Review on 🤖 Smart Robot Car Kit with Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+/4B: Wireless WiFi/Bluetooth Control, Real-Time Image/Video, Path Planning & App Control by Victor Jack

I would like to use this review to leave some useful tips for others who are considering purchasing the product. First, note that the assembly instructions that came with the robot are essentially a link to a YouTube video of a woman building the robot from start to finish. There are some subtitles to help you understand what's going on. It takes about 28 minutes but took me about 4 hours to assemble. Not bad considering it was my first time. When you're done, you'll want to download an app to use the robot. I used one for iOS so I can't speak for Android or Windows clients. To be honest, the app could use a little work. It has a 5 second ad on startup which is annoying (I can write my own when I have time). But if all goes well, connect to the robot's Wi-Fi hotspot, launch the app and be able to connect and tell it to move with the joystick. Unless you have miraculously wired each motor to the correct connector, you may find that forward goes right, reverse goes forward, etc. You'll need to calibrate them by setting up command lines in the app. These are hexadecimal strings, e.g. FF000100FF. Change the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 until they match how you connected them. Poke around and you'll find that the video feed is pretty cool, but the camera can have all the right angles. Make sure the servo components are aligned right so the camera can move left and right (90 degrees) freely. Also, it may not lean fully forward. Do not be afraid! The camera itself is mounted on a pivoting base that you can manually adjust independently of the servos. At some point in your adventures, you might even write Python code to control your robot. You'll need to SSH to your Raspberry Pi using pi@192.168.1.1 (assuming your laptop is connected to the robot's WiFi hotspot). Alternatively, you can connect an HDMI cable and a keyboard to your Raspberry Pi and manually log in to the installed Ubuntu desktop. Please note that I changed the language and locale to English. I also reset the "root" and "pi" passwords here, so I can't be sure if those were the originals. There was one in the owner's manual, but I don't know if it was correct. In any case, at this stage you will find the menu items "Follow Line” and "Avoid Obstacles”, as well as Python scripts. For this you need additional sensors: (1) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078TZRGXF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (2) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product /B07B94C7KT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1(3) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GD2BWPY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1IRem) (1) You to follow the black lines on light surfaces. When it arrives, screw it into the front holes and connect it to the IR_L and IR_R pins with ribbon cables. You need to adjust the screw on each of them according to the distance the IR sensor wants to measure. Turn the screw until the red light no longer detects darkness on your floor. Point (2) are ultrasonic sensors, of which you only need one. However, you will need the wires from point (3) to properly attach it to pins 17/4. The sensor itself can be installed on the same part as the camera. Overall the price of this robot is perfect for my needs. I can control it with my phone, I can see what it sees, and I can write Python code to control it myself if I want to. A very cool toy for the price and overall I'm happy with the choice made and the learning experience. The seller is also very responsive.