Neato Robotics XV-11 Teardown and Repair - Part 1 of 2

[@TheTaffyLover]

Thank you for generously sharing your obviously valuable time. I was able to repair my XV11 with your help. It wasn't charging so, I tore it down, cleaned it, and put it all back together. I even had a chance to measure some voltages. The robot has risen from the dead! Sincere thanks to you. The sensors on the bottom are to sense stairs so it doesn't fall down. This is a great robot and tremendous value.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

TheTaffyLover Comments like yours are what keep me motivated to do this stuff! Thanks for watching!

[@gsmckee00740]

You are an amazing young man!! Thank you for sharing your amazing skills!! It helped this old lady!!

[@magnushacker5203]

Great video! I have two neatos. The first one died while under warranty and they sent me a new one. The second one stopped one day and complained about "blocked vision". I noticed that the radar thing had stopped rotating and with your video to guide me I was able to take it apart and locate the motor. It was indeed broken, but I could replace it with the motor from the first neato. Now I have a working robot again! :)

[@Swamillup]

Impressive - I just got a defective XV-11 (senses left wheel stuck). Now I'm confident I can disassemble the unit and clear the error. Thank-you for the detailed tear-down.

[@LouSpowell]

Kore, excellent video that saved me a ton of time - by convincing me to not bother trying to repair my Neato XV-11. I was brought here by the common - and false - stuck brush error. Hair accumulates around the gear and spindle of the brush motor, causing it to eventually partially seize; regardless of how clean the actual brush is. I could only get some of the debris out with Exacto and tweezers, and the error persisted. Trying to disassemble the unit, I ran into the roadblock not being able to remove the plastic top shroud to get at the unit. I now see how you did it. Too much hassle and time. Went to Amazon and nabbed a new unit for a bit over $200. Time is money. Thanks for the video.

[@TheTaffyLover]

I just repaired mine in ~2 hours. At my day job, I earn less than $100/hr...

[@jank536]

Fabulous video & explanation, thank you! I’ve torn apart a Botvac connected and now guessing on similar-yet-different tiny screw placement. I hope you didn’t run into same thing, and, trying to sort out screw placement is what led me to your video. 1:10:17

[@leoklaes1573]

The magnetic sensor boards are for detecting the magnetic boundary strips that you can use to keep it from moving into certain areas. Typically you lay down the magnetic strips across the threshold of doorways so that the vacuum stays in one area of the house.

[@kevinmcauliffe2831]

Really great video. The tear-down instructions helped me rescue my own out-of-warranty XV-11, which had a bad dust bin sensor button (it is working now after clearing off some corrosion from the switch). Thank you. One thing that might be tricky for some owners is finding the two screws under the warranty stickers. I think the stickers were already removed on yours, as I didn't see this come up in the video. The stickers are over the screw cavities between the wheels and the roller.

[@kungfustu2]

Kevin McAuliffe Genius thanks so much, I was tearing my hair out as I followed the video but my neato still wasn't opening this fixed it

[@jjlwis]

The Mag sensor is for the Boundry Strip, so it will keep the bot out of certain areas! Awesome Tear down!! Smart Man!

[@tietsjer1]

Thanks to your video I was able to repair my XV-15. It got the error "my vision is blocked (3000)". Thank you very much for sharing.

[@tzouraspicker]

Wim Bruckmann Hi I got this exact error. How did you actually fix the problem?

[@tietsjer1]

I cleaned the "belt" that rotates the laser (at 34' this belt is removed). I also cleaned the lens cap and the surface the belt is against. The belt i cleaned with detergent (to do dishes). The surface i cleaned with a dry paper towel.

[@tzouraspicker]

Wim Bruckmann Thanks, I'll remember for future reference. Luckily Amazon.co.uk refunded my faulty Neato after 14 months of use. I thought that the warranty had run out but apparently we have excellent consumer rights in the UK that I never knew about. The following is a quote from a Guardian article: 'However, because the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA) meets or exceeds most of the directive's requirements, this overrides the EU directive. The act requires three things: the goods must be as described; they must be of satisfactory quality, which is determined by description, price, durability, freedom from minor defects; and they must be fit for purpose. Because manufacturers tend to give one year's warranty on goods, retailers will usually push you in their direction if the product breaks inside the first year. However, SOGA provides cover for goods bought for up to six years - in England and Wales'.

