How do I know: Job done vs ran out of power?

vac-you-um · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Southern California

I've read the FAQs and the Wiki, but I didn't see an answer to my question.

I have a Roomba 500 series.

Let's say Roomba is set up to work in a large room while I'm away from home (battery charge should be sufficient to complete the room). I come home to find Roomba sitting still and quiet with no flashing lights. I have not had the opportunity to hear it sing its song (which I think goes something like this: "And I've finished all my work...good for me!"), so how do I know if its job was completed successfully, and not that it has simply run out of juice or experienced some other problem?

Thanks, Esbie

fancyfreewv · Posted: July 1, 2008, 3:39 pm Post subject:

Does it charge up successfully after you manually put it onto the home base? Could be you have your home base in the wrong place and it manages to run out of power prior to finding it.

IRobot tells you to use hard flooring not carpet as the Roomba can try multiple times to climb up on it and will die if not successful.

I would think you need to stay around and watch it's sequence at least once to determine what happened. You could try running the demo mode and make sure it is capable of doing all the things it's supposed to as well.

RoombaHolic · Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 98 Location: Mountain Center, CA

vac-you-um wrote: . . . I come home to find Roomba sitting still and quiet with no flashing lights. I have not had the opportunity to hear it sing its song (which I think goes something like this: "And I've finished all my work...good for me!"), so how do I know if its job was completed successfully, and not that it has simply run out of juice or experienced some other problem?
Don't have a 5xx series, but my 4xxx Roombas stop and indicate they've either completed their mission and can't locate their base or have stopped because of some other problem, then after a few minutes they go dark. (All lights and sound stop.) If I push the power button before picking them up and returning them to their base, they come back to life and indicate what state they were in before they turned off, whether an error or a completed mission.

vac-you-um · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Southern California

fancyfreewv wrote: Does it charge up successfully after you manually put it onto the home base? Could be you have your home base in the wrong place and it manages to run out of power prior to finding it.

Well, I see I omitted some important info.

I'm not using the home base. I just pop Roomba into a wall-mount cradle and plug it in. So when Roomba's done, it has no where to go. It just sits there, and eventually the green light goes out. So when I come home, I have no way of knowing if it finished its task, or if it encountered some sort of problem or ran out of power and didn't finish.

Quote: IRobot tells you to use hard flooring not carpet as the Roomba can try multiple times to climb up on it and will die if not successful.

It runs exclusively on hard-surface flooring, and like I mentioned, not using the home base.

Quote: I would think you need to stay around and watch it's sequence at least once to determine what happened. You could try running the demo mode and make sure it is capable of doing all the things it's supposed to as well.

I ran the demo mode for the first time today, just out of curiousity. It worked fine. Roomba completed a large room today, and I was home to hear it sing its happy song. I noticed the green light was still on, but eventually it goes out if you just let it sit there. So when I arrive home to find it in that condition, I'm still wondering if there's a way to tell whether it had a problem or it finished its job (just looking at the floor doesn't answer this question -- I use Roomba frequently and the place is kept pretty clean).

Esbie

vac-you-um · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Southern California

RoombaHolic wrote: Don't have a 5xx series, but my 4xxx Roombas stop and indicate they've either completed their mission and can't locate their base or have stopped because of some other problem, then after a few minutes they go dark.

Like I mentioned above, I'm not using the home base, so my Roomba just goes to sleep. I come home and wonder if it finished cleaning or it ran out of power. I could use the home base, but I just don't have a good place to put it. I'd rather hang Roomba on the wall, out of sight.

Quote: If I push the power button before picking them up and returning them to their base, they come back to life and indicate what state they were in before they turned off, whether an error or a completed mission.

I think this is the answer I was looking for. So if it just push the button again, I'd get an error message if there was one? Or it would tell me if it ran out of gas? If I push the button and it just shows green/ready to go, then that means it must have finished its job, right?

