I'm a big fan of iRobot's family of household robots, I own two Roombas and a Scooba. Since I want to integrate the Roomba into my home automation system, I bought a Roowifi module in order to be able to control my Roomba via WiFi. Works great.. until the Roomba (the new 870 I have now) goes to sleep, then it'll only wake up if you press a button. Kinda defeats the purpose of controlling it remotely. But hey! iRobot is very hacker friendly, they publish the remote control protocol on their website, so let's just ask them which SCI sequence is needed to wake up the Roomba. No biggie, right? Wrong. Read on.

Hi,

I'm currently playing with the SCI port on my Roomba 870. It's working well until
the Roomba goes to sleep after ~ 5 mins (green light off) - then I have trouble
waking it up via SCI (pressing the power button works though, but kinda defeats
the purpose of a remote control). Is there a specific SCI wakeup sequence one has
to send? I also noticed that my former 563 had no trouble waking up.

Thanks for your help.

best,
-Christian

Dear Mr. Herzog,

 Thank you for contacting iRobot and apologies for the inconvenience.

 Might I ask what exactly do you mean by SCI port?

 Can you also be a little more specific regarding what you are trying to do?

 Looking forward to your reply.

 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly.

Kind regards,

Radi
iRobot Support Team

Dear Radi,

thanks for getting back to me in such a short time!

I'm talking about Roomba's Serial Command Interface (SCI) which you describe
here: http://www.irobot.com/images/consumer/hacker/Roomba_SCI_Spec_Manual.pdf

To this port I have connected a RooWiFi module http://www.roowifi.com/ that
allows me to control my Roomba via WiFi. As mentioned earlier, everything is
working fine until the Roomba goes into sleep.
My question is if there's a specific SCI sequence I need to send in order to
wake it up and more specifically: if the behavior changed between the 500
series I had before and the 800 I have now. I found some posting that claims
that the Device Detect procedure your SCI documentation describes on page 2
doesn't work on the 800 series models which would be consistent with what I'm
seeing.

Does this give you sufficient information to discuss my little problem with
your engineering department?

thanks and kind regards,
-Christian

Dear Mr. Herzog,

 Thank you for the quick and detailed reply.

 I have escalated this issue to our technical department.

 I will get back to you with more information as soon as they reply.

 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly.

Kind regards,

Radi

Dear Mr. Herzog,

 I just received a reply from our technical department regarding your question.

 They told me to inform you that we have a robot called the 'Create' robot which is
 especially designed to be programmed by the user, however, it is not being sold in
 Europe.

 The 800 series Roombas, however, apparently, can also be programmed, though it is
 not recommended as they have been designed to work at peak performance with their
 current programming.

 Still, they advised me to provide you with the following information as well in
 order to find out more information about programming your robot, and to have
 your questions answered.

 You can visit the dedicated iRobot Create programming forum:

 http://robotics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/irobot-create

 http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/its-ok-to-ask-and-answer-your-own-questions/

 I hope this helps.

 If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.

Kind regards,

Radi
iRobot Support Team

Dear Radi,

thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, it is completely useless.

> They told me to inform you that we have a robot called the 'Create' robot which is
 especially designed to be programmed by the user, however, it is not being sold in
 Europe.
I know about the Create, but I have a Roomba.

Also: I never said I'm trying to _program_ the Roomba, I said I want to
_control_ it, using the SCI interface that iRobot introduces like this:

"Versions of iRobot® Roomba® Vacuuming Robot manufactured
after October, 2005 contain an electronic and software interface
that allows you to control or modify Roomba’s behavior and
remotely monitor its sensors."

> The 800 series Roombas, however, apparently, can also be programmed, though it is not
 recommended as they have been designed to work at peak performance with their current
 programming.
again, I don't want to program it, I want to control it, using the SCI
interface you introduced to do exactly that.

> Still, they advised me to provide you with the following information as well in order
 to find out more information about programming your robot, and to have your questions
 answered.
>
> You can visit the dedicated iRobot Create programming forum:
>
> http://robotics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/irobot-create
this is useless. If the answer to my question could be found using google, I
wouldn't have bothered you in the first place.

> http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/its-ok-to-ask-and-answer-your-own-questions/
are you trying to make fun of me?? Did you even read this website?

I asked a very specific question that could be easily answered by any of your
engineers involved in Roomba development. After a very fast and professional
first contact and this meaningless 'answer' I hope we can get back on track to
get my question resolved. Can you please get me in contact with someone I can
talk to on a technical level?

I've owned several iRobot products in the last years and have recommended your
products to a lot of people. I hope I can keep up this good image of your
company.

> I hope this helps.
so far it hasn't....

thanks,
-Christian

Dear Mr. Herzog,

 Thank you for your reply.

 I would like to once again apologize for this inconvenience.

 Unfortunately, it appears this is confidential information that we do not provide to
 the users.

 The SCI Manual you sent me should be available for our technical department only, it
 has probably leaked in some way online.

 I have been instructed by my supervisor to highly advise our customers against using
 this information in the future as it might make the robot's software malfunction.

 If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.

Kind regards,

Radi
iRobot Support Team

> Unfortunately, it appears this is confidential information that we do                                                      
> not provide to the users.                                                                                                  
are you kidding me?? Why do you put the SCI port on every Roomba if it's
confidential?
                                                                       
> The SCI Manual you sent me should be available for our technical                                                           
> department only, it has probably leaked in some way online.                                                                
it hasn't leaked and I didn't send it to you, IT'S ON YOUR FRIGGIN
WEBSITE:                                 
http://www.irobot.com/images/consumer/hacker/Roomba_SCI_Spec_Manual.pdf
Even Make: had an article about it:
http://makezine.com/2008/02/29/how-to-make-a-roomba-seri/
                                                                                                                             
this is so going on Facebook and Twitter.                                                                                    
                                                

> I have been instructed by my supervisor to highly advise our customers                                                     
> against using this information in the future as it might make the                                                          
> robot's software malfunction.                                                                                              
that's so stupid I'm not going to comment on it.

> If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.                                                                         
yeah right.

Dear Mr. Herzog,

Thank you for your reply.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

It appears I misspoke.

You can find this article on our American web site only.

It is not available on our web sites for European countries, because as I said,
we advise against using this.

There is an SCI port on every Roomba so that our technicians can check the robot's
firmware if it malfunctions.

Believe me, I would like to help you, however given the fact that I am not familiar
with the SCI as using it is not recommended in Europe, I am only forwarding
information I receive to you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly.

Kind regards,

Radi

I didn't know serial communication was more dangerous to Europeans...

to be continued...