does nayone have one? how do they go?

i just put a new floor in and its a big ass place so i wanna have my work done by a horde of horny 60's robot women.. or one of those crazy jap cleaner robots

i seens some for bout 200-300 bux and i wanna know how good they are

i have a flat wooden floor

I have a roomba discovery series. it does a sick job of cleaning polished wood floors, also chicks dig it.

not so effective on carpet, but still works. also treat the battery well and keep the innards clean, give it a good going over every 2-3 uses, k?

i recommend.

i have a FemPartner V4.0 and she does a great job at vacuuming.
also does dishes and washing and cooking

are there any robot vacs that work well for carpets? I'm thinking of spluring on one cause i'm lazy

f*** it i bought one the roomba 530 get it tomorrow

Dyson have a badass looking one in the works, has been "undergoing testing" for yonks now, though. Can climb stairs...

This thread makes me think of Arrested Development.

Look, if you're a gamer and you have money to burn on a robot there should be no question. It doesn't matter what it can do, it's a robot.

i tried to explain that to the missus... she still doesnt understand my need for a robot army

I bought a tshirt with a robot on it the other day :D I didn't even know it had a robot on it til the bf pointed it out

pics or lying

pic 1 shirt off

pic 2 shirt on

for comparitive porpises

kthnx

I bought a tshirt with a robot on it the other day :D I didn't even know it had a robot on it til the bf pointed it out

What a great story!

I don't see what's so good about it, get a haircut

i agree with superform

thats super form, superform!

Mantra: bringing crusty back!

I was being sarcastic, get an S3

f*** it i bought one the roomba 530 get it tomorrow

Where'd you get it from?

I looked at them 12months ago... didnt think they would be so popular! Next win at cards i might get one. It would be worth shelling out a few quid to shut the missus up.

iRobotStore.nl

i was also thinking about getting the mopping one too but i have to build my robot army slowly or face the wrath of the anti-robot queen

sifnt buy from a cool sounding web site like that

You're actually in the Netherlands?! I always thought you were making that up to be witty and cool... shows how much I know :)

i hope i'm still witty and cool

:)

How witty and cool is it to be in the Netherlands, and have a robot? I think you're safe dude ;)

Wtf? Theres a mopping robot? How does it know where to mop? What if it mops the carpet?

It's clevar!!!! It has magic carpet detectors that stop it.

I just like how they know when they're getting low on batteries and bugger off back to their chargers like good little robots.

Khel it has an programable invisable wall that you give it so it knows where to go and whatnot

if its a bad robot you should threaten it by saying you will drop it off to those lil furry things from star wars that pull robots apart

/me thinks of the little cleaner robots at UNATCO headquarters in Deus Ex.

The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Roomba 530 begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

geometric rate

it can draw triangles like no other

yeah james cameron sure does suck at the english language

yeah I've got a roomba discovery too, does my carpets just fine
I bought a rebuild kit for it recently ($40 AUD) replaces all the filters and bushes etc

battery life can be aids if you dont look after it, batteries are $90 for a new updated model but it's worth it
also, my universal remote can control it so it rocks even harder

so where is the best place to buy one in brisbane/gold coast?

or is the best spot online?

that vaccuum place in the valley sells them, i forget the name of it tho :S

How much are these going for roughly?

geometric rate


it can draw triangles like no other

ahaha, i got some lolz

i think the only 3rd gen units (roomba 530) you can find in australia goes for about au$500 last time i checked.
However, you can get a roomba 560 on ebay for about us$400 (inc shipping).

Only diff with the 560 is that you get a few more items and you can schedule the vacuum start at a given time. Otherwise i think they are about the same in all other respects.

i've got a vacuum.. it's female and of the human species.

I'd like to say sorry for dredging this up, but the truth is I'm not.

I've been looking at robot vacuum cleaners. If you still on this forum Superform, how did yours work out?

Anyone else use any?

i still use mine, and i have succesfully trained my girlfriend to use it.

my floors are clean as.

OMG, LOL

i still use mine, and i have succesfully trained my girlfriend to use it.

my floors are clean as.

If you had to buy right now would you get a Roomba 560 or what?

lol rev that's awesome.

I have a roomba discovery series. it does a sick job of cleaning polished wood floors, also chicks dig it.

totally disagree, I've also got a discovery series and its a big pile of dog s***
gets stuck everywhere, under anything
gets confused with certain objects, will go around and around for ages before the battery dies because it can't find its home again

you put it on when you go out and come back to find it dead in the middle of your lounge or under a random couch

nothing beats a good broom/mop in the hands of a qualified woman

I found this 'fairly recent' review from an aussie: http://www.dansdata.com/gz035.htm

This bitch seems to be the duck's guts: http://trilobite.electrolux.co.uk/

The Roomba does have a vague idea of the size of the room; you tell it that by pressing the S, M or L button on top when you start it cleaning. All that tells the Roomba is how many collision events it should tolerate before it comes to a halt and plays its "I'm done" beeps, though.

