Bought a used vacuum from eBay with seller saying it won’t stay on for more than 10 mins even with new battery.
I’ve always wanted to get a Waze vacuum and figured this was my ticket in.
Bought the vacuum, it arrived with a missing front wheel (well… it was missing in the pictures too, I just did not know to look for this…) but also came without power adapter (that one WAS in the pictures). I had pre-ordered a replacement battery from eBay. Both arrived at the same time but… without power adapter…
Fast forward 24H, I have a power supply, recharged the old battery, repaired the top lid hinges (both were broken), swapped the brushes, have a makeshift slider up front (wheel on order, will take a few weeks to get here). Ran one vacuum cycle and old battery got below 10% after 45 mins with the vacuum not deciding to return home on its own. I did a factory reset on the vacuum when I got it.
Another 12H later, I swapped the old battery for the new battery and let it recharge for ~12H. Started a quick map cycle and battery dipped dramatically quickly to 51% on a 14mins map. Robot did not get back home/to the charging station. Got real close (~18-24"?), did the hokie-pokie dance in front of it (well… turn on itself, maybe looking for an electrical signal) but did not get there, and then started wandering around. The charging station was not located based on the specs (2’ both sides and 3’ in front), so I relocated it for the next step.
I just did a factory reset on the vacuum and waiting for battery to fully recharge it and try this mapping again.
I’m a bit concerned that the battery level does not seem to be reported correctly (or that’s a trash battery… I saw a recommendation for it in a thread here somewhere) and the fact it did not come home on its own the first time.
Based on the map it generates, I think the lidar is working. How it is find the base station in the last 24"? Infra red? How can I verify the charging station emits infrared and robot receives it? Am I missing something in term of resetting the battery level/BMS or is that going to do it on its own (i.e. “self learning”)?
What else should I be looking at doing? Or should I plan to part it out and sell the parts on eBay?