400 green light, but won't start

[newmom]

I have a 400 that needed a new speaker, so I opened it up, cleaned it, greased it, put in a new speaker and put it back together. Speaker works great , but nothing else works now. It will not go into diagnostics now, and when trying to either turn it on, or start diagnostics, I get the same response. The green clean light comes on (and also the green small light on the right side of the main Clean button that is used in diagnostics) but it doesn't do anything but make one beep. When I depress the button again, the lights go out, hit it again the lights come on. I checked for a broken or damaged wire and I really can't see any problem. I did not use any water on the bumper or the shell during cleaning, so shouldn't have shorted out anything. I did try to clean a lot of hair from the wheel, and thought maybe I had damaged something there so took the wheel out for a detailed cleaning, but that didn't change anything.

I know some of you robot gurus have probably seen something like this before?????

[newmom]

Is that small green light, to the right of the larger green light on the Clean button, only used in Diagnostics? I see there is a lot of reference to "Stuck In Diagnostics" regarding the Scooba, but I can't find any reference to this in a Roomba, but that smaller green light, which I believe came on the first time I tried to put it into Diagnostics, might have something to do with my problem. Anybody?

[vic7767]

Stuck in BiTs mode on a Scooba has to do with the Clean button being full of debris causing it to electrically indicate a pushed on condition so that when the Power button is pressed the Scooba goes directly into BiTs mode. The single Clean button on the Roomba is not able to cause the same condition.

What 400 model Roomba is this ?

[newmom]

It is the basic burgundy 400 with the one button.

[vic7767]

You might check the cable that runs from the User interface Clean button to the connector on the main circuit board.

[newmom]

I have tried a different shell on this with the same problem, or am I missing your point?

[newmom]

One other thing, even without the bumper on, if I push the Clean button, the green lights come on and it makes a beep. Seems to me, if I ever tried to turn on a Roomba when the bumper wasn't securely attached, it just made an ehhh sound and I don't think the button turned green.

[mfortuna]

If the bumper is not plugged in and you try to start the robot it should think there is a cliff and give you the "eh" sound.

[newmom]

Yes, I thought so. Somehow, my robot is bypassing some things. It thinks the bumper is on and the two green lights makes it seem like it is stuck in diagnostics, though I know it hasn't come up before in a Roomba, and it wouldn't be for the same reason the Scooba gets stuck in diagnostics. It has frustrated me for most of the day and I have tried repeatedly to look at all the wiring and it just looks like it is all in good shape, but I can't think of anything else that would cause this.

[vic7767]

Since you've used a different shell with the same results then the trouble will be back in the Roomba. As Mike verified, without a bumper attached the Roomba should just give the ehh error when the Clean button is pressed. What is unusual is the additional LED under the clean button coming on when the button is pressed. There is an led on either side of the clean button for a total of three. All three would turn on one at a time if the BiTs mode was entered.

[newmom]

I couldn't recall if there were times during diagnostics, when only the main light and one of the two sides were on at one time. Are there any times other than diagnostics when those side lights are on?

[vic7767]

Nope, only used during the BiTs program.

[newmom]

Hmmm, then it still seems to me like it could be stuck in diagnostic mode; when I tried to put it into Diagnostics, this is when the two lights came on.

[vic7767]

The first test in BiTs mode is to turn all LEDs on one at a time and also change their color from green to red. This is not happening in this case. It would appear there is a defect onboard that Roomba.

[newmom]

Sounds like another Roomba to part out. The only thing I can think of that I could have done was to have used too much or too powerful forced air on the circuit board while trying to remove the dust.

[newmom]

Worked another hour and a half on this today, unassembled,rechecked all the wiring, could find no problem, put in a different motor and deck, different shell, different bumper, different speaker, Reassembled, same problem. I am going to part this out, although it worked fine before I changed the speaker (except for no sound) so continues to frustrate me.

Here is an interesting side note, the speaker I put in, was the original one that was in there in the first place ( I only retried it because it worked until I switched it out) The very strange thing is, now that speaker works??? I am totally baffled.

[mfortuna]

I have had speakers stop working because too much dust was forced in and recoverd one by using a compressor on it.

Make sure you didn't bend a pin on the motherboard. I don't see why using a comprssor on the motherboard would cause an issue.

[newmom]

Okay, I have ANOTHER Roomba with the exact same symptoms. Worked fine (4110) (sage) except for the impeller. I switched out with another impeller, same prob. I switched out the wires from the bin holder to the PCB, same problem, soooooo, as long as it worked perfectly except for the vacuum, I decided to make a Dirt Dog out of it which of course, didn't need an impeller. Switched out bin, cover, the deck (to one without a dirt detector) and the bin holder (not sure what you call those two things on the sides that the holds the wires and the bin. Now, I get a Dirt Dog that when you hit the clean light, just shows a green light in the center and one on the right of the center. Anyone have any ideas for possible causes. Would it be a problem if my PCB, had uncovered pins? I unplugged and left emtpy, the two connectors for the impeller and the dirt detector. Is that possibly the problem? Don't believe this was the case on the 400, but anyway, thought I would see if there is someone who might now before I put the other deck back in etc. to try it. I have already changed out the bumper and the shell, so those are not the cause. Thanks for anyone's help.

[vic7767]

Your Roomba should run fine without the vacuum motor and the dirt detector being connected. You may want to put that Roomba into test mode and see what's going on.

[newmom]

No can do. It went in fine before this problem. Now when I hold down the CLEAN button, it just displays those two green lights. Odd that this has happened to me twice. I am glad to know though that changing the deck and stuff wasn't the problem as that saves me from switching it all back.