Technology

I think it's just using MQTT, so block network access and use HomeAssistant

At that point, I wouldn't trust ANY device that cannot be controlled locally, either natively or at least through some hacks.

Your 3d printer has a NIC?

My cheap Conga robot came with a remote controller. It stopped connecting to its server long ago, but I can still use it. The battery is getting worse and worse, though.

There are a million third party vendors that sell replacements on amazon, just take a look. Though - and I don't know for sure having not actually read the article - it seems as though you may also need to change out the firmware so you can keep operating it if iRobot's servers go down, since all the roombas i'm aware of need internet connectivity to operate.

If you're at the point where you need to start replacing parts, it might be worth starting to look into other brands

Mozilla gave them an OK privacy rating. Not great, but not terrible.

Patiently awaiting Congress to ban any Chinese robot vacuums out of national security risk

Had an old one that kinda works but is a pain. More recently, we splurged on a more modern pet version with Wi-Fi and all the bells.

It was fantastic. And 3 weeks in, couldn't stay connected to the network even right beside the router and was doing constant very short runs before returning to the dock saying it was full.

Returned it.

setting up companies just to be bought by mega corps

iRobot was originally founded all the way back in 1990 and have sold quite a lot of Roomba vacuums, advancing innovation in home automation along the way. I don’t think anyone can ever say that they set up this company for a quick flip corpo pump and dump.

Don't worry, the new strategy is to string a company along with talks of a buyout, then when their cash runs out and they declare bankruptcy, to buy all the assets on fire sale.

I love DIY tech projects and yet I would never go through the effort to make a robot vacuum because vacuuming is already the easiest chore in the house. You kinda just stand there and go swoop swoop swoop a few times. Takes like 3 minutes to do an entire room. As opposed to listening to the robot vacuum rumble around for an hour and do a half ass job, if it even finishes without getting spooked by a shadow thinking it’s a 100ft cliff

There is https://valetudo.cloud/ for a lot of existing models, it's about the closest thing we have.

Didn’t iRobot put out a DIY robot/vacuum that you could assemble how you wanted?

Popular Science had an "open source" robot lawnmower plans in the...80s? I have it somewhere. Old enough that it used deep cycle lead-acid batteries and spinning round dremel blades. No laser to cut the grass, although it did use LEDs for sensors for grass height.

Have you tried Roborock? It's an amazing vacuum and connects very well inside Home Assistant.

It technically still works without the app but it loses features that increase the efficiency of the map, tells it where not to clean, scheduled cleaning, etc.

I bought a roborock Q Revo the other week, and it works great at vacuuming and mopping.

I changed its spoken language to Chinese though, to remind me who I'm living with.

I thought this was a funny gag, until I changed my router and wifi, and then had to update the robots wifi connection with all the voice prompts in chinese