[Electronics-Talk] Roborock Q5

Aaron Spears valiant8086 at gmail.com
Sat Mar 23 23:00:05 UTC 2024 

Hi.


On the iPhone you might have to turn screen recognition off and on in a 
couple of different situations to get signed in for the first time. 
Android will just work. I suggest starting with the Roborock app. You 
can get started now and create your Roborock account. Should you decide 
to experiment and use Mi Home, it will stop working with Roborock but 
it's better to use Roborock usually since at least on ours the Alexa 
integration has slightly better command set.


One thing we don't know is what the buttons are like. Hopefully it's not 
a touch screen. Our S6 has 3 buttons on it, the middle one is the start 
clean button, the right one is the dock button and the left one is the 
spot clean button. It will have a smaller round circle on top of it, 
this is where the LiDAR laser is, and it actually spins around under 
there shining laser light in all directions. Before you get dirt into 
it, figure out how to take the brush rolls out, and open the hood on top 
and see how to take the tank out. Figure out how to take the tank apart, 
how to remove the filter. It'll ask you to do those things fairly often. 
It has a maintenance schedule which you can ignore but usually it's a 
good idea. For instance ours ran the timer down on the corner brush on 
the right side of the unit, which is made out of silicone, and asked to 
replace it at about the time it really was worn out. It's wanted us to 
replace the regular brush roll, ours only has one of those, for a long 
time now, over a year, but ours is still ok so we ignore that.


Examine the brush roll while it's clean. If it's like ours, it has a 
plastic bushing on either end that help keep it aligned in the hole. One 
end has a square end that connects to the motor first when installing 
it. The other end will kind of make a bit of a bearing and will lay in a 
depression for it. On ours, you twist the round things on the ends of 
the brush rolls a bit and then they will come off. The one that connects 
to the motor is simple but the other one has two parts to it that may be 
difficult to put back together at first until you get used to it. If 
yours comes apart like that, you'll probably need to do it sometimes to 
get strings off the brush rolls. It may have a tool under the hood 
beside the tank that you can pop out which has a brush on one end and a 
sharp hook on the other for use cutting strings off the brush rolls.


Ours runs every day and we've had it since Black Friday of 2021 I 
believe. It has turned out to be super durable. Just replacing the 
corner brush once and we're on our third tank filter. Yours may have a 
different design for the filter, find out if the one on the tank is the 
only one, or if you have another one too. When the tank is out, see if 
you can feel the hole where dirt goes into the tank. It's probably right 
next to a brush roll and you would be able to feel it through there. 
This might clog on rare occasion so good to understand how it's set up.


LiDAR is nifty because it can run just fine with the lights off in your 
home even if there's no light coming in from windows or anywhere else at 
all. It can't see Chrome however so if you have furnature with chrome 
legs beware that it will bump into those at least at first. It also 
can't really see clear glass, so it will try to get up close to any 
storm doors and may get stuck on the door step. What generally messes 
with ours at first is getting in behind furnature that has slobes on the 
undersides along the left and right sides. If it approaches from behind 
a recliner that's made like that it is possible that it will wedge 
itself under the sloaping edge and then be unable to get out from under 
it. If it works like ours, it tends to have a little memory about those 
sorts of things and it may not actually do that more than a couple of 
times after you  make a new map.


If it's like ours you will find that it is super gentle, just barely 
touching things that it bumps into. It will normally go counterclockwise 
around the entire area it can get to and then when it has returned to 
where it started it will fill in the areas going across the middle of 
rooms and such. In this way, it maps the area every time it runs. For 
your first run, start with it charged up and open all doors you plan to 
ever let it access. In rooms, pick up things that it could hang up on 
like cables from lightweight items dangling off of tabletops or desk 
surfaces. It can't generally hurt cables, it's not strong enough, but it 
certainly can pull some things off of tables or out of walls and drag 
them. Experiment with ways to get your power cables to not be strung 
out. If you must have things strung out, let them be sturdy things that 
it'll either just get uselessly stuck on if it's having a bad day or it 
will roll over it and not have any issue. You can block the backside of 
things you don't care if it access because there are far too many cables 
back there, such as tv stands. Place flower pots or anything else you 
can think of. It won't tend to push things even lightweight things, if 
they are tall enough for it to see. Empty cardboard boxes will generally 
still be where they were when the bot is done.


