to try and update the robot. If it is still not working, then unfortunately you would need a new board.
I updated the software but did not help. Is there a way to troubleshoot the board (any USB remote software I can run to test motors, encoders, etc.). Are there any known issues with this board (cold solder joints, bad connector, etc.)? What is the part number and cost of a new board?
I finally got the control software to work (was not recognizing the robot for some reason) and when I tell it to go forward (press up arrow) or backward, the left wheel turns about 1/2 the speed of the right. I have an XV21 (this is an XV14) and when I hit the uparrow, both wheels turn the same speed which appears to be the slow speed of the left wheel of the XV21 (in other words, the right wheel of X14 turns about 2x as fast as the left wheel and 2x the speed of both wheels on the XV21).
Does this sound like main board or software?
I did install the latest software and tried to reinstall it but could not figure out how (the website just says it is up to date if I say it has the new version). Is it safe to tell it I have the old version and see if it will reload?
