Trobles with 430X cables

[SteveL]

il y a 8 minutes, Fred a dit :

Oui je vois tu maitrises en tout cas 

Avec Google traduction c'est facile lol. 

Mais je n'arrive pas à comprendre le soucis.

Lumière verte à la base donc tout va bien, enfin normalement.

Apparement continuité sur AL AR G1 G2

Ou j'ai du mal à comprendre c'est 3,5V entre AL G1 ET AR G1 et rien sur AL AR et sur le G2. J'espère juste qu'il a compris que le test doit être fait sur les bornes AL ET AR.

Je sèche un peu car bizarrement quand il crée une nouvelle zone provisoire avec 1 cable guide G1, ça fonctionne.

 

[Faco]

Hi there!

Yes google translate is the solution to understand french :-D .. sorry to bother here but I did not found any kind of support/forum here in Italy.

This morning I have made some more tests.

I have followed the installation manual for the guide installation, so I have placed it under the charge station and I have followed straight for 2 meters.

The Guide was connected to G1 and I still have my test cable perimeter of about 80 m2.

I have reset Robot and started it again. Unfortunally nothing has changed: robot goes back a little and then stops. Error message says "Failed to calibrate guide".

Then I have switched the cable to G2, reset robot, and this time it was able to start cutting the grass. I have then pushed the park button and I see that this time it was unable to park himself. Again it was looking for charge station in the left side of it.

Then I let it cut the grass but after 3-4 minutes it has stopped again. The error message was "Out of working area".

So I think that cables are not the problem.

I took the multimeter, and tried to get voltage in the back of charge station. All possible combinations were zero or near to zero.

Then I have disconnected the cables and I have checked again. This time I got these results:

AR + AL 26v

AR + G1 4v

AR + G2 0v

AL + G2 26v

AL + G1 0,5v

G1 + G2 4v

I can misure voltage values when all cables are disconnected only.

At the end I think the problem is with the charge station and I see there is an electronic board inside of it so the solution could be to replace this item..

I will try to contact husqvarna support to see what they suggest me, I have removed already the charge station.

I'll let you know how it goes... Thanks for the french support! :-D

 

PS: This is the electronic board I am checking: https://www.gplshop.it/group-4154942/group-4154946/circuito-stampato-pcba-1.php

[SteveL]

Dans la borne de charge, il y a les 4 emplacements AL AR G1 G2.

Essayez de l'ouvrir pour voir si un câble à l'intérieur n'est pas déconnecté ou autre.

Faite aussi des photos de la base, ça peut aider.

[Faco]

I will try to open it...

I have called support, they are very busy at the moment and they cannot move from there... so in this moment is not so easy to go to service.

They have to check to know which is the problem but it seems that the voltage in the back is not right. They say, if that is correct, that each connector should have 26-28 Volts.

Does anybody here have checked such voltages in their charge station ?

[SteveL]

Malheureusement je n'ai pas de multimètre pour tester sur ma base.

Essayez d'ouvrir la base pour voir si la carte n'est pas simplement morte et peut-être tester sur la carte aussi en direct.

[Fred]

Je vais essayer de ne pas oublier de tester ce week-end.

[Faco]

Thank you!!

My situation is as in attached image. There is no cable connected to the charge station, power connector only.

If cables are connected I cannot mesure nothing.

 

 

[SteveL]

Bête question mais le robot charge ? 

[Faco]

Yes, the robot charges without any problem.

Other questions could be:

Which is the way automower detects area to cut and the charge station?

Is the 26 Volt in the perimeter cable only or the currents in such cable could vary to tell robot what to do? For example the request "Park" is sent by cable or thanks to a not wired signal?.

Does it use some kind of electromagnetic wave near charge station that has a maximum range of 8 meters to catch the robot when it is parking or there is something more in all cutting area?

In the technical specification it does talk about "Boundary wire Antenna" that operates in the range of 300-80000 Hz.

Is that related to 8 meters area of charge station or to all the cutting area? Is the perimeter cable that creates such signal in Hz?

[SteveL]

Avez vous pu ouvrir la base pour avoir des photos ? 

[Faco]

I have just found this discussion that seems describe my issue... they have changed the board in the charge station. They talk about secret menu and how voltage should work in the cable: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sci.electronics.repair/Lwn4Vfxcg8I

I will try to open the base tomorrow, when I first look at it I didn't found any easy way to open it... seems complicated but I should take a second look after checking the parts exploded document.

[SteveL]

Oui il faut vérifier la carte de la base comme je dis depuis le départ.

C'est certainement le soucis.

[Faco]

WoW: 

 

may be I can find some more information in this hidden menu.

 

[SteveL]

Je ne pense pas que cela va vous dire le voltage de la carte de la base.

[Faco]

Good morning!

I think I have "fixed" 80% of the problem.

Yesterday night I have found “the secret menu” with keys 7 + 9 so this morning I was able to have some more informations.
I have parked the robot in the chaging station and then I have opened the new hidden "Test Charging station” menu.

I was able to see that all cables were reported as ok BUT G2 was reported as “No signal”.

I have disconnected the G2 connector from the back of charging station and tested robot again.

This time all seems working in the right way: 430X is able to cut in all the area and is able to park into the charging station.

So I think the options are: 

1. G2 cable is damaged somehow somewhere even if multimeter says “no it is ok”.

2. Circuit Board is somehow damaged and is not able to make work G2 connector, I never noticed the “rrrrr” little noise near charge station. So changing the charge station circuitboard could be the solution to have all working again. 

