Freenove Mecanum Wheel Car Kit for Raspberry Pi 5 4 B 3 B+ Zero 2 W, Face Tracking, Line Tracking, Light Tracing, Obstacle Avoidance, App Control, Camera, Servo (Raspberry Pi NOT Included)

I'm a professional computer engineer with 30+ yrs experience who designs high end electronics, circuit boards and writes embedded software. I also help as a mentor on my daughters robotics team. It's no secret that I am a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi.For some time I've been looking for a kit that teaches how to integrate the Rpi and robotic hardware. This kit does all that and more.First a heads up - this is an engineering learning kit. It teaches the builder how to assemble a robot from lots of pieces, how to connect wiring between the Rpi and robot, how to write software for the Rpi that explains how to control things like the camera, ultrasonic sensor, drive motors and more. It also explains how to bring up a Rpi and how to log in remotely from a PC. Simply put, this kit is amazing. I also want to put in a plug for one of the most helpful books for learning about the Rpi and Linux - it is 'Exploring Raspberry Pi" by Derek Malloy https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01H2KNGX8&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_V5obGb6X7CV0QHere is an overview of what this kit has to offer:1. You build a fully functioning 4wd car from the pieces supplied in the kit. The instruction manual is well written and explains 90% of what you need to know. If you don't have any experience building things, then I suggest getting help.2. You learn how to test each function of the robot one at a time - this is really helpful because you learn what each sensor does and the software used on the Rpi to talk to it. This is really great because the python code for each sensor is explained so that you can modify it to learn more about how the software and sensors work. All software is provided and simply works. Impressive3. You learn about the Rpi and how to log in remotely - this is a key aspect of running this little computer and it helps you understand just how amazing the Rpi really is.4. The final part of the project is to fire up an app that gives you control over the robot and lets you drive it around, stream video, change the LED's and more. The app is either an iPhone or android app that you can download from the app stores or you can also run a Windows or Mac app.CONCLUSION:Simply put, this is a really great project. It is not a toy, but a intermediate robotics kit designed to introduce you to the world of robotics, computers and the Rpi. As someone who designs electronics for a living, this is one of the best kits I have seen. Highly recommended.

I purchased the Robot Car as fun project for my grandkids and as a part of their ongoing STEM Learning process. I must say that the car for the Amazon price is a great bargain. When it comes to assembling the car, the Youtube video and tutorial, along with lot of other Freenove and Raspberry Pi resources are big help and provide in assembling it. I must say I have lot of experience with assembling stuff and repairing, and after following the Tutorial I had no trouble completing the assembly. It was a difficult task for the grandkids given very small screws and care needed.Testing of the modules was pretty straightforward until I came to testing the camera. From my past experience, I was using PuTTy (SSH app to connect to the Raspberry Pi) and sometimes used the VNC also. But the camera test did not work when testing from Terminal window of PuTTy. I checked all connections (particularly the camera cable) and configuration details mentioned in the video and tutorial. Everything seemed correct. The "camera.py" test generated lots of errors when running it from Putty Terminal. I looked up Raspberry Pi support pages on camera and it mentioned trying "libcamera" app that comes with the OS. And that worked fine and generated camera images with any errors.The camera app mentioned in the tutorial still did not work. So I decided to seek help from Freenove support team. I sent initial email with the details of the problem I was having and the errors that I was getting. They came back quickly, in less than 24 hours, and asked for some pictures of camera connections and output from couple commands to check configuration. They told me to run the camera test from VNC (Terminal window in VNC instead of PuTTy). I repeated the test and it worked without any errors. They explained that the app needs come of the GUI and needs to be run from VNC. Anyway, the problem was resolved fairly quickly and I must say that the support and response time was excellent.I have been retired for a decade now and as IT professional previously I always used PuTTy. I am kind of disappointed about that. It is probably because of the way the Freenove app is written. For now the car is ready to complete testing different modes and for my grandkids to play with it and learn programming.

Pros:- Car works mostly as advertised- Fairly feature packed (motors, servos, camera, sensors, leds, line tracking, ultrasonic sensor, buzzer, etc..)- Instructions are fairly detailed with only a few weak points.- Software mostly works out of the box.- The server for connecting via an android app over wifi works, though the frame rate is slow and it is hard to control the car over it effectively.Cons:- This is very sensitive to the batteries you use. If your batteries cannot provide full voltage you may have trouble with the pi losing power at full throttle on the motors.- The camera and ultrasonic 'head' mount are connected via a separate piece that uses servos to allow it to move around. This is nice when the device is still, but leads to extremely unstable video when the car is moving because the mount is so weak.- Raspberry pi wifi out of the box drops a lot on battery. Turning off power managment for wifi helped immensely- Had to play with the motors to get them connected up in software correctly (doesn't match up with which ones are connected where).Overall this is a good base for a Raspberry Pi robot for those just getting started who knows there way around python and linux already.Some suggestions if you order this:* Read the supplied battery instructions in the freenove github website BEFORE ordering* Buy/Borrow a separate USB/USBc power supply for your Raspberry pi to use while setting up and testing.* Get a raspberry pi 4 vs an older model to get faster video