SunFounder Picar-X AI Robot Smart Car Kit for Raspberry Pi 5/4/3B+/Zero 2w, Openclaw LLMs ChatGPT/Gemini/Grok, Voice&Video Recognition, Python, Scratch, Camera (RPI NOT Included)

This robot car kit was lots of fun to build, and now I'm using it to practice python programming and TCP data communications. It brought back the fun I had as a kid building Heathkits. But unlike those kits, once you're finished building this robot car, you can make changes and improvements. The hardware has extra pins where you can attach new sensors, actuators, etc. For example, I'm planning to put some cheap radar sensors (RCWL-0516 which are less than $2 each) on my robot to supplement the ultrasonic sensor that it comes with. The robot software is also easy to "hack" (modify). This would be a good project for a child who wants to learn about electronics and computers, but they should have an adult (with some technical experience) nearby to supervise. There are some tiny parts, and some (like ZIF connectors) are delicate, so you need to be careful. But it comes with good instructions (printed and on-line) and screwdrivers. (You have to supply the Raspberry Pi.) Definitely a good project, and I'm amazed at the low price. It was an excellent way for me to use the Raspberry Pi 3B that was sitting in my drawer.

Low-end platform, cheap servos, plastic joints. Gimbal is terrible. However, reliable aluminum body and excellent Robot Hat board make this platform a good starting point for further improvements

Says works with raspberry pi 4 but only has camera ribbon cable for pi 5. Build on hold until I get another $10 cable. Hope this is the only issue. UPDATE , my apologies , another cable was in the box. Got a quick response from vendor to resolve just from my review. Everything went together with no problems. I also added a mount and a small Elecrow 5" touchscreen on top. All the Sunfounder You tubes videos from Robojax also a big help. It took a lot of time to do it but I'm new to python and all the AI software. Learning a lot and hope to get grandkids interested it it

Still using it to today works amazing no problem setting up

Most recent update: tldr: All in all, it is really cool when it works, but it is time consuming to both put together and then locate the OS image, then download and configure the software. Add to that the possibility that you get it figured out and working, and then the camera breaks (like what happened to me) and you are taking your chances. If it wasn't for the camera going out, and no way to swap it out, I'd keep it. The company was kind enough to give me a refund without expecting me to try and put this genie back in the bottle/box it came in or anything. Hopefully in future products they will make it easier to repair/switch out the camera (the Achilles heel I just couldn't get around), get some led headlights on it, and make the app easier to choose between the internal & external wifi adapters so you can add one with a long antenna, which seems to make the video in the app come in at a higher framerate. And also downloadable configured images for each model of raspberry pi would be a very welcome and time-saving addition to this. I'm not sure if they could, but it would be nice to get a working wake-word before sending video and audio to OpenAI for processing, like 'Alexa' or 'Siri' or 'OK Google'' does, so you could leave it on without chewing up your bill while it makes the robot wake up and spout nonsense. Update (original): I finally get everything going, lights, better wifi, then for no reason, the camera quits. Since it gets put together with rivets, I can't just unscrew anything to do anything. Now it's totally useless, just errors out. What a waste of my time and money! Beware these things can't be easily taken apart and repaired! Notes: I couldn't use the HDMI on the pi after completing assembly. Remote access through ssh or vnc if you chose the desktop installation, is the only access. If you leave it running with the GTP 4o on, it will get a message (From OpenAI?) every few minutes like, "Thanks for the video", which wakes it up to start talking nonsense and leaving you wondering why. Super irritating. I can't figure out how to get GPT4o to work free either. This opens the question of "Do you really want OpenAI to have all this video information of the insides of your home?" Can they mine this information for marketing purposes? What would really be nice is if they'd have images for the different pi models available to download, instead of making everyone painfully install the same thing from scratch. If I buy a wifi router, do I have to painfully download the OS and software, & install it before I can configure it? A simple thing to do, yet they don't. The camera is absolutely terrible in low light situations, not even that low. They really should incorporate cheap led headlights you can remotely turn on and off so you can see where the heck you're going. I installed the recommended OS, which has the full desktop, on a pi 3. The video feed is atrocious if you aren't practically directly next to it, following it around. Otherwise, you may occasionally get a frame or 2 after a few seconds, sometimes more. I ordered an external wifi adapter with a better antenna for it, hopefully that will help. If you have an extra pi laying around, and time to spend on this, and want to dive into python programming, or are gonna be happy with their remote control app - which actually makes this useable right away - this is for you. I wouldn't go out and buy a pi on top of this, because there is no guarantee that your python skills are ever gonna make this better. PS. MS Code locks up running on a pi 3 with desktop OS, don't bother.

