#What brand vacuum robot for local home assistant nowadays? (prefer camera included)

76 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

valid knoll
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I have a roborock that is being sold because its development for home assistant is not progressing to become something easy to use. the custom hacs integration had more features but has been abandoned.

I then got excited that ecovacs robots had a custom "bumper" project to allow local usage, but its development has also stopped. I would love a robot that can work local, without the cloud (initial setup with cloud is acceptable) and works great with home assistant. Prefer not super old robots as i like obstacle avoidance and good mopping, and have a dog that sheds a lot of hairs.

Sad that so many awesome projects have died out.

Well thanks for reading and for providing assistance!

cursive viper
valid knoll
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Valetudo is quite technical and has a very unfriendly developer.

pastel roost
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Agreed on the technical!! I recently installed valetudo on a Dreame D10s Plus robot. I chose that brand because I didn't want to have to dissassemble a robot. With the Dreame, i only had to remove the cover (carefully!) and then stick a PCB (which I bought off tindle for 20 bucks) into the slot and go from there. So in that sense, it was fairly straightforward.

I had to use a windows computer for part of it and a linux computer for the other part of it...

As far as the developer unfriendliness, I haven't interacted with them, so I can't say.... My overall experience has been positive (with some nerve-wracking minutes waiting for the thing to reboot, and some anxiety around removing the cover (carefully!)

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I was also fortunate in that I dedicated basically a day to do it slowly and take my time. Most of that was prepping: downloading software, testing USB cables, etc. The actual process took about 2 hours, as I was triple checking every step and deliberately going slowly

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in the end, extremely worth it

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like the annoying voice! now, it makes R2D2 sounds for all the confirmation and positive messages, so I only hear the voice if there is an error or warning condition. the valetudo interface is really really useful and comprehensive. and finally, the xiaomi-custom-vacuum-card in home assistant is the bees' knees, and that developer has so much patience, even for dumbasses like myself who missed the documentation link to ask an obvious question

pastel roost
cursive viper
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I've never had to interact with him and can't comment on that front. But I wouldn't say it's more technical than bumper, which requires running Docker containers, creating certificates, and setting up a MITM to the robot. Valetudo's server runs on the robot and just works.

valid knoll
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Yeah its sad that bumper is abandoned.

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I suppose with a 3 year old repo, its not working with their latest robots.

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I like the idea of the Xiaomi Miio integration now. Require internet to set up, but afterwards you can even block the robot from the internet with DENY, not DROP, if i read the docs right and thats still accurate.

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So i will probably buy a xiaomi robot. Sad that it doesnt have a camera though. But no robot vacuum camera works for home assistant. Roborock has one, but worked on/off the whole time.

valid knoll
valid knoll
pastel roost
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yeah, like I don't really know how to solder, you know? and I couldn't find anything on the discord, where they do exchange the pcbs, so I bit the bullet and did that.

as far as not having a linux pc, I didn't either -- I used a Debian LIveUSB, and booted the laptop into that environment. in that environment, I mounted the regular laptop drive so that I could save things to disk, etc (like the original config and firmware, etc etc). That woked a treat, and once done, the laptop was back to normal, except for it had a few more files on it

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I'm absolutely sure you can do it. The overall process is basically: get the vacuum into debug mode, connect to it in debug mode, overwrite some android boot stuff, save the configs and stuff, flash it, reboot it, and I think flash it again.

The scary details turn out to be not so scary with the Dreame brand, because apart from removing the cover (carefully -- because you don't want to scratch the cover or the robot, and you can't just yank it off), the rest is software: you might have some fear/anxiety of the command line -- I assure you that's not that scary, you just need to double check the things you type (especially serial numbers).

