iRobot Roomba Hack

DJ Sures

Canada

DJ modifies an iRobot Roomba to be wirelessly controlled with the EZ-B. He also adds a webcam and voice recognition! This is all done by soldering only two wires from an old PS2 Mouse or Keyboard.

  Description:
  Have an iRobot Roomba around to help pickup? This is a fun DIY project that will convert your roomba into a voice recognition, camera recognition, autonomous, remote control cleaning machine!
  
  DJ has added the EZ-B Bluetooth Robot Controller to the EZ-B by soldering only two wires. Using an old PS/2 mouse or keyboard cable, the EZ-B is easily connected to the Roomba. Any of the EZ-B's 20 UART Serial ports can be used for the connection.
  
  But, he didn't stop there! He then added a wireless webcam to a servo and mounted on the front of the robot. This allows the roomba to follow motion and color detection! All of the Roomba features are available in both ARC software and the EZ-SDK library.
  
  Currently, the programming is a collection of functions:
  - Voice recognition
  - Visual recognition, color tracking, motion tracking and object tracking
  - Remote control
  - Sweeping Camera
  
  
  Videos:
  
Peripherals: 1 x iRobot Roomba 1 x EZ-Robot Complete Kit <a href="/Shop" style="color: #FF9900;">[Buy]</a> 1 x PS/2 Mouse or Keyboard for cable 1 x three wire servo cable Tools: Dremel Screw Driver Small Side Cutters Hot Glue Gun Zip Ties
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#1  

What Roomba is used in the first video? I know in the second video listed its a discovery

#2  

What Roomba would You suggest for hacking with an IO tiny?

#3  

I found out that it was the 400 series because I did more research but is ARC still compatible with that version of Roomba?

PRO
Canada
#4  

@winter the ARC Roomba Skill should work with the 400 series. A couple of things to note:

  1. I believe you'll need an extra I/O pin to toggle the Roomba's DD (device-detect input) pin for the 400 series or you can press the power button yourself.

  2. The IoTiny doesn't have hardware UART, software serial can be used but you may have a hard time with it. The EZ-Bv4 is proven to work well as it has 3 hardware UARTs.

  3. Default baud rate is 57600 for the older Roombas so you'll need to change it in Hardware UART settings

I was able to grab some info from an old tutorial I made years ago:

http://skaterj10.hackhut.com/2013/01/22/roomba-hacking-101/" target='_blank' rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20150911022132/http://skaterj10.hackhut.com/2013/01/22/roomba-hacking-101/

PRO
Synthiam
#5  

There’s two different robot skills for iRobot roombas. See which one works with yours.

#6  

should i just get an ezb v4 rather than an io tiny

PRO
Canada
#7  

That's what I'd recommend:D

#8  

oh.., ill just cancel getting the entire thing because it seems too complicated