AdeeptRaspTank WiFi Wireless Smart Robot Car Kit for Raspberry Pi 4 3 Model B+/B, Tank Tracked Robotics with 4-DOF Robotic Arm, OpenCV Target Tracking, Video Transmission with PDF

All in all, a great little robot with some nice electronics. Entertained us for about a day and halfto build it.- Ignore the flimsy instruction sheet that comes, and download the pdf with the full instructions https://www.adeept.com/video/static1/itemsfile/Tutorial_12-11.pdf-Download the full raspian image (gui and all) as the lite one doesnt work (missing some packages)you can setup the wifi network using the file suggested on the instructions direct to the sd card to avoid keyboard/monitor being needed- On Windows use notepad++ to write the wifi file to sd, normal windows notepad puts line feeds in and while it looks ok in windows, the pi will not read itTheir script that downloads everything and sets it all up works perfectly if you use the full gui raspian imageattach the servo cables as instructed right at the start to get the pi working and allow it to set the servos to centre. Dont worry about the led light wiring until the diagrams later which show it explicitlywe snapped a servo collar piece when removing it from the laser cut sheet - dont worry there are 3 extra ones providedWhen assembling the final side pieces (large plates) turn robot on its side, to allow you to balance the nut in the opening to screw then on otherwise nut will drop out and inside the robot, otherwise you will need about 5 hands.-Right motor is motor 2, left is motor 1 - insert cables at the same time as you attach all the servos during final nightmare assembly. pass the servo cables through the top plate before connecting then to the board or you will have to undo them from the board.- Our camera had the ribbon at the bottom rather than the top, else image is upside down its plenty long enough to bend gently over the top of the camera bracket- Use the servo extender cable for the gripper servo or the wires are not long enough to assemble the robot fullycable management is a nightmare, especially care with the camera ribbon as its fragile, and tucking the servo cables down the sides of the pi to allow the top place to be placed in the right placeIf you find the motors drive really nice, but the servos are really slow and jerky, check one of them isnt jammed against the end of its travel - the servos will use all their strength to hold position regardless of whether the joints allow it, and will use all the servo power - shut off robot and check all servos can move by hand (you cant do this with the power on as they hold fast in place)Elbow and shoulder motors seem blended together as there is no separate elbow control buttons, this still works though but you cant manually direct the elbow motor. It cant really grip anything substantial, so forget having it bring you a beer.- Arm up/down seems to be the camera/ultrasonics on ours, 'hand up/down' is the shoulder and elbow- The collars that attach the driven wheels to the motors have their holes cut too large for the spindle on the motors, resulting in it being hard to centre then on the shafts, they could have made the hole smaller and only needed one grub screw, so the driven wheels look a little buckled when they turn - not a major issue.- Dont forget that the SD card is buried deep within the bowels of the robot, you wont be able to get it out after assembley!Software is actually quite advanced, there is scope here for hours of development and tweaking, on a great little fully featured platform.

WARNING! This is not plug and play!The robot comes in tens of pieces that need to be assembled.Electronic components, plastic components and software needs to work together.That is the issue, the software part of the build. In order for this robot to work you rely on third party software in order to connect remotely to the Raspberry pi. You connect via a protocol called SSH. I am a Compsci student so I like to tinker with hardware and software but the whole process of connecting to Raspberry Pi was really difficult.So long story short I haven't finished the assembly and software installation...I have better things to do.In conclusion: I wouldn't recommend this product.So you pay 80 something £ for this kit and on top of that you will need a Raspberry Pi which will add another 120£ at least, plus an additional set of 18650 batteries plus a charger for them, so another 50£. So you will end up spending close to 300£ for something that will frustrate you over the top because they have neglected the most important part of this product which is software.If they would provide a better, integrated solution for this, like a downloadable image of raspbian with all the settings enabled and with a Python program as the interface then, yeah, I would give it a go, but as it is now, No. A strong No.Have a nice day!

Ok, where shall I start …… first thing, don’t buy this raspberry pi robot as a birthday or Christmas present for little Jonny (or Joanne) if they expect it to be assembled the same day.We bought the raspberry pi robot for our grandson on his 11th birthday. He already had a raspberry pi and had some basic understanding of it. With some excitement we started to assemble the robot. It soon became obvious that you need the skills of a watchmaker, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer and a computer scientist ! Unfortunately I only met one of these critiria.In all, it took many hours (20+) over several weeks to build the robot. With the robot fully assembled, we needed the help of a computer scientist (my son) to load the software into the raspberry pi to make it all work. The finished product was quite impressive although we haven’t explored all the features of the robot.Personally I would say that this product is suitable for anyone with the relevant skills (see above) but not for an 11 year old child!Here are a few things to consider if you decide to purchase the robot:1. The instructions are in English but probably translated from Chinese.2. Not immediately obvious, but you need to remove the protective cover from all the plastic parts before use use them. Not easy, but we found that with a small flat bladed screw driver you can scratch away a small area of the film away and this will help to remove the rest of the film.3. There are some fiddly nuts and blots to assemble. You will know them when you have to fit them. Tip - use some bluetac attached to a small flat bladed screw driver and attach the nut to the bluetac and use the nut attached to the screw driver to lower the nut into position.4. Servo motor connections - I couldn’t find how the connect them to the circuit board. Best way is to connect them one at a time and work out which set of pins on the circuit board drive which motor.5. Loading the software on the raspberry pi - get a computer scientist to do this for you 😀,Thanks for reading. Stumpgrinder.