Automatic Litterbox Central

I had a heck of a time getting the rake to move - after taking it apart and putting it back together, the thing that worked for me was clicking the 2 contacts at the end where the litter dumps - WHA-LA - it worked!!!

Pomicio wrote:It may be on one track or both of them. Once you find it, press it in and hold it in for 5 seconds. Release the button and do that 5 times.
Now reassemble the unit, and try to power it on.

Kevin, holding the switch "in" for anything more than a half second has no greater effect w/o the power on, Modern switches are designed to "swipe" the contacts, which helps to clean them. The best cleaning would be to simply press each switch 10 times (at whatever pace you feel comfortable) and then reassemble the box & power it on. You may have to repeat it a few times, since the switches in the LitterMaid aren't exactly NASA quality.

I've had to do that a few times with some of my boxes. Had to replace the IR transmitter LED in one, and even replaced a broken motor wire with an Apple speaker cord! (It works, but retracts a bit oddly.)

Just fixed my Littermaid LME9000 using your suggestion, Pomicio! Have found similar directions online at other sites but nothing was very clear (no diagrams, vague verbal directions). Literally, unplug, flip over the frame/motor section, follow the track the rake follows. On the LME9000 there's literally a ”reset“ button, one the right side of the track if facing the end of the LM where the rake should rest. It's tiny, the size of the contact on a AA battery. Hard to spot. So happy to not need to buy a new machine, AGAIN!

You sound like a Littermaid guru if I ever heard one. I tried all those things last night about a hundred times. My rake is stuck right over the receptacle and won't move. I did all those tab things and nothing happened. If i manually try to tilt the rake when I turn it on it kind of moves in the track a bit but that is all. It all started when I dumped out all that fake litter stuff out as it wasn't' clumping but just enough to dumpi all the unused litter into the waste bin. I dumped it out, cleaned the box, sprayed with cooking spray ( I don't think silicone should be good for a cat to lick off it's paws, do you?) put it back together and it started up and stopped in the position I described. I am stuck, literally. I worked and worked on that thing. Looked at the cogs and so forth, nothing. Nothing jamming anything. I find the LIttermaid folks much less than helpful with these matters, that is, if you ever get through. the box has been stored awhile but when I put it together a month ago, it was fine except the noise! Help. I just hate to buy a new one when these things are so unreliable. That is rewarding bad behavior which I hope we don't do with out kitties! Any suggestions, Mr. Guru? Thanks, Pheweee!

Ok, I've tried all the fixes suggested on here, but nothing is working.

My Littermaid Mega Elite is stuck at the wrong end of the box, where it puts the waste in the receptacles. Power light is on and not blinking. No indication that anything is wrong...except that the stupid thing refuses to return to the back of the box. So, like others, I now have a manual Littermaid Mega Elite. Might I also mention that I have a large cat, not fat...just very long. She's about 10 pounds and fairly thin, but she doesn't seem to fit well in the box. She pees on all sides.

Didn't know if that would have any impact. This thing is unfortunately about 18 months old. Not sure I have any recourse with Littermaid.

Anyone have any ideas??! Please!

Julia

Thanks for this info. I'd tried several other things, and pushing the contacts at the front and back of the rake track 5 times and then powering the unit on seemed to do the trick for now. Mine didn't seem to have anything stuck up in there, but the rake/motor was parked about midway through the litter box.

Intermittently when my rake returns to its starting position it doesn't drop down to put the rake in the litter again. If I bump the top of the rake with my hand it'll drop like it should. It's like the plastic brackets on the back aren't sliding against each other. I've already sprayed the brackets with silicone spray and it worked for a day but then started sticking in the up position again. When the cat uses the box the rake does its entire cycle but sometimes is a few inches above the litter.This started on the very first day with a brand new machine so I'm wondering if there's an assembly trick I missed.

