13 ms·

Valetudo: Cloud replacement for vacuum robots enabling local-only operation

391 points by freetonik 1y ago

dang 1y ago
Related. Others? Valetudo – Cloud replacement for vacuum robots enabling local-only operation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38788326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38788326 - Dec 2023 (154 comments) Valetudo – Free your vacuum cleaner from the cloud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34287116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34287116 - Jan 2023 (45 comments) Valetudo: Open-source cloud replacement for vacuum robots - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31665872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31665872 - June 2022 (89 comments) Open Source privacy-friendly firmware replacement for Robot Vacuums (ie Roombas) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29308273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29308273 - Nov 2021 (1 comment) Valetudo is a cloud-free web interface for robot vacuum cleaners - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25856788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25856788 - Jan 2021 (20 comments)
ItsABytecode 1y ago
I had a hard time parsing the title at first. I was like “I’m pretty sure vacuum robots have to be locally deployed”
dugite-code 1y ago
Been running this for years. Absolutely fantastic, my vacuum has never touched the "cloud" and yet I can still run it remotely (or with "smart" run automations) via Homeassistant. It's the way IOT should be
- rft 1y ago
  Adding to the praise of "it just works". My Dreame L10S Ultra was straightforward to root after getting the breakout PCBs required. Now it only talks to NTP and the update server when I remember to check for updates every few months.
  - sanex 1y ago
    You happen to have links for those or is it straightforward enough to just take the first search result? Would love to stop mine from spying.
    - rft 1y ago
      I don't have any links for assembled boards, but there seem to be some available [1]. You can find the PCB files here [2] including more documentation. The same page also has a Telegram group link to find people near you who might be able to help out. I got my PCBs made via JLCPCB, but there are other options as well. Pay attention to select the correct PCB thickness, noted in the Readme. I fell into that trap and had to order again. Sourcing the USB port with the correct footprint was a bit annoying, I just ended up ordering a selection of kits with multiple variants from Aliexpress. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45699184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45699184 [2] https://github.com/Hypfer/valetudo-dreameadapter https://github.com/Hypfer/valetudo-dreameadapter
sandworm101 1y ago
My cleaner robot isnt even connected to wifi. Why would it need to be? When i go to work, i hit the clean button. When i come back, my floors are clean. I honestly wonder what more one could ask from such a machine.
- estimator7292 1y ago
  Scheduling automatic runs.
  - ohdeardear 1y ago
    [dead]
- ishtanbul 1y ago
  I have a schedule in home assistant for it to run on all weekdays at 1pm, except if my partner is home, it won’t run. She is afraid of robots and i wouldnt hear the end of it if she encountered it and couldn’t disable it. Home assistant knows if she is home based on her phone. I have been exploring valetudo because the roborock integration breaks pretty often. But it seems like a chore and could brick my robot.
  - Havoc 1y ago
    One partner afraid of robots the other roots vacuums. Interesting combo
    - Geezus_42 1y ago
      Same in my house. :D
- ishtanbul 1y ago
  For me the point is automation of low value work. I don’t want to press a button. I don’t want to even think about it.
- goodpoint 1y ago
05 1y ago
Double check your vacuum model. I transformed my vacuum into a neat (well, not really) pile of parts in about an hour only to find mine isn't supported. Apparently S7 MaxV Ultra is a completely different PCB and SoC than the supported S7 variants (S7/S7 Pro Ultra). At least I cleaned it while disassembling, so it wasn't a total loss :) I briefly considered connecting an ESPHome module to the 'start' button so that I could at least start cleaning from Home Assistant, but since it still won't give me errors if there are any, that seems like a half assed thing to do..
- a2dam 1y ago
  I think there's an actual Roborock integration for HA. I forget if it's official or on HACS, but I've used it and it worked well at the time. It requires cloud, which obviously isn't ideal, but better than nothing IMO.
  - gh02t 1y ago
    It's integrated into HA now as a core component, and it's not cloud it's a local (polling) integration. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/roborock/ https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/roborock/
    - erinnh 1y ago
      But according to the FAQ, the vacuums still dont work when they are offline, as they will turn reset their wifi until they are online again. > When the vacuum is disconnected from the internet, it will attempt to disconnect itself from Wi-Fi and reconnect itself until it can reach the Roborock servers.
      - 05 1y ago
        Yeah, that’s exactly what happens if I don’t add an exception for it to my iot vlan - it keeps reconnecting to WiFi. Scheduled cleaning doesn’t work without internet either.. I guess I’m not buying the next vacuum until I’m 100% sure it works offline and supports Matter or something..
syntaxing 1y ago
I recently got an “older” generation robot vacuum for this reason. I wish the dreame debug board was more accessible. The designer and creator purposely made it this way so people would learn how to solder. I could solder but I no longer have the time or patience to source my own PCB and parts. Thankfully, someone sells one premade on Tindie.
- VTimofeenko 1y ago
  There are IM groups where folks mail around breakout boards. There is, AFAIK, no point to the board after the inital rooting.
  - NewJazz 1y ago
    Yeah I just found someone on reddit who no longer needed their breakout board, so I sent them a shipping label and that was that. (/r/valetudousers)
- tgsovlerkhgsel 1y ago
