A Roborock S5Max Rescue

OK, So Now what?

I wrote an Instructable for disassembling the Roborock S5 and I said I intended to do the S5Max next. Recently, there was a discussion on Reddit where the consensus was to throw the 'bot out and buy a new one. I contacted the Original Poster and offered to pay shipping and handling to get it sent my way. He was happy to oblige me. Not only are we going to tear down an S5Max, but we will also explore what you will run into when trying to clean up an accident like this. Here we go!

You're going to need Phillips screwdrivers a #1 and #2 (preferably magnetic) and a pointy pick with a 90 degree bend. An Awl or a tiny flat bladed screwdriver will work along with a small Allen Wrench. The latter tools are to peel off the rubber covers for two LiDAR screws and the Allen wrench for tamping wires into wire ways. A camera, notepad and pencils for collecting your thoughts and a tray with 24 compartments numbered from 1 to 24. Given the nature of this project, latex or rubber gloves if you are squeamish, paper towels, and a large pan filled with water to wash plastic parts in. I was doing this outside under a covered porch and it was windy that day so my screw tray is in the white dishpan and you will see it clamped to the wash basin shortly. You may see some paperweights as well.

Turn off your Roborock by pressing and holding the power button until the Robot announces, "Powering off." Also, it wouldn't hurt to pull the dustbin and throw away the filter and also remove the brush and throw it away. These are consumables and you should keep them on hand anyway. I initially tried to salvage the brush on this project, but trust me, it isn't worth the effort. Spray out the dustbin under a garden hose. A flat bladed screwdriver and a disposable rag will be helpful here in cleaning out the many corners. At this point, you can wipe down the Robot as best you can and keep going. In my situation, the owner left it to dry for a week as the accident happened just before a family trip. When he returned, he bagged it up and put it in another bag and then shipped it to me in the original box the cleaner came in. By this time, most of the fecal matter just flaked off.

The top front half snaps on so just get your finger tips under the top edge and pull it off. A plastic Auto body pry tool may be helpful but I've always been able to pull these off without any tools. The back cover is held on by 6 screws which went to Cup 1 of my screw tray along with the two plastic hold down pieces.

There are two screw styles but they can both go to Cup 2 along with the two rubber covers. One of the screws may have an anti-tamper indicator covering it. The screws under the plastic covers have a wider head and they are meant to trap the movable LiDAR cover.

I do have a non-standard S5Max in my collection where the LiDAR cover is part of the top chassis. A Standard Roborock has a bumper switch under the LiDAR cover. If you press on the LiDAR cover and you hear a click, then you have a standard Roborock. If the top cover doesn't move, then you have to skip this step and grab two 3/4" boards so your Roborock can lay flat on its top and then move on to step 5. The LiDAR will have to wait. I prefer to remove the LiDAR first as most of the work will be done from the bottom side and I won't need the two 3/4" boards. Also, some of the screws that hold the LiDAR module on a standard Roborock screw into the lower chassis so the LiDAR needs to come out to separate the top and bottom chassis.

Remove the four red marked screws to Cup 3. While here, remove the screw indicated by the blue arrow and place it in Cup 8. You can now pull out the LiDAR module. It is connected to the motherboard via a wire harness that will be removed later.

This is just one trapped screw that can stay with the brush. I did wash this part and it didn't smell afterwards, but I had several of these on hand so I just replaced it when I re-assembled the Robot.

These are 6 flat head pan screws. Place in Cup 4. Maybe wouldn't hurt to vacuum up the dog that is hiding in there! But seriously, this is what you are buying when you buy a used Roborock. This Robot had never been opened as indicated by the screw in the upper Right of the cover under the black tamper indicator sticker. DO NOT flip over the robot at this point until you do Step 7...

Remove the battery by lifting the white tabs and then reach down to pinch the battery connection to release the battery. This is not about Electrical safety. If the robot is flipped over with the battery in place, the battery will fall out and drop about 4 inches and yank the battery connector from the motherboard and you will need to buy a new motherboard. The S5Max Motherboard runs about $76 USD at the time of this writing. The S5 is still in the $25 to $30 area.

Three screws here. Place them in Cup 5. This needs to come out because there is a screw under this that holds the top and bottom chassis together. I went into the house for a magnet and happened upon one of the kids charging cables for their tablet so I use it now for holding screw examples...