It doesn't work as advertised

I bought this car a year ago. I needed a cheap robot to play around and get my hands dirty on AI and robotics. Due to allcthe things this car was compatible with, i chose this model over others and the price was perfect. This is what I can tell you after heavy usage, programing and a lot of play around: Sturdiness It is not the greatest when it comes down to parts. The servos can be break easily during assembly but not after everything is put together and the car is handled carefuly (dont drop it). Components are somewhat flimsy after assembly. Everything has held together perfectly fine for me, mostly because im an adult that is very careful when handling it. Quality The camera is awful quality due to low mega pixels but it worked straight out of the box; however, you can buy a better one for about 20 bucks. I tried an 8 mega pixels one and a 12 mega pixels one. Is not rocket science to find a RPi cam here on Amazon. They are cheap so I didnt mind. As far as parts, i loved the fact that there were a extra replacements parts, excluding the cables, servos, motors, and other more expensive parts. The tiny screws, etc., I dropped a couple during assembly so the extras come in handy. The hat works like a charm but the speaker on top is also bad quality. I used a bluetooth speaker instead since the AI model I trained, had an output that required a speaker. The battery that came with the car still charging 100% after a yr. Instructions Intructions were extremely clear on paper and online. I didnt felt lost while going through it and everything worked right after assembly because of it. Educational I build this car for coding, robotics and AI training purposes. I didnt want to go too deep into the matter but i wanted a project that included all. As someone that has very little knowledge in coding, and zero experience in robotics or training AI, this was a very nice learning experience! I troubleshooted, used vibecoding to create simple python stuff, and build my own AI model using free online tools around. Everything worked like a charm. There are also examples that are pre-built and available to download at their website. It is extremely simple; copy-paste commands to download them. Overall, I recommend this car if you wish to get your hands dirty and have a fun project. You will learn A LOT from it. The best part was creating my own AI model and training it, so ai can then add it to the car. At first I thought I needed a super computer to do so but free tools online from Google (not the search engine but the company itself) allowed me to create it from scratch in no more than 45 mins. I gave the car 4 stars just because im not a fan of the servos, which is a very important part, and also because some things feels flimsy and not holding on tight and sturdy. Is not an assembly issue. Is just how the parts sits by default. My build: Raspberry Pi 4, 4GB 128 microsd Replaced camera (very simple)

Great product, well packaged and documented kit. Was able to get it up and running on my rpi5 with no issues. Had a question / issue that support addressed with professionalism and patience (and ultimately I think a user error on my part - the small screws in the servo bag are all you need and not the pointy one on the printed sheet).

I had a small issue with the camera module, so I reached out to SunFounder support. Torres was super helpful and ended up sending me a new camera module, which solved the problem. Everything is working great now, and I’m really happy with the product quality!

nickel

Att bygga ihop robotbilen är ganska enkelt, och instruktionen är klar och tydlig. Därefter måste man installera ett antal olika komponenter i den Raspberry Pi man monterat in i bilen. Detta tog mig väldigt många försöka innan det lyckades, dels därför att man behöver använda en viss specifik version av Raspbian (Bookworm Legacy 64-bit), dels viktigt att man använder den senaste versionen av dokumentationen. När jag googlade råkade jag hamna på en äldre version, coh då funkade inte alla steg i installationen. När man väl tagit sig igenom installationen så visar det sig att robotbilen kan göra väldigt mycket kul saker. Att göra den röststyrd är lätt som en plätt, exempelvis, och det fungerar mycket bra! Det enda som jag kan klaga på är att den lilla kameran kräver mycket ljus, fullt dagsljus är nästan ett måste. Riktigt roligt blir det när man börjar experimentera med kopplingar mot AI-tjänster, som OpenAI och Gemini. Rekommenderas varmt till personer med lite Raspberry Pi-erfarenhet sen tidigare, mycket kul väntar!

Ein sehr gutes Set. Mit einem Raspi 4 und min 8 GB kann man über Python eine wunderbare eigene KI über Ollama aufspielen. Macht echt Spaß. Versand war schnell und gut.

しっかりしている。 フィジカルAIの勉強に使っている。