ACEBOTT 5DOF Smart Robot Arm Car Kit, 4WD Remote Control Car Compatible with Arduino/Python/Blockly Programming Project/STEM Education/Science Coding Kit for 12+ Teens and Adults Unique Gifts

Excellent kit. I wouldn’t say it’s right for under 10 or 12 years old to do independently but it is not overly complex. It’s just tough enough to make you feel like you’ve accomplished something when you’re done. Electronically it’s great. And since it’s Arduino you can take that side of things as far as you want. Two thumbs up from me. Good luck.

When it was shipped, it was missing a key piece to the robot and we don't seem to be able to find the piece on the ACEBOTT website. The piece is the 'trace sensor' and it is the key part to the robot. So currently, I am out about $140 due to a missing piece with no way to replace it.

The part of the arm was broken , we requested to replace it but didn’t get the reply yet . The main robot was easy to assemble for 8 years old

I'm a kid in my 50's and thoroughly loved this. My dad brought home an Apple ][+ computer when I was 12 years old and I become obsessed. It turned in a 40+ year career for me. I think all kids should be exposed to a few STEM projects - you never know what might trigger a lifelong passion or career. Worst case, your kid is not interested and you are out ~$100. I had never heard of the company ACEBOTT, but I would suggest taking a look at their website. They are really trying to bring robotics and programming to the young masses. They have great products, software, tutorials, videos, and education programs for schools. This specific kit is a bundle of two products. It contains their base Smart Robot Car (QD001) plus the Robot Arm Expansion Pack (QD007). Honestly, if you are on the fence at all, I would skip this and just buy the base Smart Robot Car (QD001) for much less money. You can always buy the Robot Arm expansion pack or one of the other expansion packs later. I found the kits really fun to build. I spent about 2 hours on the base car and almost 4 more hours upgrading it to use the robot arm. They have Lego-like instructions on their website as well as instructional videos on YouTube. Once assembled, you can freely program them to do whatever you want. ACEBOTT has their own program call ACECode, but you can also use other programs such as the Arduino IDE or Microsoft MakeCode. The ACECode software is a great place to start, and it includes a bunch of sample apps to get your robot going right away. The ACECode program is great for newbies. You can use their drag-and-drop "blocky" interface to build apps with little knowledge about programming languages. However, there is a window on the side that shows the resulting underlining C code or Python code that is being built as you drag the building blocks around. It's a brilliant way to teach programming - over time, users can start making changes directly to the C or Python code. As for ages, ACEBOTT recommends 16+. That seems about right, but I would definitely say younger kids could grasp this if they seem STEM minded (or have help from STEM minded parents/siblings). I think the fear is that you don't want to push kids away from STEM if they are too young and get frustrated.

Too many Games fail to do remotely as intended. The Wrist will never function as directions show, needs modification. The Line Tracking just moves car and then it takes off in many crazy directions, none are near Line. Will not pick up blocks as Game shows. Arms just do erratic motion. Nothing Automated works but All controls function using App.

I got this for my son who is a bit too young to do on his own and so it fell on me to learn to use this. The assembly was pretty easy for the most part and my son was able to do most of it. The connection of the wiring was a bit tricky but not too bad. The programing and controlling this were the intimidating parts but in the end, it wasn’t bad as I thought it would be. You do need to buy or have two 18650 batteries since it does not come with it. The little remote uses the button CR2032 battery but you don’t need to use the remote since you can control it with a tablet or cell phone. You also need to be able to access the on-line resources. They have a very good set of resources. You need to use a computer to upload the program to the car using the USB cable. To be able to use or control the device, you need upload the applicable program to the device. For example, to get it to connect to your Wi-Fi, you need to “install” the software/program on it. The instructions or tutorial that I found was not straight forward on how to do all the things it can do. Instead, they tell a story and you follow the story and instructions within it to accomplish the different things you need to do to get this programmed and working so that you can control it. It is a great way to get kids engaged and learning. This is not a simple toy to build and play with. It is an educational toy that is used to learn. So, this may not be for most kids. If your child is curious and willing to take the time to learn, this would be great. It is almost like instead of just getting a computer with instructions on how to use it, you are learning to put a computer together, learning to install the OS and software, and then learning on how to use it.

This is a complete kit with instructions that can be make a very fun car. However, it takes a lot of work, and a bit of background in these builds. Because the instructions leave a lot of things out and the kit expects you to know what you are doing before you do it, I can't say it is for the beginner. Once yo uget everything all figured out it ca be a lot of fun and it comes with a lot of options. So I say it is only ok.

I didn't time it, but assembly took less than 2 hours even though I had to back up a few steps a couple times (for example after I put the wheels on without paying attention to orientation). I am very mechanically inclined and can handle small parts, so your mileage may vary. The one problem I had was with the ultrasonic sensor. The instructions show the sensor and pinout, but tells you to be careful to wire correctly for whichever sensor is included in your kit, which may be different from the one shown. Well, they tell you this after telling you to mount the sensor so you cannot read the pin labels. Since the sensor was Acebott branded, I figured the pinout would match the instructions. Nope. Sensor didn't work, I had to take it apart to see that I had indeed connected it wrong. It still doesn't work after wiring it correctly, so I purchased a new ultrasonic sensor and now it works fine, so apparently I fried the sensor by wiring it wrong. My advice: BEFORE assembly of the ultrasonic sensor, take a picture of the pinout labels or write them on the back side of the board so you know which pin is which, and if you don't do this, don't be lazy like me, take the sensor off the mount to check the pinout. I'm not taking a star off for this, though I am tempted, because the issue was caused by my failure to follow the directions. Also, the batteries: Batteries are not included, it requires two 18650s and a coin cell for the remote. I have lots of 18650s around, but they are almost all flat top and I couldn't get any of them to work until I finally found a pair of button top 18650s. Those are working great. So if you are buying batteries for this, try to get button top 18650s.