13/09/2021

REPAIR: Neato D5 LIDAR Motor

A month or so ago our beloved Neato D5 was starting to have sensor issues, as it would either stop vacuuming midway or only after a couple of minutes. So I reached out to Australia Robotic who said that the LIDAR motor was the likely culprit, and were trusting enough to send a replacement for me to fit :D

Disassembling the unit was quite simple, with the only tricky part being the front bumper (which you have to bend quite a bit to remove/place back on)

With everything apart I was able to have a good look at the LIDAR, which turned out to be a pretty neato ;^) assembly. But before I tell you why, here is a good picture which explains how a 2D LIDAR functions


OK so the laser bounces off an object and the reflected light is picked up by the image sensor, simple enough right? Well, above only tells you what's in front. What if we want to know what's happening all around us? To do this you would need to continuously rotate the LIDAR assembly... BUT wires can't rotate indefinitely, so how do we get power in and data out ?_?

The Neato D5 LIDAR solves this by going wireless:

  • Power is bought in via wireless power transfer, likely inductive coupling
  • Data is taken out via an IR emitter/reciever combo

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