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Automower won't leave the charging station — departure failures explained

The pattern: the mower charges normally, its schedule says mow, it lifts off the contacts — and within seconds it's back on the dock or showing “No loop signal” (E02). Rinse and repeat every few minutes.

Here's what's happening: while seated on the contacts the mower doesn't need the loop signal. The moment it departs, it must hear the loop to navigate out. If the signal is weak, intermittent, or the station's electronics are browning out under charging load, departure is exactly when the failure shows.

Checks, cheapest first

1. Station LED at the moment of a failed departure: flashing blue = the signal really is dropping.
2. Loop wire terminals (AL/AR) at the station: unclip, check for corrosion, re-strip, reseat. This is separate from the charging contacts.
3. Power supply: if the mower also shows interrupted charging, or the LED cycles through a reboot pattern, a failing supply is the front-runner — it can be fine unloaded and collapse under load.
4. Note that the mower usually escapes eventually (it retries until it catches a good signal window) — so “it got out in the end” does not mean the fault is gone. It means it's intermittent.