50+ year old woman here. Upgraded to an i3 and put the old one to work on an outside patio with indoor/outdoor black and brown checkerboard carpet and no go! I tried the paper/foil trick with no success and just stumbled on this video. My husband was surprised to get a text on the way home from me asking for 1/4” heat shrink and a BIC lighter. He was even MORE surprised to come home to a disassembled Roomba on the kitchen counter, but he and I were both damn impressed when it ran smoothly on the checkerboard carpet. GREAT tutorial, sir. If I can do it with a tiny Phillips head screwdriver, a paring knife, 1/4” heat shrink, and a BIC lighter, anyone can! FANTASTIC fix. THANK YOU SO MUCH! My Roomba almost got relegated to spare parts but now is put to work on my enclosed patio. *my black sensor mount popped up out of the housing when I used the paring knife on the sides. I didn’t have to remove the clear housing to get them out. Mine was a different model than yours here (614) but, happily, it still worked.
I love how he said "it's easy to switch back if you ever want to go back to cliff detection" and then proceeds to disassemble the entire Roomba hahahaha. I get it tho that nothing was cut or removed so you only have to disassemble again and remove the heat shrink. Which is good. Thanks for the video it addressed every concern!
I just finished this fix on my 650 named William. He is vacuuming black carpet as we speak. Thanks for posting this and for answering questions. For anyone considering doing this, I’m a novice with electronics, and this took me more than 3 hours. I spent one hour alone on getting the plastic sensor casings detached from the Roomba. I also put the bumper back on wrong. I think I was really lucky to not break any plastic pieces or sever any wires or ruin the motherboard (which I did not detach - I was too scared). Overall well worth the time if it’s the difference between William working and not working.
now my roomba is back alive for another 5 years.... and of course i now have 4 spare screws on the table. but the thing is working again and cleaning like new
I'm a total newbie and this was hard, but I got to keep my Roomba so thank you! As an aside, when pulling out the sensors, other tutorial show it being pushed from the bottom rather then the top- substantially easier! Secondly it isn't clear where to place the sensors after you're done, it case other people are wondering I shoved them into the mess of other wires and it was fine.
I struggled the hardest getting the sensors to "pop" off on my 595. All the tutorials I saw said to wedge it off from the side, this video wedged it out from the top but neither were working for me so I saw this comment and tried from the button while pushing upward gently, and that worked but when I pulled it out I saw WHY it worked, the plastic ramp-egde thing that's holding it down is in the CENTER BACK. So stick a knife up from the bottom in the CENTER and twist the knife while pushing the sensor upward. To create space between the back of the sensor and the main unit to get it over that plastic ramp-edge. Keep your knife closer to the sensor side as twist and Jimmy it. 👍
I'm happy to read your positive results. I have 3 Roombas, and the modded one is my favorite as it was really frustrating to witness it going haywire when faced with dark patterns . It's also awesome that you can still use the virtual border towers (post-mod) to block off stairs and other areas you don't want the unit to go.
@@ModsAndProjects I totally agree, it's a little ridiculous a $300+ product won't allow you fix this from their software though... I can't imagine it being too difficult to disable the sensors through the app.
@@dakotalong2588 It would be simple for them to implement in the software OR hardware (switch). I imagine the cliff detection sensors act as sort of an insurance policy, if the user were to disable their cliff sensors and the Roomba took a dive, I imagine return fraud/ warranty repair service requests would go through the roof.
We have a model 620 and have tried the tape and foil tricks with no success. Just found your video and it now works great. I wish I would have read the comments first as the sensors are definitely easier to remove from below. I also wasn’t sure where to put the sensors once I had taped them together but after reading some Olof the comments I figured it out. Thank you for the outstanding tutorial!
I did it! I'm not the handiest guy and I was to the point that if this didn't work, I was going to toss my roomba in the trash. It would wander across a floor vent, panic and want to be saved. It was happening like every 30 seconds. It was a magnet to those vents. My roomba is a 690 so it wasn't exactly like the one in this video but close enough. After I was done, not once has it called out to be saved. It goes over those vents like they weren't there. I did end up with 6 extra screws but it doesn't seem to matter.
I thought the white paper trick didn't work at first too, but I realized what the trick is. First you have to use packing tape on both sides of the paper. This ensures that the IR light will actually reflect off of it. Second, you can't just cover the sensors themselves. The pieces have to be cut to fit over the cut out itself, meaning you leave about 1-2mm of space between the paper and the actual sensor. This allows the reciever to actually see the light reflecting. I think a lot of people ended up covering the sensor so well that it essentially blocked off the receiver from seeing anything. I just did it with my roomba which is one of the newer models. It's hitting the previously "dangerous" black rug without a hitch.
Works amazing!!!!... thank you.. took me about an hour and a half .. had a small problem with the front bumper not lining up.. but figured it out ..just taped each sensor on top of the sensor holders when it came to that part... the video didnt really explain as to where to put the sensors after shrink wrapping it.. but other then that the video was a HUGE HELP!!! thank you again and again.
I did it with my son, expecting to have to throw the thing in the bin if we ended up with just a pile of screws and it worked!!! The excitement! Thank you very much!
After a lot of fumbling with the depth sensors, I was able to remove the electronics and the black plastic housing from the clear part just by pulling up and out on the black plastic part with my fingers. Didn't need to remove the clear part at all. Thanks for the video! My black carpet is finally clean again.
@@MrEricSir so you taped both the receiver with transmiter and its works? I asked because in my case not working and roomba repets 6 error. I am not sure if both leds shouldn't be opposite instead next to
I had the same problem, and this fixed it, thank you! Roomba 675, I used yellow heart shrink tubing and it worked just fine. Some notes: On the 675, the top shiny plastic is hard to remove. Have courage! To remove the cliff sensors, all I had to do was pry then away gently from the bottom, then push up.
Worked like a charm. Only things I’d suggest (as others have) are removing the motherboard isn’t necessary, and the sensors are much easier to remove from the bottom of the unit than as shown. Otherwise, couldn’t be happier. Great vid.
