Scooba 230 Dis-assembly

[vic7767]

The bottom line on the 230 is if you plan to tinker, fix-up, repair, or mod the iRobot Scooba, stay far away from the 230.

[piokrza]

So there is no way to remove the bladder through the clean water opening?

[vic7767]

Give it a try, and let us know your results.

[Serge_ISA]

Hi everybody!
And more fun pics!

[piokrza]

So, now you can re-assemble it or what?

[alexmad]

No way man... I am working on the same and got stuck ath the same place. It is impossible to repair, I SAID IMPOSSIBLE, no matter how clean and hacker and handyman you are you will be loosing your time and increasing frustration.

The silicon/epoxy is not only on top, but also on the botton, and there is no crappy access to the cable connections. You cannot remove it with heat, you cannot remove it by hand or by any means... and it is glue to everything... On top of that, with everything I also mena the water reservoir so.... no way,

I thought: Oh cool! a new project fro my 3d printer... no man.. this is simply a mistake. If somebody is able to access the cabling and the PCB, it would only be after destroying it. I will put more pictures so you can understand it...

[third_deg]

1). Bumper switches are conductive ink over silicone. The rubber seals the switch and is responsible with restoring the bumper.

2). The body of the robot it US welded.

3). PCBA is potted into place using a urethane potting compound.

[alexmad]

The pics...

[alexmad]

1). Bumper switches are conductive ink over silicone. The rubber seals the switch and is responsible with restoring the bumper.

2). The body of the robot it US welded.

3). PCBA is potted into place using a urethane potting compound.

Correct!

[third_deg]

Pics of my clear 230....

[vic7767]

Maybe iRobot will re-release the 230-A as a serviceable hacker friendly robot someday.

[piokrza]

alexmad, third_deg - thanks bro for your pics!

alexmad, did you try to remove and disassemble water pump & vacuum impeller itself?

[Serge_ISA]

And more more fun pics!

All electronic component include CPU broke away and stayed in compound.

[Serge_ISA]

But all connectors to sensors and motors is free and available to connecting - for example external selfmade controller.

[alexmad]

alexmad, third_deg - thanks bro for your pics!

alexmad, did you try to remove and disassemble water pump & vacuum impeller itself?

Hi again, I did not continue with my mess... pump ad vacuum share the same motor and it is not accessible without destroying the insulation. If you have a faulty pump, most likely some water got into the motor and burned it, so... difficult to recover.

I still have hope on the reparation.... and thanks to Serge_ISA I might still be successful!! My problem is that both motors were not working, no voltage at all, and they work properly with an external power supply, so I will use Serge_ISA info and start troubleshooting with the top part of the logicboard!
Thanks again!

Ill keep you posted

[third_deg]

The pump has it's own motor. There are 4 motors total. 2WD, 1 pump, 1 fan. Wheels and pump both use the same 130 frame size motor. Fan is a R500.

Pump motor is completely encased in the potting compound. It's impossible for it to fail due to water.

[piokrza]

third_deg, thank you!!

[alexmad]

Third_deg is right again.. I dont know if I should start closing my mouth for giving wrong info... The true is that the pump and the vacuum looked for me to be on the same axis but it is not the case. Either way third_deg does probably agree with me that changing those motors is quite dificult.. You might be able to access them from the top by cutting the plastic around, but beware that there are some gears in between and therefore replacement would not be easy... and again you would need to complete seal everything after the operation.

Third_deg, I agree with you that the pump motor connections are covered with the compound, but wouldnt it be possible that some water enter on the motor itself through the axis? after some use the axis might loose the grease and the water could enter on the rotor, don´t you think?

Thanks a lot!

[third_deg]

You are doing great Alex! Really, it's all good.

There are two shaft seals on the pump motor. These shaft seals do also hold grease beneath them. They were used to keep out water obviously, but also keep out the potting compound.

Due to the duty cycle of the pump (it only runs a few seconds, then shuts off for longer), the robot needs to operate for over 2000 hours before wear of this shaft seal could contribute to water entrance causing a pump failure.

Also the potting compound removes any trapped air around the motor, thus helping to conduct heat away. Not intuitive but it's operating temp is lower then if run in a sealed compartment of air.

In short, pump failures are very very rare. The robot could be designed to have replaceable wheel drives without a major redesign. And making the bladder access able would have been useful as well (but much harder)

[alexmad]

Hi all!

I am not doing better now, I managed to re connect the buttons´ pannel from the bottom of the motherboard and IO was working to complete the diagrams that we already have for those connections. I might be still be able to do so since I took some pictures, but unfortunately after some of the tests the power on button is no longer working, probably due to a fault on the power supply... I checked the voltages on the PWR and CLEAN ends, but no luck... its getting harder and harder to progress.. The nasty thing is that according to my information, the order of the cablings on the motherboard is not the same as the order on the power button connections, meaning that the cables are crossed and not intuitive.
I will try to gather further info and come back with mi findings!

Thanks third_deg!