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Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

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Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#451

Post by gempir »

goodpoint wrote: post #194
d_k_f wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your best bet would be to check which models are supported by Valetudo, which is a local-only firmware replacement: https://valetudo.cloud/ and https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo

valetudo is just a hack, not a firmware replacement, and could be blocked by a firmware update from the OEM plus it can void your warranty

Installing Valetudo stops any firmeware updates forever from the OEM. [1]

I wouldn't consider it a hack. It's an alternative way to run your vacuum, with yes potentially less features if the OEM makes a lot of future updates, but Valetudo also comes with their own set of updates.

[1] https://valetudo.cloud/pages/usage/firmware-updates.html

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#452

Post by crazygringo »

prmoustache wrote: post #421
cs702 wrote: post #254

According to the Financial Times, Roomba has sold more than 40 million robotic devices, most of them robotic vacuum cleaners.[a] Many of those vacuum cleaners have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

I don't think there are tens of millions still in use. Unless you design your house and buy your furnitures taking these roomba into account, they get stuck nearly every where or at the first sock left on the ground by someone in your household. They have a number of wearable most owner will not even want to replace and will start being inefficient rather quickly. Add to that some battery wear and I don't think there…

> The thing is, those robots really don't solve a real problem as vacuuming and mopping are the easiest and quickest job when it comes to cleaning the house.

Hard disagree, because vacuuming is something you often need to do daily. Spending 10 min/day becomes over an hour a week. That's a significant chunk. If you have smooth floors, running a Roomba kind of becomes a no-brainer.

On the other hand, I only need to dust once a week, and that takes all of 10 minutes. Cleaning the bathroom is similarly once a week (assuming you wipe/brush the sink and toilet bowl as necessary after use).

Reducing vacuuming time, to me, is the #1 thing you can do to save cleaning time, if you live in a Roomba-compatible space.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#453

Post by chipotle_coyote »

anymouse123456 wrote: post #305
kqr wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our household (and I suspect many with us) bought a Roomba specifically to not give the Chinese government a roving camera in our home. Ouch!

This! I was a very early customer of Roomba and loved them when they came out. I had pets at the time, and the machine would consistently fail in about 14 months. I finally figured out that I needed to buy them from Costco, so that I could get them replaced. Rather than taking their lead and improving the product, they just sat there with the exact same product for like 10+ years. It was outrageous. I guess Rodney Br…

Is there a connection between Tim Ferriss and Roomba, or is this just a joke about Brooks having a 4-hour workweek?

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#454

Post by ghaff »

prmoustache wrote: post #421
cs702 wrote: post #254

According to the Financial Times, Roomba has sold more than 40 million robotic devices, most of them robotic vacuum cleaners.[a] Many of those vacuum cleaners have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

I don't think there are tens of millions still in use. Unless you design your house and buy your furnitures taking these roomba into account, they get stuck nearly every where or at the first sock left on the ground by someone in your household. They have a number of wearable most owner will not even want to replace and will start being inefficient rather quickly. Add to that some battery wear and I don't think there…

A lot of people probably bought them for the novelty and then decided they weren't really all that useful for their homes and lifestyles. At least that's what a number of friends have told me. Cordless stick vacs also came in and made a lot of vacuuming jobs quicker and easier.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#455

Post by dpedu »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #431
prmoustache wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there are tens of millions still in use. Unless you design your house and buy your furnitures taking these roomba into account, they get stuck nearly every where or at the first sock left on the ground by someone in your household. They have a number of wearable most owner will not even want to replace and will start being inefficient rather quickly. Add to that some battery wear and I don't think there…

I am one of those weirdos! I bought a roomba in 2015 and it's still going. Second battery, sixth set of rollers and brush, god knows how many filters. Mine's also a dumb one: no wifi or pathfinding, just boring old "drives around until it smacks into shit" navigation. I gave it googly eyes in 2017 and named it Harold.

I used to have a similar dumb one (Roomba 860 if memory serves) and it would take the same path over and over again in certain corners of my house, which meant my carpet ended up with unsightly wheel tracks on it from the repetition. I don't think it did a very good job vacuuming either, no matter how much it ran, a normal vacuum would always pull a boatload more crud up.

It's an interesting idea but it just didn't work for me and I wouldn't consider buying another.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#456

Post by severino »

jgalt212 wrote: post #299
atwrk wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the actual problem is the "feature" set of the vacuum cleaners, not the nationality of the new owners, right?

Depends on which nations you care about. How would you feel if Roomba devices were controlled by North Korea, for example?

> How would you feel if Roomba devices were controlled by North Korea, for example?

Depends on where you live. If you are living in North Korea and somehow you got to own a Roomba, it would be surely a bad thing.

But living in a western country, I would hands down prefer giving all my secrets to the North Korean government instead of my own one.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#457

Post by malfist »

wccrawford wrote: post #283
vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be a problem with many companies. Chinese companies are innovating aggressively while others don’t. You see that with 3d printers where Bambu is kicking ass. I remember when GoPro did a drone and it simply wasn’t good. Or American carmakers are trying to turn back the clock on electric instead of embracing it.

The funny thing is that Bambu didn't innovate. They just made it work really, really well. I've owned a few 3d printers, including a kit printer, and the Bambu doesn't have any tech that other printers don't. They just always work well, and are easy to maintain. Others are finally catching up, though. Snapmaker really scared them with the U1 (which is getting insane reviews), and Prusa has finally stepped up and star…

What do you mean they didn't innovative? The H2D and the AMS are new techniques and their latest release is certainly innovative with the 6 extra hotends

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#458

Post by gitremote »

BigTTYGothGF wrote: post #424
kqr wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our household (and I suspect many with us) bought a Roomba specifically to not give the Chinese government a roving camera in our home. Ouch!

Why do you think they want to see the inside of your house, and what do you think they'd be able to do with the information?

Why would the Chinese government want to regularly launch cyber attacks against US infrastructure, except it's been happening for years? US security companies and governments have been defending against it for years and have even cataloged the state-sponsored attack groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_persistent_threat#Chi...

It's very easy to think other people are being paranoid when you're ignorant about the topic.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#459

Post by ghostpepper »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #196
stavros wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Valetudo on my early Roborock model and it worked great for many years. Unfortunately, the battery gave out and it's somehow DRMed, so even though everything else works fine, the vacuum refuses to work because it doesn't like the new battery. It's the worst kind of e-waste, it's only waste because someone decided I should buy a whole new vacuum when the battery dies, but Valetudo is otherwise good. Just never…

Oh boy the creator of valetudo sure has an abrasive writing style. Whatever works for him, I guess.

It's too bad because it's such a great project otherwise. He puts a ton of free labour into the system and I'm sure he's dealt with some entitled users but it's really a huge reason I don't recommend it to more people. Actively telling people they must learn to solder and making the only support channel on telegram are two big turn-offs for a lot of people.

This is absolutely his right and perhaps his intention to keep the project small, but in that case I wish there was another alternative vacuum firmware project.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#460

Post by raisedbyninjas »

array_key_first wrote: post #389
cs702 wrote: post #254

According to the Financial Times, Roomba has sold more than 40 million robotic devices, most of them robotic vacuum cleaners.[a] Many of those vacuum cleaners have cameras, can move around on their own, and are connected to the Internet. If they're taken offline, they stop working. Many have microphones too. The new Chinese owner will get control of a network of tens of millions Internet-connected, autonomously mobil…

I don't understand how you can sell 40 million units and go bankrupt.

Roomba has been obsolete for 10 years. Competitors have eaten their lunch in every segment.
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