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These two guys shed about 42 pounds of fur per day (it seems), and I like robots and automation, so a few weeks ago, I bought a Roomba.
Really neat...at least in principle.
However, the stock Roomba is simply incompatible with my house. 100% of the daily runs concluded prematurely with the Roomba inevitably stuck under my couch.
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That sucks. And not in the vacuum cleaner sort of way that it's supposed to suck. Throw the automation out of the window if you have to un-wedge the machine from beneath your furniture every time, and it doesn't make it back to the recharging station.
Time for a bit of ingenuity...
I had unused four adhesive rubber "feet" that came with a wireless router (or something). I stuck these to the top of the Roomba sensor, adding about 2cm of additional required clearance, and poof--a working robot again!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikp18vy8OwjOwNv2x2WbJOvUlqB3UiMpuJdbvPZefa20_0XGT1LEC-g0cXL_3sy5saZnd_20_dUKZ2NMleka-C9cKGiWhzH7QWutUasjlyWJr8iNOlZ-IPCDrJXTqP2OoHQMxO9x-0V08/s400/feet.jpg)
Five days running now, and not a single wedging ;-)
Awesome hack :)
ReplyDeletejust a warning :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.themenageriemind.com/2008/12/dog-lover-well-sort-of.html
Rick- Yikes!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the conclusion I was sure it say 5 days of running and not a single wedgies.
ReplyDeleteThank god I re-read it made much more sense the second time :)
Nice hack though :)
I was searching for roomba hacks and stumbled on to this. I also had the same problem, but i went the other way. I went to a hardware store and bought 50c of wood offcuts, and used them under each chair foot to raise my couch just high enough for the roomba to go under it cleanly :)
ReplyDelete