Hi, thanks for this video. This is a huge improvement for my robot, which I use in a one story house. I don't have any cliffs for the robot to fall off of. I had the following experience: I did not find it necessary to remove the main board. I just lifted the bumper and proximity sensor board out of the way, and there was enough slack in the wires. I did not find it necessary to remove the whole cliff sensors. Instead, I just popped the black plastic LED and sensor holder out of the clear lens and left the lens in place. After opening the black plastic holder and removing the LED and sensor from inside that sandwich, instead of wrapping with tape or shrink tubing, I inserted the LED and sensor together in to the top of the black plastic holder, in the entryway for the wires. This holds them together in a little dark room of plastic. Then I inserted the black plastic holder back into the lens and re-assembled the robot.
This worked on my e5 model, just wanted to say thanks! The steps were a bit different on this model and I was worried about where to put the sensors after taping, but I came to the comments and saw the one about tucking them in. It's working great on my gray area rug now. Thanks!
This was super helpful! I have a rug similar to yours and it kept getting "stuck on a cliff" on the black part of the rug 🤦🏼♀️ Now I don't have to worry! For those who attempt this, the sensor housings just push out of place. No need to pry. I also just tucked the sensor wires when done into the body of the Roomba itself, they do not need to go back into the housing!
Thank you for making this tutorial. This bug/feature was driving me crazy. My Roomba would stop over dark spots on the rug and "hide" under the ottoman. This was simple and easy to follow and now my lobotomized vacuum works flawlessly.
Thanks for sharing this tutorial. It worked very well. As a slight modification, I re-routed the sensor emitter and collector into the little area at the top of the sensor, then put the sensor back together. It effectively does the same thing as the shrink wrap.
Thanks buddy really appreciate it I’m keeping my 500 series Roomba alive with this fix. So far I’ve done this fix, three battery changes, 2 brush changes and one motor change. Once again awesome demo thanks
So in order for my 860 to work I had to actually face each diode at each other however this did the trick. Mine would not go anywhere. I’m assuming that I had a bad sensor but doing this fixed my issue! Thanks so much!
When I first saw your video I was sad that I’d have to disassemble little Johnny5 but having done this (didn’t remove motherboard) with heat shrink, it performs great and is no longer afraid of my large area rug. One thing you didn’t cover was what you did with the sensors once you took them out of their housings? I actually just modified the housings slightly and was able to put the heat shrinked tx/rx back right there in all 4 locations. Thanks very much for this video.
Thank you! I have a model 694 -- so slightly different (the top cover that you said don't pry off with a screwdriver I had to pry up on my version). But the instructions worked a treat. Took me about 90 minutes and now my checkerboard carpet is getting cleaned! UPDATE: mine did stop respecting the 'invisible walls' after doing this; it does still 'slow down' when it's approaching a wall, etc. so makes me think the normal bump sensors are working correctly; fortunately for me i don't really need to use those for the area that I have.
I also tried the glossy paper and foil trick on my Roomba 690, but kept getting the error six message. Your technique worked like a charm (although I had to go back and redo one of the cliff sensors because I hadn’t aligned them perfectly). Thank you so much for the detailed tutorial. Roomba now maneuvers effortlessly over black edged rug.
Yeah, that paper/ foil trick is BS... Even if you can get it to work it's bound to get dust/ debris under the reflective material causing the mod to fail eventually. This mod is reliable and reversible.
twystl how were you able to remove the cover to reveal the motherboard similarly to 3:25 in this video? I also have a 690 and can’t seem to get it off.
Just finished. Seems to be working well. A fairly big tear down but no worse than tearing a laptop apart. I found that prying the sensors out works better if you go from underneath. Thanks for your help. Cheers...
This worked well for me. I have a 500 series, so a few steps were slightly different, but essentially the same. One thing I did differently, I stuck the LED and sensor into either end of a short piece of thinner shrink tube. It was tight enough that I didn't bother to heat it. I could easily tuck those back into the Roomba where they would be out of the way. For those who might be intimidated by this, if you are careful, you should have no problems. Take photos as you go, so you know what goes where. Use small bowls for the screws and place the parts and screws together in the order you removed them. I went down my kitchen counter and pretty much filled it up.
I was thinking about that. Seems like there's enough space to simply redirect them against each other in the area just under the original slot for each LED?
Bit the bullet today and made the adaptations to my 980. Worked like a charm and I also pointed the diodes against each other inside the shell. I did tape around with electrical tape to hold them in place "forever". :)
Ok - not really simple, recommended you watch completely before e starting but it works 100 percent The paper/foil did not work at all My carpet is 95% black and the room a runs perfectly Thanks for sharing
awsome fix i have a robo vac generic one worked for me pushed sensors together shrink wrapped works over any dark carpets now brilliant better than white paper bodge thanks for this mod dj sparky
I have a 600 series and this worked great! It's not necessary to unscrew the motherboard, you can just move the sensor ring aside. Also, it's far easier to get the sensor "pods" out if you pry a bit from the bottom and push upwards. Thanks a lot for the tutorial! Now my roomba can cross my rug and my floor vents and such. Huzzah!
@@staffiesaregreat This was several months ago but I don't remember it being particularly difficult. All in all very straight forward just apply the same processes to the other sensors.
I just finished this modification on my two Roomba 690 vacuums. The first one took about an hour. I watched for little bit, then paused and did the step. Rinse and repeat. The second one only took about half an hour. On the 690 you don't have to mess with the motherboard or connectors at all. I used white electrical tape to attach the sensors together. I figure that if I ever need to get back in an mess with things, I'll have an easier time finding the white parts among all the mess of wires inside.
Thank you so much! Worked like a charm on my Roomba 690. I also had no success with the paper or aluminum solution. My light & dark carpet is getting cleaned! Woot! Woot! I used hot glue to secure the cliff sensors behind the optics bay.
