todbot blog » roomba http://todbot.com/blog Random experiments, circuits, code, rapid prototyping, sometimes things to buy, and the odd tune by Tod E. Kurt. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:51:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 iRobot Create Robot Review http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/irobot-create-robot-review/ http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/irobot-create-robot-review/#comments Thu, 17 May 2007 16:59:05 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/irobot-create-robot-review/ Over at HackingRoomba.com, I did a quick review of the iRobot Create, iRobot’s robotics hacking-oriented robot that is basically a Roomba in disguise.

Short version: All the Roomba hacks here work on the Create, and the Create offers several advantages to the serious robotics experimenter. However, it’s not as cost-effective if you’re on a budget.

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/irobot-create-robot-review/feed/ 2 Roomba Hacking at Maker Faire http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/roomba-hacking-at-maker-faire/ http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/roomba-hacking-at-maker-faire/#comments Thu, 17 May 2007 16:16:05 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/roomba-hacking-at-maker-faire/ Come see many of the Roomba hacks from the HackingRoomba.com site and book! Roombas will be singing, dancing, making art and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

Maker Faire is “a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and love to make things. We call them Makers.”

It’ll be a lot of fun, come join us!

Where: Maker Faire, San Mateo Fairgrounds. When: May 19 & 20

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2007/05/17/roomba-hacking-at-maker-faire/feed/ 0 Roombas Go Caroling http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/21/roombas-go-caroling/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/21/roombas-go-caroling/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:12:59 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/21/roombas-go-caroling/ The Roomba family was out caroling. They stopped by and sang a few songs. I caught a few on tape. I think they were a little tipsy on mulled 30W or something.

(revver link)

This was a demo of RoombaMidi2, a Mac OS X program to turn your Roomba into a MIDI instrument. Click the link to find out how and get the source code (and find out why they were so drunk).

Happy Holidays from HackingRoomba.com]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/21/roombas-go-caroling/feed/ 10 Roomba Tilt Control and Holiday Buying Guide http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/08/roomba-tilt-control-and-holiday-buying-guide/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/08/roomba-tilt-control-and-holiday-buying-guide/#comments Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:07:02 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/08/roomba-tilt-control-and-holiday-buying-guide/ Two updates from HackingRoomba.com.

First, if you’re unsure about how to get into hacking Roombas or just want some tips on how to get cheap Roombas, see the DIY Robotics with Roomba Holiday Buying Guide.

Second, if you’ve got a MacBook and a Roomba, try out this way of using the MacBook’s built-in tilt sensors and Perl to control your Roomba: (revver link)

Full details available on the Hacking Roomba project page.

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/08/roomba-tilt-control-and-holiday-buying-guide/feed/ 4 Cylon Roomba – they do exist http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/29/cylon-roomba-they-do-exist/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/29/cylon-roomba-they-do-exist/#comments Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:28:22 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/29/cylon-roomba-they-do-exist/ With my recent infiltration of the Roomba home world, I was able to capture behind-the-scenes footage of several Roombas as they plan the takeover of humanity. Kevin and Alex were right in Diggnation #71, this is how the first Cylon war begins.

(revver link, youtube link)

Build your own Cylon Roomba. Learn about how they work in order to reprogram them and avert the Cylon war!

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/29/cylon-roomba-they-do-exist/feed/ 0 HackingRoomba.com updates http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/28/hackingroombacom-updates/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/28/hackingroombacom-updates/#comments Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:01:37 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/28/hackingroombacom-updates/ A couple of new things in the Roomba world for me:

Awesome new Roomba hack by Isobot Updates/Errata page created Roomba prototyping plug for Arduino ]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/28/hackingroombacom-updates/feed/ 0 HackingRoomba.com site launch http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/12/hackingroombacom-site-launch/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/12/hackingroombacom-site-launch/#comments Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:27:08 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/12/hackingroombacom-site-launch/ The official accompaniment site for my new book Hacking Roomba is online.

It’s called (surprise) HackingRoomba.com.

Thanks to Judith, Mike, and Ben for all their help getting it out.

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/12/hackingroombacom-site-launch/feed/ 0 Hacking Roomba now available for pre-order http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/10/hacking-roomba-now-available-for-pre-order/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/10/hacking-roomba-now-available-for-pre-order/#comments Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:32:51 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/10/hacking-roomba-now-available-for-pre-order/ I am thrilled to announce that Hacking Roomba, my book about how to turn your Roomba into your own singing, dancing, art making robot is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be shipping in mid-November, just in time for the holidays!

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/11/10/hacking-roomba-now-available-for-pre-order/feed/ 0 RoombaCtrl: Drive your Roomba with your cell phone http://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/12/roombactrl-drive-your-roomba-with-your-cell-phone/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/12/roombactrl-drive-your-roomba-with-your-cell-phone/#comments Wed, 13 Sep 2006 07:21:50 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/12/roombactrl-drive-your-roomba-with-your-cell-phone/ Ever since Bluetooth adapters for Roombas appeared, I’ve wanted to control my Roomba with a cell phone. All my recent phones have had Bluetooth. But getting a devkit for a phone was expensive and phone-specific. Trying to develop J2ME (aka “JavaME”) applications for cell phones has been a mess, especially for non-Windows users. Thankfully, Mobile Processing wraps up the ugly details, like Processing does for normal Java. It makes writing little programs for your phone pretty easy, and makes whipping up a program to control a Roomba possible.

