Mod roomba 560 charger to 220~240V

[stupidroomba]

Hi,

Anyone mod the new 500 series charger to 220~240V?

[THX-1138]

No one as of this date. Will you be the first?

[alik911]

Hi,

Anyone mod the new 500 series charger to 220~240V?

Do you have roomba 500 series?
What are the parameters? I mean input and output voltage and wattage.
Is it the same as 4xx series fast charger?

Did you look into charger? Do you have photos inside?
Seems it may be helpful. May be it's the same as fast charger too?

[gendis]

Unfortunately PSU is different.
IN: 120VAC 60Hz 0.68A 33W
OUT: 22.5VDC 1.25A

I still have a problem to make roomba 500 use 220V
(110v/220v converter doesn't work and alternative PSU 22V 120W generates err2)

[alik911]

Unfortunately PSU is different.
IN: 120VAC 60Hz 0.68A 33W
OUT: 22.5VDC 1.25A

I still have a problem to make roomba 500 use 220V
(110v/220v converter doesn't work and alternative PSU 22V 120W generates err2)

IN and OUT looks like as 400 series Fast Charger. Seems Fast Charger will be compatible with 500 series. It's very interesting.
May be circuit diagram is the same?
I think detailed photos of inside of new PSU will be very helpful.

[ovaltine]

I'm guessing it is the same as the fast charger. Conversion is discussed here. Essentially, a capacitor is simply replaced with a higher voltage rating. I will be trying this out when my 550 arrives in Australia tomorrow.

[stupidroomba]

HOw? you managed to mod it?

[Yvan]

Hi !

I'm living in Free France and I've recieved my 500 2 weeks ago.

It works perfectly on 220V after changing the cap of 47uF / 200V by a 2x22uF / 400V (It makes only 44uF, but all I have is 22uF caps).

There is enought room inside the box to do that easily.

I also changed the blue varicap with one from an old discarded TV set.

I have an old roomba, but the 500 serie is very fine ! Less noise, heavier, looks smarter.
The virtual wall starts and stops automatically!

[ovaltine]

Yep, did the same. Replaced capacitor and varistor, and everything worked. Bloody expensive getting the 44uf 400V capacitor in miniature size though. Two capacitors and varistors cost me $40 here in Australia including shipping. I got the extra capacitor and varistor to save me shipping for next time.

BTW, there is a link to the article under the word "here" in my previous post.

[stupidroomba]

I tried to mod it by changing the cap to 400v and remove Varister. The capacitor blown. Strange. Anybody knows wat is the problem? Now my white charger becomes black and l do not have spare charger.

[alik911]

I tried to mod it by changing the cap to 400v and remove Varister. The capacitor blown. Strange. Anybody knows wat is the problem? Now my white charger becomes black and l do not have spare charger.

Yes, new charger is the same as fast charger of old Roomba models.
I removed varistor and replaced capacitor to 47uF, 400V. It's working well.

Why your capacitor is blown? I had the same situation once.
May be because of polarity mistake, or overheating during the soldering. May be new capacitor was punctured.
Now you can try to replace capacitor again, and may be you need to replace fuse and D1-D4 diodes.
Make sure you don't have short circuit before turning on.

[dennyon]

Yes, new charger is the same as fast charger of old Roomba models.
I removed varistor and replaced capacitor to 47uF, 400V. It's working well.

I modded my charger (removed varistor, and replaced the 47uF capacitor), and did an initial charge of near to 24hours. Now my 560 roomba can't run properly.

It's as if my roomba has been set into "retarded" mode. The sound is not smooth... I need to press a longer time at the clean button before it shuts down, and I need to press a longer time before it starts cleaning. When it's moving, it jerks. The vacuuming sounds ok though.

Did a reset (pressed dock and spot for 10 seconds). Also tried to press and hold the clean button with the battery taken out. But it din solve my problem.

I have plugged the charger directly to the roomba itself when I was charging. Not sure if this is the cause of the problem.

Has anyone encountered this? Any ideas how it can be solved?

[THX-1138]

Hello dennyon Welcome back.