Thanks for this! Did the mod on our 680 in about 45 minutes. The disassembly is a bit different. You have to force pop the button cover off. Getting the sensor housing out can be tricky, but just use a thin object like shown, pushing the handle away from you and sliding the housing up at the same time. A thin "butter knife" is probably better than a sharp knife. The wires are thin so go slowly. I used the heat shrink tubing but inserted one in each end so they were facing each other. There should be a software option for this but oh well! Thanks!
Thanks for the positive feedback! It would be a simple software feature to add, but think of the warranty issues when peoples rumbas go for a dive down the stairs =[ I think we will be stuck with this hack for a while. I have so other interesting mods coming up for Roombas If you are interested please consider subbing!
Definitely a DIY guide for the electronic enthusiast. Thanks for this, but you should probably make that clear because I've definitely met people that don't know their way around electronics beyond computer assembly
Great video, Thanks. I have a 650 and the steps remain the same. Motherboard is different; all else virtually the same. It works now like it always should have. Dark flooring and mats drove it (me) crazy.
Thanks for this! Just did this on my 960 and it’s working perfectly on our dark carpets. Had to figure out some things myself, obviously as it’s a different model than what you’re working with. But I was able to figure it out a lot faster based on what you showed.
Hi, I'm from Bulgaria. We have Xiaomi mi robot vacuum-mop essential. We were able to do the whole manipulation from this video and indeed the robot is already walking across the black carpets. However, there is one problem - the robot makes mistakes during mapping and when cleaning it does not know when to stop, so I manually stop it after cleaning. But at least I'm not cleaning. Thank you for your useful and ingenious video.
This worked really well. Like some other people have said The only thing was I could easily remove the black parts of the sensor casing without removing the white part.
Great video! We used this as a guideline for an older 760 model. couple of notes are below. The top panel is a slide and pry motion. you can remove the black sensor case without prying off with the clear portion. There is a tab on either side that you can gently slide (it is kind of hidden in the groove). Once the tabs are loose you can pull the plastic clip up and out. There are 6 sensors. We used black electrical tape and just tucked the wires in open spaces. Putting the thing back together is a bit more trying than folding a paper map. (I just dated myself) Beware of where your wires are placed when reassembling so they aren't in the way
Totally worked! Seemed a little daunting but wasnt that bad to do. I found that prying from the bottom of the cliff sensors released them easier. Thanks for the video!
Thanks very much for all the time and details you put into making this video. After spending countless hours and a bit of $$ repeatedly taping shiny laminated paper over the sensors on my 980, I found this video in a last ditch effort to find a better solution. Minus a couple of model assembly differences, I was able to complete the mod per your detailed tutorial. My hat is off to you, thanks very much!!
You can do a really similar thing with the Roborock S4 Max, which has the same problem. The only downside is that you have to disassemble a heck of a lot more because the LiDAR sensor holds the assembly together. There are also two hidden screws under the top cover, which can be removed by just pulling up on the front half to access. They’re hidden under rubber stoppers. Once you take all of the panels off, the drop sensor IR assembly is nearly identical to the Roombas!
So I just did this. Worked well. Rhonda doesn’t mind my sort of zebra style rug anymore. However, it could just be me but Rhonda seems faster, a little less slow downish when she comes up to furniture. 😂 She seems very carefree now. Lol.
Such a great video. Thanks!!! Finally I'm done with those bits of paper and tape . It looked like it was going to be more difficult than it was. Two thoughts--one comment mentioned pushing the sensors up from the bottom. I completely agree. Very easy and didn't need a lot of pressure. And two... If you don't have heat shrink wrap--black electrical tape worked for me. I actually wrapped the ends in aluminum foil and then taped them. Worked like a charm.
I did this fix on a s5 roborock, it was hopeless until i did this mod! Take it from me it's no use using any kind of colour paper/ white/ silver/ anything! The reason is because if you look carefully at the cliff sensors you can see a black line in the centre of the clear down facing window that looks to the floor, That black line which is a black plastic separation wall continues right up into the top of the sensor, this effectively blocks the light from the sender reaching the receiver. So, I'm afraid it's time to get the tools out. I found it quiet easy but I've always been pretty good at such things. I'm also pretty sure if you do a determined search for a teardown video of your particular model robot you should be able to locate one on the Internet u tube and that should help you. It's a shame manufacturers don't sell robots without the cliff sensors for people like me who only have a ground floor! they could identify these models with a red stripe around it's circumference for safety so that people wouldn't buy and use these upstairs.
Thank you thank you. I have the 690 and the faceplate removal didn't have a quick release & the motherboard seating was a little different, but I was able to figure it out and mod my device successfully. :)
Thanks soo much for the video!! Worked like a charm!! I was also able to do without removing the bumper or motherboard but wouldn't have been able to do at all if not for your video!! Thanks again for the detail it gave me the comfort of knowing I could do this even tho I'm not one who works on things but for the good price I paid for it I couldn't bring myself to return it knowing there had to b a solution, the tape or other options didn't work on mine either so when I came across ur video u made it possible and very easy to follow!! Yay!! 👍👐🏻
Thank you for this video I did it about six months ago rumba has worked fine sadly he was in a little accident and got a little wet and I think the sensors are now dirty do I have to go through it all again😩😩😩😩
Great tutorial. Would it work just as well if I insert one LED sensor into each opposite end of the shrink tube so that they point right st each other? Thanks for your response.
That orientation should be fine. Just don't let the shrink wrap tube shrink too much in between the transmitter and receiver to ensure enough space between them to allow for infrared light flow
Hello friend, haven't you shown me how to put the two sensors after putting the tape on....is it left like this together? Or, as in the video, it can't be seen
Thanks for the video, wow that’s a lot to do, I just got a shark IQ, it’s the only model out of the five robot vacuum cleaners that I have that will go over black carpet just fine, my Roomba is going to be sold... not only that it cleans just as good or better and was only $120 like new on eBay, which is much less than what I paid for my Roombas
Will, the Shark IQ works on black carpet? Does it have cliff sensors by chance? Does it hesitate at all on the black carpet? Our issue is the black border that is at the edge of all our large floor rugs.
