We purchased the Neato XV 21 about a year ago and began to have issues with it about 2 months ago. The unit would not turn on after it returned to its base to charge and would sometimes die on the way back to the base or during cleaning. When the Neato would “die” it would be completely unresponsive with nothing displaying on the LCD and the green LED light only partially illuminated. We would not even be able to power it on and off with the main power button. The only way we would be able to get the unit to turn on again would be to remove the batteries and leave them out for a few minutes before plugging them back in. About a week ago we were unable to get the Neato to turn back on no matter what we tried.
I figured the issue was a battery issue and so I ordered replacement batteries from RobotShop and received them this afternoon. I have replaced the old batteries with the new ones and I am still unable to get the Neato to turn back on. I have re-tried the old batteries and still no luck.
Sorry to hear that you are having issues with your Neato. In this case, it appears that your robots LCD is defective and your robot will either need to be replaced or repaired.
If your robot was purchased with us, we suggest that you contact us via our support center. A technician will glady help with an exchange or repair of your Neato.
I have exactly the same problem with MiMo.
I’m an electronics engineer. It doesn’t look like an LCD problem. Normally unplugging one of the batteries and putting it back in a few seconds could wake up the XV-21. Both of the battery voltages are well above the rated 7.2V. Moreover, the problem persists after replacing another pair of battery packs.
Firmware was upgraded to the latest version and there’s no difference.
I’m wondering if the ARM CPU needs a hardware reset button. It’s not convenient to disconnect the batteries frequently.
Well, I hope that other XV-21 users could share their experience.
I have the exact same issue. Tried new batteries as well to no avail. I have an email in to support. Hoping for the best.
Hint: the rising time of the DC power supply voltage has a vital role.
I connected the XV-21 to a bench regulated power supply via a switch, let’s call it the “DC switch”. If I turned on the DC power supply first, then close the DC switch, the XV-21 will not wake up properly. It looks like it returns to sleep in the middle of the wake up process. Then, I turned off the DC power supply mains (AC switch) and closed the DC switch. This time, I powered up the XV-21 using the mains switch of the power supply. The XV-21 will wake up properly.
The above experiment has been performed dozens of times and the result is absolutely consistent.
Does anyone have the DC supply voltage watchdog and power-on reset circuits around that ARM CPU ? I’d like to probe the signals but am too busy lately.
Hi ykc,
We can confirm the problem you are experiencing is not related to the LCD but the motherboard. Unfortunately, we do not have the schematics for these circuits available.
We encourage you to continue in your research and please let us know of the results. It could help the community greatly to know a solution about this motherboard problem.
I have the exact same problem as the original post. Dim green light no response till battery reset but now nothing but the dim green light. Help!
Hi,
We suggest you to try the following:
1- Disconnect the batteries
2- Hold the “START” button for at least 30 seconds
3- Rotate the batteries and plug them in
4- Put your robot on the charging station
If the robot doesn’t turn on after few minutes, try the following:
1- Install the Neato App on your computer ; neatorobotics.com/support/so … /step-one/
2- Once installed, connect your robot to your PC with a USB Cable
3- Your computer should detect your robot and it should turn itself on
4- If not, hold the “START” button for more than 30 seconds.
Hi I am a Electronic technical engineer, My wife’s Aunt has a Neato XV-21 that was having the same problem. I took it home to evaluate and after some trouble shooting I found that the 100uF 25V electrolitic capacitors that facilitate the CPU Startup are braking down .
I ordered 100uF 35V capasitor from DigiKey Part# UVY1V101MED1TD, and replace all 7 100uF 25V capacitors on the main board. now the Neato work as if is was new.
Also after all the Plugging and Unplugging, of the batteries, the unit started to report a battery issue. 0009 or 0008, 0007, or a 0002.
this is a simple fix. The Female battery terminals in the Battery Connector, have gotten spread out, and are not makeing connection or good connect to the Male pins, ln the battery connector in the unit. I used a Pin extractor to re-shape the Female pins. this resolved the Battery Issue 000# that was casuing the unit to stop working.
Now the Neato XV21 runs like new, and have not had any issue sense. Good Luck
Hi I am a Electronic technical engineer, My wife’s Aunt has a Neato XV-21 that was having the same problem. I took it home to evaluate and after some trouble shooting I found that the 100uF 25V electrolitic capacitors that facilitate the CPU Startup are braking down .
I ordered 100uF 35V capasitor from DigiKey Part# UVY1V101MED1TD, and replace all 7 100uF 25V capacitors on the main board. now the Neato work as if is was new.
