My Dolphin CC Rebuild.

[W.J.Christy]

Pretty much rebuilding my dolphin CC robot (4 new wheels, bushings, brush pinions, brush bushings, treads, and drive motor). Since i have it apart, would it be beneficial to pot the control board to protect it against water damage in the event the seals fail again?

 

[W.J.Christy]

Bumping up in hopes of some input.

 

[ajw22]

Can it hurt anything, no.

Could it help - maybe.

Why not do it.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Potting what on the board exactly?

You need to be careful because some of the components need to to dissipate heat. Potting them would basically act like thermal insulation and you can cause them fail prematurely.

The biggest failure mode on these robots are seal failures which allows water to cause corrosion and seizing. Focus on making sure the seals are well packed and properly set in place.

 

[W.J.Christy]

I was curious about the heat dissipation. I didn't see any heat sinks for the motor speed controls so it didn't strike me as a big issue. But it probably something that could be problematic. The seal that failed on mine was the one under the nylon nut that held the motor to the mount/adapter to hold it in the motor housing. Unfortunately, it seems that un screwing that nut is a one time deal and it requires replacing. It also means that everything from the drive shaft to the top of the motor is corroded.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Sadly the motors (drive and impeller) cost next to nothing. I’d be surprised if they cost more than $20-$30 a piece. Even with the completed mounting adapter on them, Maytronics could sell them for around $100 and make a nice a profit on spares. But they don’t and they only want the end user to either buy an entirely new motor assembly for $500 or a completely new robot for $1000. It’s ridiculous but that’s their business model. It’s why I went back to using a suction cleaner, I’m not playing their sucker’s game.

Good luck resurrecting your robot. I hope you can get more life out of it.

 

[W.J.Christy]

Sadly the motors (drive and impeller) cost next to nothing. I’d be surprised if they cost more than $20-$30 a piece. Even with the completed mounting adapter on them, Maytronics could sell them for around $100 and make a nice a profit on spares. But they don’t and they only want the end user to either buy an entirely new motor assembly for $500 or a completely new robot for $1000. It’s ridiculous but that’s their business model. It’s why I went back to using a suction cleaner, I’m not playing their sucker’s game.

Good luck resurrecting your robot. I hope you can get more life out of it.

I was able to find a new drive motor for it online after some searching for $120.00. that along with everything else should make it pretty much new. Hopefully i can get a bit more life out of it.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I was able to find a new drive motor for it online after some searching for $120.00. that along with everything else should make it pretty much new. Hopefully i can get a bit more life out of it.

Was that from an Israeli merchant on eBay?

 

[W.J.Christy]

Nope, discountpoolmart.com

They had one in stock and shipped it 2 day air.

Mind you i have the Dolphin CC. No plus nothing fancy just the cheapest robot you can get. Could be why it was available.

 

[Mdragger88]

I have this exact bot (nautilus cc - not +)
If you decide to document your steps I will be following along.
Mine has been in service for 3 seasons.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Nope, discountpoolmart.com

They had one in stock and shipped it 2 day air.

Mind you i have the Dolphin CC. No plus nothing fancy just the cheapest robot you can get. Could be why it was available.

I believe all those motors are basically the same. The ones they use to drive the Nautilus are also the ones they drive the S series and other bots with. The trick is not damaging the transmission assembly that’s bolted on to the motor as that is how they achieve the torque needed to run the treads and the brushes. Those spares used to be readily available but I was told Maytronics stopped shipping them to retail stores because they didn’t want the motor assemblies being repaired, just replaced. I assume there’s probably a small stock of them floating around out on the Interwebz. There’s also a seller on eBay out in Israel that would ship those motors to customers in the US. Israel is where the motor assemblies are built and so the parts are readily available there.

