Amber Light On Out Of Docking Station

funkay · Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 14

Hi
Recently my roomba discovery (white one) has had the amber light showing instead of the green light when it comes out of it's docking station after being fully charged.

I was just wondering if anyone knows what this means?

Thankyou

Gordon · Posted: April 21, 2005, 9:31 pm Post subject:

I would say, by itself, it indicates that Disco's assessment of the state of charge in its battery is not up to snuff.

Unfortunately, you failed to supply other data that could be useful in the analysis of the problem. E.g., what happened next? After you had commanded Disco to leave the Home Base, perhaps by pressing the Clean button, did Disco go off and do an ordinary cleaning mission -- say an hour of operation? Or, did it fiddle around a short distance from the dock for a few minutes and then head back and kiss up to the Home Base to get more charge?

Or, tell us what happened for two hours before you pressed the GO button. Was the Disco system showing normal signs of charging? I.e., steady green LEDs on the APS Fast Charger and Home Base (three of them, not blinking, steady green); and flashing / pulsing red power-button on the Disco. Since Disco's Power-button illumination never shifted from pulsing red to steady green, that suggests that little or no charging was taking place.

With such additional information, it might be possibnle to shift finger pointing at the battery and at Disco's assessment circuit (right now) to the charging power unit, or to the Home Base (both of the latter units have failure modes reported on this board).

funkay · Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 14

What happened next is the roomba would start cleaning as usual, but the battery would run out of power quicker than usual.

It has been showing only normal signs of charging

Gordon · Posted: April 22, 2005, 12:53 pm Post subject:

funkay wrote: What happened next is the roomba would start cleaning as usual, but the battery would run out of power quicker than usual. So that tells you the battery actually *is* lacking enough charge.
Quote: It has been showing only normal signs of charging This is still a mystery. If your final sentence can be interpreted to mean the Disco switched from pulsing its Power-button red, to a steady green, that tells me that Disco's circuits & logic was satisfied that the battery had charged to a useable level. Yet, when tested, the battery is too low. Those results seem to say that Disco is not doing a proper job of controlling / sensing the charging operation. I hope you have called Customer Support about this, since that may be your best recourse.

I can think of only one other thing to try, and that is a total system reset. Others have reported success with this, while some get no change. Unplug the APS Fast Charger from the 120VAC supply. Remove Disco's battery. Wait for internal capacitors to mostly discharge (I have no idea how long that may take -- go to lunch). Reconnect everything, and command Disco onto the dock. Let it charge until the Power LED is green. See how it runs. I'll be surprised if anything has changed.

Rick · Guest

[quote="Gordon"] funkay wrote: I can think of only one other thing to try, and that is a total system reset. Others have reported success with this, while some get no change. Unplug the APS Fast Charger from the 120VAC supply. Remove Disco's battery. Wait for internal capacitors to mostly discharge (I have no idea how long that may take -- go to lunch). Reconnect everything, and command Disco onto the dock. Let it charge until the Power LED is green. See how it runs. I'll be surprised if anything has changed.

Agreed. A total reset might cure this problem.

The quickest way to fully discharge the internal capacitors is to remove the battery and then simply hold the power button down for approximately 60 seconds. Reinsert the battery and then see if there is any change in charging and runtimes.

Rick

funkay · Guest Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 14

I removed the battery and discharged the capacitors, it still does the same thing.

Is it my battery or my actual roomba?

Guest · Guest

funkay wrote: ...Is it my battery or my actual roomba? I can't see that you have enough information to isolate the problem. However, if the Disco is actually changing its Power-button's pulsing-red state to steady green (and you have not definitely stated it is doing that), following a period of attempted charging, Disco must be 'lying' about the battery condition, because the battery won't operate the system. In other words, Disco is at fault.

funkay · Guest Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 14

while charging the battery status light changes its Power-button's pulsing-red state to steady green

but about 1 minutes into cleaning, the battery status light turns red or sometimes amber.

Gordon · Posted: April 24, 2005, 8:57 pm Post subject:

Seems to me, the behavior you report is saying Disco itself is faulty, but it does not rule out the charging unit or the Home Base. Disco is making an incorrect decision by terminating *charging* and switching its Power-switch indicator from pulsing-red to steady-green. When Disco is tasked, it quickly says the battery is not useable. Can Disco's report about the battery be believed? It can't be correct about both the battery being fully charged one minute, but not charged enough, a few minutes later!

The only thing 'going' for the HB & charger is their pilot LEDs are steady. Usually, when the charger has failed the LEDs will be flashing. It has been reported that the HB has a power transistor that switches charging current through to Disco when it is properly docked. That transistor has a failure mode that has been reported on this board. I do not know if there is any external indication when that HB part has failed. You need additional equipment to sort out these other failure possibilities.

funkay · Guest Joined: 21 Apr 2005 Posts: 14

couldn't it just be that the battery just doesn't hold much charge anymore cause on of the cells has died or something?

rovermaster · Posted: April 27, 2005, 10:18 am Post subject:

How about just pulling the AC adapter out of the HB and plugging it dirctly into your disco? This will eliminate the possibility of a defective HB.

If the problem goes away after that, call customer service to RMA yourself a new HB.

If the problem remains, call customer service. At that point you're either going to have to replace the battery or disco itself and there's no point throwing money into parts/repairs when iRobot has such a liberal replacement policy (you can troubleshoot more after you have a second disco or battery to work with).

Goshdarnit · Guest Joined: 17 Jan 2005 Posts: 18

Just out of curiosity, are you using ther original mains adapter with your Disco? I had a similar problem, and it turned out that my mains charger was too high a current. I live in the UK, so need 220V charging. I went back to using the original and used a 220V adapter, and everything started working fine. Wish I didn't need a transformer as it looks ugly and clumsy, but it works, which is the main thing! :)

Just a thought, but this may not apply to you.....