Dolphin S200 problem

[seraph]

Hi,

My dolphin S200 was bought in early 2017, so its warrant expired already.

Overall it worked amazingly until It stopped working 2 weeks ago. Symptom as below:
Turn on power, S200 moves forward for 3-5 feed, then backward for 1 foot, then stops moving completely.
Turn off power then turn on power, same behavior repeats.

Lift out of water and lie upside down, turn on power:
- rotate forward for 3-5 seconds
- rotate backward for 1 seconds
- rotating forward for 10+ seconds.
Seems self test on ground works fine.

Another behavior I notice when it is underwater, no sign out of water movement near the impeller. I remember I used to see obvious water pumped out by impeller, but maybe my memory is wrong.

I also opened cover and found nothing around impeller. Does that imply impeller issue? Is the only way to fix impeller to purchase a whole new motor?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You might try calling Margaret at Marina Pools and Spa in Colorado....She's pretty darn knowledgeable about those 'bots and may be able to diagnose. Perhaps she can help with parts too, I don't know? She's been incredibly helpful to TFP folks in the past.

 

[Jimrahbe]

S,

Sounds to me like either the impeller motor (the one that drives the water out of the top of the robot) is bad or that something is keeping it from moving.. How closely did you look? I've seen threads or hair wrapped around the shaft that has kept other Dolphins from working.. On the older units you could just look through the top and see it.. On the S200 you have to remove a couple of screws and take off a couple of plastic shrouds in order to see it.

They actually measure the motor current during the self-test, so if the motor is moving but using too much current, it will also fail..

I would do the upside down self-tests and see of the impeller is actually moving or not.

I second the idea of calling Margaret.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[seraph]

Thanks, Jim and YS.

I opened the cover and I literally touched the impeller fans and saw nothing noticeable.

One remaining question: how can I see impeller when robot is upside down?

 

[Jimrahbe]

S,

It would take some jury-rigging, but you would have to support the robot between two chairs or ladders and you would have to leave the impeller covers off..

It was something I did with my older dolphin's... I just wanted to see if the impeller was working... If you could move the impeller by hand, I'm not sure what it would really prove.. Just something I would do if it were mine...

I guess it could also be a bad power supply... Most likely not, but I'd sure what to try one before I bought a new motor..

PM me if you want to try your robot out on my power supply...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[seraph]

Today I made S200 work again, although I don't know the exact reason yet.

Diagnosis I've taken - All out of water:
- remove top cover, power on. result:
Track: move forward 5 seconds; Stop for 2 seconds; Backward for 1 second; Stop moving.
Impeller fan: rotate 8 seconds. it rotates regardless of the track but stops eventually.
same behavior as underwater.

- remove top cover, remove track.
same result as above.

- remove top cover, remove track, remove impeller fan.
same result as above.

- remove top cover, remove track, remove whole impeller structure, only motor shaft to impeller is left.
track: move forward 5 seconds; Stop for 2 seconds; Backward for 1 second; move forward again until completion of self-test. good sign!
Impeller fan: continues rotating.
Behavior seems to be normal now.
However I saw 2~3 drops of water oozed out of the motor shaft.

Reinstall everything back, throw S200 back into the water.
Power on: works again! Move foward / backward, and impeller is pumping out water.

 

[John Hooper]

Hi,

My dolphin S200 was bought in early 2017, so its warrant expired already.

Overall it worked amazingly until It stopped working 2 weeks ago. Symptom as below:
Turn on power, S200 moves forward for 3-5 feed, then backward for 1 foot, then stops moving completely.
Turn off power then turn on power, same behavior repeats.

Lift out of water and lie upside down, turn on power:
- rotate forward for 3-5 seconds
- rotate backward for 1 seconds
- rotating forward for 10+ seconds.
Seems self test on ground works fine.

Another behavior I notice when it is underwater, no sign out of water movement near the impeller. I remember I used to see obvious water pumped out by impeller, but maybe my memory is wrong.

I also opened cover and found nothing around impeller. Does that imply impeller issue? Is the only way to fix impeller to purchase a whole new motor?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Hi from Oz,

I also bought a Dolphin s200 about 3 or 4 years ago, which worked perfectly (including multi-day scheduled cleaning), until about a year ago - much like described here, viz. moved forward 2 or 3 times, then stopped. Turning off and then on again after a 30-second pause (as per the suggestion in the s200 online manual), sometimes did, but mostly didn't function fully, and certainly didn't function in multi-day mode.

So, recently, before I took it to a pool shop for servicing (at possibly vast expense), I removed the impeller cover to check for twigs potentially stuck in the impeller - as per the online manual video instructions - but no twigs or leaves etc were obvious. But I did notice a build up of ?calcium? over the internal moving plastic parts of the s200, and wiped these surfaces clean, then used a dry silica spray (not a greasy WP40 or similar wet spray, and let it dry before putting it back into the pool), on all the moving plastic and metal impeller parts that I could reach - and BINGO! - it's now doing what it used to do, including multi-day cleans, without unpredictable stopping and starting

Hope that helps