Freenove 4WD Smart Car Kit for Raspberry Pi 4 B 3 B+ B A+, Face Tracking, Line Tracking, Light Tracing, Obstacle Avoidance, Colorful Light, Ultrasonic Camera Servo Wireless RC
Ich nutze den Freenove Bot als Basis fr eigene Programmierungen. Da ich selber seit lngerem programmiere stellt das Gert keine Herausforderung fr mich dar. Fr Menschen ohne oder wenig Programmiererfahrung wird das schon schwieriger. Hier wrde ich eher auf deine Bot auf Arduino Basis verweisen. In der Arduino Umgebung findet man sich schneller zurecht und kann einfacher lernen.
Bei dem Raspberry muss man erst diesen einrichten, Software installieren, einen PC / Laptop fr den Remote Zugriff einrichten etc. Mit den vorgegebenen Funktionen kommt man schnell an das Ende des Spaes an. Das Teil ist gut geeignet wenn man selber programmieren mchte und schon ein Stck weit wei was man tut.
Zu FREENOVE selber.
In der Anleitung wird versprochen, dass man immer support bekommt und sich das Unternehmen auch ber den Verkauf hinaus verantwortlich fr seine Produkte sieht.
Ich kann das aus eigener Erfahrung nur besttigen. Ich hatte bereits mehrmals Kontakt zum support um auch tief gehende Fragen zur Elektronik zu stellen und bekam stets innerhalb kurzer Zeit Antwort.
Ich bin begeistert. Deshalb auch 5 Sterne Gesamtbewertung
The assembly instructions are pretty good but could do with a bit more clarity around the servo motors controlling the head. The code explanation are clear and very thorough.
The quality of the robot is higher than average but don’t forget you’ll need a Raspberry Pi tocomplete the kit – It’s designed for Pi v4 but, for those with a bit more knowledge, it can be powered by Pi Zero W if you can get one – they’re all still in short supply
All in all a great kit but would suggest minimum age is really 11/12
Es war “leicht” zusammen zu bauen. Aber 2 von die reder haben immer runtergefallen, musste ich ihn da kleben. Die sensoren die einte schwarze Linie folgen sollte funktionieren nicht mehr richtig nach 1 Tag. Vielleicht liegt es in die Programme. Es kann sich auf Laminat nicht so gut drehen. Einige funktionen “freeze” manschmal. Ich glaube die sind meistens programming Probleme die knnte viel besser sein. Musste die Buzzer ausschalten als er immer beept. Sonst macht spas fr so wenig geld.
It can show you how to use your raspberry pi in practical engineering in your own home, learning to use the camera, line sensors, servos and motors. Just needs a bit of patience, and not get flustered with the tiny screws and nuts lol.
Liked the kit, but the instructions has some holes and the mobile apps required to control the model leavs a bit to wish for.
But over all it has potential and I will most definitely have fun with this one.
All the parts are there, well packed and easy to follow instructions, but a bit un clear at some parts.
Will get more kits.
And I’m planning to upgrade this one.
Overall the quality of some parts as you’d read in other reviews are not as good as expected. Especially the ultrasonic sensor holder and some of the wheels come out when turning, not a biggie, some things you can easily fix at home with glue or other stuff. I think the most valuable part of this robot is the tutorial and the amount of information you get, if you are new with programming or you are getting back to it, like me, it’s worth every penny. Eventually, I bought some more sensors to keep digging into the programming world with Linux and Python.
Overall the quality of some parts as you'd read in other reviews are not as good as expected. Especially the ultrasonic sensor holder and some of the wheels come out when turning, not a biggie, some things you can easily fix at home with glue or other stuff. I think the most valuable part of this robot is the tutorial and the amount of information you get, if you are new with programming or you are getting back to it, like me, it's worth every penny. Eventually, I bought some more sensors to keep digging into the programming world with Linux and Python.
I have been enjoying putting together this 4WD robot. It is so much fun to see something that I built come alive. I had an issue with one of the steps and emailed their support. On the same day (a Sunday no less!) their support sent me back email and got me up and running.
Works great and I think it’s a fantastic deal for it’s price. As long as you are technical minded and patient it’s fairly easy to assemble. There are some issues though. Attaching the head I had to use an extra nut to stop it from shaking. Sometimes the instructions are vague or repeat themselves. I also didn’t see anything about setting up face tracking in the tutorial. I also think the batteries should be included as they’re a little difficult to find.
Das Fahrzeug hat viele vorprogrammierte Betriebsmodi. Nur die beiden Servos fr die Kamera sind etwas wackelig. Whrend der Fahrt zittert das Bild stark. Die Servos lassen sich aber durch solche mir Metallgetriebe fr eine bessere Stabilitt ersetzen.
