Litter Robot 3 motor chatter quick fix / repair

[@jdogma2003]

Will over torque cause the unit to start and stop and show a slow flashing yellow light. I've bypassed the bonnet to no avail, as well as the other tips litter robot suggested. The motor needing grease is the last hope. It does make a loud noise when under load.

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

If your LR is over torqueing the LR will display a sequential flashing blue and red lights. The slow yellow flashing light indicates either the weight sensor is detecting too radical of changes in reading while cycling, ( cat intrusion, false or not false) or the bonnets connection is not sufficient enough to NOT trigger a cycle halt. The bonnet when the night light option is ON requires at least 10 ohms resistance and a detection of current draw from the 3 LEDs. If even one of the LEDs is weak or malfunctioning it will trigger a bonnet error even if the bonnet has a good connection, so turn off the night light and then its only requiring at least a 10 ohm resistance to tell the control board the bonnet is connected. So shorting the bonnet contacts directly, shutting the night light off and not placing the bonnet on will tell the control board the bonnet is there when it actually isn't. The weight sensor miscalibration is the other cause of the slow flashing yellow light while in cycle the weight sensor is constantly being read by the control board for a sudden increase in resistance. If this happen the globe is stopped and an internal timer is started when the resistance change revert close to the baseline reading when the cycle originally started, if this does not happen or the resistance reading being provided by the weight sensor are too close together due to a miscalibration, the cycle will remain halted with the control board thinking a cat intrusion is taking place. So lets go on the assumption the weight sensor is the culprit and lets soft recalibrate the LR3, this is easy to do but these steps have to be followed for a successful recalibration: 1. Empty both the waste drawer and the globe of any waste and litter, place both the globe/ bonnet on and slide the waste drawer back in the LR. 2. Power cycle the unit and wait for it to go through the power up self tests and has a solid blue ready light. If by chance you can't get it to ready, power cycle and right as the yellow light is going to appear and cycle the globe press reset it will skip the last tests and it will default to a solid blue ready light, but you have to be fast about it, if it starts to cycle just soft power cycle the LR and try again. 3. With the LR on a solid level surface and free of the LR touching anything around it, press and hold at the same time the EMPTY and RESET buttons for about 6 to 7 seconds or until you see a fast flashing RED light. After that let go of the buttons and the unit should return to a solid blue ready light, if it stays hung up on the fast flashing red light, press RESET and it will return to solid blue ready light. fill the globe just to the fill line with litter and then power cycle the unit, once ready test the cat timer by gently pressing on the globe and let it cycle on timer. It "should" finish the cycle with no issues. You can lube the shafts in the gear box if you wish to and place a small glob of grease under the first reduction gear from the motors gear, this will prevent the gear from wandering too low on the shaft causing gear lash noise and drag, it wont hurt it but don't get too much on the gear teeth as this will initially place a ton of drag on the motor till its works through the grease and night cause an over torque error. Just to be on the safe side when you initially cycle the LR with the motor re-greased help the globe along to work the grease through for about 30 seconds or till the LR moves the globe on its own without sounding like it laboring severely. Hope this gets your LR3 back up and running as intended!!!

[@shanep5121]

Mine has almost no grease and what little grease is there is clear. I am getting a motor obstruction error: red and yellow alternating. What kind of grease do you recommend? Also, I bought a refurbished model and the Allen screw is stripped, so that's fun.

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

Yes, the grease used at the factory is semi transparent. They skim coat the gears and the shafts they rotate on. I suggest a multi purpose grease, just lube the shafts and not the gear teeth as the grease on the teeth will load the motor enough to over torque the LR. Before placing the first reduction gear on its shaft place a small dab of grease at the base of the shaft. This raises up the gear just enough to avoid most of the gear lash noise. If this does not solve the over torque errors, the motor is at fault, replace the motor/ gearbox and this should correct the concern.

[@shanep5121]

@@mikeshowtoandthings do you have a recommendation? The stuff at Lowes is spray cans for things like garage doors. Will that work? It feels like a liquid, not a grease.

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

Get a multi purpose grease in a can. The spray grease will work in a pinch but it will wick away quicker than a regular grease would.

[@shanep5121]

@@mikeshowtoandthings thank you!

[@ZAC4393]

What kind of grease should I use? Is Lucas white lithium grease sufficient?

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

That would work just fine!! Remember if you apply some grease to the gear teeth as well make certain its just a thin coating as anything extra will place drag on the motor and potentially cause over torque faults till the motor has operated enough to get the excess grease out of the teeth's way. Place a reasonable amount of grease on the shafts though as that's the main cause of chattering and drag when the lubrication has run dry.

[@jinxjeanne]

First off thanks for the video. I was wondering what the inside looked like. My motor gets so far and then stops. It will try 3 times and may finish. If it doesn't finish I turn it off and on and it does finish. I replaced the motor and the new one works. Is there something I could of done with the old motor's gears or something to get it working?

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

Depends on how used the motor is? if its the standard usage then the most likely culprit is the gear box. But there are often occasions where the motor its self malfunctions, the tell tail signs are motor running too fast causing the litter leveling to be too far to the right in the liner, or the globe keeps having over torque faults. But if you have chattering its most likely the gear box suffering from a lack of lubrication, mainly the shafts the gears rotate on. The best thing to do is to, (Depending on how much usage your LR3 receives) is to lightly grease the shafts the gears rotate on and keep the top end of the base as well as the outside of the globe clean. I usually do this when I do a wipe down of the inside of the globe, its quick and easy insurance to keeping the LR operating as its intended.

