Irobot - Malaysia.

[felix]

Greetings,
I just manage to get the Roomba 560 and Scooba 340 from ebay. (2 diff sellers).
The Roomba fly in a flash, no issue with custom. , The Scooba got stuck, the taxes in Malaysia is 30%! (20+10)
Even with tax, it is still cheapper than the local distributor by 30%. The Roomba is > 40% lower.

For the Roomba, I tried to use a notebook 100W charger and 99% of time, it will gives Error 2.
I check with a voltmeter, it gives me 22.4 v (missed by 0.1!!!), so the alternatives are to get a new Power supply, Step down transformer or modify the original power supply. I decided to go for the 3rd option, with info from this site, I modified it to support 230v. It was quite easy to do. And the voltmeter detacted 22.7v. I guess the Roomba did not check on V and W but something else ? A signature voltage pulse or something ???, nah, I'm juz speculating, too much Sci Fi movies.

Lesson learned :-
1) If your seller did not help you to tag your parcel as gift, you are in for a Fat tax for your govt.
2) If you not willing to get your hand dirty to fix or to try out unconventional way to get the Roomba / Scooba to work, importing it may not be your cup of tea. To upkeep these devices, you are required to purchase consumables and parts from oversea from time to time.
3) Keep a low profile , your friends and kids will play with your irobot as a Aibo.
4) Judging from the amount of dust it collected on a daily basis, you have no idea have dirty is your floor, although it look so clean on the naked eye.

[fabianlee]

Hi Felix,

I understand from friends in Singapore, you can buy the battery charger (S$150 or S$80 for slow charge) catered for Asian use. So there no need to use the step-down transformer.

FYI

[felix]

Hi Fabian, thanks for your reply. Instead of using a 3rd party PSU, i modified the original PSU to support 230v. It only cost USD 2-3 for all the components. It has being working since Jan 09, so far so good.

[Gordon]

... the Roomba 560 and Scooba 340 ...For the Roomba, I tried to use a notebook 100W charger and 99% of time, it will gives Error 2.

Hi felix, I am wondering how that error was presented to you. Was it a two-beep error or two-blinks, or two-what?

I check with a voltmeter, it gives me 22.4 v (missed by 0.1!!!), ...

It is now moot, but, while output voltage was not that charger's issue, perhaps charging-current was! That notebook PSU must deliver 1.25 amps to Roomba (I'll be quick to agree that it appears to have that capability, based on (100W/22.5V) = 4.4A; but, that depends on what that "100W" is based upon).

When your new Scooba is released from Customs, and you prepare to modify its charging PSU for 240VAC mains, you might first arm yourself with red_sword_fish's experience in that arena:
http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewto ... 060#p65060

[felix]

Hi Gordon,

"Hi felix, I am wondering how that error was presented to you. Was it a two-beep error or two-blinks, or two-what?"
The Error msg was displayed on the LED "ERR 2" and I dont remember hearing a beep (or two), it just a recorded voice saying "Charging Error"

"That notebook PSU must deliver 1.25 amps to Roomba (I'll be quick to agree that it appears to have that capability, based on (100W/22.5V) = 4.4A; but, that depends on what that "100W" is based upon)."
When I purchased the Notebook PSU, it was based on the same calculation that you presented. (100w/22.5=4.44A) which is higher than the Irobot requirement of 1.25A. This was the biggest W that I could get at the time. On top of this, by the physical size/weight of the notebook's charger (heavier that the original PSU), I thought it should able to do the job , Not very scientific, I know, but I'm in desperate need of a charger then...

"When your new Scooba is released from Customs, and you prepare to modify its charging PSU for 240VAC mains, you might first arm yourself with red_sword_fish's experience in that arena:
viewtopic.php?p=65060#p65060"
I managed to get my hand on this Scooba since Jan, It had a old PSU, this I'm able to modified the same way I modified my Roomba. And yes, I'm following a the new thread closely since Jan 09. Contribution form you guys are great. I dont think I could go this far without this forum. cheers!

[markcooper]

I always thought the robot transports and the house destroyer robot would be great pieces to have models of. Great collections all around.Man someone has to have the sub machine gun from the end.

[bartkwan23]

Greetings,
I just manage to get the Roomba 560 and Scooba 340 from ebay. (2 diff sellers).
The Roomba malaysia fly in a flash, no issue with custom. , The Scooba got stuck, the taxes in Malaysia is 30%! (20+10)
Even with tax, it is still cheapper than the local distributor by 30%. The Roomba is > 40% lower.

Lesson learned :-
1) If your seller did not help you to tag your parcel as gift, you are in for a Fat tax for your govt.
2) If you not willing to get your hand dirty to fix or to try out unconventional way to get the Roomba / Scooba to work, importing it may not be your cup of tea. To upkeep these devices, you are required to purchase consumables and parts from oversea from time to time.

Hi felix,

i'm also looking to purchase a Roomba locally here in Malaysia since i do not want the risk of being tax and i would prefer to have warranty support.

have you heard of autovacbot.com and kimirobotstore.com? are they reliable?

EDIT: so sorry, didn't know it's an old post! sorry!