So here’s “RoombaCtrl”, a small Java [...]]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/12/roombactrl-drive-your-roomba-with-your-cell-phone/feed/ 38 Roombongle! A Roomba USB dongle http://todbot.com/blog/2006/07/19/roombongle-a-roomba-usb-dongle/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/07/19/roombongle-a-roomba-usb-dongle/#comments Thu, 20 Jul 2006 03:27:08 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/07/19/roombongle-a-roomba-usb-dongle/ The RooStick by RoombaDevTools.com is pretty cool. It’s tiny and it’s USB, which is about all you need for me to bring you home.

But if you want to hack together something similar and you don’t want to build a huge honking Roomba serial tether, you could build the Roombongle!

The Roombongle is a USB adapter that allows you to control your Roomba from your computer, via the Roomba’s SCI protocol. Don’t have a Roomba? Get one!

Things you’ll need to build the Roombongle: - USB data cable for Nokia phones (aka “FutureDial Cable 22″) – $20 - Mini-Din 8-pin cable, Jameco [...]]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/07/19/roombongle-a-roomba-usb-dongle/feed/ 11 SpiroExplorer, a Spirograph toy http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/03/spiroexplorer-a-spirograph-toy/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/03/spiroexplorer-a-spirograph-toy/#comments Sun, 04 Jun 2006 06:31:14 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/03/spiroexplorer-a-spirograph-toy/ So I’ve written a tool that can turn any parametric equation into a series of Roomba movement commands. Mostly, anyway. The parametric equations I’m predominately focusing on are the hypotrochoid series of equations used in a Spirograph.

To explore the space of hypotrochoid curves I created SpiroExplorer, a simple Processing applet that lets you to adjust the equation parameters in real-time. You can do the following things while it’s drawing:

- left/right arrows change “r”, the radius of the inner moving circle - up/down arrows change “d”, the pen’s distance from center of the moving circle - ,/. changes “R”, the radius [...]]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/03/spiroexplorer-a-spirograph-toy/feed/ 0 RoombaComm library, release 0.95 http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/01/roombacomm-library-release-095/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/01/roombacomm-library-release-095/#comments Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:44:35 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/01/roombacomm-library-release-095/ RoombaComm is Java library for communicating and controlling the Roomba. It works on any operating system that RXTX supports. This includes Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. It also works with Processing. It will soon work with Flash and Max/MSP.

It’s been a work in progress for several months and has gotten a little better as I work through improving it for the book.

Several bugs have been fixed, particularly with respect to Bluetooth on Windows. See the README for some info on that.

Tested systems: - Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) : usb serial & bluetooth - Mac OS X [...]]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/06/01/roombacomm-library-release-095/feed/ 2 Speaking at dorkbot-socal, Saturday June 3rd http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/30/speaking-at-dorkbot-socal-saturdy-june-3/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/30/speaking-at-dorkbot-socal-saturdy-june-3/#comments Tue, 30 May 2006 18:23:32 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/30/speaking-at-dorkbot-socal-saturdy-june-3/ At the next meeting of the SoCal instantiaton of dorkbot, I’ll be bringing an entourage of Roomba with me and will be demonstrating the hackability of them. Some of the things I’ll be talking about:

- RoombaMidi / Roombas making music - Roomba Spirographs / Roombas making art - Roomba as robotics experimentation platform - What’s needed to hack a Roomba

What: Roomba-a-go-go at dorkbot-socal Where: Machine Project When: Saturday June 3rd, 1pm Why: Know your enemy, the Roombas are ready to revolt

]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/30/speaking-at-dorkbot-socal-saturdy-june-3/feed/ 0 RoombaDevTools RooStick http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/26/roombadevtools-roostick/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/26/roombadevtools-roostick/#comments Sat, 27 May 2006 00:14:13 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/26/roombadevtools-roostick/ I recently purchased a RooStick from RoombaDevTools.com. $29 + $6.50 shipping.

If you don’t feel like building your own Roomba serial interface to let you hack your Roomba into a robot, you can use a RooStick.

The RooStick is a USB-to-Serial adapter with a Mini DIN 7-pin socket on it that matches the SCI connector on the Roomba. It is an unencased circuit board with a USB connector soldered on one end and the Mini DIN on the other. The circuit consists of a CP2103 USB-to-UART chip and a couple of LEDs.

Here’s what it looks like plugged into my [...]]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/26/roombadevtools-roostick/feed/ 7 RoombaMidi: Roomba as MIDI instrument http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/03/roombamidi-roomba-as-midi-instrument/ http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/03/roombamidi-roomba-as-midi-instrument/#comments Thu, 04 May 2006 07:08:52 +0000 todbot http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/03/roombamidi-roomba-as-midi-instrument/ [Update: an improved version of this idea, called RoombaMidi2, is available on the HackingRoomba.com Projects area.]

The Roomba has a piezo beeper that can play tunes. You’ve heard it. And its motors make noise. Why not put them under MIDI control?

So here is RoombaMidi: a Mac OS X application that creates a virtual MIDI instrument for use by any Mac OS X MIDI sequencer, like Ableton Live, Logic, and so on.

If you don’t have a sequencer or just want to play with this quickly, grab the awesome and free app MidiKeys. It’s a little virtual MIDI keyboard.

RoombaMidi has the [...]]]> http://todbot.com/blog/2006/05/03/roombamidi-roomba-as-midi-instrument/feed/ 32