Recently, we had a hands-on experience with the new machine Roomba Combo J7+ from iRobot, which combines sweeping and mopping functions. What’s most surprising is that there is an IC chip embedded in the mop cloth of this machine.
I believe few people have heard of the design of adding chips to a mop rag. In the field of vacuum robots, this is the first time I have seen such a product —— Roomba Combo J7+ Which Have a IC Chip inside the Mop Cloth Rag. So we were very curious and did some simple tests. The tests showed that without this chip, the machine would give an error message when running, displaying: “Clean pad not installed.”
Our engineer removed this chip, and from the appearance, it looks very ordinary – just a copper wire coil similar to those used in IC cards. So it’s very simple, its recognition principle is the contactless communication recognition of IC card.
So why add this thing to a piece of cloth? Even if the cost is low, it’s still an additional expense. There are two possibilities:
- Avoid ineffective mopping actions by the machine when there is no cloth available. With this sensing recognition, the machine can know whether the mop is installed properly, so they can determine whether to perform the floor mopping function.
- Another possibility is that the official may be promoting their own branded cleaning mop cloth for more sales. After all, the addition of this chip will make some consumers think that it has more technological content, and some imitated products from third-party manufacturers cannot replace it well.
In fact, after testing by our engineers, this kind of Combo J7+ chip inside a mop cloth can be easily cracked. Therefore, if you want to use this technology to prevent imitation, it is not suitable at all.
We suggest iRobot company to take a look at the development level of their peers’ functionalities. Go take a look at the flagship models of Roborock and Ecovacs. Their robots have very powerful mopping functions, and they haven’t added any chips to prevent imitation.
We also shot a simple unboxing video, friends who are interested in this machine can take a look: