Cant charge it the red light blinks fast when i push power button

Cradle and contacts are fine. Cradle circuit is nothing but a reed relay and few wires, relay closes on proximity to robot's body, therefore no voltage on contacts before robot is close to cradle.
There is a thermistor inside of battery, and mine was bad. I removed it and now I am charging the battery from my bench power supply at about 220 ma current, overnight, and it works. Probably the solution is to get a new replacement battery, but the one with the thermistor inside (OEM), easily recognized by the third wire, and all should be fine, assuming that nothing else is wrong with charging circuit or power adapter (12v/1A)
Hope this will give you some ideas of where to poke.
Once successful, please post your solution.

"The Charge Indicator Light is located immediately to the right of the power button on Roomba Red and Roomba (sage). On Roomba Discovery and Discovery SE, the Charge Indicator Light is incorporated into the power button. Please refer to the table below to determine what the Charge Indicator Light is telling you.

* Pulsing Amber - Charging
* Green - Fully Charged
* Amber - Partially Discharged
* Red - Almost Fully Discharged
* Flashing Red - Fully Discharged"
At the end of a cleaning mission, Roomba will tell you if it has successfully completed it's mission or not:

GREEN = MISSION COMPLETE

YELLOW = MISSION ABANDONED (Check robot's brushes, etc.)

YELLOW RED POWER BUTTON = BATTERY DEPLETED (Scheduler Models)

RED YELLOW POWER BUTTON = BATTERY DEPLETED (Discovery Models)
number of beeps after ?uh-oh? :

No beeps: A wheel is stuck or is not touching the ground. Pick up the robot, place it down securely on the floor and touch the clean button to restart the cycle.

1 beep: The main brushes cannot turn. Turn over Roomba and remove the brush guard by pushing the two yellow tabs. Remove the brushes, clear any obstructions, and replace them again.

2 beeps: The side brush cannot turn. Turn over Roomba. Look to see if something is wrapped around the side brush. Remove the side brush with a screw driver and check for string or hair that may be wrapped around it.

3 beeps: The vacuum cannot run Remove and empty Roomba?s bin.

4 beeps: A wheel motor cannot run Your Roomba may be stuck or something may be wrapped around a wheel. Look for something wrapped around the wheels. Push them in and out and make sure they turn easily.

5 beeps: The cliff sensors have failed or are blocked. Turn over Roomba and clear any debris that might be caught underneath the front bumper in the cliff sensors. You can also use compressed air to clean them out.

6 beeps: Wheel obstruction or robot attempting to drive over an obstacle. Turn over Roomba and remove any obstructions that prevent the wheels from seating all the way up into Roomba?s body. Also, remove any obstacles that Roomba could drive over.

7 or 8 beeps: Not applicable Roomba?s beep codes do not include 7 or 8 beeps. If you are getting an error with 7 or 8 beeps, try counting again or contact iRobot Customer Care.

9 beeps: Sensor error Please contact iRobot Customer Care.

10 beeps: Roomba is stuck Pick up Roomba and start it again somewhere else. Use a virtual wall or other barrier to keep Roomba away from the
place it got stuck.

Your Roomba may be experiencing an issue where the battery is deeply discharged and may need to charge longer than the standard 3 hours. (or 7 hours if you have a standard charger)

Even with the charging light showing green (this indicates a fully charged battery) the robot is still charging. If your Roomba exhibits behavior where it charges for a short time then runs for a short time you will need to do the following.

1. Plug the charger into Roomba (if you have a home base be sure to plug directly into Roomba instead of using the home base, this will ensure the robot's charging cycle is not interrupted.)

2. After the Roomba's charging indicator goes to solid green please keep the Roomba on the charger for an additional 72 hours. (3 days)

3. After the 72 hours (3 days) has passed, turn your Roomba on and begin a normal cleaning cycle. If this works successfully it may take several uses for the battery to get back up to the performance it once had.

If this does not correct the problem, please call customer support at 877-855-8593

for clock settings

Clock buttons from the left.

[1] Set
[2] Shift
[3] Modify
[4] Alarm
[5] End
[6] Reset - (use paperclip to push button in hole.)