Essendo sempre stato appassionato di informatica e programmazione, ho voluto anche avvicinarmi anche all’elettronica. Per farlo ho comprato un Raspeberry ed un kit, sempre di Freenove, ed a quel punto ho scoperto un mondo appassionante fatto si di elettronica, ma anche di sistemi operativi (Debian) e programmazione (Python). Ho quindi comprato questo kit e l’ho assemblato abbastanza facilmente pur non avendo una grande abilit manuale, darei solo il consiglio di aggiungerci anche minuteria di riserva, perdere qualche vitina facile. Finito il montaggio sono passato alla parte programmazione che assolutamente ben guidata e spiegata, ed veramente interessante e se ci sono dubbi il servizio di supporto risponde molto velocemente e risolve il problema. Concludendo, ora funziona tutto perfettamente, ma sto rivedendo i programmi per ampliare e migliorare le funzioni. Non vi dico che lo ricomprerei, vi dico che a brevissimo comprer il kit del cane.
Essendo sempre stato appassionato di informatica e programmazione, ho voluto anche avvicinarmi anche all’elettronica. Per farlo ho comprato un Raspeberry ed un kit, sempre di Freenove, ed a quel punto ho scoperto un mondo appassionante fatto si di elettronica, ma anche di sistemi operativi (Debian) e programmazione (Python). Ho quindi comprato questo kit e l’ho assemblato abbastanza facilmente pur non avendo una grande abilit manuale, darei solo il consiglio di aggiungerci anche minuteria di riserva, perdere qualche vitina facile. Finito il montaggio sono passato alla parte programmazione che assolutamente ben guidata e spiegata, ed veramente interessante e se ci sono dubbi il servizio di supporto risponde molto velocemente e risolve il problema. Concludendo, ora funziona tutto perfettamente, ma sto rivedendo i programmi per ampliare e migliorare le funzioni. Non vi dico che lo ricomprerei, vi dico che a brevissimo comprer il kit del cane.
The unit takes time to build so go slow when you are building. The customer support is excellent and will help you in every way possible to get things moving if you get stuck. Highly recommend.
Great tutorial and Video although they were not always in the same sequence. You need thin fingers and some non-metallic tweezers for some of the smaller screws.
This car is super easy to build and program, To be fair a lot of negative reviews around the fact you do need to by a Raspberry PI computer & 2 x 18650 batteries. But it does clearly state that fact.
After building the robot and configuring the pi following the online guide & videos on YouTube this robot car is up and running, IOS & Android compatible which is great. And just to ease the cost you can quite easily use a raspberry pi zero wh or zero 2 wh and the pi zero camera cable instead of a pi 4 which works the same, Tried and tested… The pi zero will reduce overall cost if you are on a budget. Recommended product for the cost… and the fun…
This car is super easy to build and program, To be fair a lot of negative reviews around the fact you do need to by a Raspberry PI computer & 2 x 18650 batteries. But it does clearly state that fact.
After building the robot and configuring the pi following the online guide & videos on YouTube this robot car is up and running, IOS & Android compatible which is great. And just to ease the cost you can quite easily use a raspberry pi zero wh or zero 2 wh and the pi zero camera cable instead of a pi 4 which works the same, Tried and tested… The pi zero will reduce overall cost if you are on a budget. Recommended product for the cost… and the fun…
Die Idee des Artikels ist sehr gut, jedoch erhielt ich die Schachtel unverpackt, so dass die Adresse auf der Originalverpackung geklebt wurde. Da es sich um ein Geschenk handelt ist es nicht gerade schn zum Verschenken. Schade !
Das Produkt aber ist sauber verarbeitet und in der Schachtel ist alles vorhanden um diesen Flitzer aufzubauen, es ist kein Lten ntig. Kann ich gerne weiter empfehlen !
I’m an experienced programmer, but new to Raspberry pi and Python. I found this car to be easy to build, and it worked very well when assembled. Tech support via email has been GREAT for a few questions that I had – often getting a response the same day, and always accurate. The printed tutorial has lots of helpful information, but you need to watch the assembly video to build this kit. The printed doc doesn’t exactly match the video, but I was able to work it out (if there is a conflict, go with the video first). I rated this low for beginners because there are things that can be a bit complicated, and if you are a TRUE beginner this is a bit complicated, particularly the Linux commands. Prior to building this kit I built the similar Yahboom 4WD kit. That kit has more features, but the kit is not as well designed and the instructions were very poor by comparison. That kit didn’t work well (flaws that are even noted in their website) and I won’t be working with it. The Freenove kit is far superior, even though it doesn’t have as many features. This kit worked the first time, and now I’m exploring all the features.
