Doheny's Discovery, S200, Active20, Triton owners club

Ended up ordering the caddy for my S200 from MarinaPools. Cost is $150. I think it will help me keep everything together when rolling into & out of shed. I’ll update when it arrives on Friday.
 
Yes, the caddy is very nice. I bought the S300i for the other features. I was thinking, "Oh well, it comes with a caddy that I really don't need." However, after using it, that caddy is REALLY nice. The power box snaps into it. And, it has a place to wrap both the power cord and the cord going to the robot. And, then it all just easily wheels away wherever you want to store it. The caddy actually ended up being one of my favorite features.
 
Thank you, that’s exactly what I was hoping. Can’t wait to get it. Right now every time I use the S200 after it dries, goes back in its original box.


Yes, the caddy is very nice. I bought the S300i for the other features. I was thinking, "Oh well, it comes with a caddy that I really don't need." However, after using it, that caddy is REALLY nice. The power box snaps into it. And, it has a place to wrap both the power cord and the cord going to the robot. And, then it all just easily wheels away wherever you want to store it. The caddy actually ended up being one of my favorite features.
 
The caddy was the reason I went with S300 over the S200. I’m happy with that decision. It is well designed and makes storing and moving the robot very convenient.
 
Thanks for all your input guys (& gals). Landed on the S300, just to get the caddy and maybe a little Bluetooth app functionality. Yay!

We’re also house shopping, so in a years time I’ll be caring for a new pool, perhaps maintaining both. I understand the microprocessor in the robots ‘learns’ your pool? Maytronics says in its literature one robot is able to operate in different pools and is continually learning. I know a bit about neural computer design and used to mess around with OBDII car systems and it’s neat stuff, but there’s little to know about how Maytronics does it.

Anyone notice the cleaning approach improved over time, or robot avoided sticky areas—things like that? All I can see a pool robot being able to learn is pool 3D environment (location of walls, etc.) through inertial guidance (gyros, accelerometers) on the fly. I’d be interested to know it’s capability to hold a 3D rendering in memory, and if a firmware can be flashed for future improvements. I’m sure it’s got some capacity to do it?
 
Thanks for all your input guys (& gals). Landed on the S300, just to get the caddy and maybe a little Bluetooth app functionality. Yay!

We’re also house shopping, so in a years time I’ll be caring for a new pool, perhaps maintaining both. I understand the microprocessor in the robots ‘learns’ your pool? Maytronics says in its literature one robot is able to operate in different pools and is continually learning. I know a bit about neural computer design and used to mess around with OBDII car systems and it’s neat stuff, but there’s little to know about how Maytronics does it.

Anyone notice the cleaning approach improved over time, or robot avoided sticky areas—things like that? All I can see a pool robot being able to learn is pool 3D location of walls etc through inertial (gyros, accelerometers).

I'm thinking there's a little hyperbole to "continually learning". It "learns" like a Roomba in that it will figure out a perimeter over the course of a cleaning. It does not accumulate knowledge over repeated cleanings. Every day is Groundhog Day.
 
Thanks for all your input guys (& gals). Landed on the S300, just to get the caddy and maybe a little Bluetooth app functionality. Yay!

We’re also house shopping, so in a years time I’ll be caring for a new pool, perhaps maintaining both. I understand the microprocessor in the robots ‘learns’ your pool? Maytronics says in its literature one robot is able to operate in different pools and is continually learning. I know a bit about neural computer design and used to mess around with OBDII car systems and it’s neat stuff, but there’s little to know about how Maytronics does it.

Anyone notice the cleaning approach improved over time, or robot avoided sticky areas—things like that? All I can see a pool robot being able to learn is pool 3D environment (location of walls, etc.) through inertial guidance (gyros, accelerometers) on the fly. I’d be interested to know it’s capability to hold a 3D rendering in memory, and if a firmware can be flashed for future improvements. I’m sure it’s got some capacity to do it?

I had a feeling you'd end up with the 300 for the cart alone. ;)

Mine arrives tomorrow, never been so excited about a vacuum cleaner before!
 
I'm thinking there's a little hyperbole to "continually learning". It "learns" like a Roomba in that it will figure out a perimeter over the course of a cleaning. It does not accumulate knowledge over repeated cleanings. Every day is Groundhog Day.

I have a robotic vacuum which does learn and map my house. Works great. I would love to have that functionality in a pool cleaner.
 
I have a robotic vacuum which does learn and map my house. Works great. I would love to have that functionality in a pool cleaner.

I imagine that it does so with electronic perimeter beacons, so it can triangulate its position based on reference points. A pool robot knows to stop (or climb) when it hits a vertical surface and "learns" that way but doesn't "remember" where it is between uses because it has no fixed reference points. I suspect that some future version of a pool robot could add fixed external beacons to make for a more efficient cleaning cycle.
 
I agree with above (@Geebot) - the intelligence is overblown. Mapping a 2-D floor space would require infrared (IR) positional sensors to detect walls but IR does not work under water. Anything else would require very sophisticated image processing techniques that would be too costly for the retail pool market. These bots simply detect orientation and then make one time calculations based on robot speed. Very simplistic algorithms.

But honestly, who cares? These robots do an amazing job cleaning....
 