For your first run, as I mentioned, start with every door that provides 
access to areas you want it to ever consider already open, and start 
with everything picked up as best as you can, even if that's much better 
than it will usually be. Your goal is to let it run as smoothly as 
possible during the initial map-making stage. It's probably going to 
disappoint you. It'll get into all sorts of mischief as it learns what 
works and what doesn't, and as you learn what messes it up and what 
doesn't. Keep the phone handy and be ready to smack the stop clean 
button if you hear it making bad sounding noises. You can run over to it 
and pick it up and that will immediately make it stop, but anytime you 
can avoid picking it up is a win win. So if it gets hung up on a cable, 
attempt to fix that without picking it up after you have stopped the 
machine. Once you pick it up it will have to figure out where it's at 
again when you try to resume cleaning, and it could sometimes have a 
tough time with that if it's not very far along with the mapping yet.


By the way, pay attention to where the charging dock goes. It's ok to 
put it under something that's tall enough for it, but beware that if you 
move it, it either will have a tough time figuring out what you did to 
it, or you will eventually be forced to delete the map and start over. 
If it works like ours, the mapping will let it find the dock from pretty 
much anywhere, and then it'll use infrared to crawl up onto it. Put it 
somewhere that cables won't end up laying on top of the mat where the 
robot sits while charging that would possibly prevent it getting a 
connection on the charger. If you can, place rear of charger against 
something solid in the hopes the charger won't get moved either by the 
robot or anything else.


It has to learn. That's why it'll be disappointing at first. It'll 
eventually get a little smarter about avoiding things that it just keeps 
getting into trouble with. It'll take a few days probably, with both it 
learning how to handle things, and you learning how to make the area a 
better place for it to run. Roomba units use VSLAM navigation, 
especially 10 years ago they did, or they use gyros and just bump into 
things and turn. This is a whole new ballgame it is very smart about 
navigating and it has a purpose for moving every inch that it does. Once 
it has a map from the first run, it'll start learning and adding to it 
gradually. If you had a door closed during first run that is open later, 
it may or may not go through there if it is open during a later run, but 
if it ever does it will map that area too. It's a good idea to let it 
map all rooms and have it be able to access the main home, by leaving 
doors open and such. In this way, even a room that's rarely accessible, 
if you clean that room of obstacles one day and you just want it to 
clean in there one time and you cary it in there and hit the clean room 
button it will already be able to figure out where it is on the map and 
be able to do a better job with the cleaning. Aditionally, while it 
won't go back to the dock on its own from the clean room function coming 
to an end, if you press the dock button it should be able to find the 
dock from there if it is part of the map.


When it's not sure where it's at, it'll say something like establishing 
position please stand by. It'll spin around in circles and then go 
wandering off until it figure it out and then it'll say something like 
position found, starting to clean, or returning to dock, etc.



Cheers:
Aaron Spears, AKA Valiant8086 General Partner at Valiant Galaxy Associates "we make (VERY GOOD AUDIOGAMES) for the blind comunity" http://valiantGalaxy.com