I purchased a LME9000 from Petco.com that apparently manufactured without a reset switch. I have another, older LitterMaid to compare the new one with and easily found the reset switch on the older LitterMaid and, in fact, have had one occasion to use it to bring that particular unit back to normal working order.

On the new LitterMaid LME9000, In the location where the reset switch should have been installed, is instead a small plastic knob which doesn't do anything. I assume it's a place-holder for where the (apparently missing) reset switch SHOULD have been installed.

Luckily for me, I can return the LitterMaid to the nearest Petco store after printing out a "return to store receipt" which I will be using to return this "manufacturing defect" edition for one that hopefully was manufactured correctly.

I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that there are some defective LitterMaid LME9000's being sold by Petco that are missing the undocumented reset switch.

My problem is that the unit does not work unless I unplug it and plug it back it. The switch I see is a return switch. My unit ha no problem returning, its more of triggering the unit to start. I think its the sensors. I wiped them but no luck.
Any suggestions?

Thank you so much!! I spent 40 minutes on hold with litter maid, and I found this site when I was waiting. While waiting, I did what you said and it worked. I hung up. Thank you.

smorrow wrote:My problem is that the unit does not work unless I unplug it and plug it back it. The switch I see is a return switch. My unit ha no problem returning, its more of triggering the unit to start. I think its the sensors. I wiped them but no luck.
Any suggestions?

You can check the operation of the IR transmitter by using an IR Sensor Card, $14 from MCM Electronics (#72-6772). Hold the card to a fluorescent light for a few seconds, then shut the lights off and hold the card facing each LED in turn. If one side doesn't make the sensor area light up, you need a new transmitter LED. Usually they don't go out completely, just get really dim, so the transmitter should still light up the card a little - wen it does, mark that side "T" and go to Radio Shack and get another IR Transmitter LED. If you're not handy with a soldering iron, find someone that is and knows which side of the LED is "+" (the shorter lead goes to the red wire). Once the new LED is in place, try the card again. If it's still dark, it's another problem somewhere in the circuitry. (If it's the new "Classic", check the flexible circuit to the motor - they work loose and give an indication of a bad sensor (Better yet, if it DOES have the flex circuit, check that FIRST!!

Worked like a charm thank you. I wish I had known this before I threw away my last unit! LOL

This post saved my Littermaid!!! The tip that separated this post from all the others I've read (I've been scouring the internet since last night) was the placement of the reset button. I've been searching the tracks of my Littermaid since last night and could not find this supposed reset button. I was starting to doubt it existed and was wondering what I was missing. My rake was stuck at the waste bin side of the box and all my lights were flashing, there was no movement, the rake was just dead.

The reset button was on the opposite side of my rake, so basically... on the resting end side. So, if your rake is stuck at the waste end and you're following the tips for the people stuck at the rest end, you are looking in the wrong place for the reset button. I discovered that my button was stuck pushed in (go figure), so it took me a minute to see that it was a button, using my fingernail, I pulled the button out and then pushed it back in for 5 seconds, plugged it back in, said a prayer, and thankfully, that fixed it.

Thank you so much for your post!!!

For those that have had the rake stick, and have tried the reset procedure explained earlier, I have a solution that worked for me.

As the rake moves across the litter, it has a small ribbon cable that supplies power to it. It slides along the side of the box with the rake. I pulled the side off my box by removing several screws,it's not a big deal. The ribbon cable will be visible, it plugs into the sensor mounted on side. After plugging it in, operate rakes before attaching side and screws, to make sure you have allowed enough slack in ribbon cable for movement. After having done that, just reattach screws, and hopefully you're back in business.

To everyone who's rake got stuck on the dump end... my boyfriend just noticed that in ours the button on the starting end was stuck in. Because of this the rake thought it was in the home position but it wasn't. We just took a flt tip screw driver and popped it out and that fixed the issue!!! The symptoms were the rake being stuck at the dump end and both the power and sleep timer light flashing! I hope this helps!! good luck!