electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
click to enlarge
How to clean your Trilobite
My Trilobite didn't work as well as when I got it, took strange routes and the bumper got stuck pretty much all the time.
So I took it apart and cleaned it.
Here's how to do it:
(Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures but I'll try to describe the process for you.)
After you take out the batteries, disassemble everything you can find except the LCD.
Also unplug the charging cable in the back (under the foam part).
When you're done with that you'll have to open the bumper.
To do that, take a small screwdriver and push down in the 2 little holes in the bottom.
Don't wiggle or do anything else, just gently push and pull the bumper forward after it unlocks.
Flip the bumper up and first unplug the black/red cables on the left and the green flat cable on the right.
Also unplug the white flat cable from the LCD and buttons. Remove the LCD.
Flip the bumper down and remove the 2 screws on the bottom, unplug the vacuum motor.
After that you can remove the red cover. It's best to grab the vacuum motor and just lift it up with the top cover.
Unplug the wheels and set them aside. Also unplug the power cable and the cable to the roller motor and remove the electronics board.
After that, have fun cleaning
The worst dust buildup will be around the bumper mechanism and the wheels.
It would probably work to just put the all-plastic parts in the dishwasher but I don't own one...
Don't forget to remove the gear belt cover (smaller Torx) of the roller motor and clean the gear wheel in there.
Reassembly is a little tricky but basically just works the other way around.
Pay attention to the wheel guides and remember to lower the vacuum motor with the top.
Don't forget to plug in all cables and make sure the bumper is easy moving again.
After you're done, carefully clean the little holes of the ultrasonic sensors with compressed air.
Your Trilobite should be as good as new!

So I took it apart and cleaned it.
Here's how to do it:
(Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures but I'll try to describe the process for you.)
After you take out the batteries, disassemble everything you can find except the LCD.
Also unplug the charging cable in the back (under the foam part).
When you're done with that you'll have to open the bumper.
To do that, take a small screwdriver and push down in the 2 little holes in the bottom.
Don't wiggle or do anything else, just gently push and pull the bumper forward after it unlocks.
Flip the bumper up and first unplug the black/red cables on the left and the green flat cable on the right.
Also unplug the white flat cable from the LCD and buttons. Remove the LCD.
Flip the bumper down and remove the 2 screws on the bottom, unplug the vacuum motor.
After that you can remove the red cover. It's best to grab the vacuum motor and just lift it up with the top cover.
Unplug the wheels and set them aside. Also unplug the power cable and the cable to the roller motor and remove the electronics board.
After that, have fun cleaning

The worst dust buildup will be around the bumper mechanism and the wheels.
It would probably work to just put the all-plastic parts in the dishwasher but I don't own one...
Don't forget to remove the gear belt cover (smaller Torx) of the roller motor and clean the gear wheel in there.
Reassembly is a little tricky but basically just works the other way around.
Pay attention to the wheel guides and remember to lower the vacuum motor with the top.
Don't forget to plug in all cables and make sure the bumper is easy moving again.
After you're done, carefully clean the little holes of the ultrasonic sensors with compressed air.
Your Trilobite should be as good as new!

Proud owner of Trilobite ZA1 No. 25
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
@trilobite
Thank you for sharing with us your advice. We appreciated it.
Thank you for sharing with us your advice. We appreciated it.

Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
what is that triangle sticker on top
400/disco disassembly's (everything down to the PCB)
http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/400disco-disassembly
one day many years from now a person will say "right I'll just ROOMBA downstairs" instead of hoover
oh wait I already do
main bot: neato xv-15 (Europe xv-11)
to sell (one day): roomba sage and silver (both 400's)
http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/400disco-disassembly
one day many years from now a person will say "right I'll just ROOMBA downstairs" instead of hoover
oh wait I already do