I have read that it should be possible to use an old AM radio to listen cable signal and then follow the cable to go near the interruption/problem… I will try this with the G2 cable.

If cable is not broken I can consider order the spare part. But I am happy already because the robot is cutting the grass that was too high! :-D

[SteveL]

Bon, je pense qu'on va y arriver.

La base à l'air de fonctionner pour AL AR G1 si j'ai bien compris car c'est de plus en plus étrange.

Apparemment un soucis avec G2.

Si on est logique, le câble G1 fonctionne bien.

Donc, bête raisonnement mais si vous placez  le câble G2 sur la borne de G1 que dit le test ? Si le test toujours négatif, c'est un problème sur le câble G2 et si le test est positif, cela veut dire que c'est la borne G2 sur la carte qui pose problème.

Donc après, comme vous êtes sûr que le câble G1 fonctionne,  refaire le test en branchant le câble G1 sur la borne G2, Si le test est négatif, la borne G2 est morte et donc il faut remplacer la carte de la base et si le test est positif, cela confirme un soucis de câble G2.

 

 

[Faco]

That is a good suggestion! Thanks! I did not think about but i will test that later and that will tell me if the problem is cable or G2 connector, good!

See you later.

[SteveL]

Oui, et si ça fonctionne avec le câble G2 sur la borne G1, je laisserais comme ça car le câble guide G1 ne sert pas a grand chose et je pense que même sans le câble guide G1, le robot retrouvera la station de charge sans soucis. Ça vous laissera du temps pour remplacer la carte de la base même en fin de saison à condition que le robot rentre bien seul sans le câble guide G1.

Mais le premier test à faire est dans mon message précédent.

[Faco]

Ok, I have removed G1 cable from G1 connector and I have connected G2 cable to G1 connector.

Charge Station report is the same: G1 "OK"  while G2 "No Signal"

Then I have removed G2 cable from G1 and connected G1 cable to G2 connector.

This time G1 was "No Signal" and G2 was blinking between "OK" and "No Signal", I think that G1 needs to be connected to have G2 working.

I have connected G1 and G2 as it was at the beginning but G1 was OK and G2 was "No Signal" again.

So that should be a charging board circuit problem. I have left G2 cable disconnected and closed all and put all where it was before. Robot is working... I'll leave it in this way till any other problem will occour or till the end of the season.

Thanks!

PS: If I can get an AM radio I will test this checking option too...it would be good if it works to check where a cable is broken!

[SteveL]

Si vous pensez que G1 doit fonctionner pour que G2 fonctionne, il suffit de faire le test en connectant le câble G1 sur la borne G2 et donc le câble G2 sur la borne  G1.

Car le câble G2 fonctionne alors apparemment. De cette façon, vous pourrez exclure le soucis de G1 et G2.

[SteveL]

Si le câble G2 fonctionne, laissez le sur la borne G1 et déconnectez le câble G1 comme ça votre robot a plus de chance de revenir à sa base à chaque fois car G2 est plus éloigné donc c'est plus intéressant de le laisser. Enfin c'est ce que je ferais pour moi sauf si vous souhaitez chaque fois aller rechercher le robot à la main dans votre pelouse

[Faco]

Yes, I do that, the error was as before on G2

[Faco]

Well I think that in my installation G1 area are similar or bigger to G2 area... so I think I will left it G1 with G1 cable.

I have changed robot settings about how to reach charging station and I left no time to G2 guide so that robot will follow boundary cable to the station if other ways do not work.

I am also happy to see that my battery is still good after 4 years (2016 was the first season). Menu report says that I have 4073 mAh Vs 4160mAh of a new battery.

It says I have 1094 charging cycles to the battery and a total of 3353 working hours.

Today I also have took the time: a full battery charge allows 2 hours 20 minutes of working time before parking. Robot technical details reports an avarage working time of 2 hours and 25 minutes. Very good.

[SteveL]

Alors je ne comprends plus, vous dites le câble G1 sur la borne G1 et le câble G2 sur la borne G2, c'est ok pour le câble et la borne G1 et erreur pour G2 donc il reste 2 possibilités d'erreurs soit le câble G2 ou la borne G2.

Ensuite vous dites, j'ai placé le câble G2 sur le connecteur G1 et là, c'est ok, donc le câble G2 est hors de cause.

Il reste donc un soucis à la borne G2.

Comme les câbles G1 et G2 fonctionnent, avez vous essayé le câble G1 sur la borne G2 et le câble G2 sur la borne G1 ??? Car dans votre message précédent, vous dites que vous avez connecté le câble G1 sur la borne G2 mais que pour que cela fonctionne, il faut peut-être de la borne G1 soit raccordée donc j'en déduit que vous n'avez rien branché sur G1 pour votre test et si la borne G1 n'est pas raccordée, ça peut faire faire une erreur.

C'est dommage de ne pas faire cette vérification pour être à 100 % sûr que c'est bien la carte de la base qui pose problème.

 

[SteveL]

Pas de soucis, vous faites comme vous voulez mais même si votre zone 2 est plus petite, c'est celle qui est le moins accessible pour votre robot. Mais chacun ses idées.....

De plus en rentrant avec le câble périphérique, le temps de tonte va être diminué car il devra faire un grand trajet avant de rentrer, ce qui n'est pas le cas si vous faites le changement.