Adventures in Roomba-ing
So my roomba has been out of commission for a few months now. After coming home one day to discover that it had only moved a few feet from where I had set it early that day, I decided to watch it more closely next time.
The next time it decided not to move at all, or even turn on. :( I was a little disheartened by this because my Roomba hadn't had a long career of vacuuming in the first place. And now it appeared dead. :( Well after some checks only and some resetting here and there I determined that the problem was in my battery. I needed a new one. But seeing as they're not the cheapest things I had been procrastinating on purchasing one.
Today as I took the trash out I noticed a Roomba box by the trashcan. I thought to myself "Surely no one would have thrown away a whole roomba". Man was I ever wrong. I opened the box and there was a well loved Roomba Discovery model. JUST LIKE mine. Eeery. As I was stepping out forthe day I quickly ran back upstairs with my find and tried to turn it on. Dead. Crap. So I turned it over and checked the battery. Took it out and then plopped it back in. Woho! Success. A power on. I quickly put it on the charger and left for the day.
When I came home it had been charging for about 10 hours. Should have been enough time to get a full charge, but I'm not sure. So I unplugged it from the charger and set it to a simple clean cycle. YAY, more success. The new Roomba started along its merry way, and then.....uh oh.....it seemed to be going in circles instead of moving forward with a regular cleaning routine. It COULD go forward, but just wasn't. Ok.....
So I plopped the battery from the new one into my old Roomba, that I had dubbed "Sweepey" and tried to power him up. Success. I set him on a normal clean cycle and he ran for about 25 minutes before powering off. I'm hoping that all he needs is a longer charge, but I'm not holding my breath. Luckily I found a site which has some information on how to recondition batteries.
http://www.roombareview.com/hack/battery.shtml
I had put some googily eyes on top of Sweepey to give him more personality, but in the process of his 25 minute test run he managed to rub off one of his eyes on the bottom of the couch. Nice. He probably subsequently ate it. Anyhow, either way now I have 2 Roombas to work on and play with. :) I should be able to hack together at least ONE functioning Roomba.
So thanks neighbor. Whoever you are. :)
The next time it decided not to move at all, or even turn on. :( I was a little disheartened by this because my Roomba hadn't had a long career of vacuuming in the first place. And now it appeared dead. :( Well after some checks only and some resetting here and there I determined that the problem was in my battery. I needed a new one. But seeing as they're not the cheapest things I had been procrastinating on purchasing one.
Today as I took the trash out I noticed a Roomba box by the trashcan. I thought to myself "Surely no one would have thrown away a whole roomba". Man was I ever wrong. I opened the box and there was a well loved Roomba Discovery model. JUST LIKE mine. Eeery. As I was stepping out forthe day I quickly ran back upstairs with my find and tried to turn it on. Dead. Crap. So I turned it over and checked the battery. Took it out and then plopped it back in. Woho! Success. A power on. I quickly put it on the charger and left for the day.
When I came home it had been charging for about 10 hours. Should have been enough time to get a full charge, but I'm not sure. So I unplugged it from the charger and set it to a simple clean cycle. YAY, more success. The new Roomba started along its merry way, and then.....uh oh.....it seemed to be going in circles instead of moving forward with a regular cleaning routine. It COULD go forward, but just wasn't. Ok.....
So I plopped the battery from the new one into my old Roomba, that I had dubbed "Sweepey" and tried to power him up. Success. I set him on a normal clean cycle and he ran for about 25 minutes before powering off. I'm hoping that all he needs is a longer charge, but I'm not holding my breath. Luckily I found a site which has some information on how to recondition batteries.
http://www.roombareview.com/hack/battery.shtml
I had put some googily eyes on top of Sweepey to give him more personality, but in the process of his 25 minute test run he managed to rub off one of his eyes on the bottom of the couch. Nice. He probably subsequently ate it. Anyhow, either way now I have 2 Roombas to work on and play with. :) I should be able to hack together at least ONE functioning Roomba.
So thanks neighbor. Whoever you are. :)