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Comment by kodah | Hacker News Reader

Are there any servers and firmware that I can use to replace the software on my Roomba?

I spent nearly $1k on my Roomba. As a single person with a dog, it helps me a lot. My allergies aren't nearly as bad, I don't have to vacuum by hand nearly as much. I liked that with the map the bot was a lot smarter and didn't bump into or damage my things.

I feel like by selling to a company like Amazon that the rug is being pulled out from beneath me. I am truly disappointed in this move and all the people involved.

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I have a Dreame Z10 that's self emptying and has lidar/vision to avoid bumping (and it works well!). I've replaced the firmware with Valetudo so I've got full, local control with no cloud at all.

Yeah, Valetudo is the way to go. I have it on a couple of Dreame L10s. Integrates well with Home Assistant via MQTT, too.

This is the model I bought as well. Was only $500 as of a few weeks ago, which is unbeatable for self-emptying with LIDAR. The rooting/Valetudo install process was super easy. Now it’s on a VLAN with no internet access.

> I feel like by selling to a company like Amazon that the rug is being pulled out from beneath me. I am truly disappointed in this move and all the people involved.

How so? What promises were made by iRoomba when you bought it about their intent (or not) to sell the company? How is this sale tangibly affecting you?

This feels like a gross overreaction that's typical of online statements to garner as much of a reaction from other readers as possible.

I don't care that they're selling. I do care, in this case, that they're selling to a company that will use this data for non-diagnostics and non-robot functionality. That's why I said it feels like having the rug pulled out from under me.

> What promises were made by iRoomba when you bought it about their intent (or not) to sell the company

https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/article/964

Pretty explicit ones about not selling a map of my house.

> How is this sale tangibly affecting you?

I already explained this, it's unclear why you're asking again.

> This feels like a gross overreaction that's typical of online statements to garner as much of a reaction from other readers as possible.

I mean, you didn't even bother reading up on the promises Roomba has made to end users, Amazon's fairly explicit rejection of in-home privacy, and you're scolding me for sounding reactive.

I didn't ask for the company not to be sold, I said I was disappointed. I didn't say "I'm throwing my device away", I asked if I can run it locally. How much more reserved do you want me to be?

Imagine if we had a Right to Replace Software.

There is! It's not supported by very many models though.

https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo

Valetudo does not support any iRobot devices.

Go into your router and revoke its IP address.

What does "revoke its IP address" even mean? Do you mean have it return 0.0.0.0 for all *.roomba.com domains? How would that solve anything? I suspect it'll actually make the Roomba not work at all.

I think it just means preventing it from being on the wifi at all (revoking local IP address) which would definitely kill anything that requires internet access.

Maybe revoking DHCP lease and setting it manual only? But yeah, if the roomba requires internet, it’ll be dead.

Do roombas need WiFi access or do they use their own whispernet-like mobile data connection? I fear the day when appliances will connect to the internet through their own means.

I'm sure Amazon will add Sidewalk connections to everything.

Sorry to be dense as a person with a really dumb home, but you seem to be saying that a house without Wi-Fi can’t use a roomba? Can that be true?

With the Neato, it can still be used, but you'd lose all of the mapping features in the app. It'd take away no-go zones, which are tremendously helpful in making these useful in a lot of homes.

You have to apply for a religious exemption, I hear its really hard to get, even the Amish have a hard time getting one for their roombas.

I think that could definitely be true at this point, though I don’t know for sure. Who has $1000 for a smart robot vac but not wifi?

It may well be true of some models, no?

We should have laws that allows you to work with a latest version from company X and decide what happens with your data when the company gets sold.

I would really love to hack those old models, eg add a raspi on top with a camera for proper object detection.

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