{"id":8,"date":"2005-05-09T19:34:16","date_gmt":"2005-05-09T19:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.danplanet.com\/wordpress\/?p=8"},"modified":"2011-11-29T16:55:51","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T16:55:51","slug":"roomba-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Roomba Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a Roomba Discovery as a gift about two weeks ago.\u00a0 So far, I have been very pleased with it.\u00a0 It does a good job of vacuuming the entire first floor.\u00a0 Everything was going well until…
\n<\/p>\n

The Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only a few days after we started using our Roomba, the “Home Base” stopped charging the device.\u00a0 The base was getting power (because the power light would illuminate) and the IR emitter was working (because Roomba could find it just fine).\u00a0 The problem was that the Roomba would not start charging when the base contacts were connected to the Roomba contacts.\u00a0 This caused the Roomba to try incessantly to dock itself, each time retrying because it assumed the contacts weren’t lined up correctly.\u00a0 I assumed the Roomba itself was fine, since it would charge if you plugged the power brick directly into the main unit.<\/p>\n

I called iRobot, explained the problem, and they sent me a new retail-packaged base unit (including the power brick); they also told me to just discard the old one.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the problem.\u00a0 Fortunately, I now have two base units, and two power bricks.<\/p>\n

The Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

I called iRobot back and explained that the replacement base did not solve the problem.\u00a0 They informed me that they’d need to replace the entire Roomba, as there must be something wrong with the unit itself.\u00a0 The amazing thing is: they didn’t want the broken Roomba back!\u00a0 They made me detach the “Brush Guard,” which is a plastic retainer that keeps the brushes in place (and also has the serial number on it).\u00a0 Their reasoning being that they don’t repair Roombas, and without this piece of plastic, the unit was useless.\u00a0 They instructed me to send the guard back, after which they would send me a replacement Roomba.\u00a0 As a true geek, I could hardly wait to get off the phone so that I could figure out a way to rig the Roomba to operate without the guard in place.<\/p>\n

The Hack<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found a page<\/a> describing what one person did to accomplish this goal, so I set off to replicate the fix.\u00a0 I only cannibalized a single wire hanger, half of which I used for a prototype, the other half became the working solution.<\/p>\n

\"Roomba<\/p>\n
The bracket<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"Bracket<\/p>\n
The installed bracket<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The bracket alone, as well as the newly-fitted Roomba are pictured above.\u00a0 I haven’t even mailed the brush guard yet, so I will have a working Roomba while I’m waiting for the new one.\u00a0 Since iRobot doesn’t supply a new battery, I’m sure another hack will soon follow.\u00a0 If nothing else, $50 (the cost of a battery) is a small price to pay for a second Roomba!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received a Roomba Discovery as a gift about two weeks ago.\u00a0 So far, I have been very pleased with it.\u00a0 It does a good job of vacuuming the entire first floor.\u00a0 Everything was going well until…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-miscellaneous"],"yoast_head":"\nRoomba Woes - Right Angles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Roomba Woes - Right Angles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I received a Roomba Discovery as a gift about two weeks ago.\u00a0 So far, I have been very pleased with it.\u00a0 It does a good job of vacuuming the entire first floor.\u00a0 Everything was going well until…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Right Angles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-05-09T19:34:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T16:55:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/\/images\/stories\/Roomba\/roobma_bracket.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0f6920aa6d63cae437bf8b122200287c\"},\"headline\":\"Roomba Woes\",\"datePublished\":\"2005-05-09T19:34:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-29T16:55:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/\"},\"wordCount\":459,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0f6920aa6d63cae437bf8b122200287c\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/\/images\/stories\/Roomba\/roobma_bracket.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Hardware\",\"Miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.danplanet.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/09\/roomba-woes\/\",\"name\":\"Roomba Woes - 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