[@amdintelxsniperx]

so that cpu is either 180 mhz or 200 it can saefly go up to 400 at 1.95 volts lol the 128 stands for 128kb of nand it has 16kb cache and 16kb dcache you can add a compact flash slot to that board . im thinking about raising the sclock speed of the chip and adding a cf slot or mcf slot to my neato just for more room to add features to my custom rom

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Dang, custom ROM sounds pretty cool

[@cindyrinaldi]

The wires and connectors are crammed in there and it is very hard to connect and disconnect the batteries from the connectors due to the way they are situated. This is not a consumer-friendly design for battery changes. It is not complicated to change batteries, but it seems it would be easy to damage something. I actually received an XV-11 back from warranty service with a damaged connector pin. I notified service and returned the robot with a zoomed-in photo of the damaged pin; and the robot was returned with the connector not repaired! It had to be shipped back for repair again. Shipping robots in for repair is expensive and wasteful. We are without the robot for many weeks while that is happening. It is also not earth-friendly, since so much fuel is used in transporting them. The robot is now out of warranty and having battery issues again (even with fresh NEATO batteries). Thanks for sharing this information. It is helpful.

[@Narnald_Ewman]

that "ph7tt" is a fds8978, a N-channel fet. The IR is a F7416 P-channel fet. And.... oh man, I would hate to have to figure out how this thing works.. Thanks for the great video.

[@Tamar.Langbord]

I'm having battery problems with my neato xv 15. After calling the neato people who wanted 80$ to just check it I decided to try and fix the damn thing myself. I hope your tutorial will do the trick!

[@davecollins7907]

You saved my bacon! Great video. I took mine apart and couldn't figure out how the plastic bump-sensor covers went on. Thanks!

[@fitoinventos]

thanks. Thanks for your help. My neato had broken the traction belt. I bought another one on the internet for 7 euros. With your indications I have managed to find all the screws. thanks

[@bolockwood6975]

HI! I just wanted to say *thank you for this.* The newer versions of this model have a defective LCD screen, and your video was quite helpful in replacing mine. I even managed to have fun. (...until I got it all back together and found one of the buttons was stuck down; I had to do it all over again...)

[@sensecam]

very good presentation, thank you,. I have just (Sept 2015) bought the 85 model, in the UK from Amazon, and very pleased with it.

[@shirvindalex]

replacing a wheels are so easy when someone explains it. Kudos!

[@laurarenaud7327]

Very helpful taking ours apart and putting back together ( 3 leftover screws!) but works. ....so thank you.we got absolutely no where with their customer service.

[@sensecam]

Watched until the end of the video. Very good work, one of the best teardowns I have seen. Just bought Neato Botvac 85, video very good, particularly the laser camera. I will now watch part 2. Thank you!

[@johnjohnchu]

Excellent video. The magnetic sensors in the front is for the area blocking strips that come with the vacuum retail package.

[@mantolaman]

Just bought one of these for ten bucks. Don't have it, but I was sure glad to see your detailed repair procedure. Thanks! Very well done. I know this is an old video, but wonder if you're still using it.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

We're not using it because it developed a couple problems that I've been meaning to do a video about, I'm hoping to get to it at some point. For the time being I've been doing the cleaning manually, lol, although we've considered getting a newer unit, just haven't settled on any particular model.

[@mantolaman]

I bought two XV 11s, and use them both regularly, with no issues so far!

[@mdchaney]

In case nobody else mentioned it, at the 19:20 mark you're wondering about the little wheels. Those have magnets on them with hall effect sensors on the board below - it can tell how many times the wheel is rotating based on that.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

It seems they're using it to generate a pulse to detect if the wheels get stuck. From what I've observed, it doesn't look like it's keeping track of how many times the wheels actually rotate since I've had the thing get stuck underneath a TV stand and couch while the wheels continue to slip on the floor, but it's able to quickly backup and recover once it determines that it's not actually going anywhere. So much stuff packed into the thing!

