Page 395 - Hacking Roomba

376 Part III — More Complex Interfacing

command. The connector is even labeled plus/minus so you know the voltage polarity. Any
manner of device that can be powered off +16 VDC can be hooked up to this port and switched
on and off under software control. The vacuum motor draws a few hundred milliamps, so you
can draw at least that much current from the port.

FIGURE 16-13: Vacuum motor connector, a powered output port

Battery Upgrading

http://www.roombareview.com/hack/battery.shtml

If you have a Roomba battery pack that stops working for some reason, normally you’d be
resigned to getting a new one. However, you also could fix it and upgrade it. Originally docu-
mented by Craig Capizzi of RoombaReview.com, the battery pack is a simple linear array of
12 sub-C sized NiMh cells. The screws on the battery pack have strange triangular heads,
but a Torx T6 seems to work okay too. The top of the pack is tacked down with glue but other-
wise isn’t too hard to take apart. Figure 16-14 shows what the battery pack looks like with the
top off.