I enjoyed putting together. I am not done programming it. Some things that might make it better:
1. Onboard 18650 battery charger. I added two additional batteries on top of the RPi with a built in charger.
2. The tires do not do well in a transition from carpet to hard surface. They might need some knobs to get traction.
3. Maybe a USB camera instead of the ribbon cable camera? Not sure about this.
It is a very cool robot; my daughter managed to assemble it by herself. Configuring Raspberry is easy, but some “hacking” skills can’t hurt! 😉
The only problem was with moving in the wrong direction. I changed a few lines of code, changes can be found in my repository https://www.amazon.de/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=B07YD2LT9D
1) Not for your pedestrian, or even “average” computer/tech minded; you need to be comfortable with some very basic Linux and Python and a few other basic concepts.
2) Be sure to download the .zip file with all the python code, assembly instructions, etc and preread assembly instructions.
3) If your VNC Client doesn’t load desktop or the android app won’t connect; CHANGE YOUR DESKTOP RESOLUTION IN RASPI-CONFIG and REBOOT….then the virtual desktop will load at the client end and “yer stuff ‘ull werk jest fine”…lol
You ain’t gonna beat this basic robot toy/kit for the money !
My first attempts at robotics. The car is easy to put together and the quality of the components is excellent. The software included is also excellent and will form the basis of some fun experiments in the future. It is inherently complicated to run a Raspberry Pi over a remote connection, but they have done a superb job. I highly recommend this.
My first attempts at robotics. The car is easy to put together and the quality of the components is excellent. The software included is also excellent and will form the basis of some fun experiments in the future. It is inherently complicated to run a Raspberry Pi over a remote connection, but they have done a superb job. I highly recommend this.
My son likes the car very much and the customer service is excellent.
During the installation and testing, we had some questions and the customer service support team always gave us very quick response and help after we sent email for help even in weekend!
Rasch geliefert und schnell zusammengebaut. Mit der verfgbaren Software schnell und einfach erste Fahrerlebnisse. Raspberry Pi und Python-Kenntnisse muss man aber schon dafr haben. Der richtige Spa fr mich kam dann bei der Anpassung und Ergnzung der Software, z.B. die Fahrknpfe durch einen virtuellen Joystick zu ersetzen o… Da ich das Fahrzeug noch mit Lidar erweitern will hatte ich nach einer CAD gefragt. 1 Tag spter war sie da. Das nenne ich Support. Bin sehr zufrieden. Da alles mehr oder weniger Open source ist, ein sehr gutes Einstiegsmodell fr das Thema “Robotic in cars”.
Ich habe das Produkt aufgebaut und getestet. Alles funktionierte einwandfrei bis auf die Servos (fr die “Kopf-“Bewegung). Diese machten teilweise komische Gerusche bzw. liefen hei.
Vielleicht habe ich etwas falsches gemacht (ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich den Strom, wie in der Anleitung beschrieben, whrend dem Aufbau anlie oder nicht).
Ich habe also den Support von Freenove per E-Mail kontaktiert. Nach wenigen Stunden erhielte ich eine Antwort.
Trotz Anleitung funktionierten die Servos nicht richtig.
Ich habe dann den Support erneut kontaktiert und erhielte dieses Mal eine Antwort nach wenigen Minuten. Freenove fragte mich nach meiner Adresse um mir Ersatzservos zu senden!
Ich bin sehr positiv berrascht ber so einen schnellen, personalisierten und zuvorkommender Support!
Ich warte jetzt auf die neuen Servos.
Obwohl ich das Problem mit den Servos hatte, bewerte ich das Produkt mit 5 Sterne: alles funktioniert ansonsten Einwandfrei, der Support ist hervorragend, die Anleitung sehr gut und es gibt auch eine YouTube Video-Anleitung. Die Verarbeitung ist gut, es ist alles sehr gut verpackt und allein der Aufbau hat mir und meinem Sohn viel Spa bereitet. Das Problem mit den Servos habe ich vielleicht selbst verursacht und sehe deswegen kein Grund fr einen Punktabzug.
Das Produkt wrde ich weiterempfehlen.
Ich habe das Produkt aufgebaut und getestet. Alles funktionierte einwandfrei bis auf die Servos (fr die “Kopf-“Bewegung). Diese machten teilweise komische Gerusche bzw. liefen hei.
Vielleicht habe ich etwas falsches gemacht (ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich den Strom, wie in der Anleitung beschrieben, whrend dem Aufbau anlie oder nicht).
