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View Full Version : I got a big scare today! Thought I lost a new pet!


SharkByte
10-December-2007, 11:41 PM
So Sunday i went by the post offcie and found my new pet Roomba waiting for me in a little box on one of thier shelves. I was excited! theres nothing quite like the thought of a robot running around vacuuming my house for me while I'm at work. So I brought him home, lovingly pulled him out of the box stuffed his craddle under the bed, set him down and watched with delight as he quickly scanned the room, found the craddle and crawled to the home position to charge.

I set the scheduler option so that every weekday at 10am, while I'm at work he'll come out and sweep the bedroom for me. I was out of D cell batteries though so I couldn't set up the virtual walls to keep him in that one room. I figured as long as I close the bedroom door he'll be fine.

When I got home from work today I turned on the light and immediately noticed vacuum tracks all over the living room carpet. I thought, "Oh no, i forgot to close the bedroom door when i left so he got out and is probably lost and alone, stuck under a couch somewhere unable to find his way back through the warren of my house to his craddle to recharge:(

I quickly looked under all the furniture and couldn't find him. As I walked through the house looking I noticed that every room in the house had been vacuumed. He even got under furniture and into spots I thought he should have been to big to get into! No where though, could I find Romulo! I went through each room in the house slowly working my way back to the bedroom. He wasn't under a couch or stuck behind a chair, battery drained and unable to move though. I found him right where he's supposed to be, in his craddle happily charging up for tomorrows adventure's in cleaning:) Somehow he had cleaned his way through the entire bedroom, the computer room, the living room, and the kitchen then found his way back to the bedroom to go to sleep. This little guy totally rocks!

It is quite a site to behold though, when he's happily sweeping up the carpet and he passes close to a speck of dirt or a dust bunny he missed he'll flash a blue light, beep in surprise turn around, grab the dirt then get right back on track:)

I'm thinking he might need a little robot vacuum brother soon... I can't decide if I should dress him up as a Cylon or a Dalek for halloween next year.

sarongsong
11-December-2007, 01:24 AM
Hee-hee (good story), but are you sure you forgot to close the bedroom door?There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle-ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the 'Twilight Zone.'...*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*

SharkByte
11-December-2007, 01:31 AM
Hee-hee (good story), but are you sure you forgot to close the bedroom door?

:shifty: Maybe all that time he spends bumbing into my foot he isn't just looking for a scratch behind the brush... maybe he's trying to trip me!

New thread! My roomba is trying to kill me! AHHHHHHH

guess he's gonna be a cylon for halloween :)

Moose
11-December-2007, 01:33 AM
Just out of curiosity, how quiet/loud are they?

SharkByte
11-December-2007, 01:38 AM
Not nearly as loud as a normal vacuum cleaner. If I closed the bedroom door and let him run through the house while I slept I doubt he'd wake me up unless he banged into the door dead on strait a few times. I had him running in the bedroom with the door closed last night for about an hour while I was in the living room about 10 feet away reading a book and could barely hear him when he was close to the door.

SharkByte
11-December-2007, 01:43 AM
Irobot actually encourages people to mod thier roomba's too:) they give you the source code and hardware specs so you can do little projects with them. I've found plans so far to add blue tooth capability, connect him to my home network, give him his own robot tracking webpage, mod him to use a cell phone as a remote, load linux on him, all kinds of stuff. I even found a Cylon light eye mod:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRRLJ-v0KwM

sarongsong
11-December-2007, 01:43 AM
...maybe he's trying to trip me!...or just give you a good cleaning!? :)

SharkByte
11-December-2007, 02:18 AM
That could be it... I was wearing my running shoes and they are getting pretty dirty...

mfumbesi
11-December-2007, 01:46 PM
or just give you a good cleaning!?
In a different context this could sound kinky......

Dragon Star
11-December-2007, 01:51 PM
Irobot actually encourages people to mod thier roomba's too:) they give you the source code and hardware specs so you can do little projects with them. I've found plans so far to add blue tooth capability, connect him to my home network, give him his own robot tracking webpage, mod him to use a cell phone as a remote, load linux on him, all kinds of stuff. I even found a Cylon light eye mod:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRRLJ-v0KwM

That's crazy!!! :surprised

Maksutov
11-December-2007, 02:00 PM
The latest Roombas come with spell checkers. They clean the floor and posts in one sweep.

Matherly
11-December-2007, 02:58 PM
As shown in this (http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=040401) web comic (safe for work), Voombas can have a dark side ;)

(Note: the story continues in future strips and IMHO gets progressivly funnier.)

SharkByte
11-December-2007, 06:46 PM
The latest Roombas come with spell checkers. They clean the floor and posts in one sweep.

I Need Taht one!

RalofTyr
11-December-2007, 08:12 PM
If you've ever watched the intro to the PC video game, MegaRace, you'll see little Roombas cleaning the homes of the future!!!

SharkByte
12-December-2007, 01:23 AM
HAHA, this Roomba was worth every penny of the $69.99 I paid for it from a wootoff:lol: I did have to block off the bathroom with a virtual wall though. It appears my bathroom rug is not Roomba friendly:( Bad rug! Bad!