SUNFOUNDER Raspberry Pi Smart Robot Car Kit - PiCar-S Block Based Graphical Visual Programming Language Line Following Ultrasonic Sensor Light Following Module Electronic Toy with Detail Manual

First thought, wow this sounds amazing. Oh, no instructions included. Okay, found an instructional Pdf so printed the 80 page instructions. Finally sit down and they are the wrong ones but didn't realise until the top peices looked different, it says picar-S all over the instructions and looked the part so.... I go back online and download an app called ManualsLib and turns out everything I had done so far is wrong. Start again. It better work after all this! I will update when or if done. Oh and all the parts are covered in paper so that was FUN! Update: with the instructions on the app we successfully built the car and it is ace.

The car is well produced from excellent components. It needed some time and effort to construct but it wasn't difficult ( but was too difficult for 8 year old to do on his own). The PDF manual is not as clear as it could be both re: construction and programming (especially if you don't have too much knowledge of Python). Once constructed, it needs connection to computer/terminal etc to be able to make it run but have now made it run in one of it's modes at startup which makes it more fun for the grandson. It is certainly giving me reason to build my coding skill with Python which is no bad thing. A more friendly manual would have made this a perfect project. This car is something for those who have had some previous experience of project building, not for beginners (there are too many questions to ponder).

Where to begin.....this is potentially awesome, requires some skill and patience in assembling thats for certain, my 15 year old super smart son is, as i type this, currently DIS-assembling the finished kit...why? Because its impossible to insert the HDMI cable into the raspberry Pi board as the front steering servo sits right in the way (bit of a design flaw there maybe?) It also requires 2 x 18650 batteries, I'd never even heard of these until today and after searching back on amazon i can find 100's of chargers, but not one single battery.....great

The product was easy to assemble and the downloaded pdf instructions were comprehensive. Sunfounder were excellent in solving a problem with one PCB (line follower unit) and sent a replacement which fixed the problem. This is an advanced system where the python code can be modified to create your own control features.

This is an excellent piece of kit, I was looking for something more advanced but similar to the new Lego mindstorms and this is definitely it! The assembly was fun and interesting to do! I will definitely be buying from SunFounder again!

Missing some parts

Seemed like a great project for my 10 year old. He assembled it fine, but then the servo would not work. It got real hot and is clearly defective, but my email to the manaufacturer has gone unanswered (no support). The servo would move just a little, but then gets really hot and does not follow commands. UPDATE: SunFounder sent me a replacement servo and now it works great. Note the manual is very sparse about explaining what is meant by Visual Programming. One must download and install DragIt from Sunfounder to do this. You can find the info online.

Perfect for my projects

This is a great product and the instructions to make it are straight forward. While I knew it required its own Raspberry Pi,, what was not clear was the type of batteries required. It is not standard AA or AAA. It requires two rechargeable type 18650 batteries. I found these on Amazon (after already getting the car) which has added 2 x$17 (per battery) and a $15 charger to the cost of the build. When you consider it also requires a Raspberry Pi, if you want to dedicate one to the car, this can be anywhere from $99 to $170, depending on where you buy it. This means a $45 robotic car has become in excess of A$200 to make and own.

Great product and easy to assemble but it did not have a raspberry pi

I just finished assembling the car and within the first hr of trying the dragIt programming, the servo motor starts tripping (making clicking sounds and not able to turn). I would like to understand if there is a better option than the plastic servo... or else I will have to try returning the whole thing.