iRobot Scooba experience

[Jubooo]

Now the LED on the charger is no longer on (usually it is green once plugged in to AC). .........This charger has been modified by me to suite 230V and working fine............

Since you have the knowledge to do that, I suggest you open it up and check the capacitor again. I have every reason to believe that your capacitor is leaking.

 

[NRlover]

i can only foresee uno_bliss and juboo doing that. haha

There was a Korean company in CES2011 marketing their intelligent cleaning robot, iClebo, look very impressive and compact, they have the visionary mapping and mopping functions all in one, with time schedule and remote control, they are using lithium ion battery which is a much better battery compare to the rest. The function is same as Samsung Navibot but better design, solid and powerful. Heard from the person in charge that they had just appointed a Singapore distributor then, believe it will be marketed in Singapore soon. The company is just like iRobot in Korea, specialize in robotic product.
Looks like we would have more choices and hopefully it will kick the iRobot local distributor's ass soon.
I had checked in the internet, apparently, the Korean company had OEM their iClebo to Phillips and Phillip had rename it "Home Run".
For those looking to buy robotic vacuum cleaner, it might be worth to wait for a while to check out the iClebo.

 

[bakasa2002]

So far Bakasa & Kimsim have reported charging is 3 hrs, iRobot manual states 8 hrs, some US users reported 6-10 hrs.
Seems like a lot of discrepancy, which I can only imagine has to do with 240V vs 110V socket.
Anyway, NiMH battery can certainly tolerate fast charging so long as proper full charge cut-off is implemented.

U need to consider that for 230, besides battery run/charge time, the water capacity is also a bottle neck. U need to split living rm into portions of 150 sq ft using virtual walls.

Wah, this thread been flying since my last post. Pai say, need to clarify the charging time. I actually mean to be saying 9 hrs to charge, not 3. I guess, I must have just withdrew some $ from the ATM, that's why the inverted keypad. lolx!

 

[bakasa2002]

Hi kimsim,

Is the Scooba 230 able to cover a std 4-rm HDB living rm in 1 run?

Thanks!

To answer this again, I think wiseone bro is right, your best bet is 380, if you want to do it on one charge, there's no way a 230 will clean a 4rm flat at one go.

I am staying in a 85sq m 4 rm flat, one of the smallest ard, so I can confirm 230 can't and neither can 340! Hahaha ... Anyone wanna trade 380 for either of my bots?

 

[bakasa2002]

I was at the CES 2011 in Las Vegas last Jan, visited iRobot booth, the way they design the Scooba 230 is only for the small area in mind, as a matter of fact, they had done up the demo stage like a toilet with toilet bowl in display. the small tiny machine only can clean a small area in one go, not really suitable to clean the whole house in one go and it was quite "wet" after cleaning.

I totally agree, i think the 230 will be good for either of the following if you stay in a standard HDB size apt:

1) 2 x HDB sized toilet
2) HDB sized kitchen
3) 1 x HDB sized room

Over the past 2 weeks plus of using, I don't think it'll cover my entirely living room thoroughly in one go looking at it run. I still gonna depend on my 340 if I want a good scrubbing.

 

[bakasa2002]

i can only foresee uno_bliss and juboo doing that. haha

tekster bro, unfortunately the local AD has been around for quite a while and they looks likely to be the only AD unless they fold, so bro uno & juboo will remain our faithful PI for now.

 

[bakasa2002]

If u need me to look into ur Scooba 340 wetness problem, just email me unobliss@yahoo.com

I will upload a video of my wetness problem to see if I am just being paranoid or it is really having a problem. Thanks.

 

[thewiseone]

Must clarify... not all 340s are alike. The older batch of 340s from HSN are essentially 380s... model no is 6050! They are certainly confusing the public with their inconsistent naming conventions!

To answer this again, I think wiseone bro is right, your best bet is 380, if you want to do it on one charge, there's no way a 230 will clean a 4rm flat at one go.

I am staying in a 85sq m 4 rm flat, one of the smallest ard, so I can confirm 230 can't and neither can 340! Hahaha ... Anyone wanna trade 380 for either of my bots?