And those beeps mean it's time for you to empty the Roomba and, probably, plug it into its charger, by hand. And if your rugs have fringes, you have to tuck them under before you set Roomba loose.

A Roomba will probably cover every piece of a room's floor several times in the course of cleaning it, but not with any particular plan; it just uses a combination of spiralling, edge-following and pseudo-random turning that makes it statistically very difficult for any part of the floor to avoid being cleaned.

Hehe, I LOL'd at this: http://www.roombacommunity.com/robosweep.html

**EDIT** Also found this awesome real time-lapse footage in my research: http://cdn.irobot.com/video/roomba500_tech/Room_Coverage_tech.html

if you have a hardwood floor and don't mind picking up your s*** off the floor before you start then its fine.

My mum has a Roomba, and I was thoroughly impressed by it. She just turned it on, and I watched it clean the whole lounge room in a reasonable amount of time. And, when it was done, it found its way back to its charging station, docked, and went to sleep. I f***ing want one.

LOL thats gold rev.

if you have a hardwood floor and don't mind picking up your s*** off the floor before you start then its fine.

Ok, I've been reading reviews and checking out YouTube and there are a lot of mixed reviews.

1. Design flaws, particularly in gearbox area, means that hair and other debris gets into the gearbox which requires frequent disassembly and cleaning - not too hard though, but you need a screwdriver to do it still.
2. Whether the Roomba will finish a room and then navigate to another room - with or without the 'lighthouse' accessory. Lots of peeps say that it will only stay in one room, or often they will find it in another room with a dead battery - it doesn't like going home.
3. Cleaning algorithm not great (very close to random) - I don't really care about efficiency though so won't dive into that territory, it can take as long as it damn well pleases as long as I can walk around barefoot without getting crumbs on my feet on my floorboards.

I think iRobot are very clever in the way they release designs. They have released so many versions it's difficult to tell what versions have what problems!

The moral of the story seems to be get a good warranty.

imagine modding one of these beasts? neon's etc

yeah my roomba is still going strong - needs alot of maintainence.. but i think its more to do with the 3 cats and there butf***loads of fur rather then the roomba

Sifn't proper vacuums

I thought about this then remembered I have a cleaner for 30 euros every week :D

If you have the time you could probably build one (if that is your cup of tea). There is plenty of basic and advanced DIY robot designs, just use a crappy laptop or cheap EEepc to do thinking, there are also plenty of opensource programs so programming can be kept to a minimum.

If you have the time though..

If you have the time you could probably build one

Yeah the person who is too lazy to vaccum the carpet is going to spend time building a vaccum cleaner :p

If you have the time you could probably build one

lol, I'm on it. I looked at Instructables to see if there was a step-by-step, but there's only instructables for modding existing ones - not build your own.

You don't need EeePC, that's massive overkill. BASIC stamp (or Javelin if you like Java) will do it - but I was tossing up Bluetooth.

I was reading up on the specs of the Roomba - it uses the most basic differential drive method of turning, which you can find C code anywhere for that. The obstruction avoidance is a bit more advanced with IR sensors. The wall-following would be quite tough, they have put some serious thought into that bit (seems to be only in the very latest models, the 610 and above).

Anyway, I've been looking at an excuse to get into robotics, not that I have any free-time really, but this could be a side-project.

If I get passed the 'inspired' stage into achieving anything I'll post it here...

where can I get one of those cat vacuum cleaners? how much do they cost?

hahaha 30 euro's! what a f***n rip off! You are going to want to get 6 hours for that or move to aus

A great timelapse vid of Roomba 570

hahaha 30 euro's! what a f***n rip off! You are going to want to get 6 hours for that or move to aus

It's a dam sight cheaper than a Wife

It's a dam sight cheaper than a Wife

You're doing it wrong.

The right wife is an investment - it should make money ;-)

Hey Superform, can you do us a favour. Next time you are cleaning your Roomba can you take a hi-res photo of the impeller area (the fan that makes the suction).

In the end I decided to have a bash at making one. Turns out I had most of the parts around the house including an 'active' vacuum head with a spinning brush - basically exactly what they have, with the helix-type brushes on an axle. It wasn't motorised in the original vacuum head, it was powered off the pressure from the vacuum - but it will be!

So far I have made the drive chain from two servos modified for continuous action which I will use for differential drive.

Just have to take a time-out to build a 12V bench-top PSU from an old ATX PSU. Once that's done I can use it to charge my batteries.

The drive will be powered off 4.8V (at least, for testing - possibly 6V in later prototype) and the vacuum impeller will be powered from 9.6V pack.

The MCU will be Arduino Duemilanove most likely at this stage due to price, aussie distributor, ease of use (USB2 integrated programmer, C language).

Hmm, what else. I think that's about it. If anyone is into robotics and can see any probs with above, let me know.

your existing power head is likely 240v ?

your existing power head is likely 240v ?

