Troubleshooting

The robot vacuum will voice report the nature of the fault/error, so you are aware of what the fault is. On TUYA App machines, the error will be reported as an alert in your App interface. Attend to either a side brush, wheel which is stuck, bumper which dislodged or stuck or clean the sensor windows as directed by the machine. It will repeat the voice report of the error until such time as it recognises it has been attended too. If the machine detects that it will damage itself due to an entanglement or getting stuck it will shut itself down.

Once you have intervened and corrected the fault, take the robot to within a meter (1m) directly in front of the docking station and let the machine dock using the remote control or the docking key on your mobile device. In the instance where it has shut down, switch it on and follow the same procedure of taking it to the docking station and let it dock and recharge. If this procedure is not followed, the machine will lose its “homing” and will battle to find the docking station.

If you were able to correct the fault/error condition without lifting the machine off the ground, simply resume the clean by using the remote, activating the power button (short press) on the machine (BL-03W, BL-05W,BL-06W and BL-08W) or from your mobile device.

In addition to voice reporting the BL-06W and BL-08W will send alarm pop up notifications.

If the machine is lifted off the ground for any reason, follow the above “homing” procedure to ensure that your machine will return to the base station on its next clean. If not, it will return to the point where it was lifted off the ground.

NOTE: No home is robot vacuum cleaner friendly or ready…. there are things you must do to ensure your vacuum can operate successfully. Picking up, removing, re-routing of loose items and obstacles are considered a pre-requisite before letting your machine loose in your home. The aim is to identify ALL areas/points where your robot gets stuck and resolve that condition as quickly as possible. This will ensure that your machine runs consistently well and executes the cleaning task perfectly every time.

Answer: This may be due to a generally poor / weak Wi-Fi signal, Wi-Fi dead spots within your home or your network being down completely. When the signal is weak, the machine will go offline (but continue working). The live mapping and the functions in the App will not work because of this. Once the signal is stronger and/or the network is restored, the App functionality will resume working. Consider a Wi-Fi extender to address the dead spot issue although this is not the most robust solution. The best solution is to have a wireless mesh network set-up with the same SSID throughout.

*NB*  Once you have decided where you are going to position the docking station, be sure to use the double sided tape strip to secure your docking station to the wall or skirting board. It must not be loose. There are several reasons why  your nannyvac™ robot might have challenges returning to the docking station if 1) it was started in a different position other than the docking station ,2) if it climbed onto an object and the wheels left the ground and continued turning for a period and 3) if it was lifted off the ground and moved manually. As a rule of thumb: NEVER START THE MACHINE FROM ANYWHERE EXCEPT THE DOCKING STATION. THE DOCKING STATION IS YOUR MACHINE’S REFERENCE POINT. 

NOTE:  The docking station must always be powered ON (green light on the top cover should be on).If it is off, it does not transmit the Infrared signal to the Robot Vacuum and hence the Robot cannot find it.

If you have lifted and moved the machine for whatever reason, the machine will lose its positioning. Upon the battery running down to 20% and returning to the docking station, it will instead return to the point where you set it down after lifting it up (that position now becomes its new reference point).  This is how ALL Gyro-Navigation robots work irrespective of Brand/Make.

Another reason your machine may battle to return to the base/docking station is that the position of the base station is not ideal and free from obstruction as described in the Operations Manual. It is recommended that the docking station is placed against a wall or skirting with 1m of free space either side of it as well as at least 1.5m in front of it.

If your machine stops voice reporting please check whether you have inadvertently toggled the Voice switch slider OFF in your settings menu (Applies to BL-05W and BL-08W using WeBack App). If your slider is greyed out it is OFF. Slide it to the right to turn it ON. The slider then becomes Green. The machine will also “PING” to acknowledge this instruction. On BL-06W and BL-08W machines running the TUYA or Smart Life Apps, you can toggle the voice reporting ON/OFF by pressing the “VOICE” button on your remote control – it is the big round button inside the cursor keys of your remote.

Always ensure that the slider in your settings menu is toggled ON. If it is greyed out it is OFF. Slide it to the right to tun it ON. The slider will then become Green.

The machine will not accept toggling the Break Point cleaning function while it is running.

This function can only be toggled ON when the machine is in standby mode on the docking station. After the first run, the machine will mark the spot on the map where it stopped before returning to the docking station for charging. Once recharged to 100%, it will return to that point.

