Exactly, and it still works. So if you build an ethernet network on a manifold system, that’s better.
AT&T is this way too. Their modem/router is just effective enough, and they make it just annoying enough to work around, that I keep their modem/router combo.
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My Belkin WeMo doorbells - yes, plural - are in the trash. They are a pain to set up and would persistently crap out, requiring re-setting up. They would go off from gnat farts and are quite possibly the most annoying piece of tech I have ever owned.
The Aqara G4 doorbell on the back door has been the polar opposite, so now I have one adorning the front door. It’s got the aesthetics of a CyberTruck, but the new one set up instantly and perfectly.
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Aqara seems to get consistently good reviews.
I’ll be looking for a vacuum this summer and probably a smart lock. I’m sure just typing that will get YT to start sending those videos my way.
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Robot vacuums are having a moment. New ones can scale small level changes, others can pick up and move obstructions, others can be directly connected to waste and fresh water and act as a water shuttle to humidifiers. There’s even one that can have tray electric tables and any manner of other appendages attached to it like R2 fucking D2.
PS: Aqara stuff is great.
I realize that I’m different from a lot a y’all but I sure as hell don’t want a vacuum to go moving my shit around. Some weird little electronic device learning the layout of my house? Yeah, I don’t think so.
I’m dubious as to the efficacy of the current robot arms, but it’s a strong hint at where technology is going. Home robots won’t be interns in yoga pants like Tesla’s, but machine-shaped things that do stuff.
And I still want no fucking part of it get off my lawn and out of my metaverse.
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I have a couple of robo vacs. They’re not that great if you have a long hared dog. Any hairs over a couple of inches get wrapped around the spindle which jams and clogs up the flow. I basically have to sweep with a dust mop before running the robots or they’re not efficient at vacuuming.
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Newer vacuums have solved the long hair problem and have greater suction power.
I have the G4. Ugly as sin but I’ve never had a single issue with it.
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Well, then I want no part of that. All these machine-shaped things will do is clean your house. I’m waiting for Nexxus 6
I recently re-watched “Ex Machina”. Makes you reconsider the efficacy of hot robotresses.
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FWIW, I’ve had a Roborok for a couple of years now and it has been great.
With the short-haired cats I have, the main issue is with litter getting splashed out of the box and tracked around the house. I set the robot to vacuum the room with the box and the adjoining hallway every day, and it does a great job of holding down the spread of litter.
Being an older model, it doesn’t have a fancy swing out brush or mop to get into corners. Also, the edge performance in general is not great, mostly as the mop misses about 1 1/2" from any baseboard. This also means has no chance of getting anywhere near to the inside of corners.
Ignoring fancy features like robot-arms and stair-climbing, things I would look out for are:
- High power
- Edge and corner cleaning (see above)
- Good mapping and obstacle recognition
- Base station with trash emptying, and mop cleaning and drying
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Robot lawnmowers are getting better too.
AI shouldn’t be writing music or poetry, or creating art in general, it should be cleaning our floors and mowing our lawns. Ideally after bringing us a beer.
My smart home is getting dumber.
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My Aqara hub updated and broke the shortcut I had created to use its IR blaster to turn on my kitchen TV. Sounds trite, but it’s a cheap-ass TV that does not react to my Apple TV remote, which is annoying.
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Something in the workflow that brings my SimpliSafe alarm into the Apple Home app is broken. So now I keep forgetting that my automations don’t turn it off anymore and I keep setting it off.
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My robot vacuum has lost its damn mind and blunders around the house like Grandpa Simpson on a bad day.
I am hoping that a clean of the sensors and a rescan of my house will fix “Edgar”. The other two are things that I set up so long ago that I’ve forgotten how I did it; I may have to start from scratch on those which could be nothing or could lead me to break more shit.
The struggle is real.
My front door clearly is haunted, because the G4 I installed there failed within a month. Had to reset the thing and set it up again from scratch. The one on the back door has been running for months without issue.
It seems that the map for the lower floor was corrupted somehow. It won’t load and I can’t delete it. I re-mapped the floor and recreated the schedules, and things are now working properly.
Better, in fact, because it seems the vacuum and mopping intensity I had set before had not been logged. With two cats and the litter box on this floor, the robot needs to be on max.
Still, with its vibrating pad style mop, around the litter box it mostly smears the litter powder around rather than clean the floor. The litter is designed to bond with liquid, so this is understandable.
Despite this unit - coming up on two years old - still being completely serviceable, I cannot help be tempted by the Switchbot S10. It does two things my Roborok - or any other robot of which I’m aware - cannot:
- It cleans the mop constantly while in use, which should help with the smearing issue; and
- It refills and empties directly into established plumbing, so there is never a need to mess with the tanks.
These both mean that the robot’s hub has a much smaller footprint than other robots, because it doesn’t need the mop-cleaning area as this is done all internally on the robot.
The cat litter wreaks havoc on the Roborok’s mop cleaning, with human maintenance action being required far more frequently than the app predicts. With the S10 doing this in real time on board, and able to empty grey water and take on clean water at its own pace, this should allow it to perform better.
The S10 has been out for about a year. If they come up with an updated version, I may have to make the leap.
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Thanks to the YT algorithm, I found out that there are three models of auto fill/empty robovacs.
The Switchbot wiped the floor - pun intended - with the others for mopping, was equivalent for vacuuming and has a much larger dust bag in the base station; so likely the most maintenance free.
I also like that the Switchbot water station does not require power, so you have far more flexibility as to placement. It also means you aren’t necessarily fucking with plumbing around live mains.
Things are dovetailing nicely.
I’m going to get one later this summer and mopping function will by far be the most important task.
Thanks for doing some of the legwork.
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