Even though it’s vibe coded, I like the idea of an open source repairable robot vacuum. The current generation of them are notoriously not built to last / be repairable.
Ordered one off Ali Express, and after another couple months, it also started dying. So replaced it with a newer Roborock.
Didn’t bother when the second S5 started doing the same, just got a new Roborock.
Both new ones have been going well so far, and while it does seem to be good for replacing parts (I had another lidar part fail, and the replacement was easy), I was disappointed that replacing the battery didn’t fix the shut down issues.
There’s supposed to be a build-along on YouTube but nothing there yet. The BoM is a bunch of aliexpress modules which is ok, but what about the chassis? Is that image generated?
The RFC calls to generate accurate models for the components, but the render looks like a full assembly?
I posted the teardown screenshot on Reddit, asked if anyone's interested building an open-source vacuum. Redditors said they don't want a vacuum like that because it's too basic. No self-empty dock, no mop, no obstacle avoidance, brush is too basic. People want a highly functional vacuum.
So, I had to scrap the idea, switch to building a "mid tier" vacuum.
I don't have a better design, so I kept the image and captioned it as "Reference design images - this is approximately how the finished design will look".
I hope it's ok.
No YouTube build-along - correct, not yet. I'll make one once ready. Evidence - an existing build-along for my previous robot youtube dot com watch?v=6GtjAB19GP8&list=PLOSXKDW70aR8uA1IFahSKVuk5ODDfjTZV
Mmm I love the smell of slop in the morning
I don't expect a finished product. The value to me is the customizability and figuring out how to make it do what I want it to do. I'm sure that's not for everyone but like I have fingers. I can type. I can fix things. Slop is perfectly fine as a first draft because I'm envisioning a community of builders not a bunch of entitled twats who should just buy a Roomba.
Vibe coding doesn’t always have to result in low quality. An experienced engineer with good systems design skills piloting an agent can be incredibly productive. Although I’m pretty rusty at writing code, I’m still good at systems design and I’m having success with coding agents.
Recently, I’ve built a system for myself because what I wanted didn’t exist. There’s no way I ever would have done it without AI. I wouldn’t be able to pull it off myself even with years of time and a budget to hire developers for my personal project is nonexistent. It’s the kind of thing I never would have thought to start prior to good coding agents.
My productivity has been insane. I feel like there’s 10 of me. The quality of output is shockingly good. I’m looking at this and it’s one of the most put together systems I’ve worked on at any point in my career. It’s beyond what I saw from much more senior developers than I and it’s beyond what I was ever capable of myself.
I get why people don’t like vibe coding. It does produce a lot of slop in the hands of someone unskilled in the use of their tools. It costs people their jobs. There are a hundred reasons not to like it. The flip side is we get cool projects like this one because a single person can build the thing they always wanted and never could until now.
As best as I can tell, this project doesn't exist yet, just a bunch of boilerplate.
and
>It does produce a lot of slop in the hands of someone unskilled in the use of their tools.
Form a somewhat contradictory pair.