Neato XV 21 Won't turn on

Help & Support Domestic Robots
41

[font=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I just performed a successful C10-ectomy on my XV-21 and we are back in business :slight_smile:[/font]
[font=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]It was about a 2 hour processā€¦ and yes I have 2 extra screws left over because I couldnā€™t remember where they wentā€¦ but there were a LOT of unnecessary screws in that pig to begin with so I think itā€™s ok.[/font]
[font=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]The patient is in recovery but I gave it a run late last night for about 2 mins and it seems to be working fine.[/font]

42

Hello,
I have two dead Neato XV-11s. Both are displaying signs that indicate it is a faulty C10 capacitor on the main board.

I opened up the first one, but the cap looks fine - not bloated or swollen. How do I know if it is bad?
Also, I only saw 6 caps on the board, not 7. Is one hidden under the Lidar?

43

Probably, the defective C10 does not have cosmetic problems.

It is not worth investigating. Iā€™d recommend replacing C10 and check the results.

44

Agreed with last poster. My c10 looked normal. I just replaced it and crossed fingers and works like new. Not a single problem since I did it 2 weeks ago.

45

I have a Neato XV Signature Pro. Can anyone confirm that replacing the capacitor fixes the blank LCD screen problem, i.e. backlit screen but no text visible.

46

As far as Iā€™ve seenā€¦ the main boards are all the same base design and C10 is always the culprit. I would just go for it.

1 Like
47

This worked like a charm for my dim green light, when i plugged it into a USB wall charger that I used for my phone. It went to 2 green lights instead of a dim one, i unplugged it. Then Held the power button till it went offā€¦ like for 30 sec or so. Then I just pushed the power button once it came back on.

48

[font=Arial Narrow][size=2]Hi
I had the same problem with the dim green lights and not turning on.
After reading a lot on the net about changing out the capacitors, I did just that today.
I was going to change all seven as recommended, but as suggested the solder seems to be of a high melt point and my soldering iron even though turned up to 450 deg c only just melted the solder after holding it there for 20 seconds or so.
In the end I did the C10 and one other.
After putting it back together it came back to life and charged as normal. But after I got a stable green charged light I turned it on. The fan started up as normal for approx. 5 -10 seconds then shut down with an error message, that the left wheel is stuck. After pressing the okay button the message changed to the right wheel is stuck.
Does any one have any suggestions. Is it directly related to the capacitors.

Regards

Mike Mason
[/size][/font]

49

Just created an account to thank you a bunch. My XV-21 is back from the dead!

50

Thanks to this thread I have been able to revive my XV25. Twice!

Dim green light issue, and at the end it was just impossible to restart, so I changed C10 for a similar one that I had lying around.
But after one year it started to show some random battery errors or just shut down in the middle of a cleaning. Shortly after it went into ā€œgreen light comaā€ again.

This time I changed all the electrolytic capacitors (7 in total, all of them 100uF), but since C10 failed again I replaced it with a 50V rated one (did not find any 35V rated at my usual supplier) and bumped up the value to 220uF (since it can be up to 1000uF according to someone who studied the datasheets). Maybe the first one I had was even crappier quality than the original, but I donā€™t want to remove and put back these 850 screws again!
Result: Neato started directly, so far no random battery error or ā€œempty batteryā€ after 3mins of operation. Another effect is that it does not make any ā€œelectronic whineā€ noise anymore. Before, I could clearly hear it as the Led was dimmed up/down. So some bad ripple is now gone from the circuitry.

Again, big thanks to those who found that the issue was caused by C10.

If you have the same issue with your Neato, donā€™t hesitate, the C10-ectomy

And may those who invented lead-free solder bump their little toe every day for the rest of their lives. It is a pain to work with!

51

Reporting results:

I had the same symptoms with a Neato XV Signature Pro. Dim green LED, sometimes the LCD would start but then crashed as soon as the motors started.
Solved by:

  • Replacing all seven capacitors with 100Ī¼F 35V replacements.
  • Replaced the parallel pair C130+C131, near back of robot with a single 220Ī¼F 35V capacitor. (See note)
  • Charged batteries via the dock. (thanks iva2k)

Notes:

  • Several capacitors were very difficult to desolder with my normal, household soldering iron. In a few cases I was unable to remove the old solder from the negative hole, and so connected the new lead to an unused hole also connected to ground. It also caused me to replace two parallel 100Ī¼F caps with a single 220Ī¼F.
  • During the diagnosis my batteries became severely discharged. Per @iva2k , the barrel connector wonā€™t charge the batteries if there isnā€™t enough juice for the system to start. I had to use the charging dock to get the system to turn on again.
1 Like
52

I hope that this discussion is still alive!
I tried for weeks to get mine working using the replacement power supply and applying 14v to the LCD wo success. I did change the one capacitor as detailed also.
Batteries fully charged and putting out 28 volts.
At first, I had a screen light up but no display, now I get nothing, no power up at all.
Any thoughts before I give up?
Replace all capacitors?