I require your help regarding a problem I’m encountering.
I cleaned the roller and replaced the batteries with genuine Neato batteries and now all he does is spot cleaning.
Neato XV21 vacuum robot
I have had help from Neato who walked me through the hard reset and that didn’t solve the problem. They have now suggested I sent it in for repair. This will cost too much but I don’t want to trash something that logically can be fixed easily, if I only knew where to look and then what to do.
In order to close their ticket, they asked if there was anything else they could help with, Ha ha. I told them I would like to have had a technician walk me through what they would do if I sent it in for repair. They said they couldn’t do that.
I bought this in the US in 2014 and brought it back to New Zealand. It has worked well since then and until the roller needed cleaning.
I’m wondering if there is a way to enter the programming via the plug on the side and fix it that way.
Could there be something that didn’t quite get re-assembled when I did the roller maintenance? I can’t think of anything becaise everything went back smoothly.
@tonydb Welcome to the RobotShop Community. Any success since you first posted? If the unit is over 6 years old, it sounds like you did the right thing and replaced the battery, but there is still a slim chance that battery isn’t at full capacity: try several charge / discharge cycles and use a multimeter (if you can find one) to verify the battery’s voltage (each cell if needed).
Can you check the basic functionality of the robot - that it knows how to avoid obstacles etc.? It’s rare that the software is causing an issue (unless there’s a weird user configuration), so it’s likely to be either that the battery is too low (hence a short operating time), or a sensor is tripped.
I have put it on the shelf until my xmas break, which starts today. I plan to dismantle it and look for a tripped sensor, as you have suggested.
Thanks for asking.
I have it open now and everything looks in smooth working order (ie all sensors click on and off smoothly, lenses clean and firm, wheels turning smoothly, no obviously broken wires or connections). I don’t know what else to do before putting it back together.
What is the small plug on the side for? It looks like a small USB but isn’t. It’s covered by a rubber pad with a slot in it, at right angles to the plug).
The batteries have been in the machine since my first post and the machine has been at the charger since then until 3 weeks ago.
Both batteries have 7.57V, when disconnected from the machine.
I think they’re fine.
What say you?
The machine says the battery is low, please charge.
I put it on the charger and after about 10 mins the light turns green.
Now I’m suspicious of the battery manager.
I’ve put the old batteries back in and the same thing happened.
I pressed the orange button twice and he set off saying he was cleaning house but actually cleaned a circle of about 1m diameter.
When I check the menu I see Spot Clean as an option, but no “Clean House”, so I assume default is Clean House and if you want to spot clean you select it from the menu.
I have tried the following:
Select Spot Clean: he cleans a circle
Select orange button twice: He cleans a circle.
I think he’s lost the clean house program and needs to have software reinstalled.
I think it can be done through the USB-like plug on the side.
Anyone: Is the plug for connecting to a computer and used for working on the software?
I’ve opened the machine and checked everything again and nothing seems to be out of place, stuck, broken so I’m now pointing my finger at its programming.
The machine is useless as it is, so I’m going to have a play with it and see how far I go. I might even get it working again.
Neato website doesn’t talk about such old machines so I’m hoping for someone on this forum knows something about programming directly into a device.
There is a USB 5 pin plug on the side and I’ve plugged it into my computer which sees this as COM6.
The Neato Connected series need an emulator.
I’ve got Telnet set to “on” and this is where I need help.
Set the clock and schedule a cleaning (day / time) which is just a few minutes ahead and see what it does. If it’s able to move around using both wheels in both directions and doesn’t seem to have any sensors blocked / dirty, then there’s a chance that it might be the battery. We’ll see after the results of your test above.
The connector next to the power port / barrel connector should be a USB mini b type connector which allows for firmware updates.
I set the time and then the schedule as suggested and nothing happened. The machine did nothing.
I’ve “Turned Off” and “Turned On” again, set the time slightly ahead again and am waiting.
This time I watched it reach the schedule time. The screen flashed Cleaning house, there was the sound of a motor starting and then shut off immediately, going back to screen saying Neato robotics and the current time.
The machine is on the charger with full battery.
So it’s more of a personality issue with your machine? It feels it’s contributed enough to cleaning your house and wants to do something else like play video games?
In all seriousness though, no clue. Neato customer care? There’s a live chat and a telephone number too. I can only think battery. Write back here with Neato’s diagnosis… very curious.
I spent a lot of time with Customer Care and they were stumped too.
They suggested I send it in for repair.
I’m in New Zealand and they suggested I send it to their Australian operation.
I baulked at that, feeling that this would cost more than the machine is worth.
I’m keen to try and fix it myself or put it in a cupboard and forget about it until I find a use for the parts, or something like that.
I’ve now installed my second set of new batteries and he’s charging them now.
I’m thinking that the battery manager is not seeing a full charge because it keeps saying “My battery is low please charge me”, even just after a charge.
Let’s see what happens with this new set.
Tried it just now as the battery was full.
Now it won’t do Spot Clean either.
When I push select it does a micro second (I hear the motor “twitch”) and reverts to menu.
Switched off, left for 30 mins and switched on again.
He says his battery is low, please charge.
Charger shows 23.5V without the machine attached.
When attached it drops to 17.7V.
Seems OK.
It’s puzzling why the battery is “going low” so quickly. If there was a short I’d expect smoke, a blown fuse or something, but not nothing.
If Neato is puzzled… This is certainly not one of the “common” errors. Very unfortunate that it’s not telling you why it’s stopping, but that likely means it does not know. If the battery is brand new, you’ll likely need several complete charging and discharging cycles.
Hi there,
I had similar problems.
I did a soft reset (hold the start button for about 30 seconds) the robot will shut down and restart several times.
I did a Hard reset (take the dust bin out and pull the switch to off) keep the robot off for more than 5 minutes
I cleaned the side sensor (sensor at the right side when looking from behind the driving direction) so it was not a problem of not sensing obstacles.
Untill then nothing helped.
And then i cleaned the laser/sensor on the top of the robot (de rotating disk under a cap) with a soft cotton and some 70% alcohol.
This did the trick. The Neato would start real House cleaning mode after that.
I hope it helps all of you out there since Neato stopt giving the option to upgrade or realy reset the software we are on our own. (unless you send it in but thats a very expensive option.
That’s amazing!
I only got around to cleaning the laser/sensor last week and it now sets off cleaning house but there is still something not quite right with it.
It’s not logical to me how this has restored the program somehow (ie spot cleaning when he says cleaning house; and getting low battery straight after fully charging new batteries), but I’ll take it!
Watching him going about cleaning house, I see him being a bit confused in small spaces and not being able to maneuver efficiently. When he does come out he seems to go over his previous cleaning, and then for no obvious reason, stops and says clear my path.
I think the side sensor may also need a good clean as I didn’t clean it when I did the laser.
Is the side sensor a proximity sensor?
I’m encouraged by this progress, Thank you Wizard, and other who helped.
