I started thinking about getting a new vacuum cleaner after almost destroying my old one with rotten wood and concrete. Managed to repair it ok, but was thinking it was time to make the move up to a two vacuum cleaner household. And what’s better than a robot vacuum cleaner?

I bought an iRobot Roomba 530 from Noel Leeming. Was a bit unsure about how effective it would be, but it is great! It is shocking how much dust and hair it picks up from carpet that had just been vacuumed manually. It uses three brushes and a little vacuum to pick up the dirt and dust. And in spite of what the salesman warned is much better at getting in to corners than I am. It doesn’t have a huge capacity, but instead of vacuuming being a weeklyish chore it can now be nightly entertainment. For a proper clean it’s better to limit it to one or two rooms. That gives a better chance of 100% coverage, and it will be able to find its way back to the base station for a recharge when it is finished.

It can be quite judgmental though. When it finds a dirty patch the blue dirt detect light goes on and it gives a slow disapproving shake of it’s head (well whole body really) as it concentrates on cleaning that patch.

There is also a serial interface connector under the top plate (which just clips off, took me a while to work that out) with a published API of commands. I’ll have to have a play with that when I get time. Moore details to come.