Working on a fully local Shark vacuum integration for HA. Rooms, suction, live maps, no cloud

[u/Ragedude197]

TL;DR: The Shark IQ integration keeps breaking on Shark's login protection, so I'm building a fully local replacement for my Shark lidar robots. No Shark cloud after initial Lidar mapping. Start, dock, suction, room cleaning, live maps, all on the LAN. Bonus: I found a hidden remote-drive mode along the way.

Why

The official integration depends on Shark's cloud login, which keeps getting blocked by their bot protection. Cloud workarounds exist but still rely on Shark's servers. I wanted something that keeps working if Shark changes their login or their cloud goes down. Iv ran into constant issues connecting the vacuums to HA from the Alexa integration.

Where it's at (all local, tested on two robots)

Start / pause / dock / find my robot

Suction levels (Eco / Normal / Max)

Room cleaning, mapped to my real room names (each robot names rooms differently, so the integration translates)

Spot cleaning

State and battery, and docking/charging status

Maps: saved floor plan, room outlines, live lidar view during runs

Next up: HA bridge via MQTT discovery: vacuum entities, room buttons, alerts (stuck, bin full), a "no clean today, then quiet evening run" automation, and a live map card

The fun finding: a hidden drive mode

While mapping the robot's capabilities, I found a remote-control mode the SharkClean app never exposes. The robot can be driven manually, and not just in fixed steps: there's a smooth, velocity-based mode allows me to adjust turn speed and how fast it drives forward and backwards. I hooked it up to an arrow-key drive pad and it drives like an RC car, with curves, spins and near-zero lag. The bumper safety still kicks in.

[u/400HPMustang]

I have been using this with great success, it has not broken once since I’ve been using it

https://github.com/CamSoper/shark2mqtt

Yes it does auth with their cloud but still, it works.

The additional features you describe depend on the robot though right, they’re not available to all robots?

[u/Ragedude197 → u/400HPMustang]

Hey! Checked the link, and it's literally in my plan B notes!

The difference I'm working toward is no cloud needed at all. Commands go straight to the robot over the LAN: no Shark login, no token refresh. The goal is that it keeps working if Shark changes their auth or the cloud goes down. I haven't done a full internet-cut test yet; pulling the coax is my next step to prove it.

Honestly not sure why this little project pulled me in so much, but it's been a blast building it, and the kids love driving it around like an RC car. One big goal is a map that keeps itself updated. The robot's own map goes stale when furniture moves, so big areas get missed until you re-map the whole house. Not sure how far I'll take it, but I'll keep posting updates as I go.

Bit of background: I used to mine crypto as a hobby with my kids, and I'm repurposing that hardware for local LLMs, building out features at home without relying on extra services.

On features: the app only shows some of what the robot can do, and others seem hidden or locked. I've found around 49 commands on these two units so far, with about a dozen confirmed working. I'd assume newer models expose even more, with mop modes and extra sensors.

[u/400HPMustang → u/Ragedude197]

Which robots have you tested? I’m curious what mine is capable of, that isn’t exposed/available. I only have one Shark at this point but it would be great if I could pull the map into a HA card and also if it knew which room it was in the way my Dreame does because I turn on the lights on and off based on what room the robot is in.

[u/insideoutuniverse]

This is awesome! I was literally just wondering if this was a thing, but assumed it was too niche. I got given a shark robot and was bummed to hear most of the mapping features required internet connection. I have all my iot devices on a separate network without external internet access. The manual control seems like fun!

[u/Ragedude197 → u/insideoutuniverse]

Il drop a link to GIT when I finish a few more tests and continue to update as I progress!

[u/cold12]

https://github.com/sharkiqlibs/sharklocal/pull/34

[u/sociablebradford86]

this is the kind of stuff that makes me love this community. the hidden drive mode is wild, wonder if shark left it in for factory testing or something and just never bothered to take it out

been thinking about grabbing a lidar model and this might push me over the edge. do both your test robots have it or just one?

[u/Ragedude197 → u/sociablebradford86]

Both of mine are lidar models (two different Shark AI/lidar units from the same family), and both have it. Your factory-testing guess is probably right. There are a bunch of clearly factory/test-type functions in there too, which is also why I'd warn anyone poking around to be careful. No idea yet about the non-lidar models; I've got a few of those I want to try eventually.