Hi - We have a model 500 - the red “Clean” button lights up after startup - and immediately shuts the machine off. The bin has been thoroughly cleaned – I have taken the battery out and checked it for charge - it’s OK. After charging the Green button lights up indicating that it’s ready to go. As soon as it starts - the above noted problem occurs – What’s the problem??
I have taken the battery out and checked the charge with a meter (tester) – it says it is fully charged.
Re: the time it takes the red “clean” button to flash after turning the machine on - it’s a second or two – very fast.
I have done the reset – and a 72 hour charge with the charger plugged directly into the vacuum (as per the video). The voltage meter says the charge is maintained after a number of days - it reads over 14.8 volts.
I am wondering if the sensor in the vacuum bin needs further attention??
Good day global,
Welcome to the RobotShop Forum.
It sounds like you’re having a charging issue. The power light usually flashes red with a four-tone song (if only I could sing these beep error codes for you!) when the battery is dead. If the battery is dead, it’s either that the battery is not holding its charge, or the robot is not able to charge the battery.
How many times have you charged the robot and then tried to run it, only to get the power light flashing red with the dead battery song? Usually if the robot cannot charge the battery, it will only do that dead-battery song so many times before the battery’s very low level of charge will no longer be enough to even turn on the red light behind the power button and power the speaker to beep four times. However, if the robot, after each time you try to charge it, continues to die soon or right away, it likely is a defective battery. And here’s where we need to confirm something - when you say the robot immediately shuts down, how much time are we talking about? seconds? minutes?
Also try charging it to the charger directly, and not to the home base, to see if that makes a difference.
If we can get enough info to possibly point to a defective battery, you may want to consider just buying a new one and seeing if that works. The 500 series batteries are found here. Or the other option is we can inspect your robot/battery/charger/home base for possible repairs.
Of course, if your robot is still under warranty, please first contact either the distributor where you purchased the robot, or iRobot directly, for warranty replacement.
Lastly, just to be thorough, have you tried the battery reset procedure? Often times this can help with batteries that are not running as long as they used to.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Hi global,
The batteries do say they are 14.4V batteries, but when they charge they usually charge up to 16V approximately. Often times when a battery is defective it may test at around 14V but when it is run the voltage drops off and the robot ‘dies’ because the battery is too low.
We’re not sure which sensor in the dustbin you’re referring too; neither the dustbin nor it’s vacuum motor have much effect on the battery being defective or not. Could you be more specific?
It sounds like it could be your battery as it seems the battery is getting it’s proper charge per your tester, but the battery dies right away. At this point we’d recommend getting a new battery, but if you’re still thinking there is something wrong with the robot, we can always inspect it with the battery and charger/home base, and get right back to you with the results.
Thanks,