Ich habe also den Support von Freenove per E-Mail kontaktiert. Nach wenigen Stunden erhielte ich eine Antwort.
Trotz Anleitung funktionierten die Servos nicht richtig.
Ich habe dann den Support erneut kontaktiert und erhielte dieses Mal eine Antwort nach wenigen Minuten. Freenove fragte mich nach meiner Adresse um mir Ersatzservos zu senden!
Ich bin sehr positiv berrascht ber so einen schnellen, personalisierten und zuvorkommender Support!
Ich warte jetzt auf die neuen Servos.
Obwohl ich das Problem mit den Servos hatte, bewerte ich das Produkt mit 5 Sterne: alles funktioniert ansonsten Einwandfrei, der Support ist hervorragend, die Anleitung sehr gut und es gibt auch eine YouTube Video-Anleitung. Die Verarbeitung ist gut, es ist alles sehr gut verpackt und allein der Aufbau hat mir und meinem Sohn viel Spa bereitet. Das Problem mit den Servos habe ich vielleicht selbst verursacht und sehe deswegen kein Grund fr einen Punktabzug.
Das Produkt wrde ich weiterempfehlen.
I am very pleased by this product, though I suspect it may be a bit frustrating to a real beginner at computer sysadmin work. I had the benefit of having used RPis for several years, and Linux for even much, much longer. The primary benefits for me are 1) it works 2) I can manage it via a CLI from any computer that supports ssh 2) I can just use python scripts on the RPi without needing to install software on some other comuter AND 4) their customer support just astonished me. I broke a plastic piece, probably because I tightened a screw too much. I emailed them about getting a replacement part, even telling them that I think I tightened the screw too much. Within a few hours I got a response saying “Thank you for choosing Freenove. We are fully responsible for any concerns. I am sorry for the issue. We will send you a replacement.” I sent another email, and got another professional and polite response even much faster.
I think they also provide easier and nicer user interfaces than a CLI run python script, but I have not even tried those. My interest was how they connect the hardware (servos, sensors and such) to the RPi, whether I can operate it with simple scripts, while hoping to run some own scripts using theirs as a starting point.
Whilst being one of the more cheaper raspberry pi cars, it certainly doesn’t show that in value. Had a lot of fun from unboxing and building to writing code to interract with its features. If you’re looking to get into this kind of thing, the extremely thorough guide along with many out-of-the-box test scripts make this a great project for beginners or professionals alike.
Whilst being one of the more cheaper raspberry pi cars, it certainly doesn’t show that in value. Had a lot of fun from unboxing and building to writing code to interract with its features. If you’re looking to get into this kind of thing, the extremely thorough guide along with many out-of-the-box test scripts make this a great project for beginners or professionals alike.
I used the Raspberry Pi Zero (with wifi), you need to get a specific Zero camera cable as it is different to the Pi. The height of the zero plus GPIO pins on the zero make the board sit slightly lower on the car. (This might be because I used smaller pins when soldering them onto the Zero) The result is that there is a gap between the pi and the mounting pillars. So you need a few washers and longer screws. The batteries I got were EFEST 3.5K mah 20A (2 in a Pack for 18) plus a the POWXS Universal 18650 Battery Charger.
The instructions are pretty good and take you step by step in setting up the raspberry with different libraries , although for what ever reason I had to do this step twice. The build quality of the car is good and a joy to build.
Once I finished the build and programmed the car, I found the car went the opposite way to the way it should go, but it is quite easy to change the code (reversing the number to or from -ve). To drive the car remotely, I found I had to use a keyboard and monitor to set the program going and not vnc.
The remote control is good, to be able to drive the car while it is out of sight and see where it is going on your phone is cool, although it can loose connection and do it’s own thing. Camera is a bit jerky when moving.
I used the Raspberry Pi Zero (with wifi), you need to get a specific Zero camera cable as it is different to the Pi. The height of the zero plus GPIO pins on the zero make the board sit slightly lower on the car. (This might be because I used smaller pins when soldering them onto the Zero) The result is that there is a gap between the pi and the mounting pillars. So you need a few washers and longer screws. The batteries I got were EFEST 3.5K mah 20A (2 in a Pack for 18) plus a the POWXS Universal 18650 Battery Charger.
The instructions are pretty good and take you step by step in setting up the raspberry with different libraries , although for what ever reason I had to do this step twice. The build quality of the car is good and a joy to build.
Once I finished the build and programmed the car, I found the car went the opposite way to the way it should go, but it is quite easy to change the code (reversing the number to or from -ve). To drive the car remotely, I found I had to use a keyboard and monitor to set the program going and not vnc.