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and depending on schedules, etc, I'd be happy to be on hand with you on a video conference or something if you feel overwhelmed with any of the steps

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@valid knoll for what it's worth, I wound up donating to the developer of dustbuilder and also the developer for valetudo. Hadn't interacted with either, but I love their work, and the results speak for themselves

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I have never really enjoyed the activity of cleaning the floors. In the past few weeks however, I really love it, lol

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I hope you get a Dreame, so that we can figure out together how to make "oucher" work

valid knoll
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I like the thought of the new xiaomi x20 max now.

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Can then be used locally, after set uo with cloud. The only sad thing is that i wont have a camera that can drive around

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Gonna miss that on my current roborock. But valetudo also doesnt have a camera livestream

pastel olive
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It's enough to go onto their telegram channel and ask

pastel roost
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I did, but didn't get response, and I was on a deadline

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I'm still happy to share mine, though, and add it to the pool

pastel roost
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there is a driving dashboard, too, but I don't believe it uses the camera. dalek pov would be prettty cool though

valid knoll
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question is, if valetudo would support making pics of obstacles on other then the x40 robot.

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l10s pro ultra heat also got a camera.

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and ofcourse wonder if it will dry the mop when going back, and wash the mop. etc. standard functions of the robot. but a bit scared valetudo will no longer provide that.

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if the camera of the l10s pro ultra heat is supported on valetudo and i dont lose functionality of the device, il get it.

valid knoll
pastel olive
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It is not custom firmware. It does not preclude functionality of how the robot works. It is only a different API shim. It intercepts the cloud calls, be it miio or dreame or whatever and exposes its own instead

valid knoll
pastel olive
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You're right that you're usually not getting everything, but again - valetudo taking over how your vacuum works, because it can't. It cannot for example not make your vacuum dock and clean it's mop. Unless there's a cloud command for that

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Think of it as replacing the physical buttons with your own

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Or the home assistant roborock integration, except it lives on the vacuum and disconnects the cloud

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It's kinda like that

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As far as the cleaning logic that lives below the cloud API because it would be pretty dumb to make that be dependent on the cloud (would end up like those fisker cars)

valid knoll
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Thanks for the clarification ^^

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I might snag a l10s ultra heat robot as its supported and much cheaper then the x40

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And then hope that one day live camera view will be supported. I suppose its ok if not- as its not working now anyway on home assistant.

pastel olive
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I have the L10s Ultra (no heat) and the wife is very happy with it

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Bought it secondhand too

valid knoll
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nice!

valid knoll
pastel roost
valid knoll
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thanks, joined it 🙂

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i think im gonna try it anyway, even though i dont like that the developer is such a pain to communicate with.

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someone should make a community discord. but there's no way the developer would promote that im afraid.

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anyway shouldnt be a high need for it if it works.

pastel roost
pastel olive
valid knoll
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i just found out about a brand i never heard of.

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Eureka j15, looks like a epic robot. basically a dreame x40 but even better, for half the price.

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but...........zero integration into smart home systems 😢

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i cant even seem to find ANY Api available.

valid knoll
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bought the dreame x40.

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and a tricut brush.

valid knoll
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so, @pastel roost and @pastel olive flashing the rooted firmware completed, the flashing themselfs took less then a minute.

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also, i highly doubt that the x40 has a watchdog that reboots the device. the robot was on in fastboot for over 5 minutes, but the buttons kept flashing, could still execute fastboot commands and heard no startup music or any sound whatsoever.

pastel olive
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congrats

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enjoy valetudo 🙂

pastel roost
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@valid knoll congratulations!! Welcome to Valetudo! How is it working for you?

valid knoll
valid knoll
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home assistant integration going mediocre though. i added it to the xiaomi map card, but sending a command for a room or zone cleaning is not working yet.

pastel olive
valid knoll
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thats for the camera, the map.

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and the map shows fine. shows the robot moving and working. But i cant start a clean on a specific zone or room with the card.

pastel roost
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Hang on this feels familiar. I’m trying to remember what sorted it out for me. Have you set the ‘topic’ internal variables in your card’s config?