Freenove Bipedal Robot Kit for Raspberry Pi Pico W (Included) (Compatible with Arduino IDE), LED Matrix Expressions, Obstacle Avoidance, Colorful Lights, Buzzer, Speaker, App

Freenove have come a little late to the bipedal robot party, there are plenty of others that have been around for a while. However, this is the first Raspberry Pi Pico powered bipedal robot that I have come across and that, for me, is a major plus. The Pi Pico is a much more powerful microcontroller than the Arduino Nano that powers most competitors that I have looked at. The Pi Pico runs faster and has more memory so has more possibilities for future expansion. The reason that I have said it is more than just a robot kit is that the tutorial covers each component and how to use it on its own before bringing it all together to give the fully featured robot. This means an opportunity to learn how to use the pi pico with servos, a buzzer, how to play mp3 files through a speaker, controlling leds, reading analogue voltages, using an led matrix and reading distances with an ultrasonic sensor. It also covers sending and receiving information via ir and Bluetooth. The robot parts themselves are made of laser cut acrylic, which for some parts, as far as I can guess, has been heated and folded to create more complex shapes. As with other freenove kits, the instructions for assembly are clear and easy to follow, although mounting servos can be a little tricky. I find it easiest to hold the nuts in place with a little bit of tape, before positioning and screwing together. (I have included a photo of a servo with nuts held with tape, at this point the bolts can be removed, the servo positioned and then assembled with the nuts held in position by the tape) It is important to follow the tutorial step by step. I had problems with the Bluetooth initially, but this was down to accidentally missing out a critical step. As ever with Freenove products, the support they provide was excellent and I soon got to the bottom of my mistake. The finished robot is lot’s of fun with plenty of scope for further development, such as creating my own expressions for the LED matrix. The board has spare ports for extra servos, so I may consider adding some arms in the future.

As soon collaborations tool code runs robot start dancing on the other leg?

Where do I even start with this frustrating and ultimately disappointing product? While the hardware itself *could* have potential, but it leaves a lot to be desired. **Hardware Issues:** - The lack of multiple LEDs to differentiate between power sources (USB vs. battery pack) is a missed opportunity. - The soft button toggle switches are difficult to use, and the board's memory behavior is confusing—e.g. it's not always clear whether the system is on or off. I'm fairly certain my original RP2040 Pico board was damaged. The Arduino "shield" is rated for 9V DC, while the USB provides 5V DC. This discrepancy should have been addressed more clearly. Assembly is an absolute nightmare. The screws used are incredibly tiny—more suited for a watchmaker than anyone assembling this kit. The self-tapping screws into tough ABS plastic are a challenge, and there’s a real risk of stripping the heads, even with minimal force. Additionally, the servo gear wheels have holes that are either too small or too large for the provided screws. Even worse, there are extra, unnecessary holes in the gear wheels, which only adds to the confusion. **Software and Setup Issues:** - The process of uploading code was problematic. My board kept getting stuck in bootloader mode, and even after clearing the cache, the Freenove arduino board would hold onto the memory and execute code repeatedly. This often made the board a one-trick pony, constantly running programs I didn’t want it to. - The Arduino IDE screenshots in the manual didn’t match the latest version of the software, and when I tried using the version shown, it didn’t even align with the manual’s instructions. This inconsistency only added to the frustration. - My Windows 11 PC would occasionally recognize the port, sometimes not. The Arduino IDE could not even identify my Freenove board or its drivers. The manual doesn’t provide any useful guidance on how to resolve this either. **Tutorials and Documentation:** The tutorial appears to have been hastily written, with some sections completed by someone who might have had an idea of how to create a tutorial, only to be replaced by someone who clearly had better things to do. It’s filled with unnecessary code and unclear instructions. A prime example is the 10 pages of Python code required to calibrate the servos—overcomplicating a process that should have been simple. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this "kit" as an introduction to STEM or robotics. It’s frustrating and difficult to work with, leaving you with more questions than answers. If this were an assignment for first-year undergraduates, it would force them to learn more about microcontrollers, but at the cost of a deeply frustrating experience. I would advise tutors and colleges to take note before recommending this as a project otherwise yeah let them sweat over it!

Made well enough, but not likely to become a terminator.

Cool robot, decent enough instructions. Only Issue I have is the socket for the battery power is not soldered on to the board correctly. I've been able to push the socket down to make a connection and test that things are working but I need to buy a soldering iron to fix this. I contacted amazon and they suggested returning for a refund - I don't want to have to build a second robot though - it took a few hours.

Its a waste of money buying this as installing and configuring is a pain as instructions are very very poor with mistakes. Very hard to understand errors. I've been trying to set it up for last 3 or 4 months but no luck. I've given up.

Rubbish

Raspberry Pi Pico W を使ってサーボモーター、超音波距離測定、LED マトリクス表示、LED カラー表示、サウンド再生などをロボットを動かしながら勉強できます。PDF の説明書は英文ですが、難しい英文ではないので、英文読解の勉強にもなります。英語が苦手なら Google 翻訳などを使って日本語にもできます。これからマイクロコントローラーを使って何か作りたい方の学習素材としては良いのではと思います。ただ残念なのは ADC のところで、電圧値の読み込み結果がほぼ０Vで期待した値になりません。これは基板の不良のようです。この価格でこれだけの内容を試せるのはお得だと思います。細かいネジなどは予備が１，２個入っていますので、落としてなくしても良いように配慮されています。

Viene completo.

Compliqué a installer

For me, the is a great beginner robotic kit to start out with for those looking to learn either about robotics in general or the Raspberry pi or both. Good thing about this kit is it does come with a couple extra parts like a spare servo and spare screws just in case. The only downside was one of the legs cracked where the servos go, but I was a bit lucky that it only cracked where I was able to get the servo screwed in and used a little glue to fix it. The tutorial is downloaded which is a good thing in a sense as its almost 200 pages long to include the setup of hardware and software but the various things that the robot can do. Although the instructions could be a bit clearer than it is.

The instructions are vague and unnecessarily complicated. I had several problems with calibration which I was not able to resolve even after daily emails with support for a week. I would not recommend this to anyone that doesn't have a degree in computer science. I don't know the qualifications of the people writing all of the positive reviews. I have been dabbling with computers since the days of Commodore and Radio Shack TRS-80. I have also assembled five computers from Sunfounder and didn't experience anything like I did with the BiPedal robot.