The remote control is good, to be able to drive the car while it is out of sight and see where it is going on your phone is cool, although it can loose connection and do it’s own thing. Camera is a bit jerky when moving.
This product is simply great. I am using it to introduce some high/middle school students to STEM and I couldn’t be more pleased. I had a few problems constructing it but the Freenove team send me a video showing me what I was doing wrong. I really support this company and product to help spread STEM to the youth!
I decided to build the car with a Pi Zero W H because of the low battery drain. I needed to get a special cable as indicated in the instructions. It ends up very neat as you can see in the photos. All functions work in this configuration but I think things like face tracking might be slicker with the recommended pi 3 or 4.
When first building the car I used a couple of batteries that I had lying around. The advice from Freenove is to use batteries that can sustain a high discharge rate. This is good advice. Using poor quality batteries results in the low battery warning buzzer sounding after only a fairly short use. Good batteries cure the problem! One point is that you need to remove the batteries to charge them. I found that making loops out of cable ties makes the process of removal much simpler but anything thick might interfere with the battery fitting properly.
The kit is quick to assemble since much of the building is securing parts to the baseboard which contains the control components. The instructions are generally very good but can be a bit repetitive, e.g. VNC player and the assembly of the pan/tilt module which is covered twice. Best to read the instructions before you start so you know which bits to pay attention to and go straight to VNC viewer if you can.
The car is a genuine four-wheel drive which means that each wheel can be controlled separately. This allows the car to be steered by having wheels go at different speeds (compared to rotating the wheels). On soft carpets the grip of the tyres is not as good so the steering is not as precise.
Freenove emphasise the support they give, encouraging you to ask for help. When I first put the kit together, I could not get the buzzer to work nor the ultrasonic ranging. They are based in China so the reply came back on the following morning. It started off “Thank you for choosing Freenove. We are fully responsible for any concerns.” which is a clear indication that they will do their best to sort out any problems that you have. My problem turned out to be that when I fitted the bridge between the pi and the baseboard, I had managed to bend three of the connectors to the side of the plug so they did not connect. Re-fitted and all was well.
If you are anything like me you look at other kits after you buy one. There are a surprising number of car kits out there. Some have more features than this one, but are more expensive. Some have a sturdier sturdy chassis, but are more expensive. Some kits are cheaper, but do less. One of the significant differences between kits is whether the wheels are fixed or whether they turn to steer. On this kit they are fixed but Freenove do have another kit with steerable wheels.
I came to the 5 star rating by weighing up price, features and support.
The amazon review site seems a bit weird asking for ratings on Thickness and Sheerness. Perhaps artificial intelligence is not as intelligent as one might hope!
Freenove is a very innovative company.
They offer a series of kits that go from the most elementary robot such as the Micro Rover, to more advanced ones such as the Hexapod.
Naturally, they are not all for novices and sometimes they receive negative reviews by rank beginners for futile reasons.
I purchased, built and sometimes modified a handful of the robots and I can tell you that they are all fairly priced, very well designed, the kit components are all of high quality and the instructions and online tutorials are first class.
Some of these kits, especially the ones based on a SBC (You supply your own Raspberry Pi 3B+, or 4B, and the batteries), are ideal educational devices. They can be programmed to perform additional tasks and are ideal platforms for anyone to get their feet wet with programming.
As an added bonus, Freenove offers an unusually friendly and competent technical assistance.
Roberto Pensotti
I decided to build the car with a Pi Zero W H because of the low battery drain. I needed to get a special cable as indicated in the instructions. It ends up very neat as you can see in the photos. All functions work in this configuration but I think things like face tracking might be slicker with the recommended pi 3 or 4.
When first building the car I used a couple of batteries that I had lying around. The advice from Freenove is to use batteries that can sustain a high discharge rate. This is good advice. Using poor quality batteries results in the low battery warning buzzer sounding after only a fairly short use. Good batteries cure the problem! One point is that you need to remove the batteries to charge them. I found that making loops out of cable ties makes the process of removal much simpler but anything thick might interfere with the battery fitting properly.
The kit is quick to assemble since much of the building is securing parts to the baseboard which contains the control components. The instructions are generally very good but can be a bit repetitive, e.g. VNC player and the assembly of the pan/tilt module which is covered twice. Best to read the instructions before you start so you know which bits to pay attention to and go straight to VNC viewer if you can.
The car is a genuine four-wheel drive which means that each wheel can be controlled separately. This allows the car to be steered by having wheels go at different speeds (compared to rotating the wheels). On soft carpets the grip of the tyres is not as good so the steering is not as precise.
