I had an interesting incident with the Roomba today. It hadn’t done much cleaning during its scheduled cleaning times this week, so I made it do a run today morning. After a while, it (he?) just stalled and started beeping. I tried emptying its (his) dirtbag, cleaned its (his) brushes etc and tried again. No luck – he just sat there beeping in peculiar tone – an ‘Uh-oh’ followed by 2 short beeps as if he was trying to tell me something.

So, I couldn’t find the manual, so I look it up on the Internet and found this link: http://homesupport.irobot.com/cgi-bin/irobot_homesupport.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=231&p_created=1154988120&p_sid=oY4sb8Di&p_accessibility=&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTMmcF9wcm9kcz01LDI3JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0yLjI3JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9dHdvIGJlZXBz&p_li=&p_topview=1

which had this explanation:

Roomba Says: “Uh-oh” plus 2 beeps

What It Means: The robot’s side brush is stalled

What You Should Do:

• Pick up your robot and turn it over*
• Check to see if something is wrapped around the side brush
• Remove the side brush with a screw driver and check for string or hair wrapped under it
• Replace the side brush, place Roomba in the center of the room and press Clean to resume cleaning

Which I followed and had the Rooba out and cleaning in 3 minutes!

Now wasn’t that simple? A simple unambiguous error message and simple instructions on how to fix it. No ‘Error Code 0x8000c2fe’. No 3 page long KB article to peruse and comprehend. No support calls or costs. Sigh… if only…