Vacuum Mapping Failure

[napalm255]

While I continue to have the duplicated and rotated map issue, the frequency seems to have reduced and I’ve stumbled on an odd workaround (though that’s probably a bit of a stretch).

I have it scheduled to run everyday. I changed the time of day so that I could monitor the cleaning process. I stopped using virtual walls. I make sure that everything is picked up and out of the way (dog still can’t put his own toys away ;)). My house does have the baseboard spring doorstops. I have tried to keep everything on my floor as close to the same as reasonably possible. As I don’t have a lot of great spots to move the charger and vacuum around I have kept it in the same place since day one. Whenever it gets confused it never seems to be around the charger though.

Here’s the interesting part though…

The last few times the vacuum started to get confused, I opened the application to find a duplicated and rotated map. I paused the cleaning process. I simply moved the map around a little in the application and the duplicated map disappeared; not even ghost cleaning lines. I then resumed the cleaning process through the app, and it finished cleaning and returned to the charge station appropriately. I’ve been able to successfully do that a few times so far. With the map returning to normal, I have not had to perform a map reset either.

[holmes8264157]

I am having the same problem and like many of you are getting little to no support from Wyze. I have reset maps, updated, done factory reset, everything suggested. No fix. In using vacuum today, one thing I have noticed is that if there is any dust/ lint on the LIDAR, it seems to get lost/ duplicate map. I have taken to wiping off LIDAR and top of vacuum. Last two times after doing this, I have had no issues.
I know LIDAR has trouble with smoke but I am wondering is the dust/ lint is reflecting returns and causing it to get lost. If so, this is a hardware issue not software and will be an expensive fix for Wyze.

[rich_frantz]

Just because there is strength in numbers, I too am having this issue. My vacuums run every day. Both have the mapping issue and I am resetting the map once or twice a week.
Yes, all the software/firmware is up to date.

[htgrimmi]

I noticed something today that may be of help. Mine has been working fine since my last post in the thread/map reset. Yesterday we bought a swivel recliner that has a round base and the chair sits a little higher as it rocks.

I watched the vacuum try to figure out if it could clean under it as it rolled under one time and a wheel caught the base the vacuum lifted and turned due to the uneven surfaces. At that point the map in the app skewed.

So I cancelled the cleaning, stuffed a bunch of towels under the base to fill up the gap and the unit drew the outline on the map properly and there was no map skew.

What I think is happening in my case is the vacuum is losing it’s positioning if it rides up on something with one wheel, shifts position and doesn’t get stuck.

I’m going to add a small virtual wall under the new chair outline and see how it runs tonight.

[GenTech]

My son and I had an involved discussion around the manner in which the robot figures out where it is. He suggested that he would use programming logic with a step counter to know how much the wheels have turned and thereby calculate travel. I suggested that the lidar would be effective to know where it is, and would also expect there is a gryroscope on the board to monitor orientation, and turning. Since part of his suggestion was that the LIDAR likely is not always used, he thought that it would work without LIDAR. The logic is that using LIDAR constantly is processer intenstive, and while it is always spinning, it is unlikely that it is always reading/storing what it “sees”.

I expermented, covering the LIDAR with an upside down cup, then pressing the home button. It sat there, pretty quiet for shy of 30 seconds withough moving (it usually turns 360 deg to get its bearings) and then faulted with red-LEDs flashing. Upon pressing the home button again, it did its check, and returned to the base. Maybe I will try again, covering it while it’s moving, and see what happens (or how long it takes to react.

Ultimately my son was suggesting that if the wheels slip, it may lose track of orientation, thereby causing the map to rotate. He then suggested putting something sticky on the floor (spilling some soda) to help with traction … bad idea … he was joking.

Checking the wheels, they seem to be reasonaby resilient rubber, so traction should not be an issue. However, it does seem to distort the map in space with a rug that may be causing lost traction.