I have a 600 series and I guess the cliff sensors got dirty because it wouldn't run and continuously gave the "Move Roomba to a new location" error. Instead of just cleaning the sensors, I tried this mod with no success. I've used both heat shrink and black electrical tape with the diodes parallel as well as facing each other with no success. Now I wish I'd been more careful to not destroy the sensor housings, and just cleaned them. I sure hate to throw away an otherwise perfectly good Roomba because of cliff sensor malfunctions.
I'm at 3:20 and stuck. How did you get that top panel off so effortlessly? I removed all of the screws on top including the one you forgot initially (haha) but it won't budge. Am I missing something?
Great solution, but I still tried covering the sensors and it does work. You just cannot cover it without a space for the receiver and transmitter to meet. I cut up a business card precisely for all of the sensors and made a little roof shape out of it /\ This way the IR light bounces right to the receiver.
Oh, it works sometimes but I find based on feedback from others it's just a matter of time before it fails and you need to keep redoing it the sensor bypasses pretty much permanent until he reverse it
I have the iRobot 670 series. I heatshrank (?) all of the four sensors as shown in the video and it is giving me the error "Error 6, move roomba to new location" any ideas?
Inside layout would be a different layout to be sure, however, its very likely the cliff detection system is similar. How easy it is to mod i could not say.
After you tape/shrink wrap the IR sensors together, what did you do with the black housing? Did you ditch them and put it in back in the clear case? What you did with the actual sensor was a little unclear.
I am having trouble accessing the mother board on my Roomba 690. Specifically the spot in the video at 3:25. The set up is slightly different and I can’t get the cover off. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi! Make sure you check for screws hidden under labels (you can feel of poke with a small screwdriver for them) Manufactures LOVE to hide screws under labels. If you are 100% sure there are no screws holding the part one look for small release latches That can be pryed with a small Flathead screwdriver to release them. Also there is a guy in the comment below who did this mod on a 690 - "wystl" 3 months ago -Maybe he will have some advice for you.
Any ideas as to what would cause roomba to still only vacuum in a backwards tiny circle after this mod? He no longer shuts off and gives an error code, so the modification definitely did something, but he won’t vacuum more than a 1ft circle.
hey! Great video - I just got done doing mine, it was fully charged before i started and now it comes on but it says it is low battery and to put it on the charger, any ideas why this would be? it does not look like its charging either
Nevermind. It’s working now even though battery says dead. Very weird! It is working. It’s going around in circles as well now which it didn’t do before. I guess that’s not a bad thing it’s cleaning better
Hello i also tried your method and getting error 6. I am sure that all leds are close . Is it possibile to cut leds and solder wires ? Maybe reflective surface is missing? Two leds close without surface to reflect IR light? I can't understand it....
Great modification. Note, that you don't need to remove the motherboard, you can work with the bumper wire still attached. Also, while you used the knife from the top of the sensor to "pry" them out I found it much easier to pry a little from the bottom and push up on the clear sensor block and they slide out easy.
@Joshua van den Hoonaard you will still need to take the top and bottom off, but leaving the motherboard on saved me a few steps (but less room to work with)
50+ year old woman here. Upgraded to an i3 and put the old one to work on an outside patio with indoor/outdoor black and brown checkerboard carpet and no go! I tried the paper/foil trick with no success and just stumbled on this video. My husband was surprised to get a text on the way home from me asking for 1/4” heat shrink and a BIC lighter. He was even MORE surprised to come home to a disassembled Roomba on the kitchen counter, but he and I were both damn impressed when it ran smoothly on the checkerboard carpet. GREAT tutorial, sir. If I can do it with a tiny Phillips head screwdriver, a paring knife, 1/4” heat shrink, and a BIC lighter, anyone can! FANTASTIC fix. THANK YOU SO MUCH! My Roomba almost got relegated to spare parts but now is put to work on my enclosed patio. *my black sensor mount popped up out of the housing when I used the paring knife on the sides. I didn’t have to remove the clear housing to get them out. Mine was a different model than yours here (614) but, happily, it still worked.
"Here's a quick and easy guide."
*proceeds to building R2D2 from scraps...* :D
Wow this tutorial is great I just followed the whole tutorial and now I have an upright vacuum. Super simple upgrade. Thabks man
I love how he said "it's easy to switch back if you ever want to go back to cliff detection" and then proceeds to disassemble the entire Roomba hahahaha.
I get it tho that nothing was cut or removed so you only have to disassemble again and remove the heat shrink. Which is good. Thanks for the video it addressed every concern!
lol... OK, maybe "easy" was the wrong word, but at least no components were removed or desoldered.
I just finished this fix on my 650 named William. He is vacuuming black carpet as we speak. Thanks for posting this and for answering questions. For anyone considering doing this, I’m a novice with electronics, and this took me more than 3 hours. I spent one hour alone on getting the plastic sensor casings detached from the Roomba. I also put the bumper back on wrong. I think I was really lucky to not break any plastic pieces or sever any wires or ruin the motherboard (which I did not detach - I was too scared). Overall well worth the time if it’s the difference between William working and not working.
Success! Glad to hear it worked out for you!
now my roomba is back alive for another 5 years.... and of course i now have 4 spare screws on the table. but the thing is working again and cleaning like new
I'm a total newbie and this was hard, but I got to keep my Roomba so thank you! As an aside, when pulling out the sensors, other tutorial show it being pushed from the bottom rather then the top- substantially easier! Secondly it isn't clear where to place the sensors after you're done, it case other people are wondering I shoved them into the mess of other wires and it was fine.