Thanks, Esbie

fancyfreewv · Posted: July 1, 2008, 9:54 pm Post subject:

I have no firsthand knowledge (except what I have read on this forum) about what happens when you don't use a home base but here goes.

The condition of the lights and all that you describe will not tell you how long it's running for. I get about 2 hours out of mine. The Roomba does not know it's done cleaning or that the floor is clean except on a timing basis when it starts to look for it's home base which in your case it can't find.

There used to be a "MAX" button on the 4xxx series which would run it until it was red and died. This was not used unless you wanted to do a refresh charge on the battery for 72 hours I think it was. Too many people used it all the time weakening the battery I think and they did away with the MAX button on the 5xx series.

So, now if you wish to do a refresh battery charge, you have to do exactly what you are doing - remove the home base and let it die. This is not a good idea for several reasons. Yours now dies every time it runs. This depeats the battery totally and then you put it back on charge and it only gets overnight to trickle itself back which may not be enough to totally top off the batteries. (battery is made of many smaller ones)

I understand your not wanting to have it out all the time - most of us have found a good place for it - under a shelf, a piece of furniture even works fine - If you continue to do this, I would assume you would get less and less runtime for cleaning out of your Roomba and you could possibly cause the battery to need replacement sooner.

vac-you-um · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Southern California

fancyfreewv wrote: The condition of the lights and all that you describe will not tell you how long it's running for. I get about 2 hours out of mine. The Roomba does not know it's done cleaning or that the floor is clean except on a timing basis when it starts to look for it's home base which in your case it can't find.

I thought Roombas had dirt sensors -- all those little spots we have to keep clean so they can "see" when the floor is dirt-free....or something. A few weeks ago, a female voice urged me to clean Roomba's wheel wells and cliff sensors.

Quote: if you wish to do a refresh battery charge, you have to do exactly what you are doing - remove the home base and let it die. This is not a good idea for several reasons. Yours now dies every time it runs. This depeats the battery totally and then you put it back on charge and it only gets overnight to trickle itself back which may not be enough to totally top off the batteries. (battery is made of many smaller ones)

That's not really what I'm doing. If Roomba starts on a full charge (it's plugged into the charger at all times when it's not running), and vacuums the 270-SF kitchen, for example, it doesn't run out of power. It will stop when it's done (like it did today, when I was home and heard it sing the "I'm done" song). Then I can still put it to work in another room. I think it will run for around 2-1/2 to 3 hrs on a full charge.

Quote: If you continue to do this, I would assume you would get less and less runtime for cleaning out of your Roomba and you could possibly cause the battery to need replacement sooner.

I rarely run it down to zero/orange light/sings something like "Woe is me." I'm pretty sure the way I'm using it is ok, and Roomba has worked like a charm since I got it about six months ago. I just think I need to push that center button when I'm not sure what its status is, and like RoombaHolic wrote, it should display any problem signals even after the green light has gone out.

Thanks, Esbie

Robotic · Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 67 Location: SF Bay Area

fancyfreewv wrote: There used to be a "MAX" button on the 4xxx series which would run it until it was red and died. This was not used unless you wanted to do a refresh charge on the battery for 72 hours I think it was. Too many people used it all the time weakening the battery I think and they did away with the MAX button on the 5xx series.

So, now if you wish to do a refresh battery charge, you have to do exactly what you are doing - remove the home base and let it die. This is not a good idea for several reasons. Yours now dies every time it runs. This depeats the battery totally and then you put it back on charge and it only gets overnight to trickle itself back which may not be enough to totally top off the batteries. (battery is made of many smaller ones)

When iRobot introduced the Discovery version (4xxx, I think), they said that part of the 'driving around' it does is to determine the size of the room and therefore the length of time it should run for a 'normal' cycle.

