iRobot Roomba Connecting

Recently, I moved my HA container installation to an HA-Yellow box. Most everything works correctly except the iRobot integration. I cannot get it to connect to the Roomba. I have the password that I use in my Docker install where it works correctly. Imagining that the password could be fungible, I went through the retrieval procedure again and the password is identical. The message received is:

‘The password could not be retrieved from the device automatically. Please make sure that the iRobot app is not open on any device while trying to retrieve the password.’
The iRobot app is not running anywhere.
My HA container instance is still available and the iRobot integration is still operating. Shutting down the container instance while attempting to enable the iRobot integration on the HA-Yellow instance did not accomplish anything.

Having the same problem.

I’ve seen similar issues in general use, often when a phone app update arrives. My guess with a migration is the device doesn’t like an IP address change (assuming DHCP, a new Yellow has a new MAC hence also new IPv4).

Pairing eventually worked after factory-resetting the robot (pattern of holding down buttons) and starting again. The main config was not lost as some details seem to be held on the iRobot account.

Unfortunately, for me a factory reset, change of allocated IP on router, and numerous connection attempts still leaves me in the same position as davel4wa and itnassol

This is with my Roomba 981 which used to work on HA in the past, but I think it got broken some time ago.
I haven’t tried fixing it for several months as I didn’t use/need the integration for a long period. But it currently looks broken for many users trying to connect certain machines. Whether it is just a connection/setup issue, or specific machines I’m not sure, but Github certainly has open cases suggesting there are problems.

Just to follow up on my initial reply. I finally managed to install the iRobot integration.
This was after changing the reserved IP address for my Roomba on my router, but only after forcing it to disconnect at least two or three times. The first time I changed the IP and reconnected Roomba to my router I still couldn’t install the integration. But after a couple of forced disconnects it finally came good. No idea why this made a difference, and I still had to go through tha manual parts in the HA integration setup (IP address and password) there was no auto discovery.

I have two iRobot vacuums connected to my HA Yellow. One of the steps I performed in my HA setup was not in HA itself, but in my home network. I statically set the IP addresses of my iRobot vacuums based on their MAC address, this way the IP doesn’t change with the DHCP lease expires.

My Roomba acquires the same IP address anytime the router is rebooted. If this is related to the HA instance MAC and/or IP address then that makes more sense and destroying the Roomba internal settings may be the only answer.

Ahem :slight_smile::

I think this worked for me – but. After holding the Home & Spot buttons, Roomba seems to enter into a local AP mode which made it drop off my network. To get it on the network again, I pressed the Clean button (S9+) the iRobot integration setup listed Roomba at the appropriate IP which I selected. What happened next is the —but, from above. Instead of putting Roomba back into AP mode per the setup, I accidentally clicked ‘Submit’ which landed me at the password entry. Once the password was entered, Roomba was recognized and the integration was installed.

How did you force it to disconnect?

On my router (TP-Link Omada setup) I have all IOT devices on a separate VLAN and each one has an allocated fixed IP address. There is also a facility on this setup to select any device and “Reconnect” it, the implication that it is disconnected and reconnected. In practice, I’m not sure this really works properly, or maybe only when a deivice is using full DHCP (ie not a fixed IP). I tried this a couple of times and nothing seemed to make a difference. After a couple of failed attempts I temporarily changed its VLAN and IP address, hit Reconnect, then went back to the original VLAN IP and hit Reconnect again. This time the Roomba integration seemed to spring into life and I could manually connect it.

Whether this was the cure I’m not sure, it’s certainly very flakey. I was tempted to remove the integration and see if I can reproduce the issues/cure(?) but my wife is using it quite a lot with Google Assistant/HA so I’ve chickened out for now.

I’ve just had this with my roomba. IP address of the roomba changed and I could see homeassistant logs still trying to connect to the old IP.

If you have the Studio Code Server add-on you can search for the old IP address. I found it in a core.config_entries file, updated it and restarted homeassistant.

Dropped in after that.

Now for my Dyson fan…

OFF TOPIC: Suggest a separate discussion, but sadly the Dyson integration was removed some months ago as the underlying Python libraries were unmaintained. Control HASS → Google → Dyson is possible. Start a new post, and tag me if needed!

Well, I finally answered my own question and tried setting up again from scratch, and result? I seem to be completely unable to reconnect now. Tried all the things mentioned and nothing works.

However, one thing did occur to me - I am using the Roomba password which I captured (along with BLID and kept safe!) over two years ago or more. I assume they’re both hardcoded into the device and don’t change? Can anyone confirm this?

My suspicion is part of the key is the serial number, and part is random but don’t know for sure. ISTR mine changed after a factory-reset (e.g. creds need to change to allow you to sell a product securely).

For me, it was quicker and easier to install Node.js and then the command-line credential sniffer tool that it was to mess about:

# Linux command line...
sudo dnf install nodejs-npm
sudo npm install -g dorita980
get-roomba-password-cloud 'email' 'pass'
nc -zv 192.168.999.999 8883
sudo dnf erase nodejs-npm

After my posting yesterday I thought I’d try and check if my password had changed using the method I used when I last retrieved it a few years ago. Please note that I’m using a VM on Windows using Hyper-V, rather than a Yellow, hence trying this method below.

here

Unfortunately, this didn’t work. It sees my machine, S/n, SKU, IP etc but when I try to retrieve the BLID and Password I get errrors which possibly indicate an SSL issue with the version of Python.

Thanks for all the great support and advice on here, but the devs on the Roomba GitHub team seem to be missing in action so I think I’m lost really.

Time to move to another robot vacuum maybe. It was good when I first got it, but things have moved on over the last few years and I’m sure there are better price/performance machines now that have less issues with HA integration.

Yes, you are correct, the password does change after a factory reset.
I used the Add-On by Jeremy Willans to find the BLID and password and it had indeed changed (useful little add-on and simpler than any of the other methods for me!)

The bad news is it still won’t accept it!
Think it’s time for me to give in now :crazy_face:

After upgrading from 2024.2.2 to 2024.2.3 ,iRobot integration failed (iRobot 986).
Downgrade again to 2024.2.2 fixed the problem .Any ideas?