Freenove emphasise the support they give, encouraging you to ask for help. When I first put the kit together, I could not get the buzzer to work nor the ultrasonic ranging. They are based in China so the reply came back on the following morning. It started off “Thank you for choosing Freenove. We are fully responsible for any concerns.” which is a clear indication that they will do their best to sort out any problems that you have. My problem turned out to be that when I fitted the bridge between the pi and the baseboard, I had managed to bend three of the connectors to the side of the plug so they did not connect. Re-fitted and all was well.
If you are anything like me you look at other kits after you buy one. There are a surprising number of car kits out there. Some have more features than this one, but are more expensive. Some have a sturdier sturdy chassis, but are more expensive. Some kits are cheaper, but do less. One of the significant differences between kits is whether the wheels are fixed or whether they turn to steer. On this kit they are fixed but Freenove do have another kit with steerable wheels.
I came to the 5 star rating by weighing up price, features and support.
The amazon review site seems a bit weird asking for ratings on Thickness and Sheerness. Perhaps artificial intelligence is not as intelligent as one might hope!
I got this kit as a birthday gift. I have some programming and hardware experience, but I can confirm that the kit is totally self explanatory and the directions are very clear. The software instructions are also clear and very easy to follow. Helps if you get a Rasbperry Pi which has wifi built in (the most recent versions all do), so that you can remote control the device from another computer or phone. The iphone app works incredibly well.
I’m absolutely delighted with this kit, so much fun, straight out of the box. To make it even better, I asked for some support over email from the manufacturer and had a reply within 12 hours with clear instructions on how to fix the issue I was having.
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful build, great support by email!
I got this kit as a birthday gift. I have some programming and hardware experience, but I can confirm that the kit is totally self explanatory and the directions are very clear. The software instructions are also clear and very easy to follow. Helps if you get a Rasbperry Pi which has wifi built in (the most recent versions all do), so that you can remote control the device from another computer or phone. The iphone app works incredibly well.
I’m absolutely delighted with this kit, so much fun, straight out of the box. To make it even better, I asked for some support over email from the manufacturer and had a reply within 12 hours with clear instructions on how to fix the issue I was having.
Very easy car to build even for a first timer with the on line instructions taking you through the process step by step. From the prepping of the Raspberry Pi through the build and then the programming and testing of all of the cars features all of which is explained expertly. Once built every part of the car performed as expected, so much so I have an eye on the robotic dog and Spider from the same company.
I was very impressed with this kit, it was simple to assemble with screws and nuts individually marked up and bagged, there is a cross head screw driver supplied with the kit the only other tool I required was a small pair of pointed nose pliers to hold some of the nuts. The download from Freenove contains the code and tutorial which is very comprehensive it shows each stage of assembly and how to enter the commands into terminal to execute the test code for each module.
I used a raspberry Pi 3B+ with the car and Xtar 18650 3500 mA batteries. The client software which controls the car I ran on a windows 10 computer, this controlled all the cars functions very well. Connecting you just need to remember if you have not set up a static IP address for the cars Raspberry Pi to check the current IP address and input it in the client software or phone app whichever you are using.
The mobile phone app also works well on my phone a one plus 8 pro android it, shows the camera view as you control the car from the phone screen, the line tracking , light tracking and sonic functions can also be accessed from the phone app, I’ve added a couple of screen shots using the app.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Kit, good quality and easy to assemble
Very easy car to build even for a first timer with the on line instructions taking you through the process step by step. From the prepping of the Raspberry Pi through the build and then the programming and testing of all of the cars features all of which is explained expertly. Once built every part of the car performed as expected, so much so I have an eye on the robotic dog and Spider from the same company.
I was very impressed with this kit, it was simple to assemble with screws and nuts individually marked up and bagged, there is a cross head screw driver supplied with the kit the only other tool I required was a small pair of pointed nose pliers to hold some of the nuts. The download from Freenove contains the code and tutorial which is very comprehensive it shows each stage of assembly and how to enter the commands into terminal to execute the test code for each module.
I used a raspberry Pi 3B+ with the car and Xtar 18650 3500 mA batteries. The client software which controls the car I ran on a windows 10 computer, this controlled all the cars functions very well. Connecting you just need to remember if you have not set up a static IP address for the cars Raspberry Pi to check the current IP address and input it in the client software or phone app whichever you are using.
The mobile phone app also works well on my phone a one plus 8 pro android it, shows the camera view as you control the car from the phone screen, the line tracking , light tracking and sonic functions can also be accessed from the phone app, I’ve added a couple of screen shots using the app.
This is not my first Raspberry Pi kit, but it has the best instruction so far. It is fun to build, and as an IT professional, it helps me better understand and stepping into the AI and robotic world!!!!
