Dyson Cr01 - Restore Contra-Rotation

[markocosic]

Hello,

Picked up one of these machines with a damaged tub. Previous lady grossly overloaded it and knocked a balancing weight off the tub. I've repaired this and the machine now works great, except...

...the dyson engineers have frigged/bodged/"upgraded" (delete as appropriate) the machine to disable it's flagship contra-rotation feature. Now both drums spin the same direction, even during the wash part of the cycle...

I would like to undo this "upgrade" to restore the original wash functionality. (provided that you don't grossly overload the machine/live in a hard water area they tend to work fine)

Dyson email support say "not possible"

Dyson telephone support were very confused when a condemned/written off machine was working fine, and said that they'd try to find an answer to the contra-rotation question but made no promises.

Google finds very little info on these machines.

Anybody any idea what dyson did?

I can tell you that it is NOT a hardware change, in the sense that the drums/gearbox/gearchange work just fine when actuated manually - they're not at all "locked" physically.

It could be a control module change (which one?) or they could have re-programmed it/stuck the machine in some kind of diagnostic/limited functionality mode - I've no idea yet but would like to undo the change.

Anybody?

Thanks,

--

Marko

[Wags-22]

Hi

Last week my CR01 developed a gear box fault which could not be repaired as Dyson no longer make the part. What Dyson did was remove the contra gear box and replaced it with a single gear that powers both drums. They also replaced the control board as it has updated software as well as both motors, several electrical parts, the coin trap and jack handle all for £99.00. A bargain

When I was speaking to the engineer he told me that as a matter of course when they work on the machines they will change the control board and remove the contra rotation feature to extend the life of the machine. They will only replace the gear if it is faulty. I have checked my drums they no longer rotate independently.

I have retained my original control board and gearbox and hopefully I will be able to get the broken part manufactured. When this is done I will replace the bearings and return the machine to its original state.

What you need to find is an original control board. Good luck

[alanos313]

Hi,

I am a mechanical engineer, and have been working on washing machines for a few years now. Dyson machines are my favourite washers because the design is so revolutionary and so different from the competition. I have recently started refurbishing these machines, and about 80% of them have had the contrarotation turned off. I strip the drum out and descale them, unseizing the mechanism and making it physically capable of working as originally intended. The contrarotation feature is deactivated purely by firmware changes on the control board. I have spent countless hours working out the finer details of the firmware, and can now interchange the firmware as i wish. I can either deactivate it or reactivate it at will, thanks to a homemade interface cable, and my laptop...

Here are the four known firmwares that I have encountered. V131 and V205 are the two contrarotating firmwares. The V131 is found in earlier panels, the V205 is found in later ones. V131S and V205S are the two 'locked' firmwares, with contrarotation disabled. Again, the V131S is found in earlier panels, and the V205S is in later ones.

If you have a V205/V205S panel, it is a very simple procedure to activate or deactivate the contrarotation. I simply plug in my laptop using the interface cable, and rewrite the firmware using saved copies of both that i have on file.

If you have a V131/V131S panel, it is a little more complicated. The firmware on those panels was copy-protected, meaning that I have (so far) been unable to get a dump of them. It is not possible to read any data from the processor chip on the V131 panels. However, the PCBs for the V131 and V205 boards are the same, the V205 version simply has a more powerful processor chip. This chip can be found on eBay for about £10, and is easy to fit if you have any SMD soldering experience (of which I have plenty). Once the upgraded processor is fitted, it can then be programmed with either V205 or V205S firmware as required.

I am offering a firmware downgrade/upgrade service. I think there are quite a few people who might wish to activate or deactivate their firmware, and given that the control boards are fetching upwards of £50 on eBay, I can give them a cheaper option. I charge £27 to upgrade/downgrade the firmware on a V205/V205S panel. I charge £37 for the V131/V131S panels, because I have to upgrade the processor too! Return postage is included in the price, by Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded.

If you want to find out which firmware your panel has, follow this procedure to enter Diagnostic Mode...

1. With power button OFF, hold down 'Temperature' button

2. While holding 'Temperature' button down, press power button on

3. Release 'Temperature' button, and press and release 'Soil' button within 3 seconds.

The machine will display 'DIAGNOSTIC MODE' xxxxFxxFxxFxxVxxx, where 'x' is a numeric value. The first 4 digits are the total completed cycle counter. The 3 'F' values are the last 3 recorded fault codes. The final 'V' value is the firmware version.

If anybody is interested in this service, please PM me on this forum, or contact me at worthwashers@hotmail.com. Cheers :-)

[alanos313]

*UPDATE*

I can now also reset the wash counter, clear all fault codes, and customise the startup message and the fault message. I have come across a few older firmwares, all of these have lower ID numers than V131, and use the same processor, and so carry the same price to upgrade as the V131panels... I have reprogrammed several panels for members of this forum, and also offer advice on other aspects of CR01 repair. There is a very useful group on facebook, which is full of Dyson enthusiasts who are always willing to share their knowledge... here is a link to the group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/293867830652471/

[gearcrasher]

Thanks for all your postings, they've been a great help already. I am trying to
keep four CR01s and one CR02 going with the aid of two donor machines.
I have been buying whole machines off ebay as spares or repair and what I have been coming across recently are F15 faults where the two drum sections are unintentionally frozen together, so no amount of freeing off the gear-change ramps and making them slide easily makes any difference.

As an experiment, I took one drum assy apart completely. Even with the twin drums out
of the tub, I couldn't budge the spiders with a crow bar! The torx screws were
so corroded in, I had to cut round them with an angle grinder, thus ruining the
drum. However, once I had completed the cut, the spider span round freely on
good bearings, so I am puzzled as to what was jamming it. Perhaps the plastic
drum separator?! Any ideas? Has the shaft moved in the bearing?
Anyway, I have a CR02 that has this frozen drum syndrome and I have taken the
black ramp section out to defeat the contrarotate, but I would rather like it
not to try. So, I was intrigued by alanos313's* post and I would like to explore the
possibility of getting the V205 software changed to V205S. However, the digital
display is 50% corrupt/ 50% readable. Can you do anything with this at the same
time?
For a future time, I have another panel which is locked on F15 fault and won't
clear. I do not want to send that one off until I know if the machine I am
going to put it on is capable of contrarotating. For the avoidance of doubt; I
like them to contrarotate and will only sacrifice the feature when all else
fails.

Kind regards, gearcrasher

* I don't use facebook, so tried your email but did not get a reply. I guess it is in your spam folder.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

I threw a perfectly good CR01 in the skip a few years back, just had to have a good clear out of the garage after a flood and couldn't be bothered trying to do anything positive with all the stuff. It's a shame, it would have been very useful to someone.

[Gilduffy]

Just been trying to fix an F15 fault Lubricated the ramps. I could not remove the servo . I took out the screw that holds it but could not pull off the collat. Am I missing something?

I can operate the ramps by hand but still feel stiff. first was worked but then F15 reappeared.

How can I get the board to you Alanos313? It is V205

Also where do I find the board?

Gil

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

There's a facebook group dedicated to the CR01 which is likely to have some useful help available https://www.facebook.com/groups/293867830652471/

(Dyson error code F15="Gear change failure - too slow")