  The overall "I want you to have a project, not a product" vibe put me off using this when deciding what robot to buy. I want a clean floor, not another hobby that turns into a chore at the least opportune moment. Luckily, someone explained to me that in practice once you've set up, it usually just works, and it runs completely on the robot (i.e. no second device/server/homelab that you'd have to maintain) and since updates are optional, you shouldn't be required to deal with it unless you want to. (The offputting statements are at https://valetudo.cloud/pages/general/why-not-valetudo.html https://valetudo.cloud/pages/general/why-not-valetudo.html: "it is very much not [a product]. [...] Instead, it is highly idealistic, anti-consumerism, anti-hypergrowth and anti just-continuing-what-we-do-now. [...] these aspects are baked into its design. There is no way of using it without being constantly confronted with them. If you’re not willing to reflect, introspect, grow and most importantly stop, you will not be happy with Valetudo.", plus this "not selling PCBs out of principle so people have to source and solder themselves" - I can solder, but I prefer to delegate boring, efficiently automatable tasks to robots in a factory and would much rather pay someone 10 bucks for a finished board than pay more for the shipping of individual parts and end up with 4 extra unpopulated PCBs that I have zero use for.)
dreamcompiler 1y ago
It's really shameful that the tech gods (i.e. us) have made it almost impossible to have useful technology that does our bidding without first signing over our privacy and sometimes our very personhood.
- mikeiz404 1y ago
  It is unfortunate. I think one must have a chat with our gods of capital in order to correct it. But I'm not sure they are listening.
  - NewJazz 1y ago
    Wealth is imaginary to a certain extent. Nonfungible certainly.
- ozim 1y ago
  And sometimes when AWS is down you have a nice electric brick instead of useful device. Totally bonkers.
ellisd 1y ago
This software and the hacking scene around it are amazing! I’ve got a Dreame L10s Ultra based on the compatibly guide. Joined my local Telegram group, grabbed a USB board, and the same day was interfacing with the vacuum’s Android OS. Once I started SSHing in to upload custom sounds, I couldn’t stop. Way easier than I expected.
- mavamaarten 1y ago
  Haha yeah that's exactly what I did with my roborock as soon as I rooted it. The voice sentence "Going back to the dock" had such a weird accent that I immediately replaced it. So awesome to be able to do that with a device you own.
buckle8017 1y ago
The author attitude towards annoying consumers is also hilarious.
aetherspawn 1y ago
> Valetudo is a garden > This project is the hobby of some random guy on the internet. There is no intent to commercialize it, grow it or expand the target audience of it. In fact, there is intent to explicitly not do that. > Think of Valetudo as a privately-owned public garden. You can visit it any time for free and enjoy it. You can spend time there, and you can bring an infinite amount of friends with you to enjoy it. You can walk the pathways built there. You can sit on some patch of grass and maybe watch a Duck or something. You can leave a tip in the tip jar at the entrance if you really enjoy it and want to support it flourish. > You can take inspiration from it and bring that home to your own garden, giving it a personal twist and adapting it as needed. You can even make friendly suggestions if you have a really good idea that ties into the vision that is already there. > But, at the end of the day, you must understand that it is still privately-owned. You’re on someone else’s property over which you have no power at all. You will have to show the necessary respect. And - most importantly - you need to understand that letting you into this garden is a gift and should be treated as such. > If you don’t like this garden because you don’t like how it’s structured, or you feel like it’s missing something, or maybe I choose the wrong flowers to plant over there that’s fine. It’s just not for you then. You can leave at any time. >There is simply no ground to stand on to demand change to the garden. It doesn’t matter if it would attract more people or if all the other gardens in town are doing something in a specific way. It doesn’t matter if your idea of what gardens even are differs. This at the end of the day is simply private property with free public access as a gift to everyone. > When it comes to software development, everyone has access to infinite plots of undeveloped land that they can claim at any time. Therefore, a garden being build with a specific vision does not take away the ability for anyone else to build their own garden with a different vision. Bravo.
- move-on-by 1y ago
  There are more gems. I particularly like the ‘Valetudo is not a community’ section under ‘Why NOT Valetudo‘
- dbetteridge 1y ago
  It's a great analogy. People seem to apply different rules of decorum interacting with "free" software that they wouldn't apply anywhere else. Is it the internet aspect that makes it so? Or the ease of feedback to the creator? I don't know, but it has become very obvious that what worked in the smaller "high trust" internet, doesn't work as well for a lot of people now.
janwl 1y ago
[flagged]
qazplmasdfg 1y ago
[dead]
fletchowns 1y ago
Never heard of this before, what a great project! I wish my Roborock QV 35A was supported. Still considering sponsoring the project though, because what a great initiative it is!
- glitchcrab 1y ago
  I'd check some of the comments around the creator's behaviour before donating any money to them.
  - allarm 1y ago
    I couldn’t care less about the creator’s behavior if the software they wrote works wonders.
    - glitchcrab 1y ago
      Well that's great for you, I was just pointing it out so people were aware of it.
stavros 1y ago
Valetudo is really nice software, but I have a bad taste in my mouth from the community. I went to the Telegram channel to ask something about why my vacuum running Valetudo would have a specific behaviour (IIRC it moved on its own), they kind of talked to each other for a second to discuss if this question was relevant to the channel, and then, presumably deciding it wasn't, banned me for a year.
- fxtentacle 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - hypfer 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - saagarjha 1y ago
      [flagged]
      - hypfer 1y ago
        [flagged]
        saagarjha 1y ago
        My understanding is that you unbanned me but I was too lazy to rejoin. Perhaps this has changed?
        hypfer 1y ago
        [flagged]
        saagarjha 1y ago
