Trouble shooting an issue with your Husqvarna Automower's charging station and boundary wire system can made a bit easier if you understand what the different colors of the LED indicator mean. Here are the different indicators you will find on current Automower charging stations.
Solid Green – Boundary wire system is in proper working condition.
Flashing Green – Boundary loop is turned off due to ECO mode. This usually occurs when the ECO mode feature is turned on, the Automower is in the charging station, and then manually removed from the charging station and attempted to be started in the working area. The Automower will show a NO LOOP error and will not start mowing. To correct this error place the mower back in the charging station and turn off the ECO mode feature before removing the Automower from the charging station to attempt to start it.
Solid Red – This indicated that there is an issue with the charging station circuit board, and it will need to be replaced. Replacing the charging station circuit board is a fairly simple repair. The 300 series Automowers use a different board than the 400, 500, and AWD models, but the repair process is the same for all of them. When this happens on a charging station for a 115H Automower the charging station tower will need to be replaced as it is not a serviceable unit. The charging station circuit board can also malfunction without causing the LED to change to red so be sure not to rule out the circuit board as the culprit for a NO LOOP error just because the LED is not red.
Flashing Red – This indicates an issue with the near (N) and/or far (F) radio signal that the charging station broadcasts to help the mower dock in the charging station. The majority of the time when there is a flashing red LED indicator the issue is caused by damage to the antenna wire in the charging stations base plate. In rare cases it could also be cause by a failed component on the charging station board. It is recommended to first check the condition of the antenna wires and connector when to troubleshoot this error. If there is no obvious physical damage to the antenna wires be sure to do a continuity test on the antenna wires.
Flashing Yellow – As of right now, the only model that has the capability to give a yellow flashing LED is the 115H. The flashing yellow LED is used to indicate that there is a break in the guide wire. The 115H relies solely on the guide wire to get it to the charging station so this is why there is a need for an indicator to show that there is a problem with the guide wire. On other models you can have broken guide wires (or even no guide wires at all!) and the charging station will still show a green LED because they do not completely rely on the guide wire to get home like the 115H does.
Solid Blue – This is one that confuses people because many people associate a blue LED with a cut wire, but that is not the case. A solid blue LED indicator happens when there is too much wire used in the Automower’s boundary loop system which cause the signal to weaken. The mower will still run and mow with a solid blue LED but could lose signal in wide open areas where it gets more than 60 – 70 feet from a boundary wire. One way to help reduce the amount of wire used in the boundary system is to eliminate islands around plants and objects anywhere you can.
Flashing Blue – We saved the best for last here because this is the one that frustrates people the most. The first thing you need to know is that the flashing blue indicator has absolutely nothing to do with your Automower’s guide wire(s). The flashing blue light is caused by either low voltage from the power supply to the charging station, a charging station board issue, or a problem with the boundary wire system. The power supply and low voltage cable can be tested with a multimeter to verify that it is supplying the proper amount of power to the charging station. You can also test the voltage coming out of the charging station at the terminals where the boundary wire ends connect to the charger. If everything tests and appears good with the power supply, low voltage cable, and charging station board, then you will need to check the boundary wires for damage. The next step would be to do continuity test on your boundary wire loop. If there is not continuity between the left and right boundary wire ends it means that you have at least one clean break or cut in your boundary wire. If there is continuity but with resistance is higher than 15 ohms, then it means that you have at least one partial break or a build up of rust or corrosion in your boundary wire system. These bad spots in will need to be repaired in order for the Automower to be able to run.
For more information about these different charging station indicator LEDs be sure to watch this video.
Repair parts and accessories such as charging station boards, boundary wire, and more are available on the www.roboticmowerservices.com website.
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