My Osmo didn't work. Or did it?

Nords · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Oahu

Long-time occasional lurker, first-time poster. We've had our Scooba for over a year but never a problem until last month.

We bought Scoobie through Costco.com in April 2007. The serial (JEN05800XXXXXXXXXXXXX) seems to indicate that we just made the cutoff of the units with the battery-charging problem.

iRobot hemmed & hawed when I called last month, but when I mentioned this forum they obligingly coughed up an Osmo to fix the battery-charging software. (Thanks, guys!) You would think that following iRobot's Osmo instructions would lead to success but... no. I can't get the Scooba's lights to stop blinking when the Osmo's plugged in, so I can't tell if the Osmo has done its job.

Step #2 of their instructions says "Install a fully charged battery. Scooba must have a fully charged battery for the Osmo to work." So I left the original (fully-charged but short-lived) battery in. I turned on the Scooba ("Power" light came on solid green) and plugged in the Osmo.

Step #6 says "The software update takes approximately 90 seconds. During the update, Scooba's power light will flash, and Osmo's light will remain on." Step #7 says "Scooba's software update is complete when its power light stops flashing." Well, maybe. The Osmo lit up as advertised but Scooba's "Power" and "Check Tank" lights didn't start flashing for over five minutes. Then they didn't stop flashing. Five minutes... 10 minutes... 30 minutes... I gave up and went to bed. After over eight hours I decided that nothing was going to change and unplugged the Osmo.

Next I unwrapped the new battery. Instead of charging it in my Scooba (and risking damage) I hoped that it had enough charge to complete the Osmo process. I plugged it into the Scooba and followed the directions again. (The Scooba powered up so the new battery had some amount of charge.) This time it took three minutes for the lights to start flashing, but four hours later they were still flashing.

I now have the original battery (with all its problems) and a new battery (which was delivered to me with some charge and has not been charged in my Scooba). The Osmo may or may not have fixed the Scooba's software.

So... is there any other way to tell whether or not the Osmo was successful? I've read about battery-charging temperatures but I'm concerned about risking the new battery just to measure its charging temp. I could charge the old battery again but it's no longer a "normal" battery and I don't know if its indications would be trustworthy. I could pretend that everything worked and continue using the new battery, recharging it within the Scooba, but if the update didn't work then a year from now I may be suffering the same battery problems that I have now.

Before I call Customer Service again, I'm gonna assume that iRobot will accuse me of being an idiot. Is there anything else I should try before calling them up, or is there any other indication they'd want me to look at?

Moderator's Note: Masked out Serial #.

vic7767 · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 3270 Location: Louisiana

It sounds as though your Scooba did not respond and load the software contained in the OSMO device.

Whether your Scooba still needs an OSMO flash or not will be hard to determine without talking to IRobot about it. In the mean time you can charge your new battery inside your Scooba just remove it after 3 hours. That way no damage will occur whether is is OSMOed or not.

Nords · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Oahu

vic7767 wrote: Whether your Scooba still needs an OSMO flash or not will be hard to determine without talking to IRobot about it.
iRobot's tech support staff asked if the Scooba had a "QC" sticker in it. (I wish they'd asked that question the first time around!) Sure enough there was a soaked, sorry-looking paper circle stuck to the plastic near the serial number.

iRobot says the sticker indicates that the Scooba had been OSMO'd before it left the company-- it had the bad battery-charging software but they'd caught it before shipping and fixed it.

So they're blaming this problem on the original battery going bad, cause unknown.

I asked what we'd do if the new battery went bad 15 months from now. I was gratified to hear that they would put this conversation on our registration file and would consider the machine to still be under warranty. So I went away happy, and hopefully I'm not back in 15 months.

Is there any use or value in the old battery?

Fraggboy · Posted: June 16, 2008, 4:03 am Post subject:

Nords,

There are a couple of people here that are gutting out the old batteries, and placing in Li-Io replacements. I'm sure one of them would pay you for the shipping of the battery to them.