Micro:Rover Kit for BBC micro:bit (V2 Included), Obstacle Avoidance, Light-tracing, Line-tracking, Remote Control, Playing Melody, Colorful Lights, Example Projects, Blocks and Python Code

I've been using the BBC micro:bit for a few years now and have found this to be the most capable robot featuring the micro:bit so far. You'll need to buy yourself an 18650 rechargeable battery but they're cheap and easy to get hold of. The micro:rover takes care of charging and has a battery level indicator as well as a whole host of sensors, a buzzer and 12 LEDs. I was also surprised to find how much help was available from Freenove online with PDFs manuals available for Microsoft MakeCode and Python coding. You can also download videos showing each of the sketches in the manual running on the micro:rover. The micro:rover is great value for money since the BBC micro:rover is included in the price too.

I bought this for my son for Xmas. He's loving it and getting a lot of learning and enjoyment out of getting it to do some of the tasks.There have been some quality issues. When we tried it, one of the motors didn't work. I noticed that it had a dry solder connection from the board to the motor, which I was able to repair. I'm disappointed that this was not picked up as a final quality check. The connector from the MicroBit to the Rover is quite flimsy and we've managed to break it already. My son was heart-broken so we've just received a replacement I bought for him as an additional purchase (which confusingly, came in a differently coloured box!). We've tried running some of the programs from the old bug on this one, but there seems to be an issue that we're still getting to the bottom of.All in all, when it is working, it's a great educational piece of kit. Currently, it is giving my son a lesson in debugging to determine if the error is in code or hardware - which is a great life lesson for a budding engineer.

The media could not be loaded. Unlike other Freenove kits that I have built, the micro:rover requires minimal assembly.The BBC micro:bit is a great little device for an introduction to computers and coding. It's well worth exploring the micro:bit on its own before using with the kit.There are loads of places on the net describing other micro:bit projects also.Once you do place it in the kit along with an 18650 battery (I use nubattery.co.uk) there's plenty of new things to explore, with motors, leds, an ultrasonic sensor and infra-red line following sensors.The accompanying manual, along with downloadable code, has projects covering all the different features culminating in a program that enables you to control all of these features from your phone.My rover initially had issues with following the black line on the supplied printed oval circuit, but I contacted freenove support and they sent me a modified program that functioned perfectly.I have the kit that includes the micro:bit, but I think it might be more economical to source that separately.In my opinion this is a great introduction to programming and robots.