The remote Android app works out of the box and makes this a full-featured remote controllable car to a fair price but actually much more: With all the options, it is a platform that stimulates learning of programming and to develop own projects.
My child liked the easy start (to play with the car and the colorful LEDs) and is curious to learn more about programming. I’m sure he will be doing some projects with it as he grows. Otherwise, I will for sure do some fun projects with it. Being open-source, extensions of existing code (in Python) are easily possible.
Out of the box, there are several programs included, like the tracking of black lines and obstacle detection. I think these are nice demonstrations of it that show the potential and that ask to be expanded by the users.
The vehicle is rather easy to manufacture as there are just 2 Servos to install, took about 1 hour to get it working.
Notes: Be careful when attaching the camera head onto the car as the pieces are a bit thin and not very robust.
The initial setup of the Raspberry Pi (I used the 3B model) is well described in the tutorial PDF but you should have some technology affinity or interest to learn.
I would therefore not classify it as a toy that can be used out of the box but rather a development platform.
You can set up the Raspberry Pi such that it automatically runs the server software upon startup.
I actually use the same Raspberry Pi for multiple projects as it is not too much effort to unmount/remount it here.
The only drawback of the car is that the battery needs to be removed to be charged.
However, during development, you can connect the power supply of the Raspberry to reduce the need to charge it.
In the robot dog, the charger is embedded which has its advantages.
To sum up: I’m very pleased with the experience of this kit, its quality, and potential.
The price for it feels more than fair given what you get.
I hope FreeNove will continue to make more of such high-quality kits.
The remote Android app works out of the box and makes this a full-featured remote controllable car to a fair price but actually much more: With all the options, it is a platform that stimulates learning of programming and to develop own projects.
My child liked the easy start (to play with the car and the colorful LEDs) and is curious to learn more about programming. I’m sure he will be doing some projects with it as he grows. Otherwise, I will for sure do some fun projects with it. Being open-source, extensions of existing code (in Python) are easily possible.
Out of the box, there are several programs included, like the tracking of black lines and obstacle detection. I think these are nice demonstrations of it that show the potential and that ask to be expanded by the users.
The vehicle is rather easy to manufacture as there are just 2 Servos to install, took about 1 hour to get it working.
Notes: Be careful when attaching the camera head onto the car as the pieces are a bit thin and not very robust.
The initial setup of the Raspberry Pi (I used the 3B model) is well described in the tutorial PDF but you should have some technology affinity or interest to learn.
I would therefore not classify it as a toy that can be used out of the box but rather a development platform.
You can set up the Raspberry Pi such that it automatically runs the server software upon startup.
I actually use the same Raspberry Pi for multiple projects as it is not too much effort to unmount/remount it here.
The only drawback of the car is that the battery needs to be removed to be charged.
However, during development, you can connect the power supply of the Raspberry to reduce the need to charge it.
In the robot dog, the charger is embedded which has its advantages.
To sum up: I’m very pleased with the experience of this kit, its quality, and potential.
The price for it feels more than fair given what you get.
I hope FreeNove will continue to make more of such high-quality kits.
First, the product works if you assemble it correctly (see my video). My kid and I really enjoyed the features such as auto-driving, obstacle avoidance and etc. The kit really deserves five-star for its functionalities.
However, there are a few issues. One issue is that the car kit doesn’t come with rechargeable 18650 batteries. I ended up spending some time on Amazon doing research and buying a bundle of these expensive batteries and charger. I wish the car kit can include batteries and charge a little extra.
My second major issue is that the manual is poorly written. There are duplicated sections all over and it can confuse people. Most importantly, some key installation steps should be emphasized. For example, my kid was stuck between Step 9-11 on Page 51 (duplicated on Page 72) when attaching camera module to servo package. After quite a while of watching the video of assembled car like a detective to gather clues, I realized that one needed to attach a white rocker arm on Step 9. Then Page 73 says there are two ways to fix the servo 0. I don’t think the second way works. Another example is when wiring the ribbon for camera (Page 54). A kid would simply insert a ribbon into the slot. Step 1 on Page 54 should emphasize that one needs to pull the lever out first, insert the ribbon and then push the lever in.
In retrospect, the car worked great. I am surprised that the installation of software is very smooth. The assembling process was frustrating sometimes and there is a lot of room for improvement and simplification.
First, the product works if you assemble it correctly (see my video). My kid and I really enjoyed the features such as auto-driving, obstacle avoidance and etc. The kit really deserves five-star for its functionalities.
