I just sent an improvement request to Athom about the Neato app. In my mind this is really essential for making the app usable. Just wanted to share this with everyone so that people can chime in on the request.
Hi,
This is a feature request for the Neato BotVac app. (or rather a suggestion to make it actually usable, ie a bug report)
I have had Neatos top of the line cleaner (D7 connected) for 2 years now, since it was new and now its actually commodity. No one buys the others as this is the only model with virtual no-go lines. It has functionality for Zone cleaning in the Neato app, which is basically the only way I use it. This includes using no-go lines as well as certain rooms or areas in the house.
Currently in the Homey-app, you only have two cards for starting cleaning in a flow:
Start cleaning (which just starts a full cleaning without any care taken to the surroundings)
Spot cleaning - which is only for cleaning a 3x3m area (wrongly called “Starta områdesstädning” in Swedish, which basically means start Zone cleaning) - < BUG
None of the above are actually useful to have in any flows, as the Zone cleaning is the only reasonable way of starting a cleaning with a well known state for the robot.
Please do consider this suggestions:
Add the Zone cleaning as a flow card. Let the user specify the flows either with
a. If you can read the different flows from Neato, so the user can select from a list
b. Or at least, read the zone name from a variable, so that a user can configure the needed flow.
As I mentioned, currently the Neato app is a disgrace and not possible to use at all. This would make it usable and make peoples robots useful in their connected homes. As for my use case, since Homey can detect when my home alarm is armed, I would like to trigger certain zones to be cleaned when I leave home.
I am very sure that this addition would make many people happy.
If it helps anyone, with Home Assistance it is possible to trigger zone cleaning.
So there is no restriction that you have to use the neato app to trigger it.
More info: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/21796
Anyone able to further troubleshoot with this info?
I’m hoping for a resolution of this problem as well. I would like to be able to start it from Homey. But the only way I normally start the D7 is to specify which Zone it should clean.
It is possible to start zone cleaning, so it could be implemented. I agree without it the app is pretty useless. I have D5 and if it does not respect virtual boundaries (which it doesn’t the way it is now) the robot will eat up wires or go down rabbit holes.
But then they should also fix that the Homey app now often blocks the regular app from accessing the robot. I have no problems using both the iPad and Android app from Neato together, but when the Homey app is running, frequently the original apps lose access to the bot. I guess Homey is too agressive in querying the state. This made me deactivate the app and use IFTTT to control the bot if needed. But that too lacks zone- and virtual boundary support, so it is too limited.
I asked this a couple of years ago when it was still publicly available on GitHub. Got the standard answer: great idea we will look into it.
This is also where it ends.
Since then I haven’t been able to use the neato with Homey because of two reasons:
The app polls neato so often, that the regular app isn’t seeing Neato online anymore
Without no-go lines it’s useless.
I find it bad to see that it’s stated as supported, but it’s such a bare minimum. For me it’s useless, and I don’t have the illusion anymore that Athom sees priority in this…
Hi, Athom is asking for someone that can takeover the dev. work and will be responsible for the app. The current developer is not reachable anymore.
Please let me know or Athom if you are willing to -or know someone that is willing to- be the new developer of this Neato App. Please refer to ticket number 31561.
I have not bought yet the device. I’m exploring which one to buy. A homey integration is a must.
So I’m willing to pay but I’m not the one that need it today
Being the one that raised this, let me just say that I am deeply disappointed with how this has gone.
However, with my current knowledge of how Neato handles their customers with their next steps of software development, I want to share that my next robot will not be Neato. My D7 has given up with cryptic messages and a failing lidar, and my suspicion is their firmware upgrade that I did right before it started failing.
To add to that, they are launching their new platform, explicitly telling customers that the new app for D8-D10 will never support D7 and below. It’s an API change that they are currently just screwing customers over, the ones that are still buying D7 and below.
For this homey app, there is only one true owner to be had, and that’s Neato. But they don’t seem responsible enough for any ecosystem for them to pick it up.
My experience with Neato support is also very positive. I had a robot topple over an edge of the stairs (2,5m straight down, while no go rubber present at the edge). Despite the fact that they explicitly say this can happen in the manual they replaced the robot with a new one without any hassle.
Yes, its 3 years so no warranty whatsoever. They pointed me to a service center where the fee for out of warranty repair was almost a new robot of a different and better brand.
