Good evening! I am a proud above ground (18' round) pool owner. Maybe the next house will have an in ground but the above ground was a win this summer, is still in use in October in Colorado, and will be broken down and reset next year. I was gifted a Dolphin that is a few years old and is no longer cleaning the whole pool effectively. I am seeing it function well on the bottom, but gets stuck at the sides does the forward/back thing a few times and then shuts itself down until I replace it on the bottom and it takes off again. This means I need to mess with it every few minutes to get it to keep cleaning, but it is otherwise doing a great job. I opened the motor bay, and it was nice and dry in there, and I cleaned some junk off the impeller, and it gave me the same behavior. I read about axle bushing wearing, which I will definitely check, and may try to craft some if worn, as I have a 3D printer, mill and lathe, pretty soon I will have all winter to mess with it. I was thinking I needed it to fall off the wall differently so that a wall interaction would equal a change in direction, and popped a little pool noodle in where there is free space in the body. It seemed to help a little, I may try a little more just to change the balance/weight distribution. It seems that the motor circuitry has some torque/current limiter, which may be the self test fail/going to sleep at the wall that I am experiencing. My cord is in rough shape. Just curious if anyone has had luck replacing their cord? I am guessing this is all 12V DC, but wondering if there is current leakage due to a rotted cord supplying insufficient power to the circuit board if it may present as a bad motor assembly, when the root cause was actually the cord? Has anyone replaced the cord with good results, or no change? Also wondering that the two little doors on the sides by the tracks are for? Looks like they have floats in them, and may somehow help steer the bot when angle or incline change. I am considering printing a shroud so that exhaust water from the impeller spins the bot a little, hoping that the attack angle changes so that it doesn't get stuck on the walls so much. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I am curious about the cable as others with issues have mentioned the cable being worn, but not spoken of replacement. (In my case, I would just re-terminate a foot or two shorter), and I am also curious as to the intent of the 2 little doors I described since I need my bot to turn well. I haven't named her yet, thinking Calypso or Ursula depending on how she behaves! I will also check the drive components for excessive drag that could send an over-torque message to the control board. Thanks, grateful for all of your knowledge and enjoy your pools!
Dolphin CC Questions - I have read several threads, having similar issues but pondering other variables...
- Thread starter TimmyD7
- Start date
Update for any of you with a Dolphin robot having issues - I shortened my cord ~ 18" which got rid of the highly degraded portion where the cord leaves the robot - I did an inline waterproof splice to retain the special connector on the robot end. I am pleased to report that my robot has been operating as I would expect it should for a couple of hours now. I believe that the vast majority of the start/stop get stuck behaviour was entirely attributable to either an intermittent loss of power due to internal cable damage from wear, or due to a voltage drop due to insulation fault due to cable damage. Regardless, nothing was meaningfully changed other than removing the highly damaged cable, and this 2019 dated dolphin is back off to the races! 
Take care all, and consider a new cable!
Cheers,
Tim
Take care all, and consider a new cable! Cheers,
Tim