A Windows CE device that really sucks

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/c/a/News/Toshiba-Smarbo/

Smarter than the Roomba.

CE Geek, I think someone should stick a rod into it, and affix a display to the top to a soldered VGA port thingie doohickey, that way, if you want to say watch a movie, you have to follow the VacuBotTM around.. Be sure to keep third eye on the lookout..

Torch you just discovered the solution to obesity! You want to watch TV? Fine, then keep up!

Before I finished reading torch's post, I thought he was going to say if you wanted to watch a movie, you call the robot over to yourself sitting on the couch.

Absolutely, us Yanks have to overcome our stereotype somehow!

Yeah, no! :D That doesn't get me into shape for enlistment, so I sure as heck am not going to solder just to sit on my tush! :)

You know its funny,
I just purchased a cheap robot vac just to give the whole auto vacuum a test drive.

If it does well enough to make a difference we are going to look into something more expensive, I'll keep a eye on this one's pricing over the next year.

Haha, instead of a vacuum cleaner that requires you to push around on the carpet, this one tempts you to follow it around as it does all the work itself

What? We're lazy westerners, we don't *do* work.

But, which is more enticing, a vacuum cleaner that requires you to push around carpet to get things clean, or one that tempts you to follow it around and watch television programmes whilst it does all the work itself.. that is the question.. :D

I'm a westerner....and I'm lazy....and proud of it. I don't need a robo-vac...I hire someone to come in and do my floors. With everyone unemployed around here, it is pretty cheap to have a housecleaner come on in once a week for a couple hours...

I mean I can do daily touch up stuff myself...but for the real carpet shampoo and laundry, and windows....nothing beats hired help.

And it does lead to obesity too...I mean when she is cleaning and such, I go out to eat.

You mean you haven't got yourself a live-in cook yet Rich? Why go out at all!

I'd like a live in cook...pretty young 25 y/o would do...but my wife will have nothing to do with it...

wow... a vacuum cleaner that runs windows, who would have ever thought? lol

I have a Roomba since several years that works really well, in general it does a better job than a real vac as on average it passes at each area about 5 times and has power brushes and vacuum suction like a normal vacuum but it can reach under furniture that a normal vacuum can't so it actually cleans more. If ever I drop something made of glass in the kitchen tile floor, I pick up the big pieces and let the Roomba go to get the rest and can be assured that when it's done I can safely walk back in the kitchen with no more glass shards on the floor, it even gets the tiniest of specks.

However for some reason since the charging base is now on a hard floor it always fails to park itself to go charge when done, it finds and lines up with the charging base as it should, but just as it hits the up ramp it backs up, makes a u-turn and attempts to dock again. It repeats this until the battery dies. On carpet it had a 100% success rate even though it wasn't always on the first attempt, it would at least dock on a 2nd attempt.


Edited by aab 2011-10-03 2:04 PM

Why don't you place a small rug under and in front of the base to give it a sort of carpetted drive way.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! ...

lol why didn't I think of that? Thanks, I'll try to find a small rug and see if it works, I'll also try just cleaning the contacts under it, the house had been in renovation for nearly 12 months and it's been raining plaster and tile dust non stop for about 6 months in the entire house, it was pointless to dust anything as an hour later it would be covered in dust again.

Now that the dust storm has ended I'll clean the contacts and see if perhaps that was the problem and not the new tile floor. It's more than likely as even when I manually put it on the dock I had to keep jiggling it just the right way for it to establish contact, but on the other hand I think when it's a bad contact it's programmed to jiggle itself if I remember well and it just backs off the dock immediately.

Edit: I just cleaned the contacts and tried and it backs off the dock the second the front wheel touches the ramp at the front of the dock.


Edited by aab 2011-10-04 4:41 PM