 

[uno_bliss]

I will upload a video of my wetness problem to see if I am just being paranoid or it is really having a problem. Thanks.

I'm not sure if any sort of video, even HD can show wetness accurately, due to lighting effect. Let alone if u upload to Youtube.

Why not use ShamWow to wipe after ur Scooba 340, then squeeze, oh wow!!!... one whole bucket of water, and u only put 1 L water into Scooba!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEKqI1e714

 

[uno_bliss]

Must clarify... not all 340s are alike. The older batch of 340s from HSN are essentially 380s... model no is 6050! They are certainly confusing the public with their inconsistent naming conventions!

HSN has shipped all sorts of Scooba in the name of 340. Possible models are:

a) 340 blue with 4100mAh battery, plastic tail & handle, fast speed & light weight, S/N 34001 or 34007
b) 335 blue with 4100mAh battery, metal tail & handle, medium speed & medium weight, S/N 33501
c) 335 blue with 3000mAh battery, plastic tail & handle, fast speed & light weight, S/N 33501
d) 380 grey with 4100mAh battery, plastic tail & handle, fast speed & light weight, S/N 06050

Maybe Bakasa's 340 is actually (b), so can't cover 850 sq ft. Or maybe it's just battery weak.

 

[congyuan]

Thanks for the suggestion. I opened it up last night and found the capacitor looks ok. The transistor near the LED light has obvious burnt mark on the PCB board. It is located near the D12. Anyone knows the transistor model so I can replace it?

It was working fine last night. The LED of the charger is on again and able to fully charge my battery.

Here is the photo:

Since you have the knowledge to do that, I suggest you open it up and check the capacitor again. I have every reason to believe that your capacitor is leaking.

 

[uno_bliss]

Thanks for the suggestion. I opened it up last night and found the capacitor looks ok. The transistor near the LED light has obvious burnt mark on the PCB board. It is located near the D12. Anyone knows the transistor model so I can replace it?

It was working fine last night. The LED of the charger is on again and able to fully charge my battery.

Here is the photo:

The component in ur photo is called SCR (Silicon-controlled rectifier), it got so hot that the PCB around it got charred and SCR chip has opened slightly.
There is another important chip mounted onto the aluminium heatsink that could have suffered same fate with charring of PCB.

Since u can still charge, ur PCB has yet to become toast, but ur SCR has opened so best to change it.
For the few cases I've encountered before, the PCB copper tracks surrounding SCR became jet black and peeling off.

Bottom line is, Roomba metal contacts below bumper got dirty, this leads to VERY high resistance. The metal got so hot that the supporting plastic softens & sinks in. Charger overheated trying to push electrical current thru the very high resistance metal contacts.

So for all Roomba 500 users, pls regularly clean the metal contacts below bumper, especially the side nearer to sidebrush.
If the metal contact has already sunken & no longer flush with the plastic base plate, u should remove base plate & file it down until flush with metal contact.

 

[Jubooo]

Here is the photo:

Ah... I got 3 pieces of charger with me right now all has the same fate of this SCR burnt and was unrecoverable. Was your charger brand new before you operated on it?

 

[congyuan]

uno_bliss: Thanks for pointing out the name of that component. I googled and going to buy it to replace. The other SCR you mentioned has a little bit burnt mark on the PCB, but the SCR itselft looks ok. Probably saved by the large aluminum heat sink.

Jubooo: I modied the psu last year after it has been used with a step-down transformer for 1 year. After mods, it has been working fine. It was overheated last week after it was placed inside a narrow gap. The charger was very hot when roomba has this Error 5 and alert voice.

Maybe the mod caused increased current therefore it generates more heat than before. (Not sure about this, need expert's opinion.) But previously it was placed on the open ground so no issue. The charger only feels warm during charging.

 

[uno_bliss]

uno_bliss: Thanks for pointing out the name of that component. I googled and going to buy it to replace. The other SCR you mentioned has a little bit burnt mark on the PCB, but the SCR itselft looks ok. Probably saved by the large aluminum heat sink.