        I actually have no idea who Hajo is. If they’ve been annoying in the past, and you banned them for it, it’s not really my place to figure out whether they deserved it. I only replied because yelling about it here is a sure fire way to get your comment flagged. Maybe you don’t mind but I felt that, spending far too much time here and watching a bunch of people do this repeatedly even though it’s against the rules, I might as well send people a reminder that there’s another option. As for your Telegram chat: I actually genuinely do not care, and I mean this without trying to be smug or anything. I joined to ask about S8 stuff and eventually just met Dennis directly. Ironically both of us seem to have gotten too busy with work to actually get to a good solution for those and I never actually ended up installing Valetudo anyway. My friends occasionally tell me how great it is and I feel a little but of regret for not following up to get the exploit stable but I just put up with letting my vacuum do its thing without any of the smart features :( But yeah, I really don’t think I would have gotten any value from rejoining the chat so I didn’t. I’m actually kind of sorry I participated in the conversation I did, not really because I wouldn’t stand behind what I said but more that it was kind of a waste of time and low value to even respond. And clearly it made you upset, so considering I valued it at effectively zero and you definitely felt it was negative, I think the conclusion is pretty obvious. One thing I do want to say, though: I feel like you frequently run into your project just causing you misery. I work on FOSS too, and arguably I work in a similar hacking-ish space too where random people show up and beg you for support, who don’t really bother to read the rules, etc. I get that this is frustrating. I ban plenty of people who drag down the place too. But I think that your garden that you’re trying to make might actually be causing you more trouble than it might be worth. I don’t wake up feeling drained that I have to interact with the community, in fact I actually appreciate talking to many of the members even if they can be annoying sometimes. I’ve had people occasionally claim they were unfairly treated (usually I disagree, of course) but I think the sentiment is largely positive. So, like, I just want to point out that it’s possible to enjoy what you do; it can be nice even if sometimes frustrated people show up. I just don’t want you to hate working on the things you’re doing.
tom_alexander 1y ago
I wish I could use this but last I checked, every supported robot used consumables for cleaning (like vacuum bags). My current vacuum robot uses no bags and has washable filters so nothing gets consumed. Turns out that was more important to me than local-only operation.
- Retz4o4 1y ago
  My roborock S5 does not use consumables and works perfectly with this. It’s even installable OTA.
- somat 1y ago
  On the subject of bags vs cyclone collectors, My mother hates the cyclone collectors with a passion. and a disposable bag was item number one on her list of features when we were looking for a replacement vacuum for her. I had never considered the subject before and sort of naively assumed that because the cyclone collectors were newer they were better. But she does not like cleaning them out and would rather have a bag so the whole thing can be disposed of neatly.
schoen 1y ago
One thing that amuses me is that this could mean "health" (in Latin) or "anything goes" (in Portuguese; normally two words). They're actually from the same root (valeo, 'to be well, to be OK, to be valid'; I think the oldest meaning is 'to be strong'), then with the Latin suffix -tudo (like our -tude, meaning the state or condition of being a certain way), or the separate Portuguese word tudo 'everything' (originally from Latin totum, meaning 'all, entire'). So, the Latin one is like "OK-ness", and the Portuguese one is like "everything is OK" (here in the more modern sense of being allowed, rather than the older sense of being in good condition). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valetudo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valetudo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vale-tudo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vale-tudo
- aidenn0 1y ago
  The Roman goddess of Hygiene (Hygieia in Greek Mythology) is named "Valetudo." I (and probably many others) more closely associate the term with Brazilian no-holds-barred fighting matches called Vale Tudo.
  - muvlon 1y ago
    So the name is actually genius! You get into valetudo expecting hygiene and wellness but as you encounter the community you discover it's actually about intense fighting.
- Fnoord 1y ago
  This comment makes up for the whole thread's sadness. Thank you very much!!
jumski 1y ago
LOVE IT! Valetudo is a fake cloud that lives as a parasite in a robot's brain (running on Ubuntu!) and hijacks the original comms. It provides ssh access, very nice control app, MQTT support and other things. I installed it on my very old Roborock many years ago and it just works. Never had a single issue.
dzhiurgis 1y ago
If you buy your vacuum in china it’s about half price, but it’s geolocked to the mainland. There’s some dodgy looking Cyrillic project that unlocks it via VPN or something like it. IMO not worth it now that Dreame started to repackaging their bots into cheaper brand Mova for roughly half price too.
gempir 1y ago
I think this thread went a bit off-topic with heavy discussions about the community or developer. As a user of Valetudo for 4+ years now, I can say that it's a wonderful Software once you get it running once. Depending on your vacuum model it's easier or more complicated. I bought a used Z10 Pro 4 years ago and with a UART-to-USB I could order from ali-express I rooted it effortlessly. Valetudo got many cool updates over the years and was always reliable for me. Not once did I have to re-root or something because the Software bricked itself or whatever. The updates were beautifully done and simply done in the UI. And I'm very happy that the Home Assistant integration worked great as well. Personally I couldn't buy a Vacuum robot anymore without Valetudo. Having a remote controllable camera and probably even microphone in some models in my home seems insane. The Defcon talks from Dennis Giese confirmed that some manufacturers literally send every log line to their cloud server and there was already some bigger mainstream drama of vacuum pictures ending up on facebook somehow a few years ago.
- stavros 1y ago
