Is there any problem?
Is White Roomba Discovery programmable?

Tks in advance!

I’am using your serial teather and it doesn’t seem to work I’ve tryed every connection and run your java application ( witch works very nicely ) but i can’t seem to send anything to the roomba. The Roomba is on and i have a green light on the serial teather. And i know my USB serial connector works. I have also tested my circut about three or four times but can’t get anything back from the roomba. Now i might need a OMSO upgrade but i think the Roomba Discovery White is just fine for the Upgrade but the other thing that might be the problem is that i have a new mother board witch i had to replace. So…i Would really like to have the Roomba working because I think robotics is cool.

I just bought a used Discovery 4210 off E-bay and I’m confused on one point. With the process you describe here, do I need to use the OSMO/Hacker firmware updater before I can run your RoombaComm API? Or can I just make the interface board and use the API directly? Thanks for your advice.

I have the Roomba here with me in case there is something I need to check. I can see I need to install a new battery pack.

Thanks

Bob

A series of unfortunate events have befallen my roomba. :( It needed a new battery, finally got one. The roomba vacuumed the rugs well for several turns but then developed this odd behavior for both spot & clean: moving forward by alternating each wheel and then turning to the right and repeating.

I’ve programmed the beast using the serial connection and all of a sudden that stopped working too. Although it not recognizing serial commands in the past was usually fixed by taking out the battery and putting it back in, but no dice. I have a program to print out the sensor information and would love to run it but it ignores the serial commands or does a half beep and nothing. I’ve run the diagnostic tests and all the sensors seem to be functioning. There may be trouble with the left wheel in reverse. I’m investigating. Do you have any ideas?

search for the PDF full text and download site
http://www.alldatasheet.com.cn

I googled the rs232 pinout and with that was off and running. I would add a ic socket to you list of parts. I’ve never been brave enough to solder a chip right to a board.

With my humble interface in hand I hooked up my roomba scheduler and I can control it great!

I’ve got no sensors though. I will double check your page to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but I welcome any suggestions.

First of all, great job on the hardware documentation. It was very straight forward and easy to read.

I’m using the serial cable circuit and I’m not able to send commands to the Roomba. I used your software and it is able to connect to the right port, but it says “status: no roomba” and 0 bytes available. I’m not too familiar with the MAX232 so I’m not sure where the problem lies. I’ve checked all the connections and everything seems to be connected correctly.

Last night I went into hyperterminal before downloading your software and it spit out:

device-detect
2005-10-04-1308-L

processor-sleep
slept for 4158 minutes 249 ticks

It repeated the processor-sleep over and over again with changing values. However, it doesn’t do that anymore. Any ideas on what could be wrong?

Thanks,
BJ

It’s the most popular one and I can verify it works with the SCI protocol (as you can see above)
According to the irobot.com/hacker page, any new Roomba with model numbers 41xx or 42xx should be compatible with the SCI.