Have a look at https://valetudo.cloud/
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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I’ll just add that I’m a fan of valetudo, but it can be a bit more involved than your standard firmware swap. I had to build a pin breakout board, and race against time to root my vacuum because there is an auto-reset programmed into some robots that can brick your vacuum if the jailbreak isn’t finished when the reboot is triggered.
Just read the process through all the way before you decide on device.
I was sweating like I was in the hurt locker when I did mine, because my partner would have NEVER let me forget the time I bought a $900 robot vacuum and broke it before it even cleaned the floor once!
This is the way.
Anything well supported by Valetudo, they have a nice list. I bought a Roborock S5 for $35 on ebay that needed the gearbox for the brush cleaned out, and it works well.
The d10s pro/plus are great and not terribly expensive. The breakout board isnt too hard to build either. If youre afraid/bad at soldering i saw a few prebuilt on ebay
Definitely go with valetudo, they have a good robot buying guide for 0-cloud vacuums. No flashing needed, but you may need to do some SSH. Only downside I think is that valetudo doesn't support multiple floors.
Like multiple types of flooring or multiple rooms or multiple levels?
Multiple levels as in it wont work for my upstairs and downstairs.
The software is only designed for one map
Thanks for clarifying. It should work for me then, I'll have to give it a try
I'll pop this as a top level comment, as so many people have made recommendations, thank you everyone!
Valetudo absolutely sounds like the way forward.
After more digging, it looks like mopping, unless you spend lots of money, is kinda basic on all models.
So I've gone with a basic second hand machine that works with Valetudo, and has simple mopping.
Hopefully it'll let me get a good idea of what is/isn't possible, and if a £600 full on mopping device is worth it!
And who knows, if spending that much is worth it, I can have one on each floor, like a fancy rich person.
(I also need to find out how well machines deal with poo!)
I'd like to gently un-recommend Shark. I've had two warranty replacements in 6 months. They stand behind the product, but it would have been nicer if it worked consistently.
First check the dontvacuum.me site for compatibility.
Flash with modified firmware, run valetudo and disconnect from the Chinese cloud.
Valetudo integrates with HA.