Also after all the Plugging and Unplugging, of the batteries, the unit started to report a battery issue. 0009 or 0008, 0007, or a 0002.
this is a simple fix. The Female battery terminals in the Battery Connector, have gotten spread out, and are not makeing connection or good connect to the Male pins, ln the battery connector in the unit. I used a Pin extractor to re-shape the Female pins. this resolved the Battery Issue 000# that was casuing the unit to stop working.
Now the Neato XV21 runs like new, and have not had any issue sense. Good Luck
Hi,
Thank you for your confirmation on this problem stamserv.
It seems the “dim green led” problem can be fixed by replacing the C10 capacitor.
You can certainly replace every capacitors, to prevent the problem to happen all over the motherboard.
Thank you MThidault. I replace all because I was not for sure which capacitor is was I thought is was ether C10 ro C11 but could not be sure with out a scematic.
I also was seeing some issue with with the Vision of the unit, so it appears that that was resolved as will.
I am also experiencing the same problem with NEATO XV-21 turning on. I have been reading about how capacitor replacement cleans the problem up. I am wondering what is causing the caps to fry? Maybe it’s power surges related to a poorly designed powers supply or perhaps static buildup while cleaning rugs could be blowing them. A surge protector to plug the docking station into during charging might help the first case. If it’s static electricity discharge then the grounding plan is faulty. It would be pretty hard to repair the grounding scheme without schematics.
Is there any way to get a copy of the schematics?
My other problem is crazy. I bought a refurb. They applied sticky labels and when removed they defaced the paper serial number label. (This was not the Robot Shop) Now I can’t even register it and of course it’s out of waranty. Storing the serial number for display would be a good design improvement.
I have taken the advice from stamserv re: changing the capacitors on the mother board. I have replaced all 7 with 100microF 50V – unit is running great with no issues so far.
Note: replacing the capacitors is NOT a very relaxing task. It is daunting to see your little buddy in such disarray !!
A big thank you stamserv for coming up with something to try and remedy this ongoing issue. I have 2 Neato XV-21 for 3 years --> absolutely love them. Customer service is terrible ( sure wish they read these forums ).
I bought and tried a I Roomba 630 — within the first clean cycle, I felt so disappointed as it doesn’t even come close to the refinement and advanced technology.
- returning it to buy yet another Neato.
Hi,
I had the same exact problem and I replaced all 7 capacitors as mentined above.
the problem seem to be solved.
Now I have a new problem:
Neato keep complains about low batteries.
Before replacing capacitors I suspected the batteris and measured them with DVM - the voltage was 7.2.
Now the DVM shows voltage of 8.13V - can it be related to capacitors change?
I also upgraded SW version from 3.2 to 3.4 (as part of the attempts to solve the first problem)
Thanks a lot for the help!
Hi, have you replaced the capacitors with capacitors of the same voltage in uF and Volts?
Also, full charged batteries should indicate ~14.5V on the DVM. If your full charged batteries indicate 8.13V, then you’ll certainly need to replace the batteries.
I bet he’s saying 8.13V on a single battery pack. That’ll be ~16V total. Neato won’t turn ON at all at ~8V.
The CPU detects battery voltage via a potential divider consisting of R62 (62 Kilo Ohm) and R60 (4.99Kilo Ohm). C58 performs noise filtering. The signal goes to U8-15. It should be around 1.0~1.2V.
I’m wondering if replacing C10 alone could solve the problem. A voltage regulator near C10 is hot. At higher temperatures, C10 will deteriorate faster. I suspect that C10 will short circuit, causing more heat from the voltage regulator. When replacing C10, I think I will leave at least one inch of component lead to dissipate some heat.
Well, just my two cents.
By the way, I have another XV-11 that worked for a few years and is having a similar problem. However, those capacitors are SMD (without component leads). They were soldered onto very large copper areas. My 60W soldering iron can’t give a dent !
I’m going to let it RIP and buy a new one.
A Neato enthusiast at vic7767.com/my-neato-is-dead/ recommends upgrading the diode to 220 uF 35 vdc, fwiw.
epenak, I guess you mean capacitor when you wrote “diode”.
U4 is a TL760M33-Q1 3.3V voltage regulator. It’s hot. If C10 is leaking current, it will generate heat too. A thermal imager could be handy in this analysis.
ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tl760m33-q1.pdf
The voltage regulator has specific requirements on capacitance vs ESR (effective series resistance). ESR values are not supplied for general purpose capacitors. Well, I guess if the new capacitor works, it works. It’s not justified to research for a specific component with full specifications.
Ah, we may have to avoid using Tantalum capacitors because of their low ESR characteristics.