I struggled the hardest getting the sensors to "pop" off on my 595. All the tutorials I saw said to wedge it off from the side, this video wedged it out from the top but neither were working for me so I saw this comment and tried from the button while pushing upward gently, and that worked but when I pulled it out I saw WHY it worked, the plastic ramp-egde thing that's holding it down is in the CENTER BACK. So stick a knife up from the bottom in the CENTER and twist the knife while pushing the sensor upward. To create space between the back of the sensor and the main unit to get it over that plastic ramp-edge. Keep your knife closer to the sensor side as twist and Jimmy it. 👍
Just followed your instructions and it worked perfectly! Had a black carpet it refused to go on and it handles it like a champ now. Thanks!
I'm happy to read your positive results. I have 3 Roombas, and the modded one is my favorite as it was really frustrating to witness it going haywire when faced with dark patterns . It's also awesome that you can still use the virtual border towers (post-mod) to block off stairs and other areas you don't want the unit to go.
@@ModsAndProjects I totally agree, it's a little ridiculous a $300+ product won't allow you fix this from their software though... I can't imagine it being too difficult to disable the sensors through the app.
@@dakotalong2588 It would be simple for them to implement in the software OR hardware (switch). I imagine the cliff detection sensors act as sort of an insurance policy, if the user were to disable their cliff sensors and the Roomba took a dive, I imagine return fraud/ warranty repair service requests would go through the roof.
We have a model 620 and have tried the tape and foil tricks with no success. Just found your video and it now works great. I wish I would have read the comments first as the sensors are definitely easier to remove from below. I also wasn’t sure where to put the sensors once I had taped them together but after reading some Olof the comments I figured it out. Thank you for the outstanding tutorial!
THANK YOU for this .... even 3 years after your upload, this still fixed my EXACT issue. SUPER simple and concise instructions. LOVE it.
Really appreciate the video. I knew about the fix but was spooked to go into it blind. I had given up on our new roomba, now he’s cruising again.
So glad to hear it helped!
I did it! I'm not the handiest guy and I was to the point that if this didn't work, I was going to toss my roomba in the trash. It would wander across a floor vent, panic and want to be saved. It was happening like every 30 seconds. It was a magnet to those vents. My roomba is a 690 so it wasn't exactly like the one in this video but close enough. After I was done, not once has it called out to be saved. It goes over those vents like they weren't there. I did end up with 6 extra screws but it doesn't seem to matter.
Done the exact same way, worked perfectly, now is a 4x4 al over the house (no stairs)
I thought the white paper trick didn't work at first too, but I realized what the trick is.
First you have to use packing tape on both sides of the paper. This ensures that the IR light will actually reflect off of it.
Second, you can't just cover the sensors themselves. The pieces have to be cut to fit over the cut out itself, meaning you leave about 1-2mm of space between the paper and the actual sensor. This allows the reciever to actually see the light reflecting.
I think a lot of people ended up covering the sensor so well that it essentially blocked off the receiver from seeing anything.
I just did it with my roomba which is one of the newer models. It's hitting the previously "dangerous" black rug without a hitch.
Works amazing!!!!... thank you.. took me about an hour and a half .. had a small problem with the front bumper not lining up.. but figured it out ..just taped each sensor on top of the sensor holders when it came to that part... the video didnt really explain as to where to put the sensors after shrink wrapping it.. but other then that the video was a HUGE HELP!!! thank you again and again.
I did it with my son, expecting to have to throw the thing in the bin if we ended up with just a pile of screws and it worked!!! The excitement! Thank you very much!
Awesome that you did it with your son!
After a lot of fumbling with the depth sensors, I was able to remove the electronics and the black plastic housing from the clear part just by pulling up and out on the black plastic part with my fingers. Didn't need to remove the clear part at all.
Thanks for the video! My black carpet is finally clean again.
Did you merge close leds ?
@@koszspam I just taped the sensor and the LED together with electrical tape.
@@MrEricSir so you taped both the receiver with transmiter and its works? I asked because in my case not working and roomba repets 6 error. I am not sure if both leds shouldn't be opposite instead next to
@@koszspam As long as the sensor can "see" the LED it's paired with it should work. The position doesn't matter much.
@@MrEricSirOk. I'l try again with tape it. Maybe i damaged solder or broke the wire causing error 6 continuously... I don't know.
Just finished your modification--it now works perfectly thanks to you. You ARE the man, according to my wife.
I had the same problem, and this fixed it, thank you! Roomba 675, I used yellow heart shrink tubing and it worked just fine. Some notes:
On the 675, the top shiny plastic is hard to remove. Have courage!
To remove the cliff sensors, all I had to do was pry then away gently from the bottom, then push up.
i did this modification today on a Deebot U2 , i had to take the whole device apart but i'm glad i did , it works fine thanks for this explanation...
Worked like a charm. Only things I’d suggest (as others have) are removing the motherboard isn’t necessary, and the sensors are much easier to remove from the bottom of the unit than as shown. Otherwise, couldn’t be happier. Great vid.
Hi, thanks for this video. This is a huge improvement for my robot, which I use in a one story house. I don't have any cliffs for the robot to fall off of. I had the following experience: I did not find it necessary to remove the main board. I just lifted the bumper and proximity sensor board out of the way, and there was enough slack in the wires. I did not find it necessary to remove the whole cliff sensors. Instead, I just popped the black plastic LED and sensor holder out of the clear lens and left the lens in place. After opening the black plastic holder and removing the LED and sensor from inside that sandwich, instead of wrapping with tape or shrink tubing, I inserted the LED and sensor together in to the top of the black plastic holder, in the entryway for the wires. This holds them together in a little dark room of plastic. Then I inserted the black plastic holder back into the lens and re-assembled the robot.
Just did that on my e5 and works perfectly. Thanks @Mods & Projects for the inspirational push and the very helpful steps.
This worked on my e5 model, just wanted to say thanks! The steps were a bit different on this model and I was worried about where to put the sensors after taping, but I came to the comments and saw the one about tucking them in. It's working great on my gray area rug now. Thanks!
This was super helpful! I have a rug similar to yours and it kept getting "stuck on a cliff" on the black part of the rug 🤦🏼♀️ Now I don't have to worry! For those who attempt this, the sensor housings just push out of place. No need to pry. I also just tucked the sensor wires when done into the body of the Roomba itself, they do not need to go back into the housing!
