Hexy, Maker Shed, $250
When I did my Shed guide, we didn’t have Hexy the Hexapod in stock yet. Now we do. These guys had their booth right next to the Breadboarding Workshop I co-ran and I really like their product. It’s pretty exciting to see a six-legged walker of this level of sophistication be available at such an affordable price. There’s a reason why the creator of Hexy, Joseph Schlesinger, asked for $13,000 on Kickstarter and got $168,000 instead! If you have a more advanced robot hobbyist on your gift list, consider a Hexy.
I have the mint and love it. It is very quiet – barely noticeable unless it is right underfoot. It has two modes – sweeper and mop. You can use standard swiffer dust pads for the sweeper and swiffer makes a wet pad that works great for the mopping mode. Works great for our mostly wood or tile flooring. We run it regularly and you would be surprised at how much it picks up from “clean” floors. Not able to schedule like a roomba, but not really an issue, due to the fact that it is so quiet and can run relatively unnoticed with you in the room.
Thanks for that feedback, Jim. Does the NorthStar navigation work OK? I found it very problematic on the Rovio.
I have little reference for comparison. I will say that it is thorough and simple during sweep mode. It basically makes long runs back and forth in a very simple “mowing the lawn” pattern. In mop mode, it does a little 2 steps forward, 1 step back jig along a path that I would assume is to dislodge dirt. I always place the cube as instructed and it does show that it connects to the mint. It returns to its starting position and doesn’t seem to miss anything – although I have one very large room that it will only do half of and then I have to restart it on the other side – so it doesn’t wander too far from its cube. My only frame of reference is my friend’s roomba vacuum.
Put “Suicide Booth” on the Litter Bot and sales would go crazy.
We have the Neato vacuum bot and love it. Plus it’s like having a Super Nintendo running around your house.
The Gift of Bot