The fact that you saw the map distort suggests another option that I will try in my next encounter. It suggest that the distortion is due to lost traction, and pausing and restarting the cleaning (which in my experience prompts the robot to do its 360deg turn) may force a re-orientation, and map correction. I cannot recall if I have tried this, but it’s certainly worth a shot.

Virtual wall is a good idea. I have two recliners that pose similar challenges. I tend to extend them while it cleans behind then, as this puts the back closer to the floor (blocks the opening). I should have thought of the blocked zone for that.

[GenTech]

I wonder if the resume prompted the LIDAR to look around, which in turn corrected the map orietation …

Dog beds move (I had them off the floor for the original mapping) and it works around their new position every time it does that room. But what you are desribing suggests the pause/resume may be an on-the-fly fix.

The next time this happens, I will now definitely try that approach.

[malinate]

I have noticed this problem occasionally as well. There NEEDS to be a “disable active mapping” checkbox once you are satisfied with the current map. Just today my vacuum must have gotten stuck on the edge of a rug or under a chair or something, so it was completely lost and proceeded to re-map the entire house.

Here’s my house as it looks normally:

And the house after today’s re-map:

Thanks to my Wyze vac, my house is now 50% bigger!

Then, it wandered around in circles for literally 1/2 hour trying to find its way back to the charging base, and I finally got so tired of it that I just picked it up and plopped it down in front of the charger so it could figure itself out.

[GenTech]

I think you will find that the map is back to normal after it docks, and you look in the app again. This has been the case for me after such wackiness.

[wolfcorner]

Lucky you, that was not the case for me. It just continued to mess the map up after docking, most of the times with it deleting virtual barriers as well.

[spectrophage]

This is my first robot vacuum experience of any kind, so I really don’t have expectations. Today, it being only the 2nd time in operation since arrival last week, I had a similar tilting map experience. I stopped the cleaning and had it re-dock 2 separate times, no luck, room remains tilted. So the only way back to proper functioning is to reset the map?

[GenTech]

If the map is not resetting itself after re-docking, then you likely will have to re-map. So far in a couple of months of ownership, I have only re-mapped once, but it was much easier than the first mapping.

When I received my robot, mapping involved vacuuming the whole space, and it took me two times, and several hours to get it done. During the first event I paused the vacuum too long, and it got lost so I had to initiate the process again. During the process the battery got low, so it returned to base, only to resume (and complet the mapping) later.

A month or so after that when I had to re-map, the quick-map option was there, and the robot simply navigates to all accessible spaces, looks around, and collects barrier/wall data to create the map. What took two+ hours the first time took only ~15 minutes with quick map.

Since then I have had a few events of rotated maps, but they seem to correct upon docking. Wyze support, of course, suggested re-mapping every time I had reported such issues. Since re-mapping also involves re-defining spaces, vitrual walls, and re-doing all the scheduled cleaning, I am opting to live with the roatated map, and coninuing to see what fixes it to help the cause overall.

On a different day, it did this again. When it tried to dock, it was further confused, you can see where the robot is (thinks it’s near the dock), and where the dock actually is, second image it docked, third image it fixed it’s confused position:

As you can see by the time, this was all within one minute

Later I started area cleaning (exited the map, and went back in on my iPhone) and it was resolved.
This is what it should look like

In short, while you may need to re-map, it should be relatively quick, and it’s kind of fun to watch.

[wolfcorner]

You’re lucky! Mine will only use a map for about a week before it gets to be useless. After about the second day, the vacuum starts drawing small additions outside of the boundaries of the house each time it runs. then around 7 days after a fresh mapping the map has become completely useless because everything has become so shifted that it starts going into places that are blocked via virtual walls on the standard map, but because of the errors it’s making in the map, it doesn’t know it’s actual location.

[Littleaton]

I had to remap my house 5 times yesterday because it just couldn’t get it right. It kept skipping parts of rooms, or it would add walls to areas that did not have them.

