FREENOVE Robot Dog Kit for Raspberry Pi 5 4 B 3 B+ Zero 2 W, Walking, Self Balancing, Face Recognition, Ball Tracing, Ultrasonic Ranging, App Control, Camera, Servo (Raspberry Pi NOT Included)

The media could not be loaded. As a relatively new user of the Raspberry Pi, I was impressed by the setup instructions contained in the tutorial. It starts by explaining the differences between RasPi boards, what cables or adapters are needed, and how to setup and install software.I learned how to use the remote desktop, PuTTY and VNC Viewer to connect to my RasPi instead of using a separate monitor, mouse and keyboard like I had previously done.As a side note, I decided to use the RasPi 3B for this project since it is less expensive than the 4B model and it uses less power.By opening up the tutorial in one window on my laptop and the remote desktop (VNC) view of my RasPi in another, I was able to quickly copy and paste commands from the tutorial to the command prompt window.Concerning the hardware, the most tedious part was peeling the protective coating off of each of the acrylic pieces. The bolts and nuts were in individual, marked bags which made them very easy to locate. Acrylic pieces were not marked, but matching them up to the photos in the tutorial wasn't too difficult. I appreciate that there were some spare acrylic pieces as well as extra nuts and bolts.I thought the directions were simple to follow, but sometimes I had to recognize that only one or two fasteners were shown, when that particular part may require four to be installed. The photos helped a lot, especially when putting the servos together properly. I was able to overlook the minor Chinese to English translation errors because I knew what the text was trying to convey.Overall, I was quite impressed with my new Robo-Cat. I was expecting it to take a lot longer to assemble from other reviews I had read. Maybe that is because I have a lot of experience trying to decipher Air Force technical orders which were written by well-meaning engineers. Ha!Finally, my experience was made much more pleasant by using my magnetic screwdriver, tweezers, needle-nose pliers, and hobby vice.

This was a gift and it was I while before I collected all of the required additional components--FAR more than the bare Raspberry Pi I received with it. If you haven't used a Raspberry Pi previously you will likely need an appropriate power supply, a micro-SD card and micro HDMI to HDMI cable/adapter.Initial setup of both the Raspberry Pi and its interface with your controlling device(s) is much easier when you connect monitor, keyboard and mouse Raspberry. You will also need lithium ion batteries and charger in a size (18650 with or w/o "button top") that has almost no chance of local availability.The dog is VERY finicky about surface! Pile carpet = impossible. Ceramic tile = fair to poor depending upon the width and depth of the grout lines. Hardwood = fair to good. Laminate = poor to fair. Vinyl/asphalt = good to excellent. Smooth concrete (basement/garage) = excellent. Rough concrete = excellent but certain to damage the little "teeth" in the hard acrylic feet that provide the friction/grip. Smooth, unfinished plywood = perfect.While this kit certainly serves as a fair introduction to robotics and especially robotic control (as in the actual programming of such and not just supplied "tricks" and basic operation) only an extremely precocious youth below their mid teens is likely in my estimation to successfully assemble and operate the kit without considerable assistance.I found the protective adhesive paper on both sides of the acrylic body pieces very difficult to remove--impossible for me start with my fingernails and surprisingly difficult with the common x-acto blade that typically works very well in such applications. The acrylic is obviously laser cut so perhaps such makes the edges particularly difficult to "start."STUDY THE INSTRUCTIONS WELL!!!! There are three separate tasks--hardware preparation, software installation/setup in both the host (controller) and client (robot dog) and assembly of the robot itself. You will work at these three tasks simultaneously at times.Assembly instruction for the physical robot and its hardware are based almost purely on a sequence of illustrations. I've worked with such instructions many times. These are easily in the bottom third of quality. I made a few assembly errors one of which required significant disassembly. The problem as I saw it was not related to the complexity of the construction but the lack of clarity in the illustrations to include the full scope of a single step and proper orientation of some pieces.The three-conductor ribbon cable serving the LED light module on mine had a reversed connector on one end. I noticed the problem during assembly as the wire colors did not match the illustration at one end. I didn't know if it was a problem with the instructions or the cable until testing when the LED module proved dead. I wrote the email address in the instructions to have a reply the next morning. I was given instruction on how to remove the conductors from the connector but unfortunately a solder burr on one of them damaged the connector during disassembly as it was "stuck" compared to the rest. I again wrote to have a reply the next morning that a new cable was being shipped. It came from China as I suspected and took about two weeks.Otherwise the general quality of the materials seems good for something of this nature--a slightly glorified toy. The surprisingly short safe running time of three minutes doesn't say much for the durability of the servos but the "next step" in still "toy" robot quality involves a pretty much exponential increase of price.Nearly everything assembles with tiny bolts and nuts provided in somewhat excess quantity. While highly dexterous my fingers are very large yet I had no undue problem with the tiny hardware. The seemingly far too long bolts used in some places are so long to make them reasonably easy to access. Many of the pieces have tiny ridges to aid in positioning nuts making it reasonably easy to install particularly difficult connection with the bolt beneath. Even with nothing to hold down the tiny nut but gravity and not perfectly upside-down you can thread the bolt through it with far less frustration than you may imagine. This construction means that you can easily and repeatedly assemble and disassemble the robot without damage. An important exception to this construction are gears that attach to the servo pinions. Made of white nylon like the pinions and all the rest of the gears, they attach with sheet metal type screws. These gears take a LOT of pressure to push onto the pinions yet the servos feel rather flimsy and not able to take the pressure. The gear is often installed after the servo with things so positioned to make it even more difficult to press the gear onto the pinion without forcing and almost certainly damaging something. The mounting screw will fully seat the gear--the first time you assemble. Do not expect the same degree of such "pull down power" should you need to reassemble! One of mine is perilously close to becoming a full-blown "spinner" with little or no holding power.

I have been looking to build this Robot Dog Kit since I first heard that it was going to be available. For the price, it is as sophisticated as robots costing more than twice as much (even after including the cost of a Raspberry Pi board and two 18650 batteries which are NOT included in the kit). It has video facial recognition, can follow a red ball and can be controlled by a smart phone APP.I have built other Freenove robot kits and it is no surprise that there are excellent help resources available if you need it. There is even a business card with an email address for customer support which is very responsive and helpful if you should need assistance.The kit just arrive and it has quality parts that are packed very well, metal geared servos, a proprietary Raspberry Pi adapter board with a built-in battery holder, a calibration positioning diagram, a manual and operating software which is provided online via a link.Yes, you must use your own Raspberry Pi board (most models are supported) and purchase two 18650 Li-ion batteries (the type required are specified in the documentation About_Battery.pdf which provides some source links) but these are readily available on eBay and at the 18650 battery store. By policy these batteries are not sold by Amazon. Yes, these batteries are not at your local hardware store but can easily be found on the Internet, unlike what some reviewers have said of 18650 batteries used in other kits.Besides the experience of building the robot, be prepared to learn a little about Raspberry Pi and Python (NOTE: You do not have to learn Python programming in order to operate the Robot Dog as the code is provided). The resources identified in the manual provide links to the complete operational code for the Robot Dog.I highly recommend Freenove kits and thus far I am sharing my first impressions of the Robot Dog Kit and look forward to sharing more after I have it up and working as a functional Robot Dog.