Nah, it runs off the suction of the vacuum. It's purely mechanical. I've removed the impeller part and will put in an R/C elec airplane motor. Might have to gear it though - haven't done any and calcs for that yet, only pulled it apart and had a look at it.

ah i thought you meant power head as in one of those vacuums that has a power cable running down the length of the suction pipe to the head, which also receives power for an internal motor
thats what i'd start off with as a base if i could, then just built a controller board on top of it and swap the AC motor for a DC motor, using an invertor wont likely work because they draw huge amounts of power iirc

ah i thought you meant power head as in one of those vacuums that has a power cable running down the length of the suction pipe to the head, which also receives power for an internal motor
thats what i'd start off with as a base if i could, then just built a controller board on top of it and swap the AC motor for a DC motor, using an invertor wont likely work because they draw huge amounts of power iirc

Yeah, would be a good start. I'm still thinking about the actual vacuum part of the device. At this stage my only good option is to implement maybe a dust-buster vacuum. I can't really design my own because the impeller is usually a complex geometry.

This rip-off Roomba made me lol (from China): http://www.freewebs.com/jamiesrobots/m288robotvacuum.htm

Unfortunately it's no longer available. I laughed at the sentence:

The main controller is a 40-pin DIL EPROM (reflective-backed label protects quartz window for erasing). As to the manufacturer and processor type - I have no idea! Interestingly, it looks like it has been sanded to remove this information.

Haha, it's a direct copy of the iRobot Roomba. No wonder why the manufacturer didn't put his name on it ;-)

*EDIT* I found a source for updated rip-off Roomba for about $200 AUD: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135182

Make sure you post some piccy's and stuff when you start doing it, i'd love to get into something like this.

Make sure you post some piccy's and stuff when you start doing it, i'd love to get into something like this.

Will do, no probs.

Okies. So first things first, I'm poor right and I need some power, so I crafted me an old fashioned 350W Codegen ATX PSU into a shiny new bench PSU. There's heaps of tutes out there to do this. I used mostly this one (but referenced others): Wikihow tutorial

Pics or lying, amirite?

http://static.zooomr.com/images/6822796_94468df83c.jpg
DSC03364 by sgtpinky on Zooomr

Nice work pinky, you've inspired me to do this myself, ive got a brand new 350 watter laying around and a modded PSU like you've done would be handy.

Nice work pinky, you've inspired me to do this myself, ive got a brand new 350 watter laying around and a modded PSU like you've done would be handy.

Yeah, it's not a bad use for a PSU that is otherwise unused. I am mostly just using it to run my NiMH charger - instead of having to clip it onto a car battery like it was designed for.

Also, the reason I have those three posts so high up is that my PSU has both -5V, -12V wires as well, and I bought posts for them already - I was just lazy implementing them because I won't really use those voltages (they allow you to get 17V and 24V). Main ones are +5V, +7V and +12V which you can get just from the posts I have implemented.

I had a bit of problems with the gray and purple wires. They are part of the ATX power on specification. In the end I put my 12V red light between a black and purple which means as soon as the AC power is plugged in, the light is on, but no power is supplied to the posts. When I flick the switch the light is still on, but the fan goes on (enough indication for me) and power is supplied to the posts. I couldn't get it to work with the gray wire - but depending on your PSU you might have more success.

Ok, a bit of a photo-journalistic update. Here's what I mean by the 'active' vacuum head. It's from a Hoover Hotshot 1550. The idea is that the vacuum pressure spins the impeller which turns the brush to *sweep* the floor. Some limited thought has gone into the design to prevent hair clogging on the ends of the axles, but I guess that's a major problem with vacs because I haven't seen a design that works yet.

So these pics show the disassembly of the part with the direct drive rubber chain (no gearing) and the helix-shaped brush.

http://static.zooomr.com/images/6833818_337acb7006.jpg
DSC03372 by sgtpinky on Zooomr

I thought I'd make a video this time. I received my Arduino Duemilanove by post yesty, and I friggin love it. It's the best toy ever. If I had a son, I'd buy him ten.

Anyway, here's a vid of the basic differential drive with obstacle avoidance. Any criticism or suggestions welcome. The idea is that the switches will somehow be pushed by a bumper mechanism (in two halves on the front) which will in turn cause the robot to back-up, turn for some random time, and then continue forwards.


Arduino Duemilanove Differential Drive from Pinky on Vimeo.

where do you find the time :)

I wanted vacuum robot back in the day, they were like $1500. I live downstairs in a share house and it was one big rumpus room basically and kitchen with 2 small rooms at the end of the house. Probably 90-100m2 in rumpus and kitchen alone which was all tiled. It would have been great to have a robot at that house.

Think I'm going to have tiles downstairs when I raise the house which is probably a bit more expensive but so easy to clean.

you should give it a thread of its own too