Neato XV-21 worked for a month, now does not

[ethan1701]

Hi,
I have a Neato XV-21 I bought on Woot 2 months ago.
It worked fine at first, but after a while, it would not respond. The LED would be lit in solid green, and that's it.
Holding down the orange button for 15 seconds would reset the device, and it would work okay for a while.
Last week, that stopped working. The green light would be on, the LCD would not. holding down the orange button would turn off the device, only for it to turn back on to the same stuck state a second later.
And now it's as bad as it's ever been - the green light is on only when plugged into the dock, but within 3 seconds after I move it away, the LED turns off. I've left it to charge overnight and then some, with no solution in sight.

Neato offered to send me a replacement, but only within the US (Which is where I bought it). Problem is, the neato and I are now in Israel, and getting it back to the US (and the replacement back here) will cost almost like the robot did in the first place.

Any idea how this problem might be resolved?
Thanks!
-Ethan

[vic7767]

Try removing both battery packs then reinstall them and test.

[ethan1701]

Done, no difference.
Other than removing the batteries, is there anything else I can do without voiding the warrantee?

[vic7767]

Nope, now would be the time to contact Neato CS for help.

[ethan1701]

I got a new set of spare batteries from a friend who also has a Neato.
As soon as I put them in, the robot came to life. The screen turned on, asked to be put on the floor and all. We were very excited.
And then I attached it to the dock, and it started behaving like it has for the past 2 weeks - green light, no LCD, no response...
And removing the batteries and putting them back in didn't change that. So I'm leaning toward an assumption that the charging dock is defective (Though I measured its output to be a steady 23.4v), and it's frying the batteries.

I need another set of batteries to test this theory
(Or another robot, to see if these batteries work with it)

-Ethan

[vic7767]

The Neato contains firmware that includes a smart charging function. The dc output of the home base is not directly applied to the battery packs and the charger current is throttled by the internal charging firmware. The getCharger command will show voltage, current, and battery temperature via the USB comm port.

[ethan1701]

Though the USB comm port will only work if the Neato is on. And mine won't turn on now.

[vic7767]

As mentioned earlier in this thread, contact Neato for some support.

[aziesemer2]

A stuck button, perhaps?