HOW TO – Make a Roomba Serial Interface

Robotics Technology
HOW TO – Make a Roomba Serial Interface

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Here’s how to make a serial cable to control a Roomba with your Mac/PC. iRobot Roomba manufactured after October 2005 contain an electronic and software interface that allows you to control or modify Roomba’s behavior and remotely monitor its sensors. This interface is called the Roomba Serial Control Interface or Roomba SCI. When you’re done making this cable/board you can download free software to control the Roomba.HOW TO – Make a Roomba Serial Interface
By Tod E. Kurt & Mike Kuniavsky

A week ago I got my OSMO//hacker Roomba firmware updater from iRobot. It worked like a charm, giving me a serial port to fully control the Roomba.

An interface was needed however, since the crazy mini-DIN 7-pin on the Roomba is very unstandard. So the first attempt at a robust interface between a Roomba and a standard PC serial port is my Roomba Serial Interface.

The Roomba Serial Connector
It seems people are confused by the mini-DIN 7-pin connector, citing difficulties in obtaining that specific plug. It turns out that mini-DIN 8-pin plugs will mechanically mate with the 7-pin jacks, with the center key hole in the 7-pin female jack taking the middel pin of the 8-pin plug. Mac high-speed serial cables from the 1990’s work great for this, and I have a ton of those from all my misspent youth doing MIDI on a Mac. So chop up those old Mac serial cables! If you can’t find one, Jameco will sell you one for $3.29.

The PC Serial Connector
Some computers have an RS-232 serial port. Most don’t. To hook this serial interface cable up to your Mac or other modern computer without an RS-232 port, use a Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter. Supported on all platforms and the choice of Mac hardware-hackers worldwide.

Step-by-Step Construction details
The Roomba SCI is a serial interface protocol to let you control your Roomba, but the port on the Roomba doesn’t conform to RS232 standards. This board does the conversion.

There are two boards shown here. The first version (larger, encased in lexan), and the second version (smaller, encased in a blue floss box).

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Circuit is simply a 7805 +5V voltage regulator and MAX232 RS-232 transceiver, appropriate capacitors to make it work and a ‘power on’ LED. Because everything needs an LED. Flickr photo with notes here.

Below are parts lists from Jameco (and one from Radio Shack). Jameco doesn’t have the cheapest parts, but they do have an easy-to-use site, ship fast, and carry just about everything that a weekend electronics geek would need. If you want to really scrimp, shop at Digikey or Mouser, and you’ll probably save a few bucks on these parts.

Parts
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Flickr photo with notes here.

Parts list (from Jameco):
– 1 x Mac mini-din 8-pin cable ($3.29)
– 1 x serial cable with DB9 9-pin female connector ($3.95)
– 1 x 78L05 +5VDC voltage regulator ($0.27)
– 1 x MAX232 RS-232 transceiver ($2.19)
– 1 x green LED ($1.40 for 10)
– 1 x 220 ohm resistor ($0.69 for 100)
– 6 x 1 uF electrolytic capacitor ($1.20 for 10)

And from Radio Shack:
– 1 x prototyping pc board ($1.79)

Luckily I had all these parts in my part drawer, so the actual cost for me was zero. If you’ve ever done any little projects, you probably have some of these parts laying around too.

Tools needed
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Flickr photo with notes here.

Cutting the cable
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Strip off the big plastic cover, then strip off about 1/4″ from all the wires inside. Then do a continuity test on each wire to figure out which colored wire goes to which pin on the jack. Each cable I’ve done has had a different color-to-pin mapping.

Circuit diagram
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Larger version here.

Putting the components on the prototyping board
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Cut the prototyping board in two, since only half the space is needed.
Place the chip so it straddles the two big verticle bus lines, then start placing parts around it , using the connected pads to minimize the amount of wiring needed. Of course, a few wires are always needed. For that use snipped leads from parts.

Also, create test points using snipped leads to check voltages.

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It’s really handy to have the vertical bus lines and the three pads joined. This board is like the best thing Radio Shack sells. :)

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Wire up the cables as shown in the schematic and the pin-to-cable color diagram made for the particular cable, solder them down, and hot-glue the cables to the board for strain relief. Flickr photo with notes here.

