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Roombas — Parallax Forums

Roombas

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2010-08-29 15:25 in Robotics
Buyer beware: there's a refurb of the newer Roomba model 530 on Woot today for $140: http://www.woot.com

I hope these are better than the older Discovery series. I have several of the older Roombas and I have never been all that impressed. They do a mediocre cleaning job on carpet; they can never find the charger; and the batteries die every other month. The battery issue is agonizing: it's a sealed pack of NiMH cells. Invariably, one single cell goes bad and the pack is useless unless you hack it apart to replace one or all of the cells.

The wife loves them when they work, which is too infrequently IMHO. I have a pile of them (including friends' cast-offs) and it's quite a chore to fix or frankenstein them together. And I LOVE robots! God bless the average consumers & early adopters who may be less conversant in maintaining these li'l PITAs.

That said, hat's off to iRobot for being one of the few success stories in consumer robotics. I met & presented to cofounders Colin Angle and Helen Greiner back in 2004, they are young & sharp. Helen left iRobot and is off quietly doing her own thing now at Cyphyworks.com . Saw one update at http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/irobot-cofounders-new-uav

Comments

  • Roy ElthamRoy Eltham Posts: 3,000
    edited 2010-08-28 20:51
    I have a couple of the refirb 530 roombas from Woot. Got them last year, and so far the only issue I've had is that the sensors around the front get dirty and then the thing wont run right. Usually just spins in place or similar. I usually have to take the thing completely apart to clean those things properly so they work right again. I haven't had the batteries fail yet.

    I have had them fail to find their base once or twice too, and like you I have found that they only do a mediocre job at best. I have cats so that makes it harder for them with all the fur.
  • Jay KickliterJay Kickliter Posts: 446
    edited 2010-08-29 05:01
    I bought one of those 540's a while ago. I haven't had any problems with them, other than it getting stuck under the radiators in my house.

    I did just learn that if you pop the top panel off there is a serial port and iRoot published all the codes to interface with it. You can even program it to play different songs.
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2010-08-29 05:36
    I have had 3 . and 1 scobba . Not that they broke but because I have hacked them . My 3rd one is still intact and not on my hack list as I need it to cleen my dorm room .

    I LOVE them . and work so well for me for keeping a clean room. . they wont replace a full vac but to keep a clean room tidy they are good .
  • legoman132legoman132 Posts: 87
    edited 2010-08-29 06:07
    My parents got a 540 awhile back. gets tangled in lamp cords sometimes, but gets up plenty of dog hair. How do you get the top cover off to access said serial port? Does removing the top cover require a major disassembly? Can it be put back easily?
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2010-08-29 13:42
    erco wrote: »
    They do a mediocre cleaning job on carpet; they can never find the charger; and the batteries die every other month.

    I was a bit more impressed with the Roombas. We have three of them, plus a Scooba. I have found that the dust bin fills with more dirt than I would expect and the carpets appear much nicer after the Roomba has run it's course.

    We have had the batteries go bad, but we certainly have gotten more than a few months out of them. I think the worst one lasted over a year.

    Except for when we first started using the Roombas, they always find their way back to the charging base. In the beginning we had to learn where they would get hung up and change things to prevent that. I am sure that it also helps that the charging base is centrally located so it is not hard for the Roomba to find it.

    Rich H
  • BaneBane Posts: 41
    edited 2010-08-29 15:25
    @erco - Yikes! Just picked up one of these a couple days ago off Woot. Hope I have better luck with it than you have had.
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