Yarbo lost GPS after sitting for five days—battery found at 0%

Support & Solutions
1

My Yarbo Pro last operated about five days ago because we have had several days of rain. When I checked it today, it would not connect through the app. I went outside and found the Yarbo completely powered off and sitting sideways in front of the charging station rather than on the dock.

I turned it on using the power switch inside the rear access door and found that the battery was at 0%. I manually drove it onto the charging station, but it would not begin charging because it did not have a GPS position. I then used the wired charger to bring the battery up to approximately 20% and drove it back onto the charging station. It is now charging and has reached nearly 70%, but it still has no GPS position.

So far, I have tried the following:

  • Disconnected the Core battery for five minutes and reconnected it
  • Restarted the Yarbo Core
  • Power-cycled the charging station
  • Power-cycled the Data Center
  • Confirmed that the Data Center firmware is current
  • Refreshed the status screens in the app several times

The diagnostic screens currently show:

  • App version: 3.19.5
  • Core firmware: 3.14.11
  • Hardware Head: 2.2.8
  • Hardware Body: 3.2.26
  • Heartbeat: Strong
  • MQTT Server: Strong
  • Rover satellites: 16
  • Rover status: 4
  • RTK quality: 0.1
  • Heading: -1
  • Data Center connection: 3
  • Data Center status: RunningNormal
  • HaLow connection: True
  • HaLow signal: -41
  • Data Center firmware: V1.1.11, shown as the latest version
  • Charging station is now charging the Yarbo normally
  • Battery has reached 74%
  • HaLow connection is active
  • GPS accuracy remains at 99.00 m
  • The Yarbo still cannot establish a usable GPS/RTK position while sitting on the charging station

Even though the Rover shows 16 satellites (I normally get 30) and the Data Center appears to be connected and operating normally, the Yarbo still will not establish a usable GPS/RTK position.

Has anyone experienced this or know what Rover Status 4, RTK Quality 0.1, and Heading -1 indicate? Is there another reset or troubleshooting procedure I should try? It appears that the Yarbo never successfully made it back onto the charging station after its last job and eventually depleted the battery. The charging station and sunshade have not been moved since the Yarbo last operated normally.

I have attached photos of where I found the unit and screenshots of the diagnostic information. Any help would be appreciated.

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2

Let it fully charge up and drive it out into the wide open and let it sit for up to 30 mins to see if you acquire a better quality signal. Right now, the dock cover might be obstructing it some, or the house behind it. I’m leaning towards an issue with the right antenna (or one of them) so you may want to check them and make sure they are tight and undamaged.

3

Hi there, please try Bryan’s suggestion first to see if it helps narrow down where the issue may be coming from.

At the same time, feel free to submit a support ticket so our team can investigate further.

4

Here is some additional information and troubleshooting I have completed.

I moved the Yarbo away from the charging station and into a wide-open section of my yard with a clear view of the sky. I also checked the antenna connections and confirmed that they were tight. This did not resolve the GPS/RTK problem.

While the Yarbo was sitting completely stationary in the open yard, I noticed that the HeadingDop value was extremely unstable. Within a short period, it changed between 0.0, 163.9123, and 247.3387. During this time, the diagnostics continued to show:

  • Heading: −1
  • RTK Quality: 0.1
  • Rover Status: 4
  • Satellites: 19
  • L2: 18

I also found a diagnostic screenshot from 8-2-2026, when the Yarbo was operating normally. At that time, it showed:

  • Heading: 1
  • HeadingDop: 0.6297
  • RTK Quality: 0.915
  • Rover Status: 4
  • Satellites: 31
  • L2: 28

Since Rover Status was 4 both when the Yarbo was working and now, that value alone does not appear to identify the problem. The significant differences seem to be that Heading is now −1, RTK Quality has dropped to 0.1, and HeadingDop is jumping around instead of remaining low and stable.

