Poor man's Deebot Ecovacs launch automation - no SW install or code required

[danabw]

I have a "dumb" Deebot Ecovac, the N79 model that isn't connected to anything but it's own remote control. I wanted to be able to start it via voice command w/Google Home.

I am by nature a lazy guy, and aside from being too lazy to want to walk all the way over to the Deebot to start it, or figure out where we have left the remote), I also wanted to do as little work as possile to automate starting it. We only run it when we're home due to "The Incident" (see below for more on that). I just wanted the most basic ability to to launch it by voice and then let it run until it decides to stop.

I was meandering through a thread w/some very nice options to actually manage Deebot Ecovacs, but they required installing new stuff. Not for me in this case. However, I stumbled across a post in that thread that provided the absolutely simple option to start a Deebot via automation, and if it worked for my "ancient" N79 (no "Smarts" at all) it would be exactly what I wanted.

From this post by @dana.weick (how could I go wrong w/a name like that!):

@dana.weick

Here is a tip that at least works for my N79S models, they automatically start running if the charging unit loses power.

I plug mine into a Ikea Zigbee outlet, when I want it to run I just turn off the outlet and turn it back on a minute later. Yeah it would be fantastic if a real driver was written but in the meantime, trick it.

I can confirm it works for the N79 model as well. So easy, genius simplicity. I put a smart plug on the Deebot charger/base station, created simple automation to turn the plug back on 1m after it's been turned off, and created a Google Home automation to turn off the plug.

So now:

Me: "Hey Google, run Dusty." (Yeah, I named him. )
GH:

1. Turns off plug Dusty is connected to.
2. Says "OK, Dusty has been launched."

Dusty: Starts cleaning
Simple automation: Turns Dusty's plug back on after 1m
Wife: "Oh my God, is it that difficult to lean down and press the button to start it?!"

This is the perfect automation for us, as we never run Dusty when we aren't home. We have dogs, and had "The Incident" a year or two back when one of them left a surprise on the living room floor and Dusty tried to vacuum it. Oh, the horror...

All thanks to @dana.weick for this invaluable info.

[Angus_M]

@danabw

Dusty tried to vacuum it

OMG! Poor Dusty!

I hope he recovered from the horror OK.

[danabw]

He made it, just barely.

It required extremely delicate surgery, attempted only after a "dessication time-out" wherein Dusty was banished to a box sitting outside until things were not so fresh. Luckily it was during a hot spell so that part went fairly quickly. I will spare you further details, other than it took three tries to get wife approval to repatriate Dusty.

[danabw]

Just a note - for some reason this "trick" stopped working for me...Deebot would leave the base station in slow mode and then hunt around and return to the base. Not sure why.

Anyway, I've now changed to useing @brianwilson's excellent Deebot integration you can run on a Pi...here:

Deebot EcoVacs Driver

You can see if this will work for you. It's really crummy code but my thinking is that I can create an action that I can call when someone leaves the house and if the day is Wed or Sunday, it calls clean. When someone gets back, it calls Charge and sends a notification to check the vacuum.

With some of my "lessons learned" info from my setup here:

Deebot EcoVacs Driver

Woot! Just got @brianwilson's integration up and running on a Pi. Couple of changes that were required to make it work for me: For the Docker build command, I needed to add a period "." after the after "ecovacs-api" in the build command to specify the current directory for the Dockerfile: docker build -t ecovacs-api . --build-arg ECOVACS_USER='xxxx@xxxx.com' --build-arg ECOVACS_PASS='xxxx' For the curl command in the http GET Switch device I had to remove the "curl -s" from the command - bel…

[dJOS]

@danabw

We have dogs, and had "The Incident" a year or two back when one of them left a surprise on the living room floor and Dusty tried to vacuum it. Oh, the horror...

And that’s why i recently bought the N8 Pro with its front laser system, well that and dog toys and kids toys….

[danabw]

@dJOS

N8 Pro

"Laser-based 3D technology that lets N8 Pro detect and avoid objects such as cables, slippers and pet mess to reduce the risk of getting stuck."

That sounds nice, and I considered it, but I'm waiting for the next gen "Z-10" which will have laser-based technology to automatically vaporize "pet mess" in its tracks.

[dJOS]

@danabw

next gen "Z-10" which will have laser-based technology to automatically vaporize "pet mess" in its tracks.