Thank you for making this tutorial. This bug/feature was driving me crazy. My Roomba would stop over dark spots on the rug and "hide" under the ottoman. This was simple and easy to follow and now my lobotomized vacuum works flawlessly.
I just did one of my 690s. Works like a champ! I'll keep an eye on it for a week and then do one of my others too. - Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this tutorial. It worked very well. As a slight modification, I re-routed the sensor emitter and collector into the little area at the top of the sensor, then put the sensor back together. It effectively does the same thing as the shrink wrap.
Thank you for the comment. I performed the same action you did and it made the modification much faster and with less material needed.
Thanks buddy really appreciate it I’m keeping my 500 series Roomba alive with this fix. So far I’ve done this fix, three battery changes, 2 brush changes and one motor change. Once again awesome demo thanks
So in order for my 860 to work I had to actually face each diode at each other however this did the trick. Mine would not go anywhere. I’m assuming that I had a bad sensor but doing this fixed my issue! Thanks so much!
When I first saw your video I was sad that I’d have to disassemble little Johnny5 but having done this (didn’t remove motherboard) with heat shrink, it performs great and is no longer afraid of my large area rug. One thing you didn’t cover was what you did with the sensors once you took them out of their housings? I actually just modified the housings slightly and was able to put the heat shrinked tx/rx back right there in all 4 locations. Thanks very much for this video.
Thank you! I have a model 694 -- so slightly different (the top cover that you said don't pry off with a screwdriver I had to pry up on my version). But the instructions worked a treat. Took me about 90 minutes and now my checkerboard carpet is getting cleaned!
UPDATE: mine did stop respecting the 'invisible walls' after doing this; it does still 'slow down' when it's approaching a wall, etc. so makes me think the normal bump sensors are working correctly; fortunately for me i don't really need to use those for the area that I have.
I also tried the glossy paper and foil trick on my Roomba 690, but kept getting the error six message. Your technique worked like a charm (although I had to go back and redo one of the cliff sensors because I hadn’t aligned them perfectly).
Thank you so much for the detailed tutorial. Roomba now maneuvers effortlessly over black edged rug.
Yeah, that paper/ foil trick is BS... Even if you can get it to work it's bound to get dust/ debris under the reflective material causing the mod to fail eventually. This mod is reliable and reversible.
twystl how were you able to remove the cover to reveal the motherboard similarly to 3:25 in this video? I also have a 690 and can’t seem to get it off.
@@thomasgriffith5349 ua-cam.com/video/s8K2gCzfTxE/v-deo.html
Just finished. Seems to be working well. A fairly big tear down but no worse than tearing a laptop apart. I found that prying the sensors out works better if you go from underneath. Thanks for your help. Cheers...
This worked well for me. I have a 500 series, so a few steps were slightly different, but essentially the same. One thing I did differently, I stuck the LED and sensor into either end of a short piece of thinner shrink tube. It was tight enough that I didn't bother to heat it. I could easily tuck those back into the Roomba where they would be out of the way.
For those who might be intimidated by this, if you are careful, you should have no problems. Take photos as you go, so you know what goes where. Use small bowls for the screws and place the parts and screws together in the order you removed them. I went down my kitchen counter and pretty much filled it up.
you are a freak of nature for figuring this out and posting this video. it worked and thank you!!!
Worked well 870. Haven’t shrink wrapped the diodes though, fit together within the plastic holder.
I was thinking about that. Seems like there's enough space to simply redirect them against each other in the area just under the original slot for each LED?
Yes, there is just enough space to bundle them in the lower space within the casing for the sensor. Brilliant guide. Many thanks.
Bit the bullet today and made the adaptations to my 980. Worked like a charm and I also pointed the diodes against each other inside the shell. I did tape around with electrical tape to hold them in place "forever". :)
Ok - not really simple, recommended you watch completely before e starting but it works 100 percent
The paper/foil did not work at all
My carpet is 95% black and the room a runs perfectly
Thanks for sharing
awsome fix i have a robo vac generic one worked for me pushed sensors together shrink wrapped works over any dark carpets now brilliant better than white paper bodge thanks for this mod
dj sparky
I have a 600 series and this worked great! It's not necessary to unscrew the motherboard, you can just move the sensor ring aside. Also, it's far easier to get the sensor "pods" out if you pry a bit from the bottom and push upwards.
Thanks a lot for the tutorial! Now my roomba can cross my rug and my floor vents and such. Huzzah!
Followed your guide as I modified the senors on my Roomba 980. Works like a champ. This unit has 6 sensors. Thanks for the guide!
Is it easy getting to the extra rear two sensors?
@@staffiesaregreat This was several months ago but I don't remember it being particularly difficult. All in all very straight forward just apply the same processes to the other sensors.
@@brianmost311 thanks,
I just finished this modification on my two Roomba 690 vacuums. The first one took about an hour. I watched for little bit, then paused and did the step. Rinse and repeat. The second one only took about half an hour. On the 690 you don't have to mess with the motherboard or connectors at all. I used white electrical tape to attach the sensors together. I figure that if I ever need to get back in an mess with things, I'll have an easier time finding the white parts among all the mess of wires inside.
Thank you so much! Worked like a charm on my Roomba 690. I also had no success with the paper or aluminum solution. My light & dark carpet is getting cleaned! Woot! Woot! I used hot glue to secure the cliff sensors behind the optics bay.
Hot glues one of the most useful tools in the toolbox
Just followed this on my 891. Worked amazing. Was hard to open and a little different but worked amazingly
Also want to add, to get the faceplates off of the 891, you will have to pop it off. Be careful and go slow as to not break it.
Thanks for this! Did the mod on our 680 in about 45 minutes. The disassembly is a bit different. You have to force pop the button cover off. Getting the sensor housing out can be tricky, but just use a thin object like shown, pushing the handle away from you and sliding the housing up at the same time. A thin "butter knife" is probably better than a sharp knife. The wires are thin so go slowly. I used the heat shrink tubing but inserted one in each end so they were facing each other. There should be a software option for this but oh well! Thanks!
