Hacking my Robot Vacuum to add ONE MISSING Feature!

For the "roborock" robot vacuum series, there's a modified firmware called Valetudo, which disconnects the vacuum from "cloud" and gives you local access, including the ability to manually control the movement.

Now, a FPV camera for the front, and the augmented reality project that "shades" the areas where you've been. Vacuum Simulator 2023.

As a software guy I would start with hacking the firmware to make something like this work somehow. It is interesting to see how people from different disciplines have different approaches to a problem. Great video as always! ^^

Irobot makes a robot vacuum intended for educational purposes that is adaptable and able to accept code. It's changed a lot over the years, but the newest one, the Create 3 Educational Robot, may be able to help you accomplish this.

Well, of you're into programming, you could actually remove all of the original boards from the robot, leaving only the ESP32 inside it, but with some GPIO attached to the original sensors. Then build a remote unit in a box with another ESP32 to receive the sensor data and pass it to the main board, get the response and forward it to the onboard ESP32. That way you can programmatically choose to drive it manually (using your phone) or let the remote main board control it. That remote control unit can even be located at the charging station maybe.

One of the main reasons I didn't get really into the electrical side of things is because of how frustrating it was to have a chip or component break immediately. Especially if it is a components component and the entire thing need replacement.

I have always loved the idea of taking electronics and adding features that they don't have, through software or hardware, also i would love to see a video of you salvaging electronics from an old device and making a completely different new device from it

I have a Irobot robot Vacuum and it has a UART port for maintenance propose , but i hook up my pc and i can send commands to go forward, turn left, switch on the vaccum motor etc..

Thanks for the honesty about smoking the part... I have been inside a couple robots and your right.

I have one of those Ecovac vacuums and have taken it apart "just to see", and the amount of technology inside them is amazing! The software that runs them is great too, as all the decisions that are made, with all the different inputs from the sensors and the LIDAR, means alot of processing is going on. I would only mess around with it IF I had another one that I use and the "spare" could suffer failure. Thanks for your post! Interesting!

Hi Scott! There is one thing in your clips that i really love. I didn't see you talking about it, but i think it is important. Drawing while deconstructing a problem. This is something my dad tought me when he was helping me learn how to solve problems when i was in primary school. I also learned very similar method some years later. It was called a "non linear notes". Drawing simplified or symbolic shapes and relations between them, helps incredibly while searching for solution or trying to understand how things work (reverse engineering something). Maybe i have missed this episode... If not, i would ask for one describing how you approach to solving problems with drawings 🙂 I think such methods should be tought at primary school for problem solving.

Some robot vacuums can actually have their software replaced with an open-source alternative; I think the open-source system was called "Valetudo" or something like that. I haven't gotten around getting one myself yet though, but I'm gonna be looking for one compatible with that.

amazing video as always. I love how you figured out the functions of the 5 pins on the vacuum motor

I just fixed a Conga for a friend, used it few days and I'm actually thinking to buy a vaccum robot because it's working so nice!! And now your last video just appeared, THANK YOU !! I thought of modifying a used one and your video just confirmed what I had in mind. You still can put your system ON TOP of the LIDAR head unit, running your small wires over the 4 supports legs of it, it might be possible to make it really compact, even with relays... Not easy tho, indeed, but doable : )

Well Scott as being a subscriber for so many years I highly arpeciate when you fail interly and show to us that is is possible even to the best ones :D of us !

Great project. Always learning things from you

Great content! one thing I would emphasize though, is first checking if the pins are Input or Output first(by disconnecting the motor and testing the output), and then using a resistor to connect to the microcontroller to limit unwanted/accidental current shorts, that way everything is taken care of. Sometimes when we're not careful, and one of those pins of the motor is an output pin, and we try to drive it, it might result in bad things!

I picked up one of those vacuums at a second hand store for $5. It has been sitting in a box since then because I couldn't register it with the manufacturer. Now I can use it for this project. Thank you, Scott!

Great video as always Thanks for sharing

thanks to you I started to look into the mit app!