Random projects

There are not too many guides on this online, so I documented the repair of my charging station.

Problem description
My Automower 310 is just over 3 years old and a few days ago I noticed my mower was doing laps of my garden. It would latch onto the guide wire to go to the charging station, but then could not lock on to the station. It would then go outbound on the boundary wire for a few minutes, as it is programmed that way if it can't find the station, then from there onto the guide wire towards the station, and again could not lock on, etc, etc, ad infinitum.
When I checked the charging station I noticed the LED was flashing red.

Troubleshooting
I checked the manual (http://service.webec.husq...rNAptLApt__1142325-38.pdf) which stated to contact the dealer. Not very helpful.

I won't bore you with all the details, but from a bit of DuckDuckGo-ing I figured there are basically just 3 parts in the charging station that can break (and all 3 can cause the mower to be unable to find the last few meters to the charging station). These 3 items are the antenna (in the baseplate of the station), the PSU or the circuit board.

You can test the antenna with a multimeter. Which was the first thing I did.
It's very easy to open up the charging station, push the spring-loaded button at the back to flip the top down (as you would do to install the cables into the station) and then locate the 2 Torx-20 screws at the front.


Unscrew them and lift the plastic top straight up. Don't pull too hard on it as it's still connected to the circuit board with a cable. Undo that cable.



The plug near the bottom, with 4 white cables in it is the cable that connects the antenna to the circuit board.
To test this get a multimeter and set it to measure resistance. The plug is wire diagonally, so put your multimeter on the top left and right bottom and measure. Then check top right and bottom left and measure. If both measure < 20 Ohm they are fine. In my case they were fine.




So now I had ruled out the antenna and I knew it should be either the PSU or the circuit board.
To be honest I don't know how to determine if it's the circuit board or the power supply. From reading online the circuit board is very common as it's actually quite exposed to dampness from insects nesting. And the PSU being faulty is quite rare. When opening up my charging station I found that it was indeed very dirty inside and the bottom of my circuit board was wet and dirty with a insect nest right around it. So I had my suspicions... To make it even easier my local Husqvarna dealer said I could replace the circuit board and if it turned out to be the PSU he would take back the circuit board and I could buy the PSU. That made it an easy choice for me to swap the circuit board for a new one.

Circuit board was €115. (you can also order online on https://www.gplshop.co.uk...ion-310-315-315x-2017.php or https://shop.mower24.de/e...560/Products/AM-592909302).

Repair
Disconnect the cables from the board and push the 2 clips at the top that hold the board in place. (see a few photos previous where I point them out)
Replace the circuit board with the new one, reconnect the 3 plugs and screw the top back on.

Important!
Then to finish it up: put the charging station back into place. Reconnect all the wiring (boundary, guide and power cable) and make sure the power is on (you should get a solid green LED now). Then put the mower into the charger and access the menu. Go into Security --> Advanced --> New Loop Signal. Press OK and OK again. Now you have paired the mower with the new circuit board and you're good to go again!.

Notes
I live in Ireland and the grass growing season here is very long. Even in winter there are plenty of days where the grass still grows. So I don't bother to take in the mower in the winter, I just reduce the mowing schedule. However I give the mower a good clean at the start of spring every year. From now on I'll include the charging station housing in that as well to make sure there are no insects nesting in it thus avoiding dampness.