I don't believe that a 500 series Roomba would run a 'max' cycle simply because there is no base to return to.
I think it is just running a 'normal' cycle, so vac-you-um shouldn't be worried about wearing out the battery pack from constant 'heavy' discharge cycles.

fancyfreewv · Posted: July 2, 2008, 5:58 pm Post subject:

According to many posts on this forum, if you remove the home base and the 5xx has nothing to go back to it will run until it runs out of battery power. Personally I have not tried that but that is what has been said.

vic7767 · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 3429 Location: Louisiana

I just tried this out on my 535 here in just the kitchen using VWs to confine it there. After about 45 minutes it decided it was done, played the tune and shut down. The clean led stayed on for awhile but eventually went out after about 5 minutes.

vac-you-um · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Southern California

fancyfreewv wrote: According to many posts on this forum, if you remove the home base and the 5xx has nothing to go back to it will run until it runs out of battery power. Personally I have not tried that but that is what has been said.

That's definitely not what my Roomba 560 does. Today, I had it working in a wood-floored room that's about 16' x 16' with only a piano in it. Roomba vacuumed for about 60 or 70 minutes (I got two 6-beep warnings to clean the cliff sensors -- there are down-steps on either side of the room), and then it stopped, sang the happy song, and just sat there. I picked it up, put it in the bathroom, pushed the button twice (green light), and off it went for another 30 min or so.

Esbie

vac-you-um · Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Southern California

vic7767 wrote: I just tried this out on my 535 here in just the kitchen using VWs to confine it there. After about 45 minutes it decided it was done, played the tune and shut down. The clean led stayed on for awhile but eventually went out after about 5 minutes.

That's exactly how mine behaves.

Esbie

fancyfreewv

vac-you-um wrote: I've read the FAQs and the Wiki, but I didn't see an answer to my question. I have a Roomba 500 series.

Let's say Roomba is set up to work in a large room while I'm away from home (battery charge should be sufficient to complete the room). I come home to find Roomba sitting still and quiet with no flashing lights. I have not had the opportunity to hear it sing its song (which I think goes something like this: "And I've finished all my work...good for me!"), so how do I know if its job was completed successfully, and not that it has simply run out of juice or experienced some other problem? Thanks, Esbie

The original question you posed seems to be somewhat different than what is being discussed now. If you left the Roomba to run - no matter how many times you press the clean button - without a place to recharge it will run down.

Originally you said you wanted to know if it had a problem or not or just finished cleaning. Without watching it, you have no way to know that under what you describe is happening. You say you press clean and then go to another room. This of course is because the battery still has life in it.

My comment on doing this all the time and letting it get to a very run down state is still valid. It can not be good for the Roomba's battery to not be allowed to determine for itself when it is in need of recharging. You are controlling that by using the device manually.

You might want to check out the following thread which on page 3 has a link to information about these type of batteries.

http://www.roombareview.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=2901&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40

The post by ROBOTIC is the one I'm referring to. Then read Igors48 and Vic7767 below his.

Quote: Basically-
*NiMHs love exercise, but hate exhaustion.
*They may be more prone to self-discharging than Ni-Cd (although newer cell technology mitigates this).
*It is possible to resurrect a NiMH cell, but this requires some close attention to discharging and charging cycles.

_JP_ · Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 207

Factors that affect mission run times include room size, the type of floor surface, and whether or not Lighthouses are in use.

One thing that is not often mentioned is the AWARE technology built into the 500 series Roomba. It's a combination of programming an sensor input that helps determine how long the robot should run for a particular mission. Exactly how that works iRobot won't say.

If you're using the 500 series Roomba without a Home Base to dock at when it is finished, then it will simply stop when it is done with the mission. With the Home Base it will dock and play the 'Charge!' tune, which indicates a successful docking.

fancyfreewv · Posted: July 3, 2008, 12:07 pm Post subject:

I know the Aware technology is supposed to tell it how long to clean however then how do they explain the fact that if you use the LH, you get almost exactly the same amount of time in one room as another no matter what the size?

Personally, I tend think Aware is to count and determine how many bumps it has to make around furniture, walls and obstacles to determine how much power is left to continue before looking for the HB or the LH.