Monday, 25 December 2017

'RoombaPi' • raspberry_pi

quote [ So I bought a Roomba last month and cheaped out on it on the base model without any features, the Roomba 614. Essentially it's as basic as a... ]

Sorry, it's not my project, and it's reddit, but it looks neat: raspberry pi DIY roomba remote

So I bought a Roomba last month and cheaped out on it on the base model without any features, the Roomba 614. Essentially it's as basic as a Roomba can be, with no extra luxuries. It can't utilize the Roomba app, doesn't have wifi, doesn't have scheduling, nor does it have the room mapping that some of the higher end models have. It's just a Roomba with a couple buttons, and when you press clean, it cleans for as long as it can before it's battery dies, then returns back to the base (most times).

I was really ecstatic about it at first. My entire house is hardwood and tile which makes it really simple to clean. With this, I only have to mop every once and a while. But I was really kinda disappointed that I couldn't automate it like I do with everything else. Although it's not hard to press a button, I'm pretty forgetful and my house would probably still get pretty dirty as I forgot to have it clean.

After some research, I figured out that there's a remote that can be bought for the Roombas that does't actually come with it, and that sparked my interest. So the same infrared receiver that it uses for the AutoWall, it can use to receive remote input. I immediately knew what I had to do!

I had seen in the past people using Pi's to control different infrared devices such as their home theater setup, so I figured this must work for my Roomba also.

Here's what I got:

Raspberry Pi Zero W (So I didn't have to worry about running a network cable to where it's located)
Simple prototyping hat
Infrared LEDs
Transistor to control Said LEDs

10k Ohm Resistor (to control the transistor)

200 Ohm Resistor (to limit current flow on the LED)

There are actually many guides already out there on how to use the raspberry pi gpio with LEDs. Some of them go into extra detail on how to use an infrared receiver to read input to the Pi, but I didn't need this extra step since the IR codes for the roomba are already in the lirc remote Sourceforge page.

Here's my setup: The Roomba sits in my kitchen underneath some floor-to-ceiling shelving, which is actually a great spot for it.
The Pi itself is completely out of sight normally, but stuck underneath the bottom shelf, with the IR LED pointed at the Roomba.

So from normal standing height, it's completely out of sight. Under there you can see a Honeywell Siren used for home security systems and a couple relays, that's actually for another project that this Pi is going to double up on. That'll be for the future.

Here's a short video of me activating it. As you can see, the latency is actually really low, and I can activate it away from my house as well.

On the programming side, I'm using lirc as shown in the guide to handle the infrared side. I actually had to install an older version to get it to work, so if you're working on something like this and run into trouble, ask me and I'll help out. Lirc is being called from a really short, simple python script that has an open web socket (to my internal network) and receives it's commands from a server that I use as my 'Home Automation Hub' (and other stuff). If anyone really wants it, I can post examples of my code somewhere but I'm still a novice at python, so I promise it's pretty sloppy.

Oh yeah, and to top off the ultimate level of lazy, I'm using an IFTTT recipe to trigger it remotely when it sees a calendar event in my Google Calendar titled 'Roomba'. So I can schedule it without any extra software and have it on a repeat...
[SFW] [do it yourSElf] [+2]
[by lilmookieesquire@7:59pmGMT]

Comments

satanspenis666 said @ 6:58am GMT on 26th Dec [Score:1 Good]
I love my Roomba. It has changed my life.
mechanical contrivance said @ 2:17pm GMT on 26th Dec
Did you name it Amélie?
Dienes said @ 2:44pm GMT on 26th Dec
I can't imagine owning cats without having a roomba.
Dienes said @ 2:44pm GMT on 26th Dec
Tape a knife to it so it doubles as a home defense system.

Post a comment
[note: if you are replying to a specific comment, then click the reply link on that comment instead]

You must be logged in to comment on posts.



Posts of Import
Karma
SE v2 Closed BETA
First Post
Subscriptions and Things

Karma Rankings
ScoobySnacks
HoZay
Paracetamol
lilmookieesquire
Ankylosaur