There are two ways to do this. The Chinese teardown video shows the rubber wheel being pried off and then reaching a Philips screwdriver down through the hole and unscrewing one of the screws and then turning the wheel holder to reveal the other screw. I just pulled the whole caster out and then removed the two screws. Notice the machine screw threads, not plastic screw threads. These two screws and the plastic retainer go to Cup 6.

The front bumper is made up of a lower retaining lip and the front bumper and held together with 8 small flat head pan screws. Place the screws into Cup 7.

There should be 12 long screws that go to Cup 8 (which is already holding a short one from step 4), The screw at the bottom of the battery compartment will probably have an anti tamper sticker on it. There are also 4 short flathead screws (blue arrows) in the rear that can go to Cup 9. You should be able to lift the bottom chassis off the top chassis with a minimal amount of prying. Do NOT force anything. You may have missed a screw.

IF you have a non-standard S5 Max then it is after the chassis is split that the LiDAR can come off.

There is a tiny screw that holds down the wheel dangling switch on both the Left and Right Wheels. Move those screws to Cup 10. Also, Unhook the motor harness from the motherboard (Blue arrows). I simply grab the bundle of wires near the plug and gently rock the plug side-to-side until the plug comes free. You can also remove the tension springs to Cup 10 as well. Maybe it would be best to remove the Lidar Hood keyboard and the Peristaltic pump first because at re-assembly it is better to install the wheels before the pump because the water lines will be in the way if you just reverse the steps of disassembly.

Pop up the rear cliff sensors on the left and right sides. I simply put both thumbs on the cliff sensor my eight fingers on the top of the chassis half and push up. The cliff sensor will release with a pop. The wall sensor has to lift out first on the right side as well. Then punch out the pins that hold the wheels in. You should now be able to gently finesse the wheel modules out of the chassis. Note that at re-assembly, feed the wheel wire harness with the switch through the long wheel well hole in the chassis and then deal with the plug and switch on the top side.

There is a little bridge piece that simply lifts off but it does have clips to hold the fan harness. The two screws for the retention clip can go to Cup 12. Unclip the fan from the motherboard. Should be able to just grab the wires and rock the plug side to side.

Remove the fan shroud and Dustbin Sensor. The four screws can go to Cup 14. Easiest to take out the 4 screws and pull out the shroud with the dustbin sensor in it. Unclip the Dustbin Sensor from the motherboard and separate from the shroud and upon re-assembly, place the dustbin sensor in the shroud and then install the shroud. The Yellow arrow points to a paper moisture sensing pad that turns bright pink when it has been soaked with water. Interestingly enough, the original owner said this robot went through a lot of water one time and never missed a beat. Must have had the dustbin plugged with dog hair because this dot was still white. When I pre-washed the top chassis it turned pink. It turned white when I ran the chassis through the dishwasher. The color had leached out in the dishwasher and the dot no longer works as intended.

The speaker can be pulled from its pocket by the wires and disconnect from the motherboard.

This can be gently lifted from the motherboard by getting your fingertips under the bottom by the 12 pin sockets. A plastic knife blade would work well too.

One screw to Cup 14. Unclip at motherboard.

The keyboard with the Reset pushbutton and the LiDAR hood pushbutton and the WiFi LED can be unclipped at the motherboard. This plug is a bit different from all the others you've removed so far. You have to pinch a clip before you pull out the plug. DO NOT try to yank this plug out by grabbing the wires as I've said you could up to this point! Pinch the top and bottom and it should come out easily.

The white plastic hinge on the opposite end of the keyboard can come out with the keyboard.

4 screws hold the pump in and there is an additional small screw that holds the water line clamp. Place these 5 screws in Cup 15. Unclip the pump from the motherboard (Blue Arrow).

Unclip all the remaining devices from the motherboard (red arrows) The docking sensor at the top can be unplugged once the six screws holding down the motherboard (blue arrows) have been moved to Cup 16. The docking sensor also has the same plug as the keyboard plug from step 19 above.

These are under the motherboard and go back in with the plastic sheet between the motherboard and the Ground plate upon re-assembly.

