[Electronics-Talk] Rumba:

Mon Dec 20 12:30:04 UTC 2021

Hi,

We have had the iRobot 960 pet for several years, and the Shark self-emptying robot vacuum since summer.  We love them both.  

Lighting has been an issue with our iRobot, and it does get stuck.  Asking the Echo to find it is helpful when I cannot find it.  I've also taught my dog guide to find it.  It does a good job of detecting drop-offs, sometimes too good.  If room lighting is not great, it sometimes thinks that black colored areas of the rug are drop-offs.  I've never been able to get the app to work, but I do know of someone who has and they are able to do the basics.  Of course now the app and the vacuums are updated and the experience is different.  

I really do like the Shark with the self-emptying feature.  The manufacturer says that with average dust and dirt you can empty the canister once a month.  With a German Shepherd who has longer fur than a lab and a 2000 plus square foot house I empty it once or twice a week.  The shark is not as good with drop-off detection.  It pushes the dog's food dishes around so I roll-up a large old bath towel and put it around the dishes to stop the shark from getting to them.  They do have some type of strips that you can put on the floor and under rugs to block off areas.  We keep saying we are going to buy some but we have not.  I'm wishing we had because the shark is not playing well with the Christmas tree skirt.  The app does map out the house, but I have not tried to play with it.  The app is somewhat accessible with voiceover.  I do use the Echo to get the status.  The locate feature using the Echo is better with the iRobot than with the Shark.  

The Shark is cheaper than the iRobot, but you cannot compare apples to apples.  They each have pros and cons.  The higher end models are very nice as the vacuum goes back to the base when it needs to be charged and then resumes cleaning when the battery is back up.

HTH,
Annette

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Santiago Velasquez via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2021 10:27 PM
To: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Santiago Velasquez <zanty410 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Rumba:

Hi,

Lidar is definitely the way to go. I have the Roomba S9+ and a RoboRock S5, and the ability of Lidar to map a space is much faster, efficient and accurate. The ability of the RoboRock, or any other Lidar vacuum to work with no light is perfect. Can the Roomba work without light, yes, but it will just become a dumb vacuum at that point. It will just bump into things to figure things out. If you can afford it, get a vacuum that has a self emptying base as well, specially if you have guide dogs, or pets. Unfortunately for the robotic vacuums getting the cheapest option generally results on a lot of frustration. I am happy with both the RoboRock S5, and the Roomba S9+, but after owning the Roomba for a little while, I think the top-of-the-line RoboRock  S7 with the self emptying station is probably the best robotic vacuum there is at the moment. Don't get me wrong, the Roomba does a fantastic job, but you would expect that to be the case since it is currently the top of the line robot for Roomba. Regarding the maps, they are both in different houses, but they do a fantastic job. If you can get sighted assistance to customise the maps, it is a great thing to do. That way you can send your robot to clean only specific sections of the house without having to close doors. However, it's best to do a few mapping runs when you first get the vacuum. The mapping runs are just to map your space, they won't be vacuuming. However, doing the mapping runs will save you a lot of frustration down the line. Adding to that, if you have side of assistance, you can also create keep out zones, and that's great for areas we have cables on the floor since they love to pick those up and similar things.

These are only my experiences, and for some context, the Roomba is in an apartment that is about 200 m², and the RoboRock S5 is in another apartment that is around 114 m². Hopefully that provide some idea as to the spaces they operate in at the moment.  They both do great with carpet and hard floors, but the Roomba is more powerful since it's a more expensive robot, so it does better in terms of cleaning performance. Regarding the accessibility of both apps, I can only speak about VoiceOver usage, but the RoboRock app is not as accessible as the Roomba one, but that's not to say that it isn't accessible. As mentioned previously, only the customisation of the map is in accessible in both apps. Regardless, you can always control them with Google assistant, Amazon Alexa, or maybe even Siri after you finish setting them up. So if granular control isn't a concern, the apps become irrelevant after awhile.

Regards
Santi

> On 20 Dec 2021, at 10:07 am, Valiant8086 via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> In in my opinion, LiDAR guided robo vacs are better for blind people usually. If you can aford it, roborock S6 or something along that line might make you very happy, our roborock S6 sure is excellent  for us.
> LiDAR doesn’t need lighting present in your house, so if you are sleeping or a blind person not bothering to have lights on you won’t be causing your robovac not to able to tell where it is. I pretty highly recommend against getting a basic dumb one, they take more work to run than just vacuuming on your own. Just look for whole home mapping. Roborocks pretty much all have that with the s series, and the s series from 360, but I don’t know any blind people who use a 360 so we don’t know how usable they are for us. roborocks have speech output, and the app isn’t too terribly useless. About the only thing you can’t do is edit the map, dividing into rooms and being able to set no go zones and such.
> 
> Instead, we just close doors. I was able to configure our schedule and whatnot on my own. I really like our roborock. We call it rocky. It sends alerts to the app when it gets stuck, needs something done such as sensor cleaning, or just when starting / stoqands pcheduled clean. You can read battery level, current clean time, progress on the current cleaning job, like 585 sq ft cleaned so far. when something is wrong, it repeats the spoken message a few times, making it easier to find it if you didn’t hear it the first time. Overall, well thought out, and prices are reasonable.
> 
> Roomba uses VSLAM, which is a camera pointed at the ceiling to navigate. it works, but poor lighting will mess it up, and it is not as immediately accurate as LiDAR Neato made the first famous LiDar guided robovac, and they still have some that don’t need wiFi at all, just go for one that is not called bot vac connected, but look out for touch screens, they do have one.  360 are   cheapest by far so if you want to take a chance in term of accessibility, that is your option.
> 
> Amazon used to sell old used roomba 980's so you can try that if you 
> want top of the line roomba for pocket change, about 150 buck for a 
> machine that originally sold for about $900 give or take
> 
> 
> On December 19, 2021 3:00:58 PM wmodnl wmodnl via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks everyone for feedback… Have a great Sunday.
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Dec 19, 2021, at 14:25, Dennis Miller via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> I agree!  I have had a Roomba for a little over a year and am very 
>>> happy with it.  The app is easy to use and I don't have a problem 
>>> with her getting stuck on chair legs.  She does a fantastic job of 
>>> getting into corners and getting under things.
>>> The more you use it the better she gets to know your house.
>>> Dennis
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Electronics-Talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>>> On Behalf Of joseph hudson via Electronics-Talk
>>> Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2021 1:14 PM
>>> To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
>>> Cc: joseph hudson
>>> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Rumba:
>>> The Roomba 980 works well. And is able to get into corners and what not.
>>> Occasionally she will get stuck under things. But once you get to 
>>> know what she gets stuck under and you get it moved properly, it's a 
>>> great device. And as far as the app, it's a great deal. I'm able to 
>>> tell when she needs cleaned and if I want to I can set her on a schedule.
>>>>> On Dec 19, 2021, at 8:28 AM, wmodnl wmodnl via Electronics-Talk
>>>> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>> Anyone have one of these even the basic one,  does anyone have tips 
>>>> or for
>>> using mobile application?
>>>> Thanks
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