My Roomba's Circle Dance, and how I fixed it (The Easy Way)

[doteyes9]

As with any other roomba I've had, the circle dance has been a problem. This time I was just too darn lazy to take it apart so I searched for an easier solution. Having found nothing I devised a new method of cleaning my roomba's tachometers without disassembly.

Materials Needed:
1. Roomba Discovery Series
2. Canned air (One that includes a thin straw and that it is canned air, not a chemical propellant aka 3M's Dust Remover)

1. First off, put your Roomba into diagnostics mode (Found here: http://mysite.verizon.net/gsplews/Diagn ... .v.0.5.htm) and find out which wheel has the tachometer issue. Go to test 9. The Clean button will blink if the right (From the top) wheel is working and spot will blink if the left wheel is working. The light will be solid if the tachometer fails. This is the wheel you need to clean.

2. Next you want to direct the air into a slot that is shown in the following picture. Be sure that the straw is literally in the hole.



3. Now run said Roomba through the diagnostics test again to ensure that the tachometer is working. If not, repeat (It took mr 3 times before my Roomba worked so don't feel discouraged if it doesn't work)

4. Enjoy! Unless it didn't work, then you may want to do the complete disassembly and clean the tachometer.

Edit-- As an additional piece of info, I wish I had posted a video of my Roomba pre-op because the circle dance actually fixed the tachometer issue like it was meant to, but it was a temporary fix and then 5 minutes later it danced, and then cleaned etc. I hate this issue and my Roomba actually has 2.1 on it so please don't argue saying that I simply could've upgraded my Roomba, and why upgrade to ignore the issue when you can save your $30 and then buy canned air to fix the issue and I do know the upgrade fixes more than that but hey, if it cleans it cleans.

[TechGuy]

doteyes9,
Thank you for sharing this tip.

My Scheduler is not doing the circle dance thing.

This morning is the first time that I ran the test 9 to see how healthy is my Scheduler. My Scheduler fails this test. It got solid spot and clean green light. It got solid red status light. The dirt sensor flashes one long pulse and four short ( — • • • • ) of blue-light. But it went backward in a straight line.

Why my Scheduler not doing the circle dance when it fails the test 9?

Edit:
BTW, it fails the test 7 and 8 with solid red status light and flashing blue dirt detect light. This indicates both wheels are binding a bit to draw high current.

[vic7767]

Your Scheduler may have 2.1 firmware or may have been OSMOed. If so, the tach tests can still be performed but the MCU ignores the tach data being sent to it.

If you want to, you could also open up the wheels and clean the sensors and lubricate the planetary gears while there.

[TechGuy]

Since my Scheduler fails the test 7 and 8, both wheels are binding a bit and drawing more current from baseline current. I will clean and lubricate both wheels when I have time in the next few days. This may improve my run time.

[Bravo]

Hello, my Roomba 400 SE has also started to work in circles, first it goes backwards and then forwards and it doesn't move forward, it just goes in circles.
Thanks to you I found the diagnosis
https://web.archive.org/web/20140911183 ... #Test-zero
and disassembly
https://web.archive.org/web/20140911183 ... 0604xx.htm
page and I discovered that the fault is with the contact sensors (on the right) through test 1. I removed the external bumper and cleaned the sensor and it worked correctly again after 20 years old (bought it in 2004).
Many thanks to all of you.