The random chat thread for throwing out things that don't matter

Well great. 

Anyone decided what they wanted for Black Friday. 

This is what I'm getting. Apparently they are so good now that it's no longer a novelty. This little Chinese vacuum is somewhat generic where several companies use a similar model but the software and some of the guts are different. The company is a developer in robot tech for cars and have perfected it to be reliable where it will not get stuck.  Some of the advantages are a powerful deep cleaning motor that identifies carpets and once a room is mapped the next time it cleans it knows where everything is so it doesn't go bumping around. 

As for the vacs, I have a Eufy (I believe Anker- Amazon branded) vac that was $185- it’s nice and flat, does a really nice job of cleaning (especially with 2 pups in the house) and doesn’t get stuck anywhere. It is the bump and turn type though.

Posted by: @erdoc48

As for the vacs, I have a Eufy (I believe Anker- Amazon branded) vac that was $185- it’s nice and flat, does a really nice job of cleaning (especially with 2 pups in the house) and doesn’t get stuck anywhere. It is the bump and turn type though.

  Thats really cool. Good to know the older tech is good also and does its job. The S7 that Im about to buy with a really good EBay offer for an additional 10% off can do some intelligent things that I never thought possible after it maps out the house using the provided app. Apparently the LDAR system is better than the US designed state of the art Dyson and Romba camera tech which costs 3 times as much and still have issues. Apparently there was a firmware upgrade where they gave the S7 a vacuum suction boots and it has now been reported to be the most powerful.  I like that it has a battery that can be replaced and parts that can be serviced because they are selling them internationally so hopefully it will last much after the 1 year warranty period. 

This will be cool if and when they can make a robot lawnmower that is smarter than the ones they have now. 

The Eufy vacs are shockingly good, I have one as well. Indeed owned by Anker.

Look into the new Husqvarna robot mower.

AI is coming...to kill all humans...

How does the Eufy navigate?  Does it just bump and grind or does it map and memorize?  I know nothing about robotic vacuums, but after reading your reviews I am starting to think about getting one.

I decided not to get the moping feature and instead saved a ton of money. 

 After a lot of research I decided to get the 360 S5 because its just about better than robots costing four times the amount. I paid $250 on a Ebay deal which is outstanding.   What sets it apart is its smart navigation, multi level mapping where you can switch maps for different levels and with a new firmware upgrade they unleashed the motor that made it the most powerful robot on the market.  Its also battery replaceable and not hardwired like many of the others.  

    Here is a good site for comparison of what is currently out there.  Apparently next year the smart robots will be talking to each other and will be able to detect dirt and spill areas.  The future is now. 

    https://smartrobotreviews.com

It navigates pretty great, at least to me. It's subjective. It gets the sides really well by gliding along them. 

I think my Spyder has gotten more love in the last 4 days outside of the Bay Area than it has in all of its time in the Bay Area. In Santa Cruz where I stayed the night it got a lot of compliments and one woman wanted a ride, and loved it. In the middle of nowhere at a gas station on the way to LA a family that spoke 0 english were crowded around it. Got a few compliments here and there. A buddy drove it and loved it. It got some compliments and talk at a meet I attended today. And at a gas station on my way home two dudes were chatting with me for a good 20 minutes about it! One was from SF and we got to chatting about the city too. The car is a real attention getter when it's not in SF. 

Also my almost entirely unused bottle of AMMO SPIT quick detailer exploded during the drive to LA, real sad. Bought a bottle of Griots Best of Show detailer. I'm pretty impressed actually. The spray pattern of the bottle is AMAZING. Didn't get all the cooked on bugs off, but it shined up the paint and got rid of water spots that were on top of the AMMO SKIN and 303 SiO2 protectant layers. Also hit 151,151 miles today.

Posted by: @dev

I decided not to get the moping feature and instead saved a ton of money. 

 After a lot of research I decided to get the 360 S5 because its just about better than robots costing four times the amount. I paid $250 on a Ebay deal which is outstanding.   What sets it apart is its smart navigation, multi level mapping where you can switch maps for different levels and with a new firmware upgrade they unleashed the motor that made it the most powerful robot on the market.  Its also battery replaceable and not hardwired like many of the others.  

    Here is a good site for comparison of what is currently out there.  Apparently next year the smart robots will be talking to each other and will be able to detect dirt and spill areas.  The future is now. 

    https://smartrobotreviews.com

 

  

Interesting, I'll have to take a look at what's out there.  I visited with my son a week ago, and he has an i7. He has a big house and a dog and little time to himself, as his work life consumes his time.  I was impressed with how clean it kept his first floor and the fact that the base station empties the unit. After watching it run for a couple days I'm convinced these are no longer gadgets.   It seems they've got the basic tech well sorted out, the mechanical/electrical and manufacturing, and the software/sensors have become the differentiators. Eventually, I'll buy when I grow sick of hand vacuuming.