Thanks for the positive feedback! It would be a simple software feature to add, but think of the warranty issues when peoples rumbas go for a dive down the stairs =[ I think we will be stuck with this hack for a while. I have so other interesting mods coming up for Roombas If you are interested please consider subbing!
Definitely a DIY guide for the electronic enthusiast. Thanks for this, but you should probably make that clear because I've definitely met people that don't know their way around electronics beyond computer assembly
Great video, Thanks. I have a 650 and the steps remain the same. Motherboard is different; all else virtually the same. It works now like it always should have. Dark flooring and mats drove it (me) crazy.
Nice, I'm glad to hear it worked out and that the mod works with the 650!
Thank you for this video. Fixed my 675 right up. The wife is happy because she doesn’t have to buy a new rug. :)
Great video! Worked on my Roomba 694 model if anyone wondering
I have a black carpet also & this hack SOLVED our problems... Thank you SO MUCH!
This mod will also work on totally black/dark carpets.
Thanks for this! Just did this on my 960 and it’s working perfectly on our dark carpets. Had to figure out some things myself, obviously as it’s a different model than what you’re working with. But I was able to figure it out a lot faster based on what you showed.
Hi, I'm from Bulgaria. We have Xiaomi mi robot vacuum-mop essential. We were able to do the whole manipulation from this video and indeed the robot is already walking across the black carpets. However, there is one problem - the robot makes mistakes during mapping and when cleaning it does not know when to stop, so I manually stop it after cleaning. But at least I'm not cleaning. Thank you for your useful and ingenious video.
Fix works great. I had my sensor IR LEDs and photo transistors looking towards each other rather than side by side under the heat shrink.
Amazing video! It helped me a lot! My roomba model was a bit different (980), but it helped me through the thick of it! Thx a lot!
It works! Thank you very much for a detailed and well explained tutorial. No more temporary stickers! Thanks
Thanks a lot it worked. I was wrestling with that for years with tapes and foils, until I finally did that.
This worked really well. Like some other people have said The only thing was I could easily remove the black parts of the sensor casing without removing the white part.
Great Video, just be sure to put the sensors under the mother board. They will not fit back into the housing
Yes I frustrated trying to make them fit again.
Great video.
My area rug was freaking out my 600 series Roomba.
Great Hack 👍
Worked like a charm.
Great video! We used this as a guideline for an older 760 model. couple of notes are below.
The top panel is a slide and pry motion.
you can remove the black sensor case without prying off with the clear portion. There is a tab on either side that you can gently slide (it is kind of hidden in the groove). Once the tabs are loose you can pull the plastic clip up and out.
There are 6 sensors.
We used black electrical tape and just tucked the wires in open spaces.
Putting the thing back together is a bit more trying than folding a paper map. (I just dated myself)
Beware of where your wires are placed when reassembling so they aren't in the way
Totally worked! Seemed a little daunting but wasnt that bad to do. I found that prying from the bottom of the cliff sensors released them easier.
Thanks for the video!
I could never do this and why would they make a defective product. Needs new coding on software!
Thanks very much for all the time and details you put into making this video. After spending countless hours and a bit of $$ repeatedly taping shiny laminated paper over the sensors on my 980, I found this video in a last ditch effort to find a better solution. Minus a couple of model assembly differences, I was able to complete the mod per your detailed tutorial. My hat is off to you, thanks very much!!
If you pry the sensor and housing from below it releases very easily.
You can do a really similar thing with the Roborock S4 Max, which has the same problem. The only downside is that you have to disassemble a heck of a lot more because the LiDAR sensor holds the assembly together. There are also two hidden screws under the top cover, which can be removed by just pulling up on the front half to access. They’re hidden under rubber stoppers. Once you take all of the panels off, the drop sensor IR assembly is nearly identical to the Roombas!
Well, that's great news I'm glad you figured it out
So I just did this. Worked well. Rhonda doesn’t mind my sort of zebra style rug anymore. However, it could just be me but Rhonda seems faster, a little less slow downish when she comes up to furniture. 😂 She seems very carefree now. Lol.
Such a great video. Thanks!!! Finally I'm done with those bits of paper and tape . It looked like it was going to be more difficult than it was. Two thoughts--one comment mentioned pushing the sensors up from the bottom. I completely agree. Very easy and didn't need a lot of pressure. And two... If you don't have heat shrink wrap--black electrical tape worked for me. I actually wrapped the ends in aluminum foil and then taped them. Worked like a charm.
I did this fix on a s5 roborock, it was hopeless until i did this mod!
Take it from me it's no use using any kind of colour paper/ white/ silver/ anything!
The reason is because if you look carefully at the cliff sensors you can see a black line in the centre of the clear down facing window that looks to the floor,
That black line which is a black plastic separation wall continues right up into the top of the sensor, this effectively blocks the light from the sender reaching the receiver.
So, I'm afraid it's time to get the tools out.
I found it quiet easy but I've always been pretty good at such things.
I'm also pretty sure if you do a determined search for a teardown video of your particular model robot you should be able to locate one on the Internet u tube and that should help you.
It's a shame manufacturers don't sell robots without the cliff sensors for people like me who only have a ground floor! they could identify these models with a red stripe around it's circumference for safety so that people wouldn't buy and use these upstairs.
Thank you thank you. I have the 690 and the faceplate removal didn't have a quick release & the motherboard seating was a little different, but I was able to figure it out and mod my device successfully. :)
Thanks soo much for the video!! Worked like a charm!! I was also able to do without removing the bumper or motherboard but wouldn't have been able to do at all if not for your video!! Thanks again for the detail it gave me the comfort of knowing I could do this even tho I'm not one who works on things but for the good price I paid for it I couldn't bring myself to return it knowing there had to b a solution, the tape or other options didn't work on mine either so when I came across ur video u made it possible and very easy to follow!! Yay!! 👍👐🏻
Wow that's a lot of work lol. I just threw away my black area rug - problem solved! :p
Lol thats one way to take care of the problem.. The mod is not tough.. and it's satisfying haha
@@ModsAndProjects How much would you charge to change my Roomba?
