Just for clarity I’m going to post the features that I know I would like and add in any others I’ve seen other people asking for or complaining about. (Sorry for the long post, details are important)
- MAP EDITING: Now I understand that being able to directly edit the map is a huge ask so at this point I would be happy just having the ability to point the vacuum to a specific location and having it rescan the immediate area like it did on the very first run when it created the map. This could be accomplished by selecting a “Scan” or “Discover” mode and let us tap the map or even select a specific room to scan (see request 3 below). This would simply UPDATE the existing map so we could stop having to delete and start over from scratch. Just as an example, when I take down my Christmas tree this year, or if I happen to rearrange my furniture, the software still won’t allow the bot to vacuum that area because the way the software is now it will never be discovered again.
1.1) MAP ROTATION: On a couple of the scans I have done with the vacuum for some reason it seems to create the map of the house on a slight angle. The issue here is that it generates the lines it uses to vacuum in a vertical and horizontal pattern as needed. When the house is twisted slightly instead of just driving straight down a wall it keeps trying to drive into it and bumps into it then moves over and does it again, taking FOREVER to run down a wall. If we had the ability to rotate the entire scanned map and lock walls into the vertical and horizontal pattern that the vacuum uses then the cleaning runs would be much more efficient.
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DEDICATED SCAN MODE: When the map is blank the vacuum has no choice but to start building the room map. But this is a fairly tedious process and takes time so I propose giving us a mode where the bot ONLY scans the room and bumps into everything to find all the edges but does NOT vacuum during the process. The hope here is that without the draw of the suction motor running continuously the vacuum will be able to (hopefully) scan even large homes on a single charge. Then have the vacuum either recharge or immediately start vacuuming the rooms it has discovered. I would also like to see during this scan mode that the bot does not roll over every square inch of the floor unnecessarily but simply investigates anything seen with the Lidar and finds the edges for those objects. And also incorporate this with request 1 above so when we request a scan of a specific area it scans but does not vacuum.
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ABILITY TO ADD/REMOVE/EDIT ROOM BREAKS: The vacuum does a great job scanning the room and finding edges but a really horrible job at figuring out what is considered a room. Humans are simply much better at this job so we request the ability to drag the room breaks to better locations and also add or remove them as needed. This could be accomplished very similar to the interface that is already available for virtual walls, if not added there directly by letting us choose to work with room dividers or virtual walls.
(The 3.x requests below would actually only work or be necessary if request 3 above is complete)
3.1) ABILITY TO RENAME ROOMS: This goes real closely with 3 above but I wanted it listed separately to it is not overlooked. If we have the ability to segment the rooms properly then of course we should have the ability to name the rooms. Again, this could be added in the same location as request 3, under a map “Edit” button that holds the room dividers and virtual walls. Just let us tap on a room and edit the name. I have seen on other forum posts where Alexa integration is coming and by having the rooms named properly you could easily give us the ability to request the vacuum clean a room by name. “Alexa, please vacuum the kitchen.”
3.2) ABILITY TO SPLIT ROOMS AND ADD VIRTUAL WALLS ON AN ANGLE: The current implementation of boxes for “no go” areas work well for sectioning off an area inside an existing room and works equally well across a doorway that the vacuum should not enter but not every room opening or doorway in my house runs on vertical or horizontal lines. I request the ability that once a “room divider” or “virtual wall” is placed on the map that we have the ability to grab a corner and spin the box or line to create any angle without having to create a bunch of tiny overlapping boxes as we currently must do with virtual walls.
- ABILITY TO SET SCHEDULES AND SUCTION PER ROOM: Now I know that a schedule can already be created that includes the scheduled run days and times and it also allows the ability to specify the room and suction level. That’s great, Thank You! But I’m suggesting to add a default suction level under each specific room (Maybe under the map “Edit” button in request 3.1 above). This would allow for a default suction preference per room so I wouldn’t need to create so many schedules. Instead I set the suction level on the room itself and then I can create a schedule for the Whole House and it would honor the individual “default” suction level set on the rooms. I suggest leaving the option on the schedules in case we wanted to create a schedule that would override the room default, like maybe once a week vacuum the entire house with strong suction without having to change each default. By adding this to each room it has the added benefit of using the room’s custom suction level if I simply select a room from the map and hit the Clean button.
I hope the Wyze vacuum Devs see this list and help us all build a better product. It’s a great piece of hardware so far and with the addition of some software improvements it has the ability to blow the other, more expensive, vacuums out of the water.
If anyone has other suggestions please reply and I will try to keep this post up to date.