Random is hard to beat.
I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
161–170 of 183 posts
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#162Earlier 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 wow I had no idea this was all out there. Thanks :)
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#163I bought a robotic vacuum more out of curiosity and to see if I should buy one as a gift for my parents. Just one of the cheapest models that still had good reviews. It turned out that all deficiencies of such a vacuum are offset by its basic function: it keeps the apartment clean each day, every day. Dirty corners? Weak suction? Small container? Somewhat noisy? Not too smart? Gets stuck sometimes? I need to clean ha…
> If it misses a spot today, it will get it tomorrow. One of the complaints about the smarter robot vacuums (like ones that map the house) is that they consistently miss the same spots every time. I think the dumb "bounce off the walls randomly" algorithm is actually the best one for this kind of product.
Perhaps some randomness can be part of the smarter ones algorithms.
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#164I do not trust Eufy brand anymore. We had a Eufy RoboVac and within its warranty period, battery went bust. When attached to its station, it gave some sound errors which is apparently tied to its battery. I contacted support several times, reminded their obligation for warranty period but they did nothing. They asked me to find a "certified technician" to get a report such that this malfunction was present when I mad…
In my opinion, the iRobot support and parts availability are worth the premium. Our 2013 model 650 is still running great. All we’ve had to do is periodically replace worn out brushes and spinners and at some point we replaced the main battery. This is all easily done with a screwdriver.
Same here with a 650 I got in 2016. It runs daily, and all I've ever had to do with it is replace the brushes/spinners twice.
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#165I bought a robotic vacuum more out of curiosity and to see if I should buy one as a gift for my parents. Just one of the cheapest models that still had good reviews. It turned out that all deficiencies of such a vacuum are offset by its basic function: it keeps the apartment clean each day, every day. Dirty corners? Weak suction? Small container? Somewhat noisy? Not too smart? Gets stuck sometimes? I need to clean ha…
> If it misses a spot today, it will get it tomorrow. One of the complaints about the smarter robot vacuums (like ones that map the house) is that they consistently miss the same spots every time. I think the dumb "bounce off the walls randomly" algorithm is actually the best one for this kind of product.
One actual problem I had with a most basic Roomba(6xx) was it was banging a shelf in the room at exact same angle each run every day, which eventually toppled a thing on it and splayed water all around.
I felt like writing a automobile recall notice that says “inappropriate X leading to Y after Z repeats” of which X seems pretty benign item like a wire sheath was just one step too thin or a strap was too tight by a notch.
Damn those things are consistent and it’s extraordinary how powerful consistency is...
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#166I do not trust Eufy brand anymore. We had a Eufy RoboVac and within its warranty period, battery went bust. When attached to its station, it gave some sound errors which is apparently tied to its battery. I contacted support several times, reminded their obligation for warranty period but they did nothing. They asked me to find a "certified technician" to get a report such that this malfunction was present when I mad…
iRobot is a great company. They'll sell you parts to repair your robot. The take refurbished units and sell them for educational purposes [ https://www.irobot.com/about-irobot/stem/create-2 ], with a fully open and documented platform [ https://www.irobot.lv/uploaded_files/File/iRobot_Roomba_500_... ]. It's so obviously a company that started as somebody's grad school project, and remains so to this day, and I mean t…
Yeah. I got a squeaky wheel on my Roomba 960, sent an email to customer services, they just sent me a whole new wheel module with instructions on how to replace it. Really really great service. And it looks like pretty much all parts of the robot can be bought and replaced separately.
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#167I 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…
So I don't know which one you have, but my mum bought herself the S9+ for christmas and wow, we were actually betting that it will fail as she lives in a huge house with a relatively complex layout(the living room has a circular shape with multiple entrances and central staircase) but nope, the robot deals with all of it fine. It takes longer than the 2 hour battery life to clean it all, but that's not a problem - it goes back to the base, empties its own bin, recharges, and then continues where it left off. It's truly amazing in terms of how well the mapping deals with that house, it shouldn't be that good.
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#168I'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.
You talk like you've never heard of DJ Roomba.
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#169I do not trust Eufy brand anymore. We had a Eufy RoboVac and within its warranty period, battery went bust. When attached to its station, it gave some sound errors which is apparently tied to its battery. I contacted support several times, reminded their obligation for warranty period but they did nothing. They asked me to find a "certified technician" to get a report such that this malfunction was present when I mad…
iRobot is a great company. They'll sell you parts to repair your robot. The take refurbished units and sell them for educational purposes [ https://www.irobot.com/about-irobot/stem/create-2 ], with a fully open and documented platform [ https://www.irobot.lv/uploaded_files/File/iRobot_Roomba_500_... ]. It's so obviously a company that started as somebody's grad school project, and remains so to this day, and I mean t…
Note: Create 2 is just low-end 6xx missing a few parts. If you're going to buy it just for robotics experiments, just buy the cheapest models that looks exactly the same(not E5, 690 or 800), or older(OG, 400, 500). Costs the same but when you're bored they vacuum your floors!
Re: I am mesmerized by our new robotic vacuum (2019)
#170I 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.
Neato has been doing localization/mapping based vacuum since earlier, so they're obviously more sophisticated. But anecdotally with the state of the floor as the metric, 622 seems to do better than XV-11 despite being horribly dumb.