2012-06-26

Repairing Roomba main brushes


After a couple of years of relentless service, my trusty iRobot Roomba has stopped spinning his brushes. It roams the room, spins the side brush, but the bottom, counter-rotating brushes don't work anymore.
With a little searching in various forums, it seems that dust may pile up into the electric motor until a complete freeze.
Roomba is a pleasure to open: its construction is entirely modular and all the pieces come together by screws and joints. The screws, even when unscrewed, remain into their seating, so they can't be lost
I opened the underbelly by turning 5 screws.


Using an air compressor, I've sprayed lots of air on all the moving parts, removing an impressive amount of dust.
The main brushes motor is located under the red box.


You can see a hole that peeks inside the motor where you can see the copper windings: lots of compressed air in and lots of dust out!


I've reassembled all the components and voilĂ : Roomba is back in action.

2012-06-04

HP iPAQ rx5935


My 2007 TomTom-equipped iPAQ is still performing his duties. During its life, it's been used as a mobile wi-fi browser, a lullaby generator for my daughter and, of course, a navigator.


It's even equipped with a nice leather slipcase, but it has a design issue: the power button is left exposed and is really easy to press. I've found it powered on while stuffed in my pouch many times: any other item that casually touches it, may turn it on.


Goodbye Euro?

It's since 2002 that euro is a running currency, but it seems that RaiNews24 still hasn't updated its broadcasting font:


Oh, wait... maybe they know something we don't know yet?