Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

4

Time Required

                          30 minutes

Sections

1

  • How to Modify Cliff Sensors so they never signal a cliff
  • 4 steps

Flags

2

In Progress

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  • BackiRobot Roomba 500 Series

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Introduction

Before throwing out the Roomba I decided to perform one-way surgery on the cliff sensors in order to completely disable the ability of the Roomba to detect a cliff

What you need

Step 1

              Follow the disassembly instruction of another fixit
  • Roomba Disassembly Instruction

Roomba Disassembly Instruction

1024

Step 2

              Disassemble the sensor Clean or Continue
  • The sensor is easily disassembled by lifting the two small plastic latches on the side. Once the cover is removed you could clean the sensor and replace it….
  • Since I’m very tired of Error-6 messages and will not be adding stairs to my dirty house I opted to alter the sensor so that it will never detect a cliff falsely or otherwise.
  • These sensors work by emitting an IR light from one side and since there are baffles in the sensor it must bounce off a floor to reach the detector in the other side.

The sensor is easily disassembled by lifting the two small plastic latches on the side. Once the cover is removed you could clean the sensor and replace it….

Since I’m very tired of Error-6 messages and will not be adding stairs to my dirty house I opted to alter the sensor so that it will never detect a cliff falsely or otherwise.

These sensors work by emitting an IR light from one side and since there are baffles in the sensor it must bounce off a floor to reach the detector in the other side.

Step 3

  • THIS STEP CANNOT BE UNDONE.
  • I removed the baffles from the sensor so that the detector and emitter have a direct line of sight to each other
  • I used a small pair of wire cutters to cut out the baffles as needed

THIS STEP CANNOT BE UNDONE.

I removed the baffles from the sensor so that the detector and emitter have a direct line of sight to each other

I used a small pair of wire cutters to cut out the baffles as needed

Step 4

              Reassemble and Test
  • I put the Roomba back together and it cleaned until the battery was dead… For the first time in months…

I put the Roomba back together and it cleaned until the battery was dead… For the first time in months…

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Cancel: I did not complete this guide.

Author

                                      with 1 other contributor 


                    David Miller Lowe

Member since: 12/22/2020

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