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. I can't say enough good things about this kit... Although I definitely think it looks more like a cat than a dog.I saw a comment saying it took 3 or 4 hours. Well, I'd budget for more like a full day. We had it up and running in 12 hours with two hour long breaks for lunch and dinner. With younger kids you may want to aim for a weekend build just so you don't have to rush and you don't overwhelm them. We made a few mistakes along the way which is probably about par for the course and is an important part of the learning progress. All were easily rectified. I was building the kit with a 14 year old and a 16 year old. They did everything really, I was just there to supervise and explain and hopefully teach a bit. I work with computers but don't get me wrong, you don't need to be particularly techy to do the same. I'm not from a Linux background and I'm only just beginning to learn Python. (This was the first pi I'd used and I'm addicted now, I've bought a Pi400, another Pi4 and a Pi Zero for different projects since this one!) I do mainly BI and have done web front end development in a former life but, really, any competent adult could guide kids through the build... The tutorial is almost perfect. Just make sure you read it well and maybe try out some of the early steps yourself first to familiarise yourself with what's required.Don't forget, you need to buy the pi and the batteries separately. We used a Pi4B ad I got 20A "high drain" 3000mah 18650 batteries and charger. You might be better off with a different battery, I don't know, but these work. The batteries don't last for that long but long enough to get some good use before you have to charge them again. You also need a power supply for the pi and a micro sd card (plus reader). You can get that all on amazon or from the pi hut. I'd recommend getting the book "Official Raspberry Pi Beginners Guide" as it will get you up to speed quickly and it has lots of little projects you can do separately to the robot build. ***You need a good large hard surface to operate the robot. It's legs don't work well on carpet. The video I've attached shows it walking around a dining room table. It's a more satisfying build than the 4wd card I think. I bought the car for them to build on their own after we built the robot dog and they managed it with only a little extra help from me.Remember to be careful when you connect the ultrasonic sensor and the camera. If you put the connectors in the wrong way you could burn them out. The ultrasonic sensor on the $wd car got burned out when they plugged the connector in the wrong way - it was only £2 plus delivery for a replacement and I needed to place an order anyway so no worries.A friend of mine has a 6 year old who already builds tough lego projects and a petrol remote control car so I've recommended this kit to his dad. Never too early I reckon! Can't wait till my boy is old enough for these projects.*** Remember, this is not just a robot... You can simply plug use the power adapter and plug it into a monitor and it's a full desktop pc. You can install retropie on it and have every games console from the beginning of time to the Dreamcast running roms on it. You can use it as a programming workstation for learning and developing in multiple languages. You can even just use it for browsing the internet, watching videos on YouTube, word processing, etc, etc. It's such a versatile piece of kit.It has lots of good code on it. The controller android/iphone app is brilliant. Really cool. Shows you the camera view and allows you to remote control all the built in functions on the robot. And you can write programs for it! It has the ultrasonic sensor for obstacle avoidance and the LEDs and the buzzer can be incorporated into programs you write. I'm thinking of putting a speaker and microphone on it so we can voice automate it! We've barely even scratched the surface of what we can do with it. You can learn a great deal if you can imagine some cool things for it to do. I haven't even mentioned the facial recognition and the ball tracking.Python is a brilliant language for kids to learn. Maybe try some scratch with them before you get into too much python but that's all covered in the beginners guide book. This could be your kid's route into a whole new hobby, which could lead to a worthwhile career. Who knows! The world is your lobster!Buy it! Build it! Enjoy it! (I have absolutely no affiliation with the company! I'm just very impressed by what they offer here. I could write pages probably but I'll leave it there!)It's definitely more of a robot cat :) My cats agree.

I bought the Dog for my 8-year old son after we had some positive experience of the Freenove packaged kits.Overall, the RoboDog is 1) of high quality, 2) with the manual easy to construct, 3) the support is swift, 4) engaging to learn, and lastly, 5) an open platform suitable for extension.Thus, I'm very satisfied, the hardware components alone have a high value.The construction time is about 3-4 hours.The manual is detailed and explains everything in detail.The nuts/screws are nicely packaged in individual packages and labeled with pictures, it is fun to manufacture the robot using the materials. A little bit tedious to calibrate and mount the 13 servos.Removing the covers of the acryl elements we found easiest using fingernails.We followed the steps in the manual carefully comparing the result of each construction.I recommend checking the photos on the product page for the final organization of the cabling.The LCLEBM batteries (can be found here on Amazon) just work fine, the batteries can be charged in the Dog using the USB cable provided (but requires a USB power adapter).I had one question during the setp, the support was replying swiftly.The code on GitHub is under active development, but anyone has the potential to improve the (software) capabilities of the robo dog by tinkering with the provided (OpenSource) software.It provides a good basis to integrate machine learning (uses OpenCV) and building more sophisticated programs.The effective usage of the kit requires knowledge of programming (Python if the existing code base is extended), Linux, and the Raspberry Pi environment.I believe this can be learned effectively by 14+-year-olds otherwise an adult must support the development. Once the initial system is working, compared to standard toys such as Lego though, the potential of the Robo Dog kit is much higher as many sophisticated mini-projects come to mind.There are various I/O pins of the Raspberry pi available to augment the RoboDog even further!We are looking forward to the adventures that await by extending the program or adding new hardware capabilities (such as a mini speaker and making it bark).

The media could not be loaded. Absolutely amazing Robot Dog Kit. Very easy to assemble and load the programs. High quality materials, relay motors have metal casing and are made to last. There is nothing cheap about this product. It takes couple of hours to finish the Robot assembly and set up the Raspberry Pi with all the correct settings as well as programming the Robot. The instructions are easy to follow but needs to be followed carefully and cant be skipped.A perfect gift for anyone who loves electronics/robotics and an easy way for kids to get into the world of coding.The Robot Dog can perform a number of tasks such as:1. Walking Modes - Step Forward / Step backwards2. Step Left / Step Right3. Turn Left / Turn Right4. Play a Sound5. Recoganises Faces (different Face ID's can be added)6. Relax Mode7. Balance8. Different LED light modesWe can further program the Dog to perform a number of tasks, possibilities are endless.Very pleased with the product. I would highly recommend this kit.

I’ve had hours of fun with it. Lots of parts, everything is there including spare nuts, bolts, extra servo, etc, with excellent, detailed, instructions. I had a couple of queries I emailed in the evening which got answered by breakfast.