For clarification, the dock cover has been installed for approximately two months, and the charging station has never been moved. The Yarbo previously operated and docked normally with this exact setup. Moving the Yarbo into the open yard also did not restore a valid heading, so the dock cover does not appear to be causing the current issue.

I have already disconnected the Core battery for five minutes, restarted the Core, power-cycled the charging station and Data Center, and verified that the antenna connections are tight. None of these steps restored GPS/RTK operation.

I have attached photos showing where I originally found the Yarbo, the dock and cover setup, the open area where I tested it, the current diagnostic readings, and the August diagnostic screen for comparison.

Does this indicate a problem with one of the Core’s RTK antennas, the heading receiver or antenna connection, or the current firmware? Is there another reset or diagnostic procedure I should try, or will Yarbo Support need to review the logs?

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5

This sounds to me like a bad antenna. But a software issue could also be likely. I’d definitely document all of this in a ticket and let support run some tests to determine if it’s a hardware or software issue. If you have a spare antenna, try swapping one in. The other thing you could try would be swapping them left to right and right to left and see if there is any change in the diagnostics. Specifically the L2 and total satellites, HDOP, and quality.

6

I have a new set of pro antennas that I hadn’t changed yet because the thing was working and I didn’t want it to stop working. I went ahead and swapped on the pro’s, unplugged the battery for 10 minutes, power cycled the Data Center and drove the unit back into an open area. It doesn’t seem to have made any notable difference.

Here is my diagnostic screen.

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7

Can you tap on the yellow details in the RTK section of Diagnostics, connect to your DC and post a screenshot of the scatterplot or CNR details?

Something else to try potentially would be NetRTK. Have you tried switching to NetRTK? Save your map and try switching positioning to NetRTK. You may have to restore the map from the cloud afterwards, but it should be saved if you go into settings, previous maps and save a copy beforehand. Then go there and the cloud icon at the top right will let you restore it.

8

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9

Something seems up with the receiver. Whether it’s a loose connection inside the core, or something with your mounts. Right now. Do you have an active ticket? If not, I’d open one and either way, drop the ticket number here for the moderator to follow up on it for you. Hopefully it’s just a software issue and they can smack it around a bit to fix it.

10

Ticket Id #242781

I can’t seem to locate the scatterplot. I got close enough to the DC to connect via Bluetooth and clicked details but only got the RTK Detail that I shared. Should i be looking somewhere else?

11

They seem to have replaced it with what you posted. I miss it personally. More info that is now unavailable. I think both screens are useful. Wish we had both.

12

Just for my own peace of mind. Do the pro antennas really only attach to the core via the cable connection? No instructions came with the antennas and obviously the old 3 hex head bolts won’t work on the new pro antennas.

13

Yes, just spin them onto the SMA connector and you’re good. If you have the flex mounts or tall mounts and want to try something while waiting on support, you could try swapping those new mounts in and ensure the cable inside the core to the mount is tight. Could also be the cable on the main board is loose on one of the RTK antennas. NetRTK would be the only other thing I could recommend to try at this point.

14

Well fortunately, the 72" zero turn fired right up after work yesterday so my 3.25 acres are currently mowed which allows me a bit of time to see what support comes up with.

15

Support asked me to drive the unit so that it was close to the Data Center and then power cycle the DC. I did this and provided the screenshots below to them. Here was the response i got “Thank you for completing these steps and providing the diagnostic screen. We are glad to hear that the GPS/RTK signal issue has been resolved. If you need any further assistance, please contact Yarbo Support again.”

Perhaps the GPS showing disconnected and off by 99.0 meters isn’t that big of deal?

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16

Yarbo used AI garbage to answer. Just make sure they don’t close your ticket.

17

They did close it.

18

Replying will reopen it.

19

Reopen it. This ticket closing crap based on an AI response shouldn’t still be happening. Drop your ticket # here. It often helps.

20

At least they didn’t delete it like they did to me twice so far this summer.