Comments on: New Roomba Prototyping Cable for Arduino

By: todbot

todbot — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:44:25 +0000

Others have had this problem too. Someone with a newer Roomba has figured out a solution using SoftSerial instead of normal Serial, check it out here:
http://www.netfluvia.org/layer8/?p=127

By: MovieMaker

MovieMaker — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:00:33 +0000

I made this connector and it simply won’t work to save my soul. I have checked and rechecked. I have a roomba 530 with a nove arduino.

Thanks,

:-)

By: layer8 » Controlling A Roomba with an Arduino

layer8 » Controlling A Roomba with an Arduino — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:47:20 +0000

[...] pin bank.) Tod Kurt, author of Hacking Roomba and part of the impressive ThingM studio, has a basic photoset showing as similar cable. At this point, if you’re looking to do this yourself, you may be wondering which wires in [...]

By: todbot

todbot — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:36:10 +0000

Yes, if you want to have do a Bluesmirf + Arduino + Roomba, the easiest might be to hook the Roomba up to the hardware serial TX/RX pins on the Arduino and then hook the Bluesmirf up to any two other digital pins and use SoftwareSerial at 9600 bps.

By: Colin de Silva

Colin de Silva — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:30:15 +0000

Can I get more info on connecting both the Roomba serial and Bluesmirf? I expect the Roomba wants the pins 0_RX and 1_TX for its SCI, does that mean the bluesmirf could go on any other digital pins on the arduino and we use ’software serial’ somehow to talk to a PC, say?

cheers
Colin

By: roadknightlabs

roadknightlabs — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:58:38 +0000

I made one tonight. It works :)

I made it with a “floating” DD pin ’cause I’ve got a BlueSMiRF on the prototype shield of my Arduino and need pin 2 for that.

Thanks for the neat idea!

By: roadknightlabs

roadknightlabs — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:22:46 +0000

Okay, that would explain it. I guess I’ll just have to look closer @ my Arduino board(s).
Thanks!

By: todbot

todbot — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:28:35 +0000

The Arduino has on it a standard 7805 voltage regulator that can take input voltages anywhere from 7.5V to 35V. The “9V” input really means “7.5-35V”. But it’s easier to think of it as a single value.

By: roadknightlabs

roadknightlabs — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:17:03 +0000

I’m curious about the powering aspect. It looks from the pictures like you’ve got the Roomba’s PWR and GND wires going right into the 9V sockets on the Arduino. I thought there was 16V coming off those wires? How does this not fry the Arduino? Or maybe there’s a 78L05 tucked away in a corner I’m not seeing :) ?

By: todbot

todbot — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 06:42:13 +0000

Bjoern, that’s a great idea. I’ll try that out for the next cable I build. I admit I only did the header soldering because I happened to have them laying around in my junk box. :)