Home Base Question

dailo · Guest

Hi,

I recently purchased the Roomba Red and Home Base station and I was wondering if the roomba automatically docks only when I press clean while its in the station or if I start the roomba in a different part of the room will it go back to the station when its low on battery as well? Thanks.

Rick · Guest

No worries, the Roomba will always seek it's homebase when it's done cleaning or when the battery is low. It doesn't matter where or how you start it.

Rick

dailo · Guest

Thanks. Maybe it was just too far away, because my roomba died before it got to the home base. The homebase is in a different room, does the roomba have a hard time going back to the home base if its in another room?

PHyde · Guest

Quote: The homebase is in a different room, does the roomba have a hard time going back to the home base if its in another room

A hardER time, yes, but it needn't be fatal. In our case, when we set our Roomba cleaning an entire floor's worth of rooms, it seems to get back to homebase pretty reliably. Your mileage may vary, possibly depending on the exact position of the homebase and obstacles around it, and around the doorway of its room.

Rudi · Guest Joined: 24 Nov 2004 Posts: 16

dailo wrote: Thanks. Maybe it was just too far away, because my roomba died before it got to the home base. The homebase is in a different room, does the roomba have a hard time going back to the home base if its in another room?
It happens with first use (Roomba right out of the box) more often, because somehow the battery seems to have its full capacity only after a couple of recharges. Perhaps this was the case in your situation?

Rudi

dailo · Guest

Oh maybe that's the case, because it was my first time using it. Guess this gives me an excuse to run it a few times a day :D

MasterPo · Posted: December 23, 2004, 4:55 pm Post subject:

An interesting feature on future versions might be some kind of radio homing signal to locate the home base in other rooms so it can more directly go to the base rather than trial&error searching room by room.

Laird Free · Guest

MasterPo wrote: An interesting feature on future versions might be some kind of radio homing signal to locate the home base in other rooms so it can more directly go to the base rather than trial&error searching room by room.
I don't think an RF homing signal would work, it would give the direction through walls, but doesn't tell roomba how to "get there". The IR line of sight actually helps roomba to find it's home. If any improvement may help, it would be a "pulsed signal" that would (once per second?) reach into long hallways, and dimmly reflect off of walls... the roomba could "see" the pulse and follow reflections of the pulse through doorways and around corners, always looking for the "brightest" signal source. Roomba would have to be smart enough to sample its own IR "standard" to compensate for dirty sensors over time, and be able to discriminate between mirrors and the "true source" by sampling for timing and brightness between multiple sources.
My preference would be to change the frequencies of the walls and homebase to prevent IR "pollution" that causes problems with home entertainment and other remotes.
I still think IR is the way to go, it just needs some improvements.