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Author Topic: Roomba Scheduler 4230  (Read 22294 times)

Offline beko1987

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Roomba Scheduler 4230
« on: November 23, 2015, 06:02:32 pm »
I've never owned a Roomba before, they've always been faaaaaar too expensive for my mingebag budget.

Until now

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131658459333?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The seller was alright, I messaged him as I couldnt see some bits that were listed in the manual as there, and said he would find them as he's seen them about. Should come next week!

Anyone know anything about them? I've spent all day working browsing this excellent forum - http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewforum.php?f=1 and hopefully lobbing a cheapo battery in may fix it.

We shall soon find out
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!


Offline dysondc16

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2015, 06:23:40 pm »
Most of my experience is with 500 series models and up, they are very easy to work on thanks to a very service friendly design. The scheduler is part of the 400 series that is not quite as nice to work on, but it can be done (I'm sure you would have no problems stripping it).
The batteries do go out fairly regularly and most of the 400 series models I have worked on only needed a battery and maybe replacement brushes or something small like that.
I have that exact same model, and true to form it only needed a battery to get it working from  :dead-dyson:. Yours looks mostly complete too.
Will certainly be a fun machine to have, and should resell easily. Let us know how you get on with it!

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2015, 06:26:49 pm »
Sweet,  thats good to know then!

Ill certqinly be keeping the box somewhere for selling it on eventually,  but not before having a damn good play! Good to know you know your way around them,  ill be needing that!

Anythong I should look out for when it arrives? Wont buy a battery straight away,  will check to see if its worth it first...
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline dysondc16

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2015, 06:37:46 pm »
Really, you just need to check a few basic things. Make sure the brushes and wheels can be turned by hand, make sure the treads on the wheels aren't loose (they had a bad habit of doing that on these older ones), check if the side brush can be turned by hand, and see if the lights on the machine will respond when you plug it in either with the old battery or no battery. Other than that there really isn't much you can test without a battery, but it does rule out some potential headaches.
If the wheel motors or brush motor seem seized then that might be a big problem. One nice thing about the 500 series and up is that they used modular internal components making swapping out a busted wheel or brush module fairly cheap and super easy. Sadly this one does not share this design.
Hope this helps.


Offline MVacs

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2015, 01:08:37 am »
I have had a few Roombas - they are fun.

Batteries are pretty cheap at Q.

I actually want another one for the new shop.

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2015, 09:45:28 pm »
Haven't looked at Q yet. I'm hoping the battery has just discharged itself beyond the point the roomba can charge itself
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2015, 07:50:23 am »


It's arrived! (Came on Friday but I wasn't at work so only found out today!)

Hopefully I can force some life into it tonight... It's utterly filthy (which is good) but seems complete. So far, the shopping list is:

1x new side sweep brush (as one side is snapped off). Will wait to see what else I need first though before spending out
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline MVacs

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2015, 09:14:13 am »
Hey, I might have a go at that as well if you get it running right.  :icon_nod:

Q have their own side brushes as well.

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2015, 09:23:57 am »
Hehe I'll let you know!

For now, I have no idea what it needs, I'll get it running right first before spending any money on it, and if we like it, it may stay, but I imagine it will hate our deep rug, so we shall see.

It's bigger than I thought too, but then I;ve never had one so can't really compare.

Mvacs, you could have a fleet of them to clean the new shop at night (if your alarm sensors will cope with that). Could even give them custom paint jobs, de stijl roomba's... (would be cheaper than buying the new Dyson robot cleaner...)
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline MVacs

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #9 on: November 30, 2015, 03:55:55 pm »
(would be cheaper than buying the new Dyson robot cleaner...)

I think I need a new Dyson robot in my life.  :grinn:

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #10 on: November 30, 2015, 06:51:48 pm »
I had a closer look at this just now



Well screw you iRobot, I don't need your warranty anyway!



I printed off the 'how to force charge into the battery' guide and instruction manual at work just incase



and unpacked it





One of the virtual walls has been heavily used, the other never



Backed up by one having batteries in (and turning on) and one not



The UK plug is actually a US-UK convertor



The dock was covered in hairs





The power supply is VERY light



and american



The Scheduler remote



sans batteries



A scrap of paper at the bottom of the box



and the machine itself!





Noticed this immediately



Ah



An initial voltage checked confirmed it was pretty dead



So, to avoid any mofset failure (or to save time as it's happened already, the seller did say he had tried to charge it alot  :doh:  I went straight in for the direct charge. A piece of blown Dyson DC33 cable was fished out of the toolbox



This had the bonus of I could use the crimps on the machine end to sit in the battery terminals (after flattening the spade terminal on the live cable)

Connected to the plug



and (bad pic, sorry) checked for voltage running through the whole setup



Whilst that did it's thing for 10 minutes, I popped some AA's into the remote



At least something works!



After 10 minutes, the battery showed some voltage



I did fit the battery, but Roomba was still dead (I bet most of you said that before you read it in my post...) so I hooked it back to the charger directly, as it didn't get hot before, got the kitchen timer on 15 minutes as I type)

A new battery is pretty much a given, but I just want to get the thing to light up and show life before splashing out £20 on a new battery, then another few quid on a new side sweep brush and brushroll cage (one of the clips has snapped off).

I will update in due course!
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #11 on: November 30, 2015, 08:17:57 pm »
Well, after 3 hours in total on the direct charge, the battery read 12.3v, then started to go down quite quickly, went to this for this pic



and went down a bit more. I put it back in the machine, and nothing.

I then plugged the charger into the roomba, and got a pulsing red light



The manual mentions a solid red light for 'battery empty', but not a pulsing red light. I think the battery is kippered though, going by the speed the voltage dropped when off charge.

I think the battery is dead, I've asked the same question on the Roomba forum where a very knowledgeable chap will probably tell me to buy a new battery, if so it can go back in its box for now, can't afford a battery this month, just spent out on a new charger and battery for the accu-nova!

It's probably not worth keeping the battery directly charging overnight is it? It's only a 14v battery apparently, so there's only 2 more volts it can take.

It's sat under the change table pulsing away on red, will leave it there for a bit. If nothing else I can leave it a few hours and check the MOFSETS, if the charge has increased then they are fine and it's the battery that's gone (which is the preferred option)
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline Madrat

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2015, 09:06:35 pm »
If the voltage is dropping that fast then no.

Offline beko1987

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2015, 09:08:47 pm »
It now makes a de de du de noise with the charger off,  so there is life!

Ill have a check of the voltage in a bit and see what the score is

Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!

Offline dysondc16

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Re: Roomba Scheduler 4230
« Reply #14 on: November 30, 2015, 09:38:26 pm »
That means the electronics should be good! I just stripped a similar model last week, so let me know if you need help with that. Interesting that you got a U.S. one, wonder how that got over there.

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