On 3/23/2024 4:51 PM, Kay Malmquist via Electronics-Talk wrote:
> Well, it looks like I will be the proud owner of a Q5Pro.  I hope the setup
> is reasonably easy.  Anything I should know before I jump in to this?  It
> will be arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday.  The last robotic vacuum I had was
> two Roombas around ten years ago.  I'm looking forward to something that
> just might be able to keep up with the pet hair.  We also bought an extra
> filter and bags for it.
>
> Kay Malmquist
> kay.malmquist at gmail.com
>
> "Abundance flows into your life when gratitude flows out of your heart."
> - Jon Gordon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aaron Spears via Electronics-Talk" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> To: "Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: "Aaron Spears" <valiant8086 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 9:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Roborock Q5
>
>
> Hi.
>
>
> There are two apps, Roborock and Mi Home. If one doesn't work as well
> the other one might work out. Alexa integration works a little better
> when using Roborock app though. I mostly just use my Android to run our
> Roborock S6 and yes I can't do anything with the map or no go zones, but
> I can schedule it. I can also make it restart the map and explore the
> whole home again and such. Are you shopping from outside the USA?
> Because the prices are better than you quoted.
>
>
> For me, the regular Q5 is a lot less than the price you quoted? Only $219USD
>
> Amazon.com - roborock Q5 Robot Vacuum Cleaner, Strong 2700Pa Suction,
> Upgraded from S4 Max, LiDAR Navigation, Multi-Level Mapping, 180 mins
> Runtime, No-go Zones, Ideal for Carpets and Pet Hair
> <https://www.amazon.com/Roborock-Q5-Upgraded-Navigation-Multi-Level/dp/B09N3JKFFY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1XFCO1JARTSY0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.G9FMDCkT5PKcSC-LeChPISVSzSClU07036xWus9jfQ2klgAHU1t7CqxoRq4uPohRB2HNoq_f6AIDJ-AZ7hkq2BJyvMl343ZvYDZySfXOrFl60gPXcOIpiOVjl-OvuTB-bZG-5YBqsx721c4jXzDnY5RdwtlsuzPdizsvi4D2zB_eDxr0tvNaNmd5OIIDuHYcL23PuzSAQvdXwLVey7PsZfJ3Qar5C0yuca7UZknRFXs.4lYBJypTLqVzaC5PDhbmsg2e0tnkSYOoQNWCFgh9p2k&dib_tag=se&keywords=roborock%2Bq5&qid=1711158851&sprefix=roborock%2Bq%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1>
>
>
> And then there's the q5pro, which has a lot more suction and adds a
> mopping function. Costs $279.99
>
> Amazon.com: roborock Q5 Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo, 5500Pa Suction,
> DuoRoller Brush, LiDAR Navigation, Robotic Vacuum Cleaner with 240 min
> Runtime, Smart No-Go Zone, Perfect for Pet Hair : Industrial &
> Scientific
> <https://www.amazon.com/roborock-Q5-Pro-DuoRoller-Navigation/dp/B0C7VLHMQR/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1XFCO1JARTSY0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.G9FMDCkT5PKcSC-LeChPISVSzSClU07036xWus9jfQ2klgAHU1t7CqxoRq4uPohRB2HNoq_f6AIDJ-AZ7hkq2BJyvMl343ZvYDZySfXOrFl60gPXcOIpiOVjl-OvuTB-bZG-5YBqsx721c4jXzDnY5RdwtlsuzPdizsvi4D2zB_eDxr0tvNaNmd5OIIDuHYcL23PuzSAQvdXwLVey7PsZfJ3Qar5C0yuca7UZknRFXs.4lYBJypTLqVzaC5PDhbmsg2e0tnkSYOoQNWCFgh9p2k&dib_tag=se&keywords=roborock+q5&qid=1711158851&sprefix=roborock+q%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1>
>
>
> Really good deal I think. We paid $450 for our S6 and it was a Black
> Friday deal for like a third off the original price. Q5pro has more
> suction and two brushes versus ours with only one.
>
>
> Cheers:
> Aaron Spears, AKA Valiant8086 General Partner at Valiant Galaxy Associates
> "we make (VERY GOOD AUDIOGAMES) for the blind comunity"
> http://valiantGalaxy.com
>
> On 3/22/2024 9:18 AM, Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>> Amazon has the Roborock Q5 vacuum on sale for around $379.  I remember
>> people mentioning this vacuum as good.  How is the iPhone app?  I expect
>> the
>> mapping is not accessible, but is scheduling?
>>
>> The ad says it's Alexa-compatible, but I don't have Alexa and don't want
>> it.
>>
>> Tracy
>>
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