main bot: neato xv-15 (Europe xv-11)
to sell (one day): roomba sage and silver (both 400's)
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
Sorry, but I don't know.sageman wrote:what is that triangle sticker on top
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
For those who would like to know how it is packed.
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - photos
I have to say that in my experience, the Trilobite picks up better than the Roombas I had (4 years ago). Before I moved into this house, I had an apartment with hardwood floors. The Roombas were more than capable of picking up all the hair my German Shepherd would leave behind. When I bought this house I'm currently in, I found that the Roomba would only pick up (best case) half the hair from my dog on the carpeted floors. Right after my Roomba finished vacuuming a single room, I would sit on the floor and grab at the carpet and I would have dog hair in my hand. This made me look for something better and that's when I got a Trilobite on closeout. Doing the same grab test would give me no dog hair whatsoever. I wound up buying 2 more Trilobites and giving away my Roombas (I had 2 Roomba Schedulers) and haven't looked back. It's now 4 years later and except for needing to build new battery packs for my Trilobites, they are still going strong with not one problem. I turn them on every day before I leave for work. The dust bin is large enough to only need emptying once a week. For the 3 years I used Roombas, I had 2 fail.piokrza wrote:Yes, unfortunatly it's true. It has a big suction power but it don't pick up as good as Roomba because of it rubber roller...Fraggboy wrote:Wow!! That's crazy! That sucks that the motor consumes all of that and it still doesn't pick up as well as the Roomba..I think that if it will have a normal brush (as an example Roomba) + strong suction power which it has = it will pick up very well small dust particles.
ps. Charging station consumes 60W
Roombas aren't bad robots. I still recommend them for hard surfaces but on carpet they do an acceptable job if you don't have pets. If you do (especially one that sheds quite a bit), they are mediocre and I would expect the need to use a standard vacuum every 1-2 weeks. Now I haven't used any of the new Roombas out there so maybe they are better nowadays. As long as my Trilobites continue to run I will never have the need to find out for sure.
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
True. My Trilobites have always done a good job on my med pile carpet. Much, much better than the Roomba ever could be. My Roomba's are now only used on my ceramic tile which they do a good job at. But now with the Neato XV-11 it now seems to have more suction than my Trilobites. Also, I don't know about yours, but I had to take one of mine apart to see if I could fix the "Error 4" that I was getting, and I found the entire insides covered in dust. The vacuum motor's exhaust is directly into the electronics compartment which then vents to the vents on the upper sides. I always keep good clean filters in my Trilobites and never let the bin get completely full, so that tells me that the filter does not catch the very fine dust. I had to blow out the Trilobite (and did my others as well). I did not find the cause of the "Error 4" so it has been sent back to Electrolux (in Texas) to be repaired. I only wish that they had designed the exhaust to not go into the internals of the unit. I guess they did they to aid in cooling the components but it sure gets them dirty. Sorta reminds me of the Roomba in that aspect. But now that I have the XV-11 the Trilobites seem like old news now, and I won't even bring up the Roombas.
EW
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
eqwalker did you change the filter after every dust emptying as manual said?
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
Yes, definitely did and do. There was one occasion that I let one fill up (which is how I know the bin full indicator works and is not the one that got the "Error 4" problem) but I change them after every run. I have a good supply of filters that I have obtained from Totalvac.com.
EW
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
I learnt somewhere that this is a warning from not placing magnetic strips along the stairs, as this model (ZA1) has not cliff sensors and needs strip to prevent from fallen...piokrza wrote:Sorry, but I don't know.sageman wrote:what is that triangle sticker on top
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
looking at the triangle at the top of this page close up it does look like stares now you
thanks
thanks
400/disco disassembly's (everything down to the PCB)
http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/400disco-disassembly
one day many years from now a person will say "right I'll just ROOMBA downstairs" instead of hoover
oh wait I already do
main bot: neato xv-15 (Europe xv-11)
to sell (one day): roomba sage and silver (both 400's)
http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/400disco-disassembly
one day many years from now a person will say "right I'll just ROOMBA downstairs" instead of hoover
oh wait I already do

main bot: neato xv-15 (Europe xv-11)
to sell (one day): roomba sage and silver (both 400's)
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
How are everyone's batteries? I have the ZA1 and mine really don't last so long at all nowdays. Maybe 20 minutes to half an hour of vacuuming. It doesn't always charge that well either (although that's probably my fault for bad manual placement onto the charger).
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
Are the Neato XV-11's really that much better than the Trilobites? I have been wondering for a while whether there were any other bots I could upgrade from my trilo to for a while now...eqwalker wrote:But now that I have the XV-11 the Trilobites seem like old news now, and I won't even bring up the Roombas.
It's a shame that that Neato is so damned ugly compared to the Trilobites.
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
I have not this bot, but fro mwhat I know it should last 60 minutes on a single battery charge as manuufacturer said...btw many users says that after some time it decreases to 30-40 minutes...don't know why...FriedSpam wrote:How are everyone's batteries? I have the ZA1 and mine really don't last so long at all nowdays. Maybe 20 minutes to half an hour of vacuuming. It doesn't always charge that well either (although that's probably my fault for bad manual placement onto the charger).
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
FriedSpam wrote:Are the Neato XV-11's really that much better than the Trilobites? I have been wondering for a while whether there were any other bots I could upgrade from my trilo to for a while now...
It's a shame that that Neato is so damned ugly compared to the Trilobites.
Wait for eqwalker...but from what he tells me Neato pick up just a little more debris than Trilobite and is MUCH more intelligent vacuum.
Interesting thing about those two robots: http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewto ... =6&t=13919 Trilobite's motor has more power, twice the speed and still worse performance than Neato? Strange...

Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
I had a quick look at Amazon reviews on the Neato and the one, two and three star reviews seem to say that it's not THAT intelligent and gets stuck a lot... I would be interested to see what eqwalker has to say.
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
Sorry I haven't posted here in some time, but life has had me very busy lately and I haven't been on the forums much in the last few months.
I know there are some that are waiting to hear my comparison between the Neato XV-11 and the Electrolux Trilobite (both ZA1 and 2.0). Since I have three Trilobites (actually 4, but one was given to a relative to use) and one XV-11, I can say a little more on the Trilobites than the XV-11 since I have several Trilobites to compare to each other. Oh, I forgot to mention that I have around twelve Roomba's (I think) too. As they die out I get rid of them. Plus two Dirt Dogs (which I love).
I have had these bots now for some time with floors that are med-pile carpet and ceramic tile. The DD's are delegated to the garage.
I will not bring the Roomba's into the picture since this post is between the Trilobite and the XV-11. I fell in love with the Trilobite when I first got the red ZA1 from Sams on a closeout deal. I liked it's performance so well (over the Roomba) that I went back and got 2 more before they ran out of them. The good about the Trilobite is that it very rarely bumps into anything, which with the Roomba things were getting marked up even with the foam bumper pads that I had installed on them. The Trilobite has impressive suction and really does leave the carpet looking clean. Now, I will say that no robotic vac that I know of will get the real deep dirt that an AC powered upright will get, but the Trilobite was very impressive in my environment on it's performance. It's construction is top notch and the unit is quite heavy. A well constructed piece of equipment versus the toy'ish design of the Roomba. I then purchased from Europe the version 2 Trilobite since the ZA1 does not have scheduling capability and the 2.0 one does. Other than scheduling and color there doesn't appear to be much difference in the ZA1 and the 2.0 unit. Now the bad. The Trilobite leaves about a 2" gap between the beater bar and the wall of uncleaned floor. There is no rotating brush on it. I learned to live with that by using the hose on the main vac to clean this area when I occasionally used the main vac unit. Noticeable carpet fuzz would accumulate over time in these areas. Also, by the Trilobite using random patterns to vacuum with, sometimes it would spend an awful lot of time in small areas before it would move on to more open floorspace (like the Roomba) thus wasting battery power. I have found that if I let the Trilobite determine how long it should run, based on how long it took to go around the perimeter, it usually would set the time too short and not get all of the floor in one session. The Trilobite does not do well in multiple rooms. It likes to work with a small floor plan. Therefore the reason I have multiple Trilobites. Also, I had one Trilobite fail with an error 4 and since it was way out of warranty (by 2 years) I took it apart myself. Even though I was not able to find the fault, I did discover that the vacuum outlet discharges directly into the Trilobites main housing where the electronics board is and thus it was totally covered with fine dust. I can understand maybe the reason is to provide cooling air for the internals but this, to me, was a bad design. I ultimately sent it off for repair and received it back in perfect working order and they didn't even charge me for the repair. A big plus for Electrolux. The filter needs to be better to prevent fine dust passing through if they are to use this design. And I did keep good clean filters in the units at all times. Also, the batteries are now getting aged and they are not running near as long as they use to. About 20 to 30 minutes with about 4 years of age. Other than these issues, the Trilobites have been trouble free. I am keeping my eyes open to see if Electrolux returns to the USA with a new robotic bac offering in the future. I believe they will be a serious contender if they do.
Now to the XV-11.
I have been satisfied somewhat with the Trilobites until I heard of Neato (from this site) and checked them out. Ah, finally a robotic vac that doesn't waste energy wondering around over areas it has already been! Now were talking. So I ordered one. Now that I have spent some time with XV-11 (and I will always refer to it as the XV-11 instead of Neato since I figure they will eventually release a different model and Neato is really the name of the company) I have been able to notice some things about it in relation to the Trilobites. First, the good. More suction. How I was able to determine (again in my environment) was with dirt on the ceramic tile (instead of the carpet so I could see better) the XV-11 pulled the dirt to its inlet from a further distance than the Trilobite did. To be exact about a 1/4 inch further out did the XV-11 pull the dirt and sand to the beater bar than the Trilobite did. The Trilobite pulled about a 1/4 inch out from it's beater bar. The XV-11 pulled about 3/4 inch. This means to me that the XV-11 pulls harder than the Trilobite. Also I cannot leave out