  Well, same. The thing is that, if my stock vacuum starts behaving erratically, I can always contact the manufacturer without fear of being banned. At this point, I have to choose whether I want a vacuum that phones home, or one where I know absolutely zero people will be able to help me, because they (and me) have all gotten banned.
  - gempir 1y ago
    Yeah that’s fair. Personally I very very rarely use manufacturer support because it’s just very limited. And also likely limited to 2 years. And when the software is fully offline and I control the update cycle, it’s unlikely the vacuum will just start misbehaving unless the actual hardware is damaged
    - stavros 1y ago
      Yeah, I more meant if there's a bug in Valetudo, I'm SOL since I can't contact anyone.
warpspin 1y ago
Seems to redirect back to HN now when you visit it from HN? Still glad it was mentioned here. Have been pondering buying a vacuum robot for a while and the missing privacy was off putting, so I haven't bought one yet, and I only today learnt of the project. Can somebody who runs this on one of the recommended Dreame mopping robots say from experience whether you actually lose some kind of essential features the built-in firmwares have? The "why not" page says feature parity is a non-goal but only specifically mentions multifloor where I can understand the reasoning.
- mgrandl 1y ago
  You won’t miss much. The only thing I am missing is the mop after vacuum functionality, which was kinda borked and eventually removed in Valetudo for my specific model (Dreame L10s pro ultra heat)
- ctippett 1y ago
  Any backstory to this or is the developer just not a fan? <script> // Every _single_ time it devolves and turns into shitflinging with nice words. Please just go away if (document.referrer.includes("news.ycombinator")) {window.location.replace(document.referrer)} </script>
  - jeroenhd 1y ago
    The comments here seem to prove him right. Half of them are airing their personal grievances or talking generically about what it means to have a community. HN frontpage posts also have a way to get the attention of some pretty shitty people, directly or indirectly. HN itself takes active steps so site operators cannot detect when someone is coming from HN or not (like adding noreferrer to links to some domains) so the admins here are aware of the problem and decide to go against linked authors' wishes.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - GaryBluto 1y ago
turova 1y ago
Can't recommend this project enough. I've set this up for myself and multiple people that saw mine and wanted a de-clouded vacuum robot and they all love it. Several L10s Ultras and an X40 Ultra. Takes a bit of effort (and a dongle if you want to keep things as simple as possible) but I wouldn't have one of these things running around the house any other way. Haven't tried reaching out to the community, so can't speak to that, but I'm really grateful that people put this type of effort into projects like this. Same goes for e.g. NetGuard (Android firewall) - not sure I'd every comfortably have an Android phone without a tool like that. I believe that Roborock is no longer actively supported so if you want one of these, get one of the Dreame models listed on the site. Dreame sells refurbished units on Ebay for a pretty steep discount (L10S for as low as ~$200 with a warranty that I believe this doesn't void if you don't brick it) and that's what all of my purchases have been. Just make sure the one you're getting is listed on the site (Pro vs non-Pro, 1 vs 2, etc.) since only very specific models are supported.
- johnnyletrois 1y ago
  I have two valetudo compatible L10s. Where did you source your dongle?
  - turova 1y ago
    It is easy enough to source the parts and do it yourself and solder them together as the site descriptions, but I was lazy and bought from tindie (https://www.tindie.com/products/scacht/dreame-pcb-breakout-for-valetudo/ https://www.tindie.com/products/scacht/dreame-pcb-breakout-f...)
    - johnnyletrois 1y ago
      Thanks.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
raphinou 1y ago
Clicking on the link to valetudo.cloud redirects me to hn, but typing the address not. Seems to confirm messages complaining about the projects community/leaders....
- portaouflop 1y ago
  Yea HN is notoriously toxic to OSS projects, no wonder that many don’t want traffic from here
  - dtgriscom 1y ago
    {citation needed}?
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
haunter 1y ago
<script> // Every _single_ time it devolves and turns into shitflinging with nice words. Please just go away if (document.referrer.includes("news.ycombinator")) {window.location.replace(document.referrer)} </script>
- cactusplant7374 1y ago
  If a site does not want traffic from HN, shouldn't HN remove the link?
  - pavel_lishin 1y ago
    That's not really how the internet operates, or was meant to - and besides, it looks like the author has already solved the problem on their end.
    - cactusplant7374 1y ago
      The community rules here supersede how the internet operates. For example, if the author put up a message with profanity towards HN and the moderators here I'm sure HN would remove the link. So why doesn't it do it for something more polite?
      - margalabargala 1y ago
        > The community rules here supersede how the internet operates. For example, if the author put up a message with profanity towards HN and the moderators here I'm sure HN would remove the link. I don't see anything in the community guidelines that would indicate this submission is inappropriate, with or without the message: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Why are you so sure a more profane message would result in a removal? I don't think that would violate guidelines either.
        cactusplant7374 1y ago
hecturchi 1y ago
I have Valetudo on a Dreame X40 Ultra and very happy. My recommendation is to flash and GTFO forever. Never upgrade, never ask anything, never read anything other than the install docs. Disregard pointers to join Telegram. Do not read release notes. And donate some money for the trouble if things work. That's your path to maximum happiness with Valetudo, blissful ignorance. One day perhaps there will be a fork and things can be normal.
- cactusplant7374 1y ago
  What is abnormal about it? I'm not familiar with what is going on with this software.
  - hecturchi 1y ago
    See other comments. The amount of drama and behavior of some people means is just best to stay away. Also, upgrades can bring issues and asking for help is super tricky as you may get banned for asking the wrong way. So better to not upgrade if it works.