Guess who's got black in their fitted carpets throughout their home, me.
I had to do the mod.
@Mods & Projects: any idea if this will work with the sensors in the Braava M6 mop by iRobot? Thank you!
Thank you for this video I did it about six months ago rumba has worked fine sadly he was in a little accident and got a little wet and I think the sensors are now dirty do I have to go through it all again😩😩😩😩
I was gonna do this but as soon as I started taking out the screws my Roomba started screaming and crying so I just left her alone.
Works perfectly, many thanks for sharing !
Now it also clean black parts of the carpet, great 😃
Great tutorial. Would it work just as well if I insert one LED sensor into each opposite end of the shrink tube so that they point right st each other? Thanks for your response.
That orientation should be fine. Just don't let the shrink wrap tube shrink too much in between the transmitter and receiver to ensure enough space between them to allow for infrared light flow
Hello friend, haven't you shown me how to put the two sensors after putting the tape on....is it left like this together? Or, as in the video, it can't be seen
How do you get the sensors back in the housing after they are taped together?
Thank you for the video it worked with my Roomba 650.
Awesome job!
How do you add the sensors back when it set up for two you put them together and now it's too big?
Thanks for the video, wow that’s a lot to do, I just got a shark IQ, it’s the only model out of the five robot vacuum cleaners that I have that will go over black carpet just fine, my Roomba is going to be sold... not only that it cleans just as good or better and was only $120 like new on eBay, which is much less than what I paid for my Roombas
Will, the Shark IQ works on black carpet? Does it have cliff sensors by chance? Does it hesitate at all on the black carpet? Our issue is the black border that is at the edge of all our large floor rugs.
I have a 600 series and I guess the cliff sensors got dirty because it wouldn't run and continuously gave the "Move Roomba to a new location" error. Instead of just cleaning the sensors, I tried this mod with no success. I've used both heat shrink and black electrical tape with the diodes parallel as well as facing each other with no success. Now I wish I'd been more careful to not destroy the sensor housings, and just cleaned them. I sure hate to throw away an otherwise perfectly good Roomba because of cliff sensor malfunctions.
@10:26 you don’t show if/how you put the sensors back in place!😖 do you put them back in the clear plastic sensor casings.?
I'm at 3:20 and stuck. How did you get that top panel off so effortlessly? I removed all of the screws on top including the one you forgot initially (haha) but it won't budge. Am I missing something?
Great solution, but I still tried covering the sensors and it does work. You just cannot cover it without a space for the receiver and transmitter to meet. I cut up a business card precisely for all of the sensors and made a little roof shape out of it /\ This way the IR light bounces right to the receiver.
Oh, it works sometimes but I find based on feedback from others it's just a matter of time before it fails and you need to keep redoing it the sensor bypasses pretty much permanent until he reverse it
Thanks a bunch, fixed up the roomba quick!
Does anyone know if the e5 has this problem? I have to upgrade, I like my black carpets.
I have the iRobot 670 series. I heatshrank (?) all of the four sensors as shown in the video and it is giving me the error "Error 6, move roomba to new location" any ideas?
Stabbed wife. Instructions unclear.
Could this work on a samsung model robot vac? Would the insides be completely different?
Inside layout would be a different layout to be sure, however, its very likely the cliff detection system is similar. How easy it is to mod i could not say.
After you tape/shrink wrap the IR sensors together, what did you do with the black housing? Did you ditch them and put it in back in the clear case? What you did with the actual sensor was a little unclear.
Just tuck it away somewhere where there is space you don't need to put it back in the clear sensors.
Good tutorial but you’d think iRobot would just make a software dark carpet bypass
I am having trouble accessing the mother board on my Roomba 690. Specifically the spot in the video at 3:25. The set up is slightly different and I can’t get the cover off. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi! Make sure you check for screws hidden under labels (you can feel of poke with a small screwdriver for them) Manufactures LOVE to hide screws under labels. If you are 100% sure there are no screws holding the part one look for small release latches That can be pryed with a small Flathead screwdriver to release them. Also there is a guy in the comment below who did this mod on a 690 -
"wystl" 3 months ago -Maybe he will have some advice for you.
Lightly pry the cover on one side, you'll hear it snap out. Be gentle Im currently doing my 690 as i type this.
Worked Great. Thanks for the tutorial.
Any ideas as to what would cause roomba to still only vacuum in a backwards tiny circle after this mod? He no longer shuts off and gives an error code, so the modification definitely did something, but he won’t vacuum more than a 1ft circle.
Super helpful, thank you
So, I followed all the steps and now my roomba doesn’t wanna clean at all. It shows the same error on every surface. Please help
hey! Great video - I just got done doing mine, it was fully charged before i started and now it comes on but it says it is low battery and to put it on the charger, any ideas why this would be? it does not look like its charging either
Nevermind. It’s working now even though battery says dead. Very weird! It is working. It’s going around in circles as well now which it didn’t do before. I guess that’s not a bad thing it’s cleaning better
Hello i also tried your method and getting error 6. I am sure that all leds are close . Is it possibile to cut leds and solder wires ? Maybe reflective surface is missing? Two leds close without surface to reflect IR light? I can't understand it....
i could not put back together sensors and could not put in sensor housing and i just did re-assemble.
I got motion sickness from the intense and shaky close-up of the sensors
Great modification. Note, that you don't need to remove the motherboard, you can work with the bumper wire still attached. Also, while you used the knife from the top of the sensor to "pry" them out I found it much easier to pry a little from the bottom and push up on the clear sensor block and they slide out easy.
Good stuff and great tips! Very cool that you got it done without removing the MB and the bumper.
@Joshua van den Hoonaard you will still need to take the top and bottom off, but leaving the motherboard on saved me a few steps (but less room to work with)