the Navigation. The XV-11 will do a room much faster than the Trilobite ever will do. Also, the XV-11 will do mulitple rooms as well. The beater bars on the XV-11 as well as the Trilobite look identical. I would almost say they would be exchangeable but I haven't tried. Slightly more suction and navigation are the two pluses to me. Now the bad. Some would think I was all pro XV-11, but I have had a few issues. First I have yet to receive the RPS error (I hope I don't jinx myself) but I have noticed some other things. Oh, and it does also leave a gap (just as the Trilobite does) of uncleaned floor next to the wall. Not as much as the Trilobite, but still some. I had measured it but can't recall the exact at this moment. As the Trilobite there isn't a rotating brush on it. Also, I have noticed that the XV-11 will sometimes re-vacuum a section (like my hallway front door entrance) twice for some reason or another as if it forgot it had already cleaned it. But it would always go back to the dock when it did decide it was finished. Also, it does tend to bump into things that are lower than the laser turret since it cannot see them. I have not noticed any damage or wear to the rubber fins of the beater bar like others have reported (nor have I on the Trilobites either). I have noticed that even though it does go into corners when it backs up to turn and go the other way it sometimes backs it rear end up on the wall. The Trilobites have never had any issues like that but then again they are round like the Roomba. I would think that Neato could take care of that with a firmware update. Both the Trilobite and the XV-11 use magnetic strips to block off areas where they don't need to go. The strips work flawlessly with the Trilobite. I have found on a few occassions where the XV-11 has managed to get itself over the strip (usually where it meets the wall). Again, maybe an issue that can be corrected with firmware. If I could meld some of the Trilobites robustness with the XV-11's technology, life would be perfect (or at least close). Other than these issues, I am really pleased with the XV-11. I also am partial to the Trilobites too, but they are getting quite dated and the batteries are getting weak so I'm going to have to find replacements for them pretty soon and I must wonder if I should even try. I absolutely love the way the XV-11 vacuums the floor. People always ask when they come over, did you just vacuum? Of course I always say "yes".
I know there are some that are waiting to hear my comparison between the Neato XV-11 and the Electrolux Trilobite (both ZA1 and 2.0). Since I have three Trilobites (actually 4, but one was given to a relative to use) and one XV-11, I can say a little more on the Trilobites than the XV-11 since I have several Trilobites to compare to each other. Oh, I forgot to mention that I have around twelve Roomba's (I think) too. As they die out I get rid of them. Plus two Dirt Dogs (which I love).
I have had these bots now for some time with floors that are med-pile carpet and ceramic tile. The DD's are delegated to the garage.
I will not bring the Roomba's into the picture since this post is between the Trilobite and the XV-11. I fell in love with the Trilobite when I first got the red ZA1 from Sams on a closeout deal. I liked it's performance so well (over the Roomba) that I went back and got 2 more before they ran out of them. The good about the Trilobite is that it very rarely bumps into anything, which with the Roomba things were getting marked up even with the foam bumper pads that I had installed on them. The Trilobite has impressive suction and really does leave the carpet looking clean. Now, I will say that no robotic vac that I know of will get the real deep dirt that an AC powered upright will get, but the Trilobite was very impressive in my environment on it's performance. It's construction is top notch and the unit is quite heavy. A well constructed piece of equipment versus the toy'ish design of the Roomba. I then purchased from Europe the version 2 Trilobite since the ZA1 does not have scheduling capability and the 2.0 one does. Other than scheduling and color there doesn't appear to be much difference in the ZA1 and the 2.0 unit. Now the bad. The Trilobite leaves about a 2" gap between the beater bar and the wall of uncleaned floor. There is no rotating brush on it. I learned to live with that by using the hose on the main vac to clean this area when I occasionally used the main vac unit. Noticeable carpet fuzz would accumulate over time in these areas. Also, by the Trilobite using random patterns to vacuum with, sometimes it would spend an awful lot of time in small areas before it would move on to more open floorspace (like the Roomba) thus wasting battery power. I have found that if I let the Trilobite determine how long it should run, based on how long it took to go around the perimeter, it usually would set the time too short and not get all of the floor in one session. The Trilobite does not do well in multiple rooms. It likes to work with a small floor plan. Therefore the reason I have multiple Trilobites. Also, I had one Trilobite fail with an error 4 and since it was way out of warranty (by 2 years) I took it apart myself. Even though I was not able to find the fault, I did discover that the vacuum outlet discharges directly into the Trilobites