I removed the Left Sensor bundle screws to Cup 17 and the Right Sensor Bundle Screws to Cup 18. Each are held in with three screws

(I got a little careless about taking pictures as I near the end of this teardown so I have to use a previous picture.) I put the screws that hold in the Docking Sensor to Cup 19. I have more about the docking sensor down in Step 34, an Appendix step. Pay attention to the connector on this component. You need to pinch the top and bottom of the connector and it will come off easily. DO NOT yank it off like most of the other connectors!

Remove the compass board. It is located under the docking sensor and slides into some rails. No screws hold it. It is trapped in place by the docking sensor. It was already unclipped when we removed the motherboard.

Remove the Charger contacts and place the 4 screws in Cup 20.

While we have the chassis in this position, lift off the front Bumper Spring and peel off the dust duct and shove the dust duct through the opening to the brush assembly.

Flip the Chassis over and remove the Water Distribution Manifold. The four screws go to Cup 21. At this point, I was able to unhook the Peristaltic Pump which was removed back in Step 20.

Remove the Brush Retainer cover and the brush. There are no screws holding in the remaining brush assembly. Just pry the pivots gently with a flat bladed screwdriver and lift out the brush Assembly.

Three screws hold the brush motor to its assembly. Move these screws to Cup 22. I ended up detecting a faint Eau De Pew from the rubber dust duct once it was cleaned. Also, this was a high mileage robot with a lot of wear in this area so I simply replaced the whole assembly upon Re-assembly. I currently have the old assembly near my computer desk and I had forgotten it was there. If your brush assembly is in good shape, I wouldn't hesitate to re-use it even with the small amount of smell. If you own a pet, you are going to smell it before you smell the robot.

This is what I end up for my screw tray. An easy way to clean the springs in tray 10 is to clamp a vise grip on one end and lift the other end with your L-shaped tool and singe the springs with a cigarette lighter.

I washed everything in a concrete mixing tub outside to get all the doggy doo off. I tried to salvage the brush but wouldn't do that again. I ended up cleaning out the debris trap and running an empty cycle afterwards which removed all smell from the dishwasher which I didn't have to do when I washed my S5.

When the dishwasher is done, shake off the excess water and then let the plastic parts air dry further before attempting to re-assemble these machines. Re-assembly is simple. Just start at step 31 and undo everything until you get back to step 1!

A word of caution here. I would not recommend letting the dishwasher dry your parts. Stop the cycle when the washing is complete and shake off the excess water and let things air dry for a day. This was a black Roborock and I did not notice any discoloration from washing it. I do have some cautions on white Roborocks in my S5 teardown. If you have a white Roborock, you may also want to look into RetroBright treatments.

June (a non-standard Roborock S5 Max), Wendy and Sheba (L to R) loafing on their chargers. (Sheba was the name of an aunt's Shih Tzu.)

I have wrecked the plug on the docking sensor of one of my S5 Max machines (June) and I learned that the docking sensor for the S5 Max is no longer available. I ended up clipping off the wrecked plug and soldering it directly to the motherboard. IF I ever had to replace a docking sensor on an S5 Max, I would buy this one and cut the center red and black leads out and then solder the remaining 6 wires to the motherboard. The last picture is the original docking sensor.

One of the wheels on this robot was cracked so I simply replaced both wheels. I may do a separate Instructable on completely disassembling the Wheel Assembly as there is no information on these that I am aware of. I took some pictures of the gearbox of the wheel assembly. To separate the wheel will require turning over the assembly in the second picture and supporting the assembly so I could punch out the axel from the wheel. (see the 2:05 mark of this video) The axel is a press fit into the wheel but I would probably put a dab of red loctite at re-assembly on the axel when I drove the wheel back on.

The Motherboard pictures Top and Bottom. If you click on the pictures there should be label boxes with descriptions of all the connections.

A vacuum cleaner that has had a poop accident is very salvageable, but any rubber parts that have come in contact with the poop will probably retain a faint smell.

I will continue to write Roborock teardown instructables as time permits. I may also branch into iRobot products as well. I have several Scoobas that I want to get running. I have an S7+ that is another dog poop accident arriving any day now that I will tear into next. There are plenty of teardown videos for S7 models out there, but many of them stop well short of a complete teardown. There are also many people with many different learning styles. For me, pictures and the written word is most helpful.