[@Tokaisho1]

The broken spring plastic retainers are caused by a screw on the display circuit board working its way loose, you hear and feel the spring begin to bind and eventually it gets caught and snaps the plastic retainer. I prevented this by tightening that screw and gluing it in one spot to stop it turning on a Neato XV Signature from 2014 with the same chassis.

[@kellypestell5186]

Wow you know your stuff 😜 really enjoyed your 2 videos. - watching how easy you made it made that anything can be mended -has made me trust in buying a bran new botvac connected. So glad I found this on youtube. Keep up the good work Regards Kelly p

[@haiyanqu698]

I just watched the best real-world repair youtube video, this is great! I like the way you take part off and also explain what it is, very very helpful! Thanks a lot, man, you are awesome!!

[@IgorZavoychinskiy]

Thanks for the video. I had my NEATO broken due to non-functional lidar motivator (I guess). I was actually hoping you'll show how to dismount the motivator but I saw enough to figure it out myself. In spite of you I bought my device for $500, so I don't want to break it worse than it already is :)

[@arnoldobertoncini426]

I believe the base uses an IR reflective surface to allow the bot to find it. I found that a power strip with a light on it under my home theater kept attracting my robot when batteries were low. I taped the light over with black electrical tape. Problem solved!

[@ravitejachivukula]

Awesome video !! I really liked the way you reverse engineered and figured out different things.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Thanks!

[@midnightCirc]

9:16 was kind of adorable, not gonna lie. lil guy wants more food.

[@zaphodbreeblebrox9542]

[Pulling the charging base away from the robot] "Stop teasing that robot!!!" :-D

[@TheNalaQueen]

You are awesome ! Thank you! I had issue with my robot and combination of Neato's customer service and your videos helped me fix it!

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Hristina Georgieva Happy to hear that and thanks!

[@htmagic]

The magnet sensors work with some magnetic tape which you don't have. It is like a keep out boundary the robot will not cross.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Yes, I kind of learned later on that it definitely monitors the brush. Don't know why I didn't think of it then and there. It's had a few large things get caught on the brush before and it will usually immediately stop and tell you to free the brush. One time, though, something got stuck and instead of completely locking up the motor, the belt started getting stripped by the motor, so now there's a piece of the belt that's missing a tooth or two. I'll probably replace it when it causes issues.

[@kathysmith7540]

Great video. Mine has quit working I have a Bovac85. It is not the battery. I don't think I will be tearing it down.

[@wahedamirdjian3761]

Thank you very much for this video! Your demo tearing down the Neato instructs very well the procedure to dissemble it. I am outside US (Brazil) and there is no Neato support in this country. So I have to repair myself my defective Neato XV-21 which gives an error message of “Battery issue 0002”. Could you tell me where you got the used unit for U$S 5.95 ! ? I would like to buy one and take out de main PC board where the power supply and the battery charger control resides. Thanks a lot.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

I stumbled on this unit at a second hand store, so it's not something that's commonly found or normally sold for that price.

[@condedraculamor]

very good video. big job. thanks from Portugal

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

In all honesty, it probably should be recalibrated, but I haven't done so as I don't know the procedure. I should probably look online to see if I can find info on how to do it. I just tried to put everything back together as close to how it was as possible. I haven't noticed any issues and it seems to navigate around the house just fine. I honestly don't think you need to take it apart as much as I did. It was mostly for purposes of showing what was in that assembly. I think a q-tip should do.

[@arinview]

I need XV-11 latest firmware. Looks like Neato official website removed it. It will be a great help if someone can provide XV11 firmware by email or by any other way?

[@steveg6806]

I quickly looked online and couldn't find much about the recalibration, although a q-tip would be suitable for some people I rather open my unit up and sanitize it to new condition. thanks for info and the video, if I hit any snags ill be sure to get your thoughts thanks

[@denesk2794]

The magnetic sensor is for the magnetic perimeter strip you can get to create no-go zones.

[@GeraintJones]

Ah, you said you had parrots. I thought you said parents, and they were dropping seeds all over the floor :-)

[@RR-mp7hw]

I thought so too!

