I’m posting here because I’ve gotten no response from my ticket that I posted over 3 days ago, which included photographs, details and log recording times.
Problem description:
I recently received another replacement core (#6 if it matters). It arrived in a battered box, that was taped shut vs the usual nylon bands that historically were on cores shipped in the past.
Upon opening, the core looked in good share, except I noticed one of the GPS lead wires didn’t have the usual little sponge protective ring on it, however the other did and they both had the red caps.
Upon powering up, I quickly discovered that no matter how many times I tried, it would not recognize the charging dock. Even when I went to the extreme of resetting to factory settings and trying to do a virgin setup, it simply would not recognize the dock as being there.
When I download the map from previous cores (I downloaded multiple, from different cores just to be sure it wasn’t some sort of glitch from the stored map), it shows the Core to be sitting 20-50 yards away from the dock that it is actually sitting on. Literally it shows as being in my living room or dining room or even the front yard when it is sitting on the dock in the back yard.
Obviously the unit is unusable at this point, and the lack of a response is enhancing the frustration.
Any help is sincerely appreciated.
Jeff
I can’t imagine they are sending out refurbished units in taped up boxes. I would think those are banded. Maybe I’m wrong. Did you do a reinstall of your DC under settings and then download the maps? When you say it won’t recognize the dock, what specifically do you mean? If it is sitting perfectly aligned on the dock and you command it to charge by tapping the battery icon, it won’t charge? Or just the fact that it isn’t centered on the docking station in the app view (poor GPS or no RTCM data could cause this).
Hi Bryan,
I started with just the basic process of when you get a replacement core, specifically just downloading the previously stored map and reinstalling the data center. Then when I realized how far off the GPS location was, I tried to drive it onto the dock manually so I could do a correct map drift. However, after literally dozens of times trying to fine-tune and get it positioned exactly it never even came close to recognizing that it was on the dock to begin charge. Then out of desperation, I wiped everything and tried to set it up as a new install. During which I tried to have it install a docking station as if it was new, but it behaved as if there was no docking station there and kept saying there was no GPS signal even though it’s always had a GPS signal there. I drove it out in the middle of a field and it still said no GPS signal but then occasionally for no apparent reason the GPS signal would be on. I would drive it back to where the dock was it would say there was a strong GPS signal, and then I’d tell it to install the dock and suddenly it would say there was no GPS signal.
I’ve made log recordings and sent the times in. I’ve photographed the behavior and I’ve periodically come out with the direct charge cord to keep the battery charged so it would remain powered up and connected to the network so that Tech Support could look at it remotely.
Unfortunately, they have still not responded to my multiple attempts to reach them
For what it’s worth, I’ve had my Yarbo for almost 2 years and have successfully worked through many many issues. I’m pretty experienced when it comes to placing the robot on the dock. It simply is not recognizing it. I would suspect the dock was defective if it wasn’t for the fact that the core I’m sending back today had no problem charging on it. It’s defects are in other areas.
I appreciate any help that can be offered,
Jeff
Hi Jeff. Sorry to hear that. Sounds like you did all you could do. Definitely sounds like the core vs the dock. Hopefully it is just a firmware glitch and they can get you back up and running remotely. Drop your ticket number here for the forum moderator to look into.
These are the pictures I took when it arrived. Noticed the taped up box and noticed that one of the GPS antennas does not have the protective ring around it.
Very interesting. Does look like a very clean refurb.
It’s actually better than my last one which still had lawn clippings in it. I’m pretty forgiving on those issues. I just need it to work. I’ve got 5 acres of Florida weeds, that I like to call a yard, which seems to sense weakness and bursts forth with growth when my equipment falters.
I’m sorry to hear about the issue, especially after receiving a replacement Core and going through all those troubleshooting steps.
I’ve asked our team to review your case as soon as possible and follow up accordingly. We understand how frustrating it is to have the unit unusable while waiting for a response.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. We appreciate the detailed information you’ve provided, and our team will investigate further.
Thank you. I look forward to hearing from the team.
Just by way of update, I did hear from Jerry on your team yesterday (very much appreciated his help). At his direction I replaced one of the wires that connects to the GPS antennas (I had a spare in my parts inventory that I keep on hand). It improved the GPS error from over 20 yards, to approximately 5 yards. Better, but still not good enough to allow it to mow and trim. I once again attempted to manually get it to charge on the dock so that I could do a map drift correction, but it still will not recognize that it is on the dock. At this time, I am awaiting further instructions from the team.
So, because I still have not heard back from Tech Support on next steps, out of desperation, I have reinitialized the data center, and I’m trying to reinstall the dock. I’m able to get to the point where I should be able to save the dock position, but the save position button will not become enabled. Pictures attached. Any help is appreciated.
This makes sense because it won’t charge either. If you want to proceed with a virtual docking station and remap so you can operate (using wired charger to charge) then you can try that. Just go back a few steps there and so I don’t have a docking station.
What? That’s possible? Wow, thank you. My weeds (lawn) are over 12 inches in some areas and this would allow me to slow their progress until a fix is available. Thanks again Bryan!
Oh wait (edited) it still has the wrong location (it now thinks it about 15 yards away from where it really is) so I can’t actually mow. Still, cool idea otherwise, thanks for trying.
Is that a new map or a restored one? The restored map does need the dock to correct for map drift (unfortunately). But you could remap an area and see if it is accurate. If so, that could be a way to get some stuff mowed while you wait on support. If it’s not accurate, then you are stuck waiting.
It was a restored map. As an academic exercise, I might try going out in the pasture tomorrow where it can’t do any damage and try creating a small test area. I just want to be careful to not accidentally eliminate my ability to restore my production map. It took months to get it right.
I still haven’t heard back from Tech Support since yesterday. They said they would be monitoring the ticket and respond as soon as I had results of changing the one wire. But, I know what it’s like to be overwhelmed. Hopefully there will be someone continuing to work the tickets on the weekend.
Thanks again for your help.
As long as you don’t save the new map, it shouldn’t overwrite the one in the cloud. Any saved maps on the core should stay too.
So.. you can’t make this stuff up. Lol
I was so curious about your idea that I went ahead and took it out in the middle of the pasture where I thought there’d be no way it could get into trouble. I made a screen recording, whose link is below. Not only did it think it was going in the opposite direction that it was pointed, but then the core itself started going around randomly and so did the representation on the map, but not in any way that seemed to correlate with each other. Finally, it wouldn’t pause or end in response to commands on the app
Even if you don’t have any comments or suggestions to help, I hope you enjoy the drunken random driving.
I would try an area that you haven’t mapped yet or delete a non critical area and remap it and see if it operates normally in the new mapped area. If it does, it’s just a map drift issue and needs map drift correction (which you can’t do until the core can recognize it’s on the docking station) but you could remap areas until support gets back to you. As for the pause issue, it lost communication with the core. You can see the greyed out icons at the top and the red GPS icon. Could be that it wandered out of WiFi range or bluetooth range. I would delete wifi on your core and consider temporarily disabling bluetooth on your phone or on the Yarbo app and see if that helps.
I attempted to do as you suggested.
When I disabled blue tooth and WiFi the core lost connection when it moved beyond 30 ft from the data center, so I reconnected via Bluetooth to attempt the other steps.
The GPS connection was resistant to being acquired but at some point in an open field after several reboots it did turn green.
I was successful in doing a device setup without a docking station, however when I attempted to draw a new map I kept getting an error message saying that GPS transmissions were delayed and to try later. I tried for quite a while but as it was getting dark I gave up.
I attached a screenshot of the last error below.
Tech support just sent a message that it is being escalated.
Thanks again for trying to help.