[@jinxjeanne]

@@mikeshowtoandthings Thanks so much for the advice. I'm not sure it's usage as Whisker shipped me this motor with a new base and may have gave me a refurbished one. It does keep getting over torque faults so I think I'm going to abandon it however I do like to tinker with things. What kind of battery did you use to test it?

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

@@jinxjeanne I use a 12 volt 7AH battery to run the motor when testing and after re-lubing. Something that you should be aware of with the replacement bases, they are new from my experience but every replacement base I've received had the upgraded connect control board. And they are redesigned to be far more sensitive to any interruptions of the globe rotation often causing over torque faults. When in reality the motor if paired with the older connect control board are still robust and plenty of strong torque. To identify the control board is easy, just look of the date code on it, there should show "8-16-21 SC" printed on it. If this is the case the motor is most likely weakened and will need replacing but if it has the latest control board I mentioned there's a really good chance the control board might of crapped out causing this issue. To test run a cycle and see how easy it is to stop the globe and cause the over torque error, normally it should take considerable force to stop the globe practically lifting the LR off of one side. But if it takes almost no force to stop it then suspect the control board. Summary: new style control board with a 21 date code and stops the globe easily, possible bad control board. Older date code board with a 17 year date on it and stops the globe easily, the motor is most likely the issue.

[@jinxjeanne]

@@mikeshowtoandthings If I didn't know better you work for Whisker or at least you should. You sure do know your stuff. Thanks so much for the suggestions.

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

@@jinxjeanne Some people have told me that I was more knowledgeable than the customer service they had conversed with. I'm just an individual with some electro mechanical experience working with 4 LR3's that are tortured, and I had to learn on the fly how to keep them up and running reliably. So I amassed all the known to me failure points quirks and work arounds to keep the LR3 running as reliably as possible. Also observing all the subtle changes in hardware etc... I figured id share my experiences in the hopes this will benefit others in their quest to keep their LR3's up and running!

[@Kiopcio]

You sir are amazing

[@TomCreasy]

What type of grease?

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

I just use the super tech multi duty complex grease, seems to do the job adequately.

[@achg404]

@@mikeshowtoandthings i wonder if red n tacky would suffice? i have never used the stuff before but i've got a full one laying around.

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

@@achg404 At best a VERY light skim coating as if the grease is too stiff or sticky it will cause the LR to over torque. I've tried packing the gearbox with various viscosities of grease and it all caused an over torque fault initially till I took a 12 volt battery and ran the motor for a while all the while helping it along by hand rotating the black pinion gear. Eventually the gears were able to work through the resistance the grease was providing and function just above the over torque threshold. I really didn't see any real service length difference between packing the gear box with grease and just lightly skim coating the gears and shafts they rotate on. so now I just skim coat the shafts, gear teeth and place a small dab of grease under the first reduction gear to help with the noise the gear teeth makes from being misaligned and call it good.

[@achg404]

thanks for making this video. how long have you had your lr if you don't mind me asking?

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

Over 3 years.

[@Greg-re7tr]

Does anyone know of a quieter motor that can be replaced for LR3? Since LR4 motor is quiet, Is it possible to replace the LR4 pinion gear with LR3, perhaps if someone can modify it at a shop?

[@mikeshowtoandthings]

The LR4 utilizes a worm gear as the first gear reduction in the gear box coupled with a significantly larger motor to achieve the almost silent operation. The LR3's motor/ gearbox has a very sloppy gear interface that creates significant gear lash noise resonating through the gears when in operation. This is why the first 2 reduction gears off of the motor in the gear box are nylon. It was an attempt to quiet down the noise. The only real way to quiet down the gear noise but not totally would be to bathe the gears in a light viscosity lubrication allowing the lubrication to absorb the resonating noise while in operation but the one side effect of this is the motor cant handle the added resistance the liquid provides and throws over torque errors. I'm sure a very light viscosity oil would work but the gear box has no provisions for seals and will leak like a sieve if it was to be filled with liquid. I'm sure there are ways to redesign the globe drive but it would require significant redesign. The best that can be done with the current hardware is to adjust the motor on the gear box to reduce the gear lash noise and to shift the first reduction gear away from the motor Mounting side of the gear box, otherwise raise the gear higher on the shaft about 10 to 15 thousandths. If the gear is all the way down on the shaft the lash noise and drag increases greatly to the point of the motor causing over torque faults on almost every cycle! When the gear box is skim coated there's usually a small pile of grease directly under the first reduction gear to temporarily mitigate this issue somewhat, but most of the time it gets squished out over time causing the lash noise to increase along with the torque load on the motor.

[@Greg1485]

Appreciate your thorough explanation. Obviously most people aren't going to bother with this but at least it's an option. The most ridiculous thing is that the company sold these annoying loud motors and makes you wonder if it was possible to choose a quieter motor or if not create a quieter motor before selling the annoying loud one. But perhaps too difficult to create such a quiet motor at the time? I don't know but it's Very annoying for people that have to have the litter robot close by in same room. Thanks for the tips anyway have a good day. @@mikeshowtoandthings

[@seliashirilla7486]

😈 "promosm"