 

[W.J.Christy]

I believe all those motors are basically the same. The ones they use to drive the Nautilus are also the ones they drive the S series and other bots with. The trick is not damaging the transmission assembly that’s bolted on to the motor as that is how they achieve the torque needed to run the treads and the brushes. Those spares used to be readily available but I was told Maytronics stopped shipping them to retail stores because they didn’t want the motor assemblies being repaired, just replaced. I assume there’s probably a small stock of them floating around out on the Interwebz. There’s also a seller on eBay out in Israel that would ship those motors to customers in the US. Israel is where the motor assemblies are built and so the parts are readily available there.

The motor assembly I bought came with the transmission and motor as one piece ready to drop in and go. It may be a left over. If so, i may buy one more considering this whole adventure has been only about a third of the cost of replacing it.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Did you rebuild the impeller motor? New bearing are like $15 a piece and the carbon brushes cost very little. You can get a pack of them for like $9. It’s worth rebuilding the impeller motor as the carbon dust generated in the sealed motor housing really destroys them. After I rebuilt my impeller motor it spun like it was brand new.

 

[W.J.Christy]

Did you rebuild the impeller motor? New bearing are like $15 a piece and the carbon brushes cost very little. You can get a pack of them for like $9. It’s worth rebuilding the impeller motor as the carbon dust generated in the sealed motor housing really destroys them. After I rebuilt my impeller motor it spun like it was brand new.

I haven't touched that one. I may, i am of a mund that if it isn't brone, don't fux it.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I haven't touched that one. I may, i am of a mund that if it isn't brone, don't fux it.

If it’s three years old as you say, then it’s “broken” in the sense that it needs maintenance. You can simple open the back of the motor and see how much carbon dust comes out and I bet it will be a lot. You can just clean everything up and regrease the bearings. However, if the carbon brushes are more than half gone, and I bet they will be, they need to be replaced. Otherwise the robot will throw a failure from the impeller motor. It’s fantastically stupid that Maytronics designs these things with mechnically commutated carbon brush motors but that’s what they do. No engineeer in their right mind would ever use carbon brushes in a sealed compartment like that. It’s moronic but probably willed that way by the higher ups to save money and create “planned obsolescence”

 

[ajw22]

It’s fantastically stupid that Maytronics designs these things with mechnically commutated carbon brush motors but that’s what they do. No engineeer in their right mind would ever use carbon brushes in a sealed compartment like that. It’s moronic but probably willed that way by the higher ups to save money and create “planned obsolescence”

Chinese engineering.

I would bet it is another example where the engineers don’t own pools or use the equipment they design.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Chinese engineering.

I would bet it is another example where the engineers don’t own pools or use the equipment they design.

It’s an Israeli company but the motors are made in China. You can find the exact motors, or ones that are pretty close to spec, just by looking up the serial number. Problem is, it’s a mass manufacturer and so they likely only sell them in quantities of 1000 or so. So the Isteali engineers get their marching orders to design the motors with a 3-5 year useful life and a particular price-point. When you do the decision matrix analysis, the crappy Chinese motor comes out on top. Then the purchasing department orders 100,000 units at $2/unit. 12 weeks later the shipping container arrives at the main port in Israel and a lorry drops the pallets off at the factory’s receiving dock.

And yeah, doubtful anyone in Israel owns a pool … it’s like a 5 mile walk to the beach from any point in the country

 

[W.J.Christy]

Ok curiosity got the best of me. The brushes look ok but I'm in there so... Any idea what size I need? Bearings are smooth and rust free. Ill repack them with a good marine grease.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Ok curiosity got the best of me. The brushes look ok but I'm in there so... Any idea what size I need? Bearings are smooth and rust free. Ill repack them with a good marine grease.

I got carbon brushes from McMaster-Carr. Maytronics, for whatever reason, uses an odd size - 5mm x 6mm cross section. So you have to buy the 6mm carbon blocks with integrated copper wire and then use some fine sand paper to reduce one side down to 5mm. Be very careful to mark the contacts for (+) and (-) wires as polarity matters (the inside cover is sometimes marked with a swipe of paint). If you hook up the carbon blocks wrong, the impeller will spin the wrong way.

 

[W.J.Christy]

Would these work?

Amazon.com