Light indicators

[A] A.M.
[C] P.M.
[B] Alarm(s) active.
[D] Hour Notice

To set time and date

1.Push SET, push SHIFT to transfer from YEAR to MONTH to DAY to HOUR to MINUTE
2. Push MODIFY to change to desired value in every field (blinking)
3. Press SET or END to save.

To change from 24 - 12 hour format
1. Press MODIFY continously for about 3 to 5 seconds
NOTE: in 24-hour format, both the A.M and P.M light is OFF


TO SET ALARM

1. Push ALARM, and alarm setting number 1 will show, push ALARM again to show alarms up to 8 or 9 (depending on model)
2. When desired alarm number is chosen, Press SET
3. Push SHIFT to transfer from HOUR to MINUTE
4. Push MODIFY to change desired value in every field( blinking)
5. Push END to save, (Please note Red ALARM light will lit)


TO CANCEL ALARM

1. Push ALARM until the desired alarm to cancel is shown.
2. Press MODIFY ( the dispaly will show --:--)
3. Press END (NOTE: Alarm light would only turn off only if all alarm is cancelled)

TO SET HOURLY NOTIFICATION OFF AND ON

1. Push MODIFY button once (hour notice light would lit) - hourly notice is turned ON
2. Push MODIFY button again (hour notice light is off) - hourly notice is OFF

This unit is recharged using any household 120v outlet. Remove the rubber cap from the recharge port on the top of the unit. Plug the barrel end of the adapter cord into this port and then the put the adapter into the wall outlet. Make sure the power switch is in the off position. To check the charge level push the button to the left of the 3 indicator lights. When the green LED lights up, the unit is fully charged, (yellow is moderate charge and red is minimum charge).
Try to charge the unit from the minimum (red) charge level to maintain the maximum battery life and use of the product.
If you have misplaced the manual I am providing a link to it from Black and Decker's site.
http://servicenet.blackanddecker.com/documents/English/Instruction%20Manual/90550872,VEC010BD.pdf
Have a great day.
Jim

Hey Josh. According to the manual I found at this URL:
http://media.dyson.com/downloads/us/floorcare/manuals/dc16_opmanual_usa.pdf
the red light that comes on when you try to use the unit indicates that the battery is fully discharged. When you plug the unit in to charge it, the same red light should be blinking to indicate the battery is in the process of charging.
Take a look at this and let me know if you are still having issues with the unit running, as there might be a problem with the wiring from the battery to the motor.
Paul

You have dead nimh (nickle metal hydride) batteries. You will need a replacement. You can test for this by removing the battery and holding the power button for 15 seconds. This will restart the charging cycle as if the battery were new.

Do you leave the battery on charge long enough? Try 4-hours up to overnight. If so, then the battery is probably at the end of it's useful life. Getting a new battery depends on cost versus life expectancy of the robot and whether it does the job you want it to do.

Try resetting your Roomba by removing the battery, unplug the charging connector, hold down the Power button for 30 seconds. This will reset the charging system, replace your battery, connect your charger and see what happens. By the way do you also have a homebase ? If so try that too

If both batteries are behaving the same way then this is probably a charger problem. When you insert the battery pack into the charger does the 'charging' light blink for 30 minutes (fast charge) then go steady? I noticed that one of my batteries was causing the light to come on steady immediately I inserted it into the charger. When I tried to use the battery pack I got the same problem everyone else is seeing, i.e. vacuum cleaner shuts off in less than a minute, so I conclude that when the charging light is on steady then the battery is not being charged.

If the charging light does not blink when you insert the battery (i.e. comes on steady or not at all), try removing the battery and re-inserting it into the charger.

Try a conditioning cycle on your battery packs. To do this:
* Insert the battery pack into the charger
* Before the charging light lights press the 'condition' button located just above the charging light.
* The 'conditioning' light should blink. This is a light which does not normally illuminate, and it is located below the condition button and above the charging light. The charger fan will run quieter in this mode.
* Leave the battery pack in the charger for 24 hours while this cycle is taking place.

I'm not a service technician so perhaps someone else might like to post other solutions or corrections to this one.