Author Topic: I need a little help hacking a vacuum.  (Read 954 times)

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Offline clTopic starter

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I need a little help hacking a vacuum.
« on: January 20, 2020, 11:21:02 pm »
I have a few robotic vacuums I picked up at thrift stores for next to nothing. They are older ones and I would like to be able to attach them to an ESP8266 and control them over wifi from a computer. That is the end goal. The idea being to use the ESP to push the buttons and read if the LED's are active. Just trying to keep it simple.

I tore one of them apart, tracing the (tac switches) buttons (clean, dock, max) It appears they are inline from pins on the SoC to ground. So the buttons just pull the lines low, Ill assume they have been debounced.

I know I could use a transistor across the pins of the tac switch and use the esp to trip the transistor, making the connection to ground. That is the first thing that came to mind.

What I am wondering is there a better way? Could I go digital pin on ESP to digital pin on SoC?

Thank you
 

Offline kernels

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Re: I need a little help hacking a vacuum.
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2020, 01:40:16 am »
Tactile switches connected to microcontrollers often have a pull-up resistor and when you press the button, it pulls the pin to ground.

The digital IO on most modern microcontrollers can be configured to work in open-drain mode (they will pull down to ground, but not pull up to vcc), so in theory one of these open-drain IOs can be used to connect directly to the vacuum cleaner switch line. BUT . . . it is a good idea to keep some level of isolation between the two circuits, so a transistor, fet or even opto-coupler would be a better solution.
 

Offline james_s

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Re: I need a little help hacking a vacuum.
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2020, 01:49:59 am »
Transistors are cheap, I'd probably just use them. If the vacuum microcontroller is 3.3V then you could probably connect them directly but 5V may fry the ESP8266, I don't know offhand if it is 5V tolerant.
 

Offline clTopic starter

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Re: I need a little help hacking a vacuum.
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2020, 11:37:07 am »
Thanks for the info,

The SoC turned out to be an ARM STM32F071 processor and from the datasheet runs at voltages between v2.0 - v3.6

The units have IR remotes and I have found what appears to be an ICP port on the main board. Im guessing there are lots of different ways to go about hacking this thing. lol

(Shark Ion RV720 series)
 


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