Technology - Not so wonderful

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin gave me her Roomba to look at. It wasn't charging and the front side brush no longer rotates (the little one on the side). She has a few of them and they're always running all over her house. She says she likes them.


It's starting to get warm out and all the snow is gone from the patio table, so I thought I would dig it out and see what's up with it. I cleaned the contacts on the charger and on the bottom of the Roomba, so far it seems to be charging and I just had it running around the back porch for about 10 or so minutes before pressing the dock button. I think it's older than 5 years old, so it could probably use a new battery anyway. I'm going to let it charge up for a little longer, then see why the front brush doesn't move. I'm going to have to come up with a way to trick all the sensors so I can run it upside down with the bottom off, or see if I can affix the leads of a multimeter on the side brush motor contacts and let it run around to see if the motor is getting anything.