391 points by freetonik 1y ago

dang 1y ago

Related. Others? Valetudo – Cloud replacement for vacuum robots enabling local-only operation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38788326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38788326 - Dec 2023 (154 comments) Valetudo – Free your vacuum cleaner from the cloud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34287116 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34287116 - Jan 2023 (45 comments) Valetudo: Open-source cloud replacement for vacuum robots - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31665872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31665872 - June 2022 (89 comments) Open Source privacy-friendly firmware replacement for Robot Vacuums (ie Roombas) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29308273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29308273 - Nov 2021 (1 comment) Valetudo is a cloud-free web interface for robot vacuum cleaners - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25856788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25856788 - Jan 2021 (20 comments)

ItsABytecode 1y ago

I had a hard time parsing the title at first. I was like “I’m pretty sure vacuum robots have to be locally deployed”

dugite-code 1y ago

Been running this for years. Absolutely fantastic, my vacuum has never touched the "cloud" and yet I can still run it remotely (or with "smart" run automations) via Homeassistant. It's the way IOT should be

rft 1y ago
Adding to the praise of "it just works". My Dreame L10S Ultra was straightforward to root after getting the breakout PCBs required. Now it only talks to NTP and the update server when I remember to check for updates every few months.
- sanex 1y ago
  You happen to have links for those or is it straightforward enough to just take the first search result? Would love to stop mine from spying.
  - rft 1y ago
    I don't have any links for assembled boards, but there seem to be some available [1]. You can find the PCB files here [2] including more documentation. The same page also has a Telegram group link to find people near you who might be able to help out. I got my PCBs made via JLCPCB, but there are other options as well. Pay attention to select the correct PCB thickness, noted in the Readme. I fell into that trap and had to order again. Sourcing the USB port with the correct footprint was a bit annoying, I just ended up ordering a selection of kits with multiple variants from Aliexpress. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45699184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45699184 [2] https://github.com/Hypfer/valetudo-dreameadapter https://github.com/Hypfer/valetudo-dreameadapter

sandworm101 1y ago

My cleaner robot isnt even connected to wifi. Why would it need to be? When i go to work, i hit the clean button. When i come back, my floors are clean. I honestly wonder what more one could ask from such a machine.

estimator7292 1y ago
Scheduling automatic runs.
- ohdeardear 1y ago
  [dead]
ishtanbul 1y ago
I have a schedule in home assistant for it to run on all weekdays at 1pm, except if my partner is home, it won’t run. She is afraid of robots and i wouldnt hear the end of it if she encountered it and couldn’t disable it. Home assistant knows if she is home based on her phone. I have been exploring valetudo because the roborock integration breaks pretty often. But it seems like a chore and could brick my robot.
- Havoc 1y ago
  One partner afraid of robots the other roots vacuums. Interesting combo
  - Geezus_42 1y ago
    Same in my house. :D
ishtanbul 1y ago
For me the point is automation of low value work. I don’t want to press a button. I don’t want to even think about it.
goodpoint 1y ago

05 1y ago

Double check your vacuum model. I transformed my vacuum into a neat (well, not really) pile of parts in about an hour only to find mine isn't supported. Apparently S7 MaxV Ultra is a completely different PCB and SoC than the supported S7 variants (S7/S7 Pro Ultra). At least I cleaned it while disassembling, so it wasn't a total loss :) I briefly considered connecting an ESPHome module to the 'start' button so that I could at least start cleaning from Home Assistant, but since it still won't give me errors if there are any, that seems like a half assed thing to do..

a2dam 1y ago
I think there's an actual Roborock integration for HA. I forget if it's official or on HACS, but I've used it and it worked well at the time. It requires cloud, which obviously isn't ideal, but better than nothing IMO.
- gh02t 1y ago
  It's integrated into HA now as a core component, and it's not cloud it's a local (polling) integration. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/roborock/ https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/roborock/
  - erinnh 1y ago
    But according to the FAQ, the vacuums still dont work when they are offline, as they will turn reset their wifi until they are online again. > When the vacuum is disconnected from the internet, it will attempt to disconnect itself from Wi-Fi and reconnect itself until it can reach the Roborock servers.
    - 05 1y ago
      Yeah, that’s exactly what happens if I don’t add an exception for it to my iot vlan - it keeps reconnecting to WiFi. Scheduled cleaning doesn’t work without internet either.. I guess I’m not buying the next vacuum until I’m 100% sure it works offline and supports Matter or something..

syntaxing 1y ago

I recently got an “older” generation robot vacuum for this reason. I wish the dreame debug board was more accessible. The designer and creator purposely made it this way so people would learn how to solder. I could solder but I no longer have the time or patience to source my own PCB and parts. Thankfully, someone sells one premade on Tindie.

VTimofeenko 1y ago
There are IM groups where folks mail around breakout boards. There is, AFAIK, no point to the board after the inital rooting.
- NewJazz 1y ago
  Yeah I just found someone on reddit who no longer needed their breakout board, so I sent them a shipping label and that was that. (/r/valetudousers)
tgsovlerkhgsel 1y ago
The overall "I want you to have a project, not a product" vibe put me off using this when deciding what robot to buy. I want a clean floor, not another hobby that turns into a chore at the least opportune moment. Luckily, someone explained to me that in practice once you've set up, it usually just works, and it runs completely on the robot (i.e. no second device/server/homelab that you'd have to maintain) and since updates are optional, you shouldn't be required to deal with it unless you want to. (The offputting statements are at https://valetudo.cloud/pages/general/why-not-valetudo.html https://valetudo.cloud/pages/general/why-not-valetudo.html: "it is very much not [a product]. [...] Instead, it is highly idealistic, anti-consumerism, anti-hypergrowth and anti just-continuing-what-we-do-now. [...] these aspects are baked into its design. There is no way of using it without being constantly confronted with them. If you’re not willing to reflect, introspect, grow and most importantly stop, you will not be happy with Valetudo.", plus this "not selling PCBs out of principle so people have to source and solder themselves" - I can solder, but I prefer to delegate boring, efficiently automatable tasks to robots in a factory and would much rather pay someone 10 bucks for a finished board than pay more for the shipping of individual parts and end up with 4 extra unpopulated PCBs that I have zero use for.)

dreamcompiler 1y ago

It's really shameful that the tech gods (i.e. us) have made it almost impossible to have useful technology that does our bidding without first signing over our privacy and sometimes our very personhood.

mikeiz404 1y ago
It is unfortunate. I think one must have a chat with our gods of capital in order to correct it. But I'm not sure they are listening.
- NewJazz 1y ago
  Wealth is imaginary to a certain extent. Nonfungible certainly.
ozim 1y ago
And sometimes when AWS is down you have a nice electric brick instead of useful device. Totally bonkers.

ellisd 1y ago

This software and the hacking scene around it are amazing! I’ve got a Dreame L10s Ultra based on the compatibly guide. Joined my local Telegram group, grabbed a USB board, and the same day was interfacing with the vacuum’s Android OS. Once I started SSHing in to upload custom sounds, I couldn’t stop. Way easier than I expected.

mavamaarten 1y ago
Haha yeah that's exactly what I did with my roborock as soon as I rooted it. The voice sentence "Going back to the dock" had such a weird accent that I immediately replaced it. So awesome to be able to do that with a device you own.

buckle8017 1y ago

The author attitude towards annoying consumers is also hilarious.

aetherspawn 1y ago

> Valetudo is a garden > This project is the hobby of some random guy on the internet. There is no intent to commercialize it, grow it or expand the target audience of it. In fact, there is intent to explicitly not do that. > Think of Valetudo as a privately-owned public garden. You can visit it any time for free and enjoy it. You can spend time there, and you can bring an infinite amount of friends with you to enjoy it. You can walk the pathways built there. You can sit on some patch of grass and maybe watch a Duck or something. You can leave a tip in the tip jar at the entrance if you really enjoy it and want to support it flourish. > You can take inspiration from it and bring that home to your own garden, giving it a personal twist and adapting it as needed. You can even make friendly suggestions if you have a really good idea that ties into the vision that is already there. > But, at the end of the day, you must understand that it is still privately-owned. You’re on someone else’s property over which you have no power at all. You will have to show the necessary respect. And - most importantly - you need to understand that letting you into this garden is a gift and should be treated as such. > If you don’t like this garden because you don’t like how it’s structured, or you feel like it’s missing something, or maybe I choose the wrong flowers to plant over there that’s fine. It’s just not for you then. You can leave at any time. >There is simply no ground to stand on to demand change to the garden. It doesn’t matter if it would attract more people or if all the other gardens in town are doing something in a specific way. It doesn’t matter if your idea of what gardens even are differs. This at the end of the day is simply private property with free public access as a gift to everyone. > When it comes to software development, everyone has access to infinite plots of undeveloped land that they can claim at any time. Therefore, a garden being build with a specific vision does not take away the ability for anyone else to build their own garden with a different vision. Bravo.

move-on-by 1y ago
There are more gems. I particularly like the ‘Valetudo is not a community’ section under ‘Why NOT Valetudo‘
dbetteridge 1y ago
It's a great analogy. People seem to apply different rules of decorum interacting with "free" software that they wouldn't apply anywhere else. Is it the internet aspect that makes it so? Or the ease of feedback to the creator? I don't know, but it has become very obvious that what worked in the smaller "high trust" internet, doesn't work as well for a lot of people now.

janwl 1y ago

[flagged]

qazplmasdfg 1y ago

[dead]

fletchowns 1y ago

Never heard of this before, what a great project! I wish my Roborock QV 35A was supported. Still considering sponsoring the project though, because what a great initiative it is!

glitchcrab 1y ago
I'd check some of the comments around the creator's behaviour before donating any money to them.
- allarm 1y ago
  I couldn’t care less about the creator’s behavior if the software they wrote works wonders.
  - glitchcrab 1y ago
    Well that's great for you, I was just pointing it out so people were aware of it.

stavros 1y ago

Valetudo is really nice software, but I have a bad taste in my mouth from the community. I went to the Telegram channel to ask something about why my vacuum running Valetudo would have a specific behaviour (IIRC it moved on its own), they kind of talked to each other for a second to discuss if this question was relevant to the channel, and then, presumably deciding it wasn't, banned me for a year.