[@Applez00800]

Encoder on the brush motor would be to sense if anything is stuck. I've had this error a few times when sucking up plum stones that become lodged ;)

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Applez00800 I figured that one out when the brush got stuck the first time, that's when it finally hit me what it was for! lol

[@BobBob-zb2xg]

encoder for roller. It knows when the roller is stuck.

[@TheMule440]

The magnetic sensor is for the strips that come with the vacuum so you can tell it not to go in certain rooms. You lay it across the floor, and the vacuum's magnetic sensors detect and avoid the area behind the strip. Didn't watch the rest yet, you may have found that out by now..

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Ha, yeah, thanks! Ended up finding out after I had already made these videos. Also learned a lot of other stuff way after the fact. Thanks!

[@TheMule440]

Hey, great video though! I hate disassembly without a diagram of some sort but this was confidence inspiring. I had the blank lcd problem that seems to be related to the 7 capacitors on the motherboard. Just got done soldering last night so we'll see if it fixed the problem in the next day or so.

[@TheMule440]

My motherboard was slightly different than yours. But the rest was identical. It's an xv-21 pet.

[@beccabee7142]

Hey there. I saw that you pulled the rotating lidar piece off by hand, and I did that too. However, you didn't show how to get it back on, and I am struggling with that. How do I get it back on without breaking the little plastic tabs?

[@xwz7611]

Thank you for sharing this. It is extremely helpful. Now I am trying to repair my XV11, but looks I just don't have proper tools at hand. So can you pls share what kind of screwdrivers I would need, and other tools, etc? Thank you very much.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Xia Weizhong As far as I remember I didn't use anything special other than some basic screwdrivers, like a #1 and #2 phillips and maybe some smaller ones for the really small screws.

[@zr2ee1]

I wonder if the encoder on the brush motor is a feedback loop incase the brush gets stuck or an odometer? i'd think it would be able to get an over amperage reading for the brush getting stuck though.

[@troyjulius5642]

Are you fixing Neato's I have a sick one. LOL

[@dagurler]

thanks for the video. I realize that in the laser unit the diode and the sensor has an angle; they are not parallel. I was wondering if you measured this angle.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

I did not, but I did kind of notice it as well.

[@chestersmall5483]

For whatever reason I cannot get top and bottom to separate. I don't see any other screws. From video it looks so easy. I don't want to force it and break something. Any help would be appreciated.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Thanks! I hope to be doing these a lot more often along with some other stuff I have planned. BTW, I got your PM, I'll be replying soon.

[@jaydecastro]

Great video. Do you know of a quick way to change out the belt? My current belt is stripped and I bought a new one. But it looks like you at to take apart quite a bit to get to the belt drive. Thanks in advance

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Sorry, I meant use a q-tip or something softer for cleaning the optics. The laser module is sealed and so is the lens assembly with the sensor so you wouldn't have to worry about there being dust inside those. That way you don't have to worry about calibration. For everything else, by all means, take it all apart to get everything clean!

[@arcanlaw]

Great video! My neato's roller motor belt suddenly got gummed up - I can get it to advance but I keep getting an error of "roller brush is stuck" and as I've (many times in the past) already cleaned the roller it seems the issue is deeper, with the motor or the gearing in where the belt attaches to it. Has anyone taken it apart to the point of being able to clean the roller motor gearing? Does the motor piece that was removed in this video break down further for cleaning?

[@steveg6806]

Did you have to recalibrate the laser after you took it apart? I want to clean my Neato in the fashion that you have but I was told that the laser would need to be recalibrated thanks

[@vituja12]

Can't wait for part 2.

[@evonline]

Fabulous video. Thank you very much.

[@mattbettcher]

Awesome teardown!

[@hawaiidoves]

Awesome video. Neato,should hire you for customer service online. Our Neato, only runs for 10 minutes. We just bought it two days ago. Do you know what the problem is?

[@mfbradley]

Keep trying to see all of you video with out much luck , keeps dropping. Out?

[@mikemikey255]

Question for you and some advice from you, if you dont mind. On the video @ 39:27 that cable to the sensor. My sensor cable got cut and i need to redo the connector at the end to the sensor. Would you happen to know where i can find a new connector? What brand? Thanks in advance :)

[@christianpetite4306]

Very cool man! Great Vid! I'm buying a new one, really enjoyed seeing how this worked! Can I ask i know yours is older and the batteries have had some use... how long did the first clean last before it needed charging again (when it couldn't re doc at base station) ?