@uncle-mush

It does bump and rotate, move to a new location. I never watched it closely enough to see its path, but it does a very good job of cleaning (at least on my hardwood floors) and it is pretty cheap. I have an iRobot Roomba 980 from a few years back as well that we use in the master bedroom area but we got the Eufy as it’s flatter and doesn’t get stuck under chairs like the Roomba did. It’s a model 11S and it’s available on Amazon.

we use it pretty much every day and I’m really satisfied with it. I’m trying to attach a link but this site won’t allow it. PM me if you can’t find it and I’ll send you a link.

I'm running a 15C I got from Amazon.

Posted by: @dave

Posted by: @dev

I decided not to get the moping feature and instead saved a ton of money. 

 After a lot of research I decided to get the 360 S5 because its just about better than robots costing four times the amount. I paid $250 on a Ebay deal which is outstanding.   What sets it apart is its smart navigation, multi level mapping where you can switch maps for different levels and with a new firmware upgrade they unleashed the motor that made it the most powerful robot on the market.  Its also battery replaceable and not hardwired like many of the others.  

    Here is a good site for comparison of what is currently out there.  Apparently next year the smart robots will be talking to each other and will be able to detect dirt and spill areas.  The future is now. 

    https://smartrobotreviews.com

 

  

Interesting, I'll have to take a look at what's out there.  I visited with my son a week ago, and he has an i7. He has a big house and a dog and little time to himself, as his work life consumes his time.  I was impressed with how clean it kept his first floor and the fact that the base station empties the unit. After watching it run for a couple days I'm convinced these are no longer gadgets.   It seems they've got the basic tech well sorted out, the mechanical/electrical and manufacturing, and the software/sensors have become the differentiators. Eventually, I'll buy when I grow sick of hand vacuuming.

The base station is a great idea but unfortunately the Romba, Shark, Dyson and a few others are losing out to the LDAR systems. The camera based systems are flawed but apart from that Romba wants $16 for three disposable bags which isn't a great value and their i7 has its own issues which is being killed by the Chinese competitors.  Irobot (Romba) stocks have fallen because they have been left behind in a market they once dominated so they decided to innovate this year and next year should be better for them with their new offerings. 

Eventually there will be a LDAR based robot that will have an empty station and it will take the market share.  One thing about the Chinese is they will not sell y0u crap if its used in their domestic market. They will copy the hell out of the rest of the worlds technology, duplicate it and make it cheap. Then another ten start ups will improve  tech that works and before long you get $1k tech for $250 violating trade and labor laws.   

 I have seen this with another purchase I made this year which is my high resolution music player where they are giving me the audio quality of a $3k player for $300 and also making the UI better. The reason why they could do this is simply because Chifi is very popular in their market and it's being consumed at a high rate where there is room for competition.  Im literally getting stuff that should cost a small fortune for peanuts and they are not skimping out on the build quality because the Chinese consumer demands it. 

Im now looking into what Halo suggested about the current offerings of the robot lawn mower and apparently they have improved over the first iterations but what really got me was the first ones that popped up around 2016 are sill doing a good job without much issue and seem to have the reliability to last.  This will be cheaper than a lawn service but most of all cool to be on the cutting edge of tech that is practicle.  I imagine in a few years if this tech continues lawnmowers for home consumers  might actually be obsolete and illegal immigration on a decline better than any wall. 

Posted by: @haloruler64

I think my Spyder has gotten more love in the last 4 days outside of the Bay Area than it has in all of its time in the Bay Area. In Santa Cruz where I stayed the night it got a lot of compliments and one woman wanted a ride, and loved it. In the middle of nowhere at a gas station on the way to LA a family that spoke 0 english were crowded around it. Got a few compliments here and there. A buddy drove it and loved it.

Expensive cars in LA are a dime a dozen.  Nobody cares about the the super car you leased for a day.  Nobody bats an eye at a Tesla, so they drive like assholes to get attention.  BMW's are as common as iPhones.  New civic owners get mad when you don't want to race them.  Ubiquity is the word.

The Spyder falls into the category of rare or unobtainable.  It's not about price.  This is why a beat up cafe racer or 80's Toyota SR5 get a lot of love.  Something is cool until everyone has it, and then it's not.

Wouldn't that logically be the same case for San Francisco though? Like 30% Prius, 30% BMW, and 30% Lexus RX and the rest are supercars.