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If my robot can clean my 16x36 pool, with no effort on my part, other than the push of a button, then I don’t give a rip how smart or dumb it is. It just works!
 
Same thing happened to me. I ended up having fedex deliver to my local Walgreens the next day. Just Incase I missed it again. Worked out good. Fedex usually gives me a window from morning to end of day.
 
I know I'm in the wrong thread but this is by far the most active Dolphin thread in this section. I finally purchased a Dolphin Active 30 after much deliberation and searching for a deal. I even hand vacuumed my pool for almost three months while I waited (okay the first month doesn't count because the plaster was new) and hated it after the second time. I wound up purchasing a lightly used unit on eBay for $541. It did not include the cart but the unit was in really good condition. Probably the same condition it would be in had I bought it new and ran it for a week. I am wondering if it was a warranty replacement or something because the power supply and cord looked brand new and were zip tied together really nicely.

I'm posting this for a couple of reasons. First, I seem to have all of the features of an Active 30i, except for the LED color change. The entire app is functional which I'm pretty happy about. I'm not sure how that happened but I can manually steer it, use all the scheduling features, delay features, and all cleaning modes and times. I'm really hoping that it doesn't somehow remember it's not an "i" model next time I use it since I am posting this because I like having all of the features. I haven't found the manual steering features to be particularly useful but I really enjoy having the extra features, such as floor only and quick clean.

The second reason I am posting this is because I have been very happy with the way it cleaned, even in the floor only and quick clean modes. It does sometimes still climb the walls, but others realizes it is climbing and then goes back down. Yesterday it cleaned out a bunch of grass that must've flown in on Saturday after mowing that I didn't even know was down there.

Regardless, I think this was a solid purchase and sure beats the pants off of the manual vacuum. My wife thought I was crazy and told me multiple times I should have just gotten the pressure side cleaner, associate plumbing, and booster pump that was part of the standard package. That was all removed from the build and gave us a $1500 credit. After I let her know that I would've been asking her to go and turn on the pump and make sure the pressure side cleaning was running since we have no pool automation, she decided it was well worth it. :p

One more thing, the manual says that the power supply is IP54 certified. This means it can withstand "low pressure water spray from any direction." I know a lot of people here say it isn't waterproof, which it isn't, but rain should not be an issue for it if it happens to rain while you have it out.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-a1f3ca4cbd5e80b1a87ffb41bfb3e76e-c
 
After some shipping problems with FedEx, mainly missing the first delivery, waiting at home ALL day for 2nd attempt at delivery on friday (and no one showed), then, electing delivery to office, I finally got the call to pick up at the Fed ex store today and my new baby is home!

It's impressive to watch this thing, it immediately made a run for the shelf and went to work on the tile line.

I'm entertained, and so is my pup!::epds:::batman:

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Great job Greg, they are kind of jaw dropping to watch. Really neat tech.
I know it matters little but I had to step away and quell my gadget lust and really think which unit I’d be happy with, and when it was a necessity. So close to pulling the trigger, but I really couldn’t decide for sure-lots going on in my world beyond the concrete pond. I feel if I went for the S300, I’d just regret not splurging for the “i”, really clever price structure if ya ask me.
I have my in floor cleaner, installed new filter cartridges, took a swim to do season end maintenance on the heads, and I felt like I was cheating on her for a bit. Swim season usually ends for me, as I won’t set foot in water below 85, end of Sept. We’ll see what the motivation is that gets the credit card out-windy season or gadget fever. I’m glad I was involved in this discussion as I’m certain I want one of the Active or S series models.
 
One more thing, the manual says that the power supply is IP54 certified. This means it can withstand "low pressure water spray from any direction." I know a lot of people here say it isn't waterproof, which it isn't, but rain should not be an issue for it if it happens to rain while you have it out.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-a1f3ca4cbd5e80b1a87ffb41bfb3e76e-c

I've had my S300 for over 3 years. For years 1&2 we puled it out after each use, cleaned the filters and rolled the caddy back to the shed. Then ... we started getting a little less rigid about putting it back after each use. This past season it's been in the pool more often than not and the caddy/power supply have been outdoors much of the time, including frequent rainstorms. We are undoubtedly tempting fate, but it hasn't had a hiccup yet. I DO NOT recommend this as a standard practice.
 
Great job Greg, they are kind of jaw dropping to watch. Really neat tech.
I know it matters little but I had to step away and quell my gadget lust and really think which unit I’d be happy with, and when it was a necessity. So close to pulling the trigger, but I really couldn’t decide for sure-lots going on in my world beyond the concrete pond. I feel if I went for the S300, I’d just regret not splurging for the “i”, really clever price structure if ya ask me.
I have my in floor cleaner, installed new filter cartridges, took a swim to do season end maintenance on the heads, and I felt like I was cheating on her for a bit. Swim season usually ends for me, as I won’t set foot in water below 85, end of Sept. We’ll see what the motivation is that gets the credit card out-windy season or gadget fever. I’m glad I was involved in this discussion as I’m certain I want one of the Active or S series models.

I agree with their pricing strategy. If the i was $150 more I probably would have settled with the S300. Didn't want to have any regrets for another $100...

Greg - Your backyard looks great!
 

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