DJ Roomba in the hizzouse

August 27, 2012 9:49 PM

My husband wants a hackable Roomba for his birthday.

He's done some research on which models are best to hack but doesn't have time to really look into it. I'm not clear on what hacks he wants to do but he's excited by the thought of getting it to do anything so I don't think it needs to be much. It would be great if it were one of the lower end models, or a refurbished model still under warranty. We have average carpet and a cat who sheds, but no real issues with rugs or door jambs. I have heard that the Roombas can get caught under furniture but I think we're safe on that front as well. Any suggestions or recommendations for models would be great.

posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Is he interested in it primarily as a robotics platform, or as a vacuum? The iRobot Create is the brains/drivetrain of a roomba, without the cost of a vacuum unit, all preconfigured for hacking. I know the other models are fairly easily hacked and modified too, but if he's not super-interested in vacuuming and wants to plug in new control hardware without tons of complexity, it might be a better choice.
posted by Alterscape at 10:35 PM on August 27, 2012

Yeah, I think the Create is what he wants. Otherwise, the older a Roomba you can find (the ones circa 2006 had a built-in serial port for hacking) on Craigslist or similar, the better you'll be.
posted by olinerd at 12:53 AM on August 28, 2012

Actually we do want to use it as a vacuum but he would like to have some fun with it as well.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér at 2:04 PM on August 28, 2012