Testing the voltage
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After all the parts are soldered, use the +9VDC wall wart power supply to power up the circuit, and check voltages. The LED should light up and +5VDC should be coming out of the regulator.

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The LED lighting up means the interface is getting voltage from the Roomba.

The enclosure is a floss container. Consumer products have a lot of interesting plastic enclosure styles, and so cheap! This one was something like $2.49. A little time with the diagonal cutters and soldering iron allowed the board to fit.

Once it’s in the enclosure, hook up the +9VDC wall wart again and measure voltages on every pin on each cable, to make sure the circuit doesn’t fry the Roomba or the computer’s serial interface.

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Get the software
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Now drive your Roomba around like a little tank and play music on it! For more details on the software, see my blog post.

Special note: This how to will also be posted to the Roomba wiki. If you build any Roomba project and would like to contribute to the wiki email torrone@gmail.com.

11 thoughts on “HOW TO – Make a Roomba Serial Interface

  1. roombahead says:

    You can also buy a serial, USB, or Bluetooth Roomba interface at http://www.roombadevtools.com and start programming right away.

  2. roombahead says:

    You can also buy a serial, USB, or Bluetooth Roomba interface at http://www.roombadevtools.com and start programming right away.

  3. scienceguy614 says:

    I can’t get onto the sci link.It keeps redirecting me back to the irobot store

  4. eliabu says:

    It’s Great!!!.
    Excuse for my question: the program at
    “DIY Roomba USB interface cable – SCI control software”
    (link: http://hobbymechatronics.com/projects/30-robotics/8-diy-roomba-usb-interface-cable?showall=1 )

    works with your cable, about you?

    For me it would be important, for to do a diagnose on my Roomba (problem whit sensors).

    Thank you and congratulations

  5. ed says:

    I found a synthesizer cable on e-bay with a male 7-pin mini-din plug on one end a serial 9-pin female on the other for $7, so this way I only need to chop up one cable, not 2

    pc :-)

  6. Ryan says:

    I have the rootooth connector – which allows me to control the roomba wirelessly / which is nice, but its always fun to actually make these things yourself – because then you actually know what’s going on! :)

    A good overview for programming the roomba :

    http://www.robotappstore.com/Knowledge-Base/3-Serial-Port-Baud-Rate-Configuration/17.html

    is a good place to start. It goes over the SCI serial communication, how to connect, baud rates, and using a terminal program to send commands to the roomba. The roomba doesn’t really give any responses back & I’ve found it really annoying to troubleshoot sometimes. Hope this helps!

  7. Stephen Griswold says:

    This should be interesting. I just rescued a 650 (not sure on model#, label missing.. Outward appearance looks like the 650).. from the scrap heap. (people throw out the most interesting, and still working things, Why?) It’s sitting on the charger base right now, with the center light flashing yellow. I get a red flashing and tone if I remove it before it’s finished charging.) Usually, I’m tinkering with the Arduino, or the Raspberry Pi, so seeing if I can integrate the 2 or 3 platforms, should be interesting! Mine WAS a little banged up (looks like it was dropped.. found the shield over the top IR emitter popped off (easily stuck back on, but, shows it hit the front-edge.) and sitting in the bottom of the box, and the wall-sweeper brush is missing. But, it’s showing life!

  8. Interfacing Roomba and Arduino, Getting Started | nightskylife says:

    […] Roomba has a Mini-DIN connector in which the serial port can be accessed with an interface cable that has the correct mating connector. The location of the serial port is shown in the diagram […]

  9. Luke Patrick Dunwell says:

    You might want to add gnd to the 9 pin serial connector

  10. 9 Pin Usb Adapter Radio Shack – Adidass News says:

    […] HOW TO – Make a Roomba Serial Interface – To hook this serial interface cable up to your Mac or other modern computer without an RS-232 port, use a Keyspan High Speed USB Serial Adapter … best thing Radio Shack sells.

  11. 8 Pin Radioshack – Adidass News says:

    […] HOW TO – Make a Roomba Serial Interface – The Roomba Serial Connector It seems people are confused by the mini-DIN 7-pin connector, citing difficulties in obtaining that specific plug. It turns out that mini-DIN 8-pin plugs will … from Jameco (and one from Radio Shack). Jameco doesn’t … […]

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