main housing where the electronics board is and thus it was totally covered with fine dust. I can understand maybe the reason is to provide cooling air for the internals but this, to me, was a bad design. I ultimately sent it off for repair and received it back in perfect working order and they didn't even charge me for the repair. A big plus for Electrolux. The filter needs to be better to prevent fine dust passing through if they are to use this design. And I did keep good clean filters in the units at all times. Also, the batteries are now getting aged and they are not running near as long as they use to. About 20 to 30 minutes with about 4 years of age. Other than these issues, the Trilobites have been trouble free. I am keeping my eyes open to see if Electrolux returns to the USA with a new robotic bac offering in the future. I believe they will be a serious contender if they do.
Now to the XV-11.
I have been satisfied somewhat with the Trilobites until I heard of Neato (from this site) and checked them out. Ah, finally a robotic vac that doesn't waste energy wondering around over areas it has already been! Now were talking. So I ordered one. Now that I have spent some time with XV-11 (and I will always refer to it as the XV-11 instead of Neato since I figure they will eventually release a different model and Neato is really the name of the company) I have been able to notice some things about it in relation to the Trilobites. First, the good. More suction. How I was able to determine (again in my environment) was with dirt on the ceramic tile (instead of the carpet so I could see better) the XV-11 pulled the dirt to its inlet from a further distance than the Trilobite did. To be exact about a 1/4 inch further out did the XV-11 pull the dirt and sand to the beater bar than the Trilobite did. The Trilobite pulled about a 1/4 inch out from it's beater bar. The XV-11 pulled about 3/4 inch. This means to me that the XV-11 pulls harder than the Trilobite. Also I cannot leave out the Navigation. The XV-11 will do a room much faster than the Trilobite ever will do. Also, the XV-11 will do mulitple rooms as well. The beater bars on the XV-11 as well as the Trilobite look identical. I would almost say they would be exchangeable but I haven't tried. Slightly more suction and navigation are the two pluses to me. Now the bad. Some would think I was all pro XV-11, but I have had a few issues. First I have yet to receive the RPS error (I hope I don't jinx myself) but I have noticed some other things. Oh, and it does also leave a gap (just as the Trilobite does) of uncleaned floor next to the wall. Not as much as the Trilobite, but still some. I had measured it but can't recall the exact at this moment. As the Trilobite there isn't a rotating brush on it. Also, I have noticed that the XV-11 will sometimes re-vacuum a section (like my hallway front door entrance) twice for some reason or another as if it forgot it had already cleaned it. But it would always go back to the dock when it did decide it was finished. Also, it does tend to bump into things that are lower than the laser turret since it cannot see them. I have not noticed any damage or wear to the rubber fins of the beater bar like others have reported (nor have I on the Trilobites either). I have noticed that even though it does go into corners when it backs up to turn and go the other way it sometimes backs it rear end up on the wall. The Trilobites have never had any issues like that but then again they are round like the Roomba. I would think that Neato could take care of that with a firmware update. Both the Trilobite and the XV-11 use magnetic strips to block off areas where they don't need to go. The strips work flawlessly with the Trilobite. I have found on a few occassions where the XV-11 has managed to get itself over the strip (usually where it meets the wall). Again, maybe an issue that can be corrected with firmware. If I could meld some of the Trilobites robustness with the XV-11's technology, life would be perfect (or at least close). Other than these issues, I am really pleased with the XV-11. I also am partial to the Trilobites too, but they are getting quite dated and the batteries are getting weak so I'm going to have to find replacements for them pretty soon and I must wonder if I should even try. I absolutely love the way the XV-11 vacuums the floor. People always ask when they come over, did you just vacuum? Of course I always say "yes".
Last edited by eqwalker on March 2nd, 2011, 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
EW
Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
thanks a lot 

Re: electrolux trilobite 2.0 - disassembling, photos
nice review liked it loads
400/disco disassembly's (everything down to the PCB)
http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/400disco-disassembly
one day many years from now a person will say "right I'll just ROOMBA downstairs" instead of hoover
oh wait I already do
main bot: neato xv-15 (Europe xv-11)
to sell (one day): roomba sage and silver (both 400's)
http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/400disco-disassembly
one day many years from now a person will say "right I'll just ROOMBA downstairs" instead of hoover
oh wait I already do

main bot: neato xv-15 (Europe xv-11)
to sell (one day): roomba sage and silver (both 400's)