Like it scanned one room and didn’t get all of its walls, so when it went to clean that room, it “scanned” them but it set the walls to be the black areas that it didn’t finish instead of the actual walls.

I would love to see a reamp option just for a specific room.

[jeremykrans]

Same thing with mine. Happens like once or twice per week, then it can’t find it’s way back to the charging station and I have to pick it up and put it on the charger. Then the map will reset and I have to start the cleaning over. It’s getting really annoying.

[htgrimmi]

I wanted to chime back in with some testing results on my last post.

For those who haven’t read the whole thread, I was able to confirm in my case the map skewing has been caused the something catching the vacuum and pulling is askew really quick. So things I have tested with and confirmed cause issues in my case are: Small thick rugs like bathroom rugs where a corner can bunch up and skew the unit in a hurry. Door stops, the springy kind. My kids leaving a book or something on the floor. Office chairs with casters that hang way out. Riding up on something that my kids stuff under their bed, like a stack of books vs. putting them away. Catching the side of something during what I call discovery, when the vac first goes into a room and outlines it before starting going back/forth. (This is where it seems to occur the most)

I’ve added a bunch of virtual walls which has really reduced this condition and improved reliability in the vac.

Hope this helps.

I’ve add

[tom.coggia]

In other words: When your Wyze vacuum encounters obstacles that are totally to be expected by a robot vacuum roaming around your house, it totally breaks down and is unable to function properly?
Good to know.

[GenTech]

Hello, my name is ___, it’s been three weeks since my robot’s last mapping misbehavior …

I still tend to pick up and move dog toys to the blocked area. I did move some furniture in my bedroom this weekend (moved some exercise equipment that the LIDAR could see past), and moved a chair and stoll from their position on the original mapping, and it accommodated well, vacuuming that whole area as if those obstacles had never been there. While it did not remember this in the base map, it has continued to cover this previously obstructed area.

I have a couple of dog beds that also move, and it always seems to work around them appropriately.

Device Firmware 1.6.97 (although I don’t think this has changed from day one).
App V2.18.43 (iOS 14).

Wondering if I should join the BETA program, or leave well-enough alone …

[earthquakechicken]

Just wanted to echo the general experience shared so far. Firmware is 1.6.97.

I basically have to reset the map every other day. It takes no longer than 2 days before the map goes awry. I’ve let it run after the ghost mapping for days before and it doesn’t work. Entire areas are skipped.

Normally, I’d be interested in understanding why this is happening, but as others have suggested in this thread or others, having an option to disable mapping seems like a logical solution. Perhaps, this is more difficult than it seems, but reset and firmware is clearly not the solution.

[GenTech]

I have not had to re-map in several weeks. It runs schedlued cleaning 5 days/week, with three different schedules/rooms on two of those days.

Mon, Wed, Fri - three adjacent rooms, starting where the dock resides.
Tue, Thu, - three non-adjacent rooms, at three different times (only way to drive sequence).

I would suggest checking the room in which the map initially disorients, and make sure that there is nothing that may have caused one wheel to lose traction. It seems to be a theme for some that have reported the map orientation issue that something in that space caused a slip.

The room where I had the issue has a carpet on a tile floor, and has to climb the carpet, which I imagine may cause slipping. My computer programmer son believes that the LIDAR is not always reading (even though it’s always spinning), as that would be processor intensive. But clearly it is necessary during operation during the perimeter check of the room. I can see (on the map) new things appear (dog bed position) during vacuuming, and then they go away after it has docked.

I too am confused at the mapping errors, but have persevered against re-mapping on a whim. Rather I have tried to understand what the cause of the discombobulation may be, and again, for the past several weeks, no issues.

I have joined the Beta program, so now on firmware 1.6.113, but I have no idea what (if anything) that is doing for me. The link to the firmware page only desribes the released versions, not the Beta.

[lindamarie_ross]

What the heck is going on with mapping?