As someone who works across software, hardware, and deep learning, this project makes me happy. My $1000+ vacuum will happily get stuck on the cloth mat, eat all our lego, and it has seen a hundred times, no memory, no meaningful object reasoning, just a marketing claim of intelligence propping up the price. This is something I will definitely play with.
Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
81–90 of 105 posts
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#82The hardware is an issue, not because it's bad but because it's massively expensive to buy the components piecemeal. You can purchase a lidar vac for £70-80 now. Even if you only replaced the brains, that's a quarter of the price of a Oomwoo. The only upgrade I'd want is self-emptying. You'd probably have to relocate the charging contacts but it seems highly achievable. Or you could break up an existing vac for the p…
This brings up the question: Where does one go to get a white label vac? Say I want to start a robot vacuum company and write my own custom software for it. How do I get a few white label samples from a manufacturer to do that?
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#83The hardware is an issue, not because it's bad but because it's massively expensive to buy the components piecemeal. You can purchase a lidar vac for £70-80 now. Even if you only replaced the brains, that's a quarter of the price of a Oomwoo. The only upgrade I'd want is self-emptying. You'd probably have to relocate the charging contacts but it seems highly achievable. Or you could break up an existing vac for the p…
I agree - OpenMover has that approach. Use a COTS mover and change the brains only https://openmower.de/
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also very fond of the Roborock S5, in fact I recently got a second one for the other floor - totally took it apart, cleaned it, put it back together and stuck Valetudo onto it. The first one is from 2017 and still going strong - issues so far: battery replaced (only recently), laser motor replaced, fuse replaced. Aside from the fuse it was very easy and doable for basically anyone.
I’ve had two S5s die on me recently. They kept shutting down in the middle of a clean, and from what I read, it needed a battery replacement. Ordered one off Ali Express, and after another couple months, it also started dying. So replaced it with a newer Roborock. Didn’t bother when the second S5 started doing the same, just got a new Roborock. Both new ones have been going well so far, and while it does seem to be g…
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Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
For that, there's https://valetudo.cloud/ that supports a number of models from different brands.
None are particularly easy to flash, and the dev seems to have no interest in making it more accessible.
The old S5 ones are very easy - factory reset, connect to wireless AP, run utility, done.
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#86Are robot vacuums always circular, wouldn't a single 90 degree or similar section be useful for accessing corners
Being circular allows for zero clearance turns. If you imagine a square robot traversing a wall and approaching a 90 degree inside corner, it can’t make the turn and would also be unable to make a perpendicular move to get more space. That said Eufy, Makita and others make square-ish robots.
It can easily make the turn if only one quadrant was square and it didn't approach the wall with that quadrant pointing forward
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#87The hardware is an issue, not because it's bad but because it's massively expensive to buy the components piecemeal. You can purchase a lidar vac for £70-80 now. Even if you only replaced the brains, that's a quarter of the price of a Oomwoo. The only upgrade I'd want is self-emptying. You'd probably have to relocate the charging contacts but it seems highly achievable. Or you could break up an existing vac for the p…
I own three robot vacuums from two different manufacturers that are nearly identical. Exact same charger station that seems to match what Oomwoo uses. My point is that Oomwoo seems to use at least some common parts already.
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#88The hardware is an issue, not because it's bad but because it's massively expensive to buy the components piecemeal. You can purchase a lidar vac for £70-80 now. Even if you only replaced the brains, that's a quarter of the price of a Oomwoo. The only upgrade I'd want is self-emptying. You'd probably have to relocate the charging contacts but it seems highly achievable. Or you could break up an existing vac for the p…
Sounds very reasonable - I don't have a robot vac at the moment because there are some very large thresholds in my flat and the floor itself in places is very wobbly, but if I had a guide to safely mod one to work for my residence I'd definitely have a go.
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or the time they had available. Maybe they have a full time job, parents to care for, kids to care for. But still they wanted to scratch the itch.
If someone has the time and opportunity to create a robot vacuum from scratch, they probably also have the time to write a short introduction for it
I disagree. Writing became seriously unfun after the 8th year of school. Now after grad school it seems very wasteful to spend any calories focusing on the packaging of the ideas and things. Especially at a time when we have achieved the technology to not need a team of writers, editors, and typesetters to create presentations of a worthwhile quality for the actual content in a reasonable timeframe.
Re: Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself
#90I've always wondered why the Robo mops have lagged so far behind the vacs, to the point that wirecutter (at least as of last year) wouldn't even recommend one. You'd think they'd be on par by now even with the added complexity of water. Pool robots deal with that quite well.