Jubooo: I modied the psu last year after it has been used with a step-down transformer for 1 year. After mods, it has been working fine. It was overheated last week after it was placed inside a narrow gap. The charger was very hot when roomba has this Error 5 and alert voice.

Maybe the mod caused increased current therefore it generates more heat than before. (Not sure about this, need expert's opinion.) But previously it was placed on the open ground so no issue. The charger only feels warm during charging.

Here's a few pointers for u:
1. Charger needs to be ventilated, cos it gets hot ~50 deg C during charging. Placing in enclosed cabinet will not result in charred SCR.
As stated in my previous post, charred SCR is due to bad contact between Roomba & Dock. Bad contact is 90% chance due to dust, rarely due to irregular floor surface since Dock contact is spring loaded giving some allowance.

2. Dock should be placed such that Roomba can make the approach from at least 1m away, during the 1m, Roomba can fine tune & dock nicely.
If dock is awkwardly placed such that Roomba must approach from the side, it won't have space to fine tune, and that results in mis-alignment & bad contact.
U'll recognise bad contact when u see Dock light flash on & off.

3. This overheat incident has nothing to do with the way u mod, nor the fact u used Transformer previously.

4. The multi-legged chip mounted to heat sink is not SCR, it's power Mosfet 5N60C. This chip is costly ~$6-$8, but since u can still charge, it's probably not spoilt yet. But the PCB charring implies it was put under tremendous stress before.

5. Physical appearance of electronic components seldom indicate their usability.
So when u say "the SCR itself looks ok", looks don't count. U literally need to de-solder and use Digital Meter to measure. And even that isn't 100% accurate cos Digital Meter uses only nominal load (ie. teeny-weeny stress). It's like u knock on a partition & it feels solid, so u lean against it and crash right thru.

6. Before going to Sim Lim Tower to buy replacement components, u should Google for Datasheet & print at least the synopsis. Cos don't expect Sim Lim people to know everything, some shops only know how to type in part no. & search their inventory.

 

[bakasa2002]

I'm not sure if any sort of video, even HD can show wetness accurately, due to lighting effect. Let alone if u upload to Youtube.

Why not use ShamWow to wipe after ur Scooba 340, then squeeze, oh wow!!!... one whole bucket of water, and u only put 1 L water into Scooba!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEKqI1e714

I have actually use the Mint to do some mop dry before but it's kind of funny, do double job ... Hahaha ... I wait for it to dry. Maybe it got to do with my flooring, there's sometimes some streak of water too left on the floor. I suspect my 340 is really eof soon, cos' I been having it close to 4 yrs now.

 

[bakasa2002]

HSN has shipped all sorts of Scooba in the name of 340. Possible models are:

a) 340 blue with 4100mAh battery, plastic tail & handle, fast speed & light weight, S/N 34001 or 34007

Maybe Bakasa's 340 is actually (b), so can't cover 850 sq ft. Or maybe it's just battery weak.

Just cfm mine is 34001 from HSN. It can't be the batt cos' I just using a new batt, it's actually my 3rd batt over the 3 years plus, but it cover only 1.5 tank at most. Is it normal?

 

[congyuan]

uno_bliss: Maybe you are right about the metal contact. I will clean it tonight.

 

[uno_bliss]

Just cfm mine is 34001 from HSN. It can't be the batt cos' I just using a new batt, it's actually my 3rd batt over the 3 years plus, but it cover only 1.5 tank at most. Is it normal?

If u're using 3rd party Scooba battery, drop in performance is expected after 3-6 mths.
I've sold 3 of those 4.8A batt before, 1 got returned after 1 mth, the other 2 got complain after ~2 mths.

Met at least 4 other users who bought generic Scooba batt on their own, always same story that performance drops drastically and pretty much gone within 6 mths.

 

[uno_bliss]

uno_bliss: Maybe you are right about the metal contact. I will clean it tonight.

Cleaning metal contacts should be a regular routine, done together during brush cleaning & emptying of bin.

If ur metal contact is sunken, file down the plastic base plate to prevent vicious cycle.