Check in the settings menu whether this function is toggled ON or OFF. If it is greyed out it is OFF. Slide it to the right to tun it ON. The slider will then become Green. This function can only be toggled ON when the machine is in standby mode on the docking station.

 Your Virtual lines can only be set when your machine is in standby mode on the docking station. When you draw the line in on the LIVE map, the machine will “PING” to acknowledge this. If the machine does not “PING”, the machine has not accepted your command. You will not be able to set Virtual lines if the option is greyed out on your App Interface. This is typically the case when your machine is running.

Your machine will lose the Virtual lines if it is lifted off the ground for whatever reason. To reset this, perform the homing procedure on the docking station and wait for the Virtual line function to be available. If the virtual lines option remains greyed out, run a 2 minute clean and then stop the machine. Make the machine dock using the App interface or the remote control unit The Virtual line option will then be available again (it will no longer be greyed out). Then set the lines (up to a maximum of 4) by redrawing them on your live map.

For the Virtual area feature to work correctly, you have to select it in the App interface menu. With your machine on standby and on the docking station, Click on the Virtual area key and then draw the square or rectangle you want the machine to clean.

Your schedules will only be activated when they are saved. If you have deleted the device from your App and then added it again, your specific settings will be lost and they will need to be added again.

This happens when the machine traverses an area with very strong light contrast between light and dark. Typically, areas that have a large window or sliding door are prone to this. The shadows that get created and the bright light contrast on the tile, hardwood, laminate or carpet are responsible for this phenomenon. The ground detection sensors pick up a huge difference in contrast and cannot correlate the values, causing the machine to retreat (reverse) from this area. It is something which will happen at different times of the day based on the season.

This is corrected by drawing a curtain, adjusting the blinds or setting the machine schedule so the machine does not run at the time of day this occurs.

We see this in the following scenarios:

• Sporadic network. When the network signal is low and the machine loses connection. Check if you see any network related pop-up in your App interface? Check that you have a continuous network with a single SSID. If multiple nodes with different SSID, the machine may take some time to connect to the strongest single closest to it.
• It gets into trouble in a near-stuck situation and then recovers slowly.
• The front bumper unhinges slightly leaving the bump sensor in the stuck (made position). The machine will recognise this as abnormal because once the bump sensor is made, it should release and the machine will decide the next move. If this condition persists for a while, the machine will go into idle or do a few pirouettes to “gather” itself.
• and lastly on the BL-05W and BL-08W, low lighting or complete darkness. Optical Sensor machines are great, but they are reliant on a level of light for the co-ordinate data the sensor collects to be processed accurately. You will have noticed your machine idle frequently and your maps become complete gibberish if you run the machine in complete darkness or with very few lights on. With Optical sensor models, always leave some lights on.

• Where you place the lines are critical and it does matter that they are perfectly drawn in; if they are placed in the wrong position, you will not get the results you are after.
• Ensure you draw the line in such a way that the machine cannot get in behind the VL. If not, your machine will get in behind but struggle to get out sometimes – if at all. These lines need to be precise…a couple centimetres does matter because of the accuracy of the navigation system. Think of your car GPS – it is no different.

If your machine gets stuck behind a virtual line, remove it while the machine is running. This will allow the machine to continue its clean and get to the docking station when the battery runs down to 20%. Once it is back on the docking station and in standby mode, the Virtual Line function will be available for editing. You can then redraw the line ensuring that it is drawn in more accurately to avoid a repeat situation.

This happens when your machine loses Wi-fi signal while operating in an area where there is a virtual line. You should see a bad network prompt on your App Interface (Weback App machines) and an alert / notification on TUYA smart App machines when your network signal is low and your machine loses signal.

We see this in installations where the Wi-Fi network is a USB dongle or a compact/mobile LTE 3G/4G dongle. In smaller apartment and homes, this is generally not a problem. In spaces > 100m² your machine will battle to get the signal at the furthest point away from the dongle. Good signal is dependent on having the Wi-Fi source as close to the machine as possible. Therefore, we advise that you have a robust Wi-Fi network for best results in bigger homes and smaller offices. We strongly recommend a Wi-fi mesh network in larger, complex spaces ensuring that if there are multiple nodes, that they have the same SSID.