Customer Reviews

Hacking Roomba: ExtremeTech

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I received a "Rootooth" adapter as a Christmas present so I bought this book to expand on hacking Roomba. It is very detailed and easy to follow. The book assumes that you have some basic programming knowledge (i.e. MS VB, MS C#, MS C++, Java)to get the most out of it. You need to know how to compile and execute Java code to do the experiments in this book. It has some cool experiments and a lot of references to downloads for any utlities you will need to hack Roomba. I would highly recommend "Hacking Roomba" as a must have.

Great book, I would suggest getting more than one roomba so you can mod one and still vac the floors. Top fun, all good info in one book, Yes you can get most of the info online but I think its better to have the directions at hand when halfway through a mod instead of rushing to look it up again link after link

Thank you Tod for putting all of your (and some other Roomba enthusiasts) hacks in one place for easy reference. While my initial reason for buying the book was to read the section about my kids' business, myRoomBud, I was just as interested in the information to help with the multiple Roomba hacking projects I have underway. I am not a hardware guy so having an abundance of pictures and diagrams is essential for explaining the hacks. On the software side, every hack has source code making the hacks usable right from the get go. I cannot count the number of hacking books that only give you pseudo code that is often close to useless. [...]

Length:: 2:44 Mins

Tod must write more books on engineering. I liked his style of explaining things in a lucid manner. The book is also comprehensive. I will let the video do rest of the talking.

Update: new video on youtube watch?v=6owDZIy5hcc

I've only gotten into chapter 3, with a few peeks in the back, but so far this book has lived up to my expectations and more. It has all sorts of basic information for people who haven't had much experience with tinkering with electronics. There's also plenty of reassuring and cautionary information for those concerned that their attempts to play with or improve their Roomba will break it instead. I'm looking forward to trying the experiments -- the book will be worth reading even if I never get around to them, though.

As a SW programmer interested in SW Robotics Control, this book goes over a lot of those things you would want to do with the Roomba. The iRobot Roomba is a great platform for this and the book highlights these features nicely. Well worth the purchase.

Some of the add-on parts used are no longer available (wireless routers) or replaced by newer versions (BlueSmirf). Fundamental approach still applies but will take some reader knowledge to apply with current products. Interesting hack book nonetheless.