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I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

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Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#101

Post by CrazyStat »

klingonopera wrote: post #49

> " Dammit, Amazon, it's so hard to quit you. " What? I'm not even in the US, but DDG'ing the "Eufy RoboVac 30" brings me straight to the manufacturer's website, where it's even $40 cheaper. Why give "Lord Bezos" a piece of the cake, when he doesn't even need to have one? Maybe it wasn't so at the time of writing, but I have a weird feeling it's en vogue to claim to be against Amazon, but to then find some half-assed…

The manufacturer's website shows $239.99 for me, the post says he got it for under $200. I'm not sure how you get $40 cheaper from the manufacturer out of that.

In addition, checking the Internet Archive shows that the manufacturer had it listed for $269.99 in September 2019, two months after the post was written.

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#102

Post by StavrosK »

therealtbs wrote: post #86
StavrosK wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is rooting it worth it? I have one but I haven't bothered with rooting it yet. It would be worth it if I could start-stop it locally, as the app has to go through China and the latency is ~2 seconds, which is terrible.

You don't even need to root it. Most Xiaomi smart-devices speak a protocol called miIO. There are several libraries/bindings for your favorite languages/tools as well as a nice CLI tool[0]. The only tricky part is getting the device token[1]. But once you have that it's smooth sailing. [0] https://python-miio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/vacuum.html [1] https://python-miio.readthedocs.io/en/latest/discovery.html#...

Oh I had set that up and then forgot about it, I'll give it another shot. Thanks!

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#103

Post by bonestamp2 »

dharma1 wrote: post #32

I've had the Xiaomi one for a couple of years, the one with lidar. It's great. Used to love watching the app as the little guy gets to work and the map starts building realtime. It runs Ubuntu, you can root it. And even get spotify running on it. https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud https://medium.com/@anxodio/how-to-get-spotify-working-on-yo...

> you can root it. And even get spotify running on it

Some might ask why you'd want Spotify on your vacuum? I would have it play Dolly Parton's "(Working) 9 to 5" on loop whenever it's running. I feel like that would be hilarious forever. Other suggestions welcome.

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#106

Post by visarga »

distances wrote: post #13
Tade0 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a brush. I've found that while it doesn't do a lot of what a human would, it can do it daily . In my case the time savings made it pay for itself in half a year.

> I've found that while it doesn't do a lot of what a human would, it can do it daily. In my case the time savings made it pay for itself in half a year. My home has pretty high thresholds/doorsteps (what are they even called?), and the robot always gets stuck. Thus, we clean together once a week: it does the vacuuming, and I clean the bathroom, kitchen etc and help it go where it wants. This kinda works, but I wonde…

It's smarter to adapt to the future. If you have the choice, have no carpets, all furniture on legs at least 10cm high and no door thresholds. Or buy one robot for each connected area in the house.

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#107

Post by remmargorp64 »

sumedh wrote: post #31
ballballball wrote: post #21

I too bought a robotic vacuum out of curiosity (high end iRobot) and found the algorithm to be completely inadequate both in it's mapping and it's ability to adequately cover the area that it was supposed to clean. Additionally it left random patterns in the carpet that could only be described as a drunk toddler vacuuming... in other words, it didn't look clean. It took more than 3 days to map the three rooms that it…

You should have got the Roborock S6, I have the S5 (older model) and its surprisingly good for around 300 USD.

Yep, I have the RoboRock S5 and it's light years ahead of my old Roomba.

I honestly have no idea how Roomba is still in business

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#108

Post by remmargorp64 »

gbrown wrote: post #37
ballballball wrote: post #21

I too bought a robotic vacuum out of curiosity (high end iRobot) and found the algorithm to be completely inadequate both in it's mapping and it's ability to adequately cover the area that it was supposed to clean. Additionally it left random patterns in the carpet that could only be described as a drunk toddler vacuuming... in other words, it didn't look clean. It took more than 3 days to map the three rooms that it…

The Neato vacuums do a much better job in this respect IMHO. They figure out the space with lidar and use a rectangular pattern.

The Neato and RoboRock vacuums are the only ones I recommend for their efficient navigation. Although I had three different Neatos die on me, so now I only use RoboRock.

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#109

Post by redsaz »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #57
klingonopera wrote: post #49

> " Dammit, Amazon, it's so hard to quit you. " What? I'm not even in the US, but DDG'ing the "Eufy RoboVac 30" brings me straight to the manufacturer's website, where it's even $40 cheaper. Why give "Lord Bezos" a piece of the cake, when he doesn't even need to have one? Maybe it wasn't so at the time of writing, but I have a weird feeling it's en vogue to claim to be against Amazon, but to then find some half-assed…

When I buy something off another site… - Will I have to register an account? Will I have to take time unsubscribing from the email lists they sign me up for? - Will the checkout form work? Will it be secure? Will it be a single page, or will there be separate pages of shipping info, billing info, payment method, confirmation of sale, and receipt? - Will any of those pages be broken, forcing me to start over? - When w…

One of my concerns is on the security front, specifically credit card info, if PayPal isn't an option. I'm interested in trying out Privacy's one-time use credit cards to reduce that risk.

Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)

#110

Post by wpietri »

bonniemuffin wrote: post #90
raducu wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like the cleaning I have to do before I let the robot loose -- pick up toys; I could vacuum much faster than the robot does and without heavy lifting of items in my crowded flat. But I usually don't vacuum, so overall I'm satisfied with my roborock.

I love this feature! After a lifetime of throwing my socks on the floor, Roomba finally trained me to put them in the laundry hamper. I've learned to keep my floors tidy all the time, and my life is much better for it.

I like this feature, too! When I first got mine I had it set up to run only on certain days, as my small place doesn't need a lot of vacuuming. Then I discovered that the closer I got to the robot run, the tidier I was. So I wrote some code to make it run on random days, and that finally got me to stop trying to cheat.
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