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

I apologize for my late reply to your comment, I had no idea there was new comments because I never got notified after Google updated their comments section! It would usually run for about 15 minutes or less before it would completely die and usually is was too far from the base to make it back before the battery level was too low to continue.

[@kidostudios4289]

Great video

[@azadazadi5895]

Hello sir, In D series Battery. black wire negative and red wire positive. What about two yellow wires. And where in the battery is connected ?

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

The yellow wires are for the thermistor in the battery pack. They don't connect to the battery cells.

[@shifter65]

Oddly relaxing!

[@mkdmitry]

thx man, it helps me to change brush belt

[@helmuthrendl6560]

Very good Job and very good Teardown. Subscribe is a must. Thank you for this very interesting Videos!!

[@derpherpp]

Did u ever try to convert the batteries to 18650?

[@mpgsters3436]

those batteries connectors look like the computer power supply molex connectors

[@usmanazhar2017]

hi bro, my neato clean only corner not clean center my room tell me please ,what problem what i do??

[@hopebullard460]

My neato kept saying charge me charge me! I had no idea that it had batteries in packs!

[@lmwshell]

I am trying to locate the C10 capacitor in my XV-11, however it's unclear which one it is. Do you have any suggestions for locating a schematic or diagram?

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

I would love to find a schematic myself! Unfortunately I haven't come across anything as of yet. Another viewer also mentioned C10. I hadn't heard anything about this cap until now. I guess it's time to do some research!

[@mantolaman]

Menu button on XV-11 not responding. Can't navigate LCD screen. What do I look for to figure out why?

[@mantolaman]

I figured this one out too. The microswitch is dirty. I just haven't bothered to tear it down to clean it yet. So, consequently, I can't use the program. So, I just start it and let it do the job and return to base.

[@jimbogolden]

How do you replace the belt? 🙂

[@jacobpem7927]

Hello anyone know why me neato is acting dumb? It's like it cant see properly and when I use neato control it barely shows any dots. Does anyone have any ideas?

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Awesome! I'm glad to hear the video was helpful!

[@jjlwis]

what was the original capacity of the NiMh Batteries?

[@AntonNosovitsky]

This video would be so awesome if you could edit it down to like 20-25 mins. The pacing is somewhat slow.

[@BlinkerDKS]

I just accidentally tore off my ribbon cable. Had to solder it with 16 tiny wires 🙄

[@OthmanAlikhan]

Thanks for the video, it was very informative =)

[@mattbettcher]

Thx can't wait to hear from you

[@rverm1000]

maybe the magnetic sensors detect electrical cords

[@jjisnow]

I think they're hall effect sensors to detect the special magnetic barrier strips that often come with the units. Allows you to set a limit to where the vacuum goes.

[@jjisnow]

www.amazon.com/Neato-Robotics-945-0009-Boundary-Markers/dp/B004JKLN9E

[@vanhakaveri]

Do you know what is the resolution of that lidar? 48?

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

I honestly have no idea of the actual specs of the lidar sensor. I tried googling, but can't find anything regarding the actual sensor itself. Sorry :(

[@bailiqun5331]

Impressive,thanks a lot

[@drexplordinaire]

I have a question with unplug me error message. I opened this like you instructed. www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewtopic.php?p=141960 I'm not sure what they soldered... Would it necessarily work?

[@courtneybenjamin2846]

how do I repair fan

[@meradu2]

nice video thanks

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

Rooey y u do dis

[@abubakarisahmuhammad7462]

Hi, The best guide that I have checked out was on Volt daddy (just google it) Probably the most helpful info on batteries and this things that i have found.

[@karenangeladizon6061]

Hey guys, The best info that I have saw was on Volt daddy (just google it) Probably the most informative info on batteries and this same that i have found.

[@ThatElectronicsFool]

3200mAh

[@steveg6806]

thanks!!!

[@SoulRebel28401]

Ehhh....nasty. Hilarious

[@robertpaul3375]

You talk too much and show the same thing over and over.