fxtentacle 1y ago
[flagged]
- hypfer 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - saagarjha 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - hypfer 1y ago
      [flagged]
      - saagarjha 1y ago
        My understanding is that you unbanned me but I was too lazy to rejoin. Perhaps this has changed?
        hypfer 1y ago
        [flagged]
        saagarjha 1y ago
        I actually have no idea who Hajo is. If they’ve been annoying in the past, and you banned them for it, it’s not really my place to figure out whether they deserved it. I only replied because yelling about it here is a sure fire way to get your comment flagged. Maybe you don’t mind but I felt that, spending far too much time here and watching a bunch of people do this repeatedly even though it’s against the rules, I might as well send people a reminder that there’s another option. As for your Telegram chat: I actually genuinely do not care, and I mean this without trying to be smug or anything. I joined to ask about S8 stuff and eventually just met Dennis directly. Ironically both of us seem to have gotten too busy with work to actually get to a good solution for those and I never actually ended up installing Valetudo anyway. My friends occasionally tell me how great it is and I feel a little but of regret for not following up to get the exploit stable but I just put up with letting my vacuum do its thing without any of the smart features :( But yeah, I really don’t think I would have gotten any value from rejoining the chat so I didn’t. I’m actually kind of sorry I participated in the conversation I did, not really because I wouldn’t stand behind what I said but more that it was kind of a waste of time and low value to even respond. And clearly it made you upset, so considering I valued it at effectively zero and you definitely felt it was negative, I think the conclusion is pretty obvious. One thing I do want to say, though: I feel like you frequently run into your project just causing you misery. I work on FOSS too, and arguably I work in a similar hacking-ish space too where random people show up and beg you for support, who don’t really bother to read the rules, etc. I get that this is frustrating. I ban plenty of people who drag down the place too. But I think that your garden that you’re trying to make might actually be causing you more trouble than it might be worth. I don’t wake up feeling drained that I have to interact with the community, in fact I actually appreciate talking to many of the members even if they can be annoying sometimes. I’ve had people occasionally claim they were unfairly treated (usually I disagree, of course) but I think the sentiment is largely positive. So, like, I just want to point out that it’s possible to enjoy what you do; it can be nice even if sometimes frustrated people show up. I just don’t want you to hate working on the things you’re doing.

tom_alexander 1y ago

I wish I could use this but last I checked, every supported robot used consumables for cleaning (like vacuum bags). My current vacuum robot uses no bags and has washable filters so nothing gets consumed. Turns out that was more important to me than local-only operation.

Retz4o4 1y ago
My roborock S5 does not use consumables and works perfectly with this. It’s even installable OTA.
somat 1y ago
On the subject of bags vs cyclone collectors, My mother hates the cyclone collectors with a passion. and a disposable bag was item number one on her list of features when we were looking for a replacement vacuum for her. I had never considered the subject before and sort of naively assumed that because the cyclone collectors were newer they were better. But she does not like cleaning them out and would rather have a bag so the whole thing can be disposed of neatly.

schoen 1y ago

One thing that amuses me is that this could mean "health" (in Latin) or "anything goes" (in Portuguese; normally two words). They're actually from the same root (valeo, 'to be well, to be OK, to be valid'; I think the oldest meaning is 'to be strong'), then with the Latin suffix -tudo (like our -tude, meaning the state or condition of being a certain way), or the separate Portuguese word tudo 'everything' (originally from Latin totum, meaning 'all, entire'). So, the Latin one is like "OK-ness", and the Portuguese one is like "everything is OK" (here in the more modern sense of being allowed, rather than the older sense of being in good condition). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valetudo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valetudo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vale-tudo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vale-tudo

aidenn0 1y ago
The Roman goddess of Hygiene (Hygieia in Greek Mythology) is named "Valetudo." I (and probably many others) more closely associate the term with Brazilian no-holds-barred fighting matches called Vale Tudo.
- muvlon 1y ago
  So the name is actually genius! You get into valetudo expecting hygiene and wellness but as you encounter the community you discover it's actually about intense fighting.
Fnoord 1y ago
This comment makes up for the whole thread's sadness. Thank you very much!!

jumski 1y ago

LOVE IT! Valetudo is a fake cloud that lives as a parasite in a robot's brain (running on Ubuntu!) and hijacks the original comms. It provides ssh access, very nice control app, MQTT support and other things. I installed it on my very old Roborock many years ago and it just works. Never had a single issue.

dzhiurgis 1y ago

If you buy your vacuum in china it’s about half price, but it’s geolocked to the mainland. There’s some dodgy looking Cyrillic project that unlocks it via VPN or something like it. IMO not worth it now that Dreame started to repackaging their bots into cheaper brand Mova for roughly half price too.

gempir 1y ago

I think this thread went a bit off-topic with heavy discussions about the community or developer. As a user of Valetudo for 4+ years now, I can say that it's a wonderful Software once you get it running once. Depending on your vacuum model it's easier or more complicated. I bought a used Z10 Pro 4 years ago and with a UART-to-USB I could order from ali-express I rooted it effortlessly. Valetudo got many cool updates over the years and was always reliable for me. Not once did I have to re-root or something because the Software bricked itself or whatever. The updates were beautifully done and simply done in the UI. And I'm very happy that the Home Assistant integration worked great as well. Personally I couldn't buy a Vacuum robot anymore without Valetudo. Having a remote controllable camera and probably even microphone in some models in my home seems insane. The Defcon talks from Dennis Giese confirmed that some manufacturers literally send every log line to their cloud server and there was already some bigger mainstream drama of vacuum pictures ending up on facebook somehow a few years ago.

