Setting up the Roomba Combo j7+ into the iRobot app

So, we have unpacked the new Roomba, we've plugged it in and charged it up, set itself ready to clean and mop; now it wouldn't be a smart vacuum with out some sort of app involved in it.

Here's how we go about setting it up in the iRobot app.

Our interesting bit was that we already had "Spot", so we had done some of the initial app set up - where we create our profile.

With that done, we see Spot, but to add our new friend, Rosey, we had to go into the side bar to 'add new product'.

From there it searches for a new device and finds Rosey just waiting.  Plunk in the Wifi details and it is connected and ready to go.

Now, 2 more things for me to do to make this a proper set up.  

Initially, the app thinks that this Roomba is nowhere near where the other one was. How should it.  The app doesn't really differentiate homes or sometimes even floors.  So it wants to do a mapping run of its new 'playground'.  I didn't let it.

I already have a map developed over years with Spot.  Rosey and Spot should just talk to each other about what the house looks like so Rosey doesn't have to 'relearn'.

There is the option which is good.

But, what was interesting is that it didn't always come up for me (I'll get into some of the glitches I had in a later review - as it turned out there was a defect in my original Rosie, so we got a replacement Rosey).

I feel that it's a relatively new feature, as when I was looking into why Rosey just didn't have the map already done and transferred over by the app, old articles/help guides suggested there was no way to share that info between 2 units.

Now that we have the feature, what has to be done is for Rosey to know where it is in the map in order to do a proper run.  It's one thing to have a map, but if you don't know where you are on it, it's useless. 

So, essentially, for the first couple of jobs I'd send it on, it took a lot longer than normal as the robot would wind its way around the room trying to make sense of what it saw and how it lined up with what the map had.

It didn't help that since the last time we ran Spot for the map it had, we'd rearranged the furniture.  So Rosey had some work to do.

Like any sort of 'smart' thing - might want to be a little patient in the beginning and you'll find that patience will pay off later on.