First, any modification of you robot has the potential of ruining it partially or completely. Have you tried to check if there is accumulated dust on your 500 series front bumper IR sensors? Have you inspected the circuit board for any burned out or warped circuitry elements? Just some ideas to check.

[dennyon]

Hello dennyon Welcome back.

First, any modification of you robot has the potential of ruining it partially or completely. Have you tried to check if there is accumulated dust on your 500 series front bumper IR sensors? Have you inspected the circuit board for any burned out or warped circuitry elements? Just some ideas to check.

Hi THX-1138,

The circuitry is ok, everything looks fine. It's a new set, so there's no dust on it.

I took out the battery the other day to discharge all the electricity in the roomba. Then the battery was put back again, and it works fine... but only for a few minutes. Then it'll return to the jerky state, with the warped sounds.

I'm beginning to suspect that this is not a charger problem, but a PCB board problem. Possible?

[THX-1138]

Hello dennyon,

I'm beginning to suspect that this is not a charger problem, but a PCB board problem. Possible?

Yes, it is possible. Try to run the onboard DEMO mode, it will check some basic subsystems of your 500 series Roomba (drive wheels, brushes, vac, etc.). It SHOULD tell you if a fault exists when it runs the "demo". Keep us updated.

[Robby3]

Just to add my 2 cents : I used the 110v power supply with a 230V-110V converter here in Switzerland and the 47uF capacitor started to leak pretty soon. The problem is that many of these converters produce the high peak voltage from the switching regulator what causes the damage to the capacitor. More expensive converters should not do that but without the necessary equippment we cannot check this.

I now pick up the cheap 47uF/400V cap as well as a S10K385 varistor to replace the parts inside the charger. Also a plug adapter is cheap. All in all the parts cost around 4 Euros.

- Roger

[dennyon]

Hello dennyon,

I'm beginning to suspect that this is not a charger problem, but a PCB board problem. Possible?

Yes, it is possible. Try to run the onboard DEMO mode, it will check some basic subsystems of your 500 series Roomba (drive wheels, brushes, vac, etc.). It SHOULD tell you if a fault exists when it runs the "demo". Keep us updated.

Hi, I'm back! My 560 is getting less cranky nowadays and can finish cleaning without problems. Not sure what really is the problem, but it slowly disappeared. At first I removed the battery each time when the problem came, then i got fed up and just let it "rest", and it was able to run longer each time without throwing tantrums.

But i think it'll be good not to try plug it directly into the roomba to charge if you have modded your charger. Just in case doing that is the cause of the problem.

Cheeers!

[RoombaZavr]

Hello dennyon,
Hi, I'm back! My 560 is getting less cranky nowadays and can finish cleaning without problems. Not sure what really is the problem, but it slowly disappeared. At first I removed the battery each time when the problem came, then i got fed up and just let it "rest", and it was able to run longer each time without throwing tantrums.

But i think it'll be good not to try plug it directly into the roomba to charge if you have modded your charger. Just in case doing that is the cause of the problem.
Cheeers!

Hi!
That's because every new battery shall have several charge/discharge cycles before it obtain it's maximum capacity.

I'm awaiting my new Roomba 570, Scooba 380 & Dirt Dog arrival and I'll need to do the same PS modification for Russian 220v power grid.

[djos]

Hi !

I'm living in Free France and I've recieved my 500 2 weeks ago.

It works perfectly on 220V after changing the cap of 47uF / 200V by a 2x22uF / 400V (It makes only 44uF, but all I have is 22uF caps).

There is enought room inside the box to do that easily.

I also changed the blue varicap with one from an old discarded TV set.

I have an old roomba, but the 500 serie is very fine ! Less noise, heavier, looks smarter.
The virtual wall starts and stops automatically!

My electronics knowledge is virtually non-existent these days but i'm pretty handy with a soldering iron - is there a detailed guide to modding a 560 PSU for 240v use including part numbers etc?

Im currently using a good quality 120va stepdown transformer with no issues.

[Gordon]

djos, you are 'talking' to a two years old post, the one and only post that Yvan submitted to this board!

You will be better served by referring to a more recent thread on this subject. Find it by using the Advanced search box at upper right to search for member (Author) red_sword_fish. Then read all his posts and subsequent others to current end of that thread.