Paradise Robotics Forum
Robotic Lawnmowers => Lawnbott => Topic started by: jzawacki on July 06, 2011, 08:36:41 AM
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I'd like to thank Kathy for doing the recall work on my bot as fast as she did.. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to hire someone to cut my lawn while it was away.
Also, I see why everyone removed their blade guard, it really does reduce the (already to low) cutting height.
And now for my WOOHOO \o/ moment.. After complaining about my bots poor quality, I finally feel like I beat the system (just a little bit). I had no intention of doing the recall as I personally thought it was a complete waste. I treat my lawnbott with the same respect I would treat a push power, chain saw, table saw, etc.. ya'know, anything with the ability to cut fingers off. Last week, I went out to see my bot stopped in the middle of the yard. When I turned it back on, doing the starting sequence, it gave a left motor error. Now, I'm used to these messages and normally accept it as a "time for a deep motor maintenance". So, I tore it down, brought the wheel motors in the house and tore them down. Cleaned and repacked the gearboxes with new grease. Well, I put the left motor on and received the same error. Uh oh, I thought, not another motor.. so I tried it on the right and it worked fine.. I put the right motor on the left and received the message again. Dang.. looks like the left motor controller went out.
That's when I heard the "DING" inside my head. I hopped on the phone and called Kathy to see if the recall replaced the motherboard.. Lucky for me, it did! Sent it in for the recall work and BINGO! Just saved myself $800!
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What recall??
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There was a safety recall for the Lawnbott three years ago. As I recall, the major changes were a guard for the blade, a new tilt sensor, and faster shutdown if the system detected it was too tilted. You can find out more about it at http://www.lawnbott.com/news/recalls/.
If you bought your Lawnbott new after December 2007, it probably does not apply to you.
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Bad news... Prior to the recall (from 2007 - 2011), I had never seen a blackout message. Now that my bott is back from the recall, I am seeing it regularly. My celebration of "beating the system" and getting a free motherboard replacement has been replaced with yet more disappointment in the quality of these things. Four years later, and they are still providing crap. I guess some things never change.
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I wonder if it has anything to do with the different versions of the motherboard and the daughter/signal board - that was my major problem until they sent me multiple signal boards and finally found one that worked better - still had no signal areas that I had to make islands for.
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Well, the last few times I found it with a blackout error, it was just pulled out of the charging base, and the other was like 1-2 feet from the wire.
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The only times I've ever seen blackout messages have involved bad wire repairs (the bot goes over the wire, twitches it, and it says "blackout").
What's the difference between blackout and no signal?
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Great.. now I have a "no signal" error all the time. Yet, I have 7 green and 10 amber lights on the transmitter.. I'll take a look at the coil in the bott if I have time today, as I have never disassembled that part of the bott before.
Any other ideas?
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Try taking the robot out of the base, unplug the power supply, wait one minute, then plug in and power it back up. Let the robot start in the middle of the yard. Hope this helps...
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I tried that, and it didn't seem to have an effect. So, I took the bott apart and removed its battery and that seemed to solve it. It didn't have a no signal error and continued to mow. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing...
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Back to the blackout errors. :(
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James, a new receiver card is on its way to you. I hope it clears up the problem.
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New board (and proper installation) seems to have cleared up the issue. RobotLady, there were no instructions on returning the old receiver. Should I care?