stavros 1y ago
Well, same. The thing is that, if my stock vacuum starts behaving erratically, I can always contact the manufacturer without fear of being banned. At this point, I have to choose whether I want a vacuum that phones home, or one where I know absolutely zero people will be able to help me, because they (and me) have all gotten banned.
- gempir 1y ago
  Yeah that’s fair. Personally I very very rarely use manufacturer support because it’s just very limited. And also likely limited to 2 years. And when the software is fully offline and I control the update cycle, it’s unlikely the vacuum will just start misbehaving unless the actual hardware is damaged
  - stavros 1y ago
    Yeah, I more meant if there's a bug in Valetudo, I'm SOL since I can't contact anyone.

warpspin 1y ago

Seems to redirect back to HN now when you visit it from HN? Still glad it was mentioned here. Have been pondering buying a vacuum robot for a while and the missing privacy was off putting, so I haven't bought one yet, and I only today learnt of the project. Can somebody who runs this on one of the recommended Dreame mopping robots say from experience whether you actually lose some kind of essential features the built-in firmwares have? The "why not" page says feature parity is a non-goal but only specifically mentions multifloor where I can understand the reasoning.

mgrandl 1y ago
You won’t miss much. The only thing I am missing is the mop after vacuum functionality, which was kinda borked and eventually removed in Valetudo for my specific model (Dreame L10s pro ultra heat)
ctippett 1y ago
Any backstory to this or is the developer just not a fan? <script> // Every _single_ time it devolves and turns into shitflinging with nice words. Please just go away if (document.referrer.includes("news.ycombinator")) {window.location.replace(document.referrer)} </script>
- jeroenhd 1y ago
  The comments here seem to prove him right. Half of them are airing their personal grievances or talking generically about what it means to have a community. HN frontpage posts also have a way to get the attention of some pretty shitty people, directly or indirectly. HN itself takes active steps so site operators cannot detect when someone is coming from HN or not (like adding noreferrer to links to some domains) so the admins here are aware of the problem and decide to go against linked authors' wishes.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- GaryBluto 1y ago

turova 1y ago

Can't recommend this project enough. I've set this up for myself and multiple people that saw mine and wanted a de-clouded vacuum robot and they all love it. Several L10s Ultras and an X40 Ultra. Takes a bit of effort (and a dongle if you want to keep things as simple as possible) but I wouldn't have one of these things running around the house any other way. Haven't tried reaching out to the community, so can't speak to that, but I'm really grateful that people put this type of effort into projects like this. Same goes for e.g. NetGuard (Android firewall) - not sure I'd every comfortably have an Android phone without a tool like that. I believe that Roborock is no longer actively supported so if you want one of these, get one of the Dreame models listed on the site. Dreame sells refurbished units on Ebay for a pretty steep discount (L10S for as low as ~$200 with a warranty that I believe this doesn't void if you don't brick it) and that's what all of my purchases have been. Just make sure the one you're getting is listed on the site (Pro vs non-Pro, 1 vs 2, etc.) since only very specific models are supported.

johnnyletrois 1y ago
I have two valetudo compatible L10s. Where did you source your dongle?
- turova 1y ago
  It is easy enough to source the parts and do it yourself and solder them together as the site descriptions, but I was lazy and bought from tindie (https://www.tindie.com/products/scacht/dreame-pcb-breakout-for-valetudo/ https://www.tindie.com/products/scacht/dreame-pcb-breakout-f...)
  - johnnyletrois 1y ago
    Thanks.

deleted 1y ago

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raphinou 1y ago

Clicking on the link to valetudo.cloud redirects me to hn, but typing the address not. Seems to confirm messages complaining about the projects community/leaders....

portaouflop 1y ago
Yea HN is notoriously toxic to OSS projects, no wonder that many don’t want traffic from here
- dtgriscom 1y ago
  {citation needed}?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]

haunter 1y ago

cactusplant7374 1y ago
If a site does not want traffic from HN, shouldn't HN remove the link?
- pavel_lishin 1y ago
  That's not really how the internet operates, or was meant to - and besides, it looks like the author has already solved the problem on their end.
  - cactusplant7374 1y ago
    The community rules here supersede how the internet operates. For example, if the author put up a message with profanity towards HN and the moderators here I'm sure HN would remove the link. So why doesn't it do it for something more polite?
    - margalabargala 1y ago
      > The community rules here supersede how the internet operates. For example, if the author put up a message with profanity towards HN and the moderators here I'm sure HN would remove the link. I don't see anything in the community guidelines that would indicate this submission is inappropriate, with or without the message: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Why are you so sure a more profane message would result in a removal? I don't think that would violate guidelines either.
      - cactusplant7374 1y ago

hecturchi 1y ago

I have Valetudo on a Dreame X40 Ultra and very happy. My recommendation is to flash and GTFO forever. Never upgrade, never ask anything, never read anything other than the install docs. Disregard pointers to join Telegram. Do not read release notes. And donate some money for the trouble if things work. That's your path to maximum happiness with Valetudo, blissful ignorance. One day perhaps there will be a fork and things can be normal.

cactusplant7374 1y ago
What is abnormal about it? I'm not familiar with what is going on with this software.
- hecturchi 1y ago
  See other comments. The amount of drama and behavior of some people means is just best to stay away. Also, upgrades can bring issues and asking for help is super tricky as you may get banned for asking the wrong way. So better to not upgrade if it works.