Things, Stuff & Such

I sent an email to irobot’s support to report my non-functioning virtual wall on Friday evening.  Saturday I had an email responce with a couple of auto generated tips and a request for a couple of product codes to verify my warranty status.  I replied yesterday and this morning I was informed that they will send me out a new virtual wall as soon as they are off back order.  The back order part stinks but thier responce time and the ease of using email (instead of being on hold waiting to talk to a person) was fantastic. 

I shot another quick video of the roomba seeming to be ‘out smarted’ by two legs and a wall.  I was watching the roomba spin in place for a good minute before I decided to grab my camera.  I think part of the issue was a virtual wall I was using to keep the roomba in the living room.  once I covered the IR signal from the wall with my foot the roomba came free. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em5u72eYk4w]

The virtual wall is off camera at the bottom.  You can tell by the video when I moved so I could block the virtual wall signal with my foot and a moment later the roomba is free.  A smooth and efficient setup is going to take a little tweaking – but that’s where the fun is anyway, right?

After getting home from work I was ready to give the roomba its first try. With the roomba on its charging base I grabbed the schedular remote and pressed ‘clean’. The roomba came to life with a happy melody, scooted off the charging base, spun around and went to work. I had set up the roomba and charger in the living room figuring that is where it will do most of it’s work. In the middle of the room is a large rug with large fringe on the two shorter ends. I was told the roomba may choke on the fringe so before setting him off I tucked the fringe under the rug. The first thing the rooba came to was the rug, with fringe tucked under, and it bounced right off of it. The rug, it seems it to high witht he fringe under it. I couldn’t help shooting a little video of the roomba’s first attempt.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-goewJXavU]

I ended up laying the rug’s fringe back out and the roomba usually went over it with little trouble.  Only once did it choke and shut itself off.  I’m not sure what I will end up doing about it. 

With the roomba came two virtual walls to contain the robot into a specific area.  Unfortunately, one of the walls was bad right out of the box.  It would take both walls to keep roomba in the living room.  My friend from work who also has a roomba suggested laying something on the floor to make a barrier until I can get a new virtaul wall.  I may try that across the shorter of the two open spans.  Also it would be a good trick to keep the roomba away from the wires behind the big screen tv. 

Anyway – it will be fun to mess around with it.

I checked the dirt bin after letting the roomba go around for about a half hour and was amazed at what this little guy picks up.  The bin was full of dust, sand and a lot of dog hair!  I am looking forward to getting this little guy on a regular schedule and seeing if the amount of junk he picks up lessens.

The boys have been back home for a while and are enjoying the rest of their summer vacation. I spoke to Scott last night and he was already 160+ pages into the new Harry Potter book. When he is done I think he will have read every one of the books. I asked him how he liked the latest Harry Potter movie they saw last weekend. He said it was good but the book was better. When is it not, right? I have only talked to Aaron a couple of times since they returned to MO. He is usually over at his best friend Alex’s house. They are both doing well and not looking forward to school restarting next month.

Last week I was watching a Woot-Off on woot.com. If you don’t know about Woot! it’s a site that sells one item a day, usually at a good price. About once a month they what they call a woot-off where when one item sells out another immediately replaces it. You can find more information her or at www.woot.com.

So, the Roomba arrived today. When I got home my mother had brought the box inside and left it on the kitchen table. I wasn’t sure if she would like the idea of the roomba scooting around the house but she is actully excited about the idea. Right now the roomba is charging and I plan to watch it’s first run tomorrow after work.