However, there are a few issues. One issue is that the car kit doesn’t come with rechargeable 18650 batteries. I ended up spending some time on Amazon doing research and buying a bundle of these expensive batteries and charger. I wish the car kit can include batteries and charge a little extra.
My second major issue is that the manual is poorly written. There are duplicated sections all over and it can confuse people. Most importantly, some key installation steps should be emphasized. For example, my kid was stuck between Step 9-11 on Page 51 (duplicated on Page 72) when attaching camera module to servo package. After quite a while of watching the video of assembled car like a detective to gather clues, I realized that one needed to attach a white rocker arm on Step 9. Then Page 73 says there are two ways to fix the servo 0. I don’t think the second way works. Another example is when wiring the ribbon for camera (Page 54). A kid would simply insert a ribbon into the slot. Step 1 on Page 54 should emphasize that one needs to pull the lever out first, insert the ribbon and then push the lever in.
In retrospect, the car worked great. I am surprised that the installation of software is very smooth. The assembling process was frustrating sometimes and there is a lot of room for improvement and simplification.
This kit was a joy to build. The parts were clearly identified and even the various screws were in labelled plastic bags. The tutorial gave very clear and detailed instructions both for the hardware and also the software with useful checks at key stages. They even provide a screwdriver, but I would recommend magnetising it to help position the screws it as some of them are very tiny.
I did have trouble with the camera, where the instructions were a bit misleading, but the tutorial positively invites you to contact support. Their support is about the best I have come across and soon had me on the right path.
The car itself performs very well and is controlled via an app on a phone. The tutorial uses a windows based program to control the car but I would recommend using the phone app, it is much better.
The software source is provide in the tutorial so it will be easy to add my own programming, but the included software does much of what I had expected to have to do myself.
In some ways it has been too easy. Having built the car I am struggling to think of ways I can extend it — but it’s fun!!
This kit was a joy to build. The parts were clearly identified and even the various screws were in labelled plastic bags. The tutorial gave very clear and detailed instructions both for the hardware and also the software with useful checks at key stages. They even provide a screwdriver, but I would recommend magnetising it to help position the screws it as some of them are very tiny.
I did have trouble with the camera, where the instructions were a bit misleading, but the tutorial positively invites you to contact support. Their support is about the best I have come across and soon had me on the right path.
The car itself performs very well and is controlled via an app on a phone. The tutorial uses a windows based program to control the car but I would recommend using the phone app, it is much better.
The software source is provide in the tutorial so it will be easy to add my own programming, but the included software does much of what I had expected to have to do myself.
In some ways it has been too easy. Having built the car I am struggling to think of ways I can extend it — but it’s fun!!
The best robot kit I have yet assembled. Very beginner friendly and has lots of spare parts. Contacted the support for help and they replied the next day. Comes with a very detailed tutorial. If you understand English you can build one regardless of your previous experience.
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_V5obGb6X7CV0Q
Here 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. Impressive
3. 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.
The best robot kit I have yet assembled. Very beginner friendly and has lots of spare parts. Contacted the support for help and they replied the next day. Comes with a very detailed tutorial. If you understand English you can build one regardless of your previous experience.
It says so in the description, but do note, you need a Raspberry Pi (I used a Pi 3) and two 18650 batteries, which are not included.
I was very keen to build this and try it out, so I downloaded the code and set up my Raspberry Pi, shortly after placing my order. Fortunately, I already had a couple of 18650 batteries. So, when the kit arrived the next day, I was good to go. Assembly took about 2 hours.
First point to note is that I have big fingers and some of the screws are really tiny — I needed fine tweezers for these.
Second point, when assembling the pan and tilt ‘head’, the instructions tell you to plug in the servos and run servo.py to put them in the correct position before assembly. I would recommend carrying out steps 1 to 9 of the 11 illustrated steps (page 51 at time of writing) before connecting the servos.
I would also suggest connecting the cables to the camera and ultrasonic units before connecting the ‘face’ to the ‘neck’ as they are lot more accessible at this point.
Excepting a couple of fiddly bits, the kit was straight forward to assemble, I ran all the test modules and everything worked first time, except it went backwards instead of forwards — but the instructions covered correcting this. It does everything shown in the Freenove video and can also be controlled directly by a phone app (android in my case). I was impressed by the quality of the build and also that all the code is open source.
At the price, having a kit you can control from your phone, pretty much out of the box, is already good value, but the potential for writing your own code is even more appealing and I would imagine would be a great incentive for novice coders. I hope a community will develop where people can share their code and ideas. I also think the kit is ideal for further development — a robot arm would be a cool addition, perhaps Freenove may develop expansion kits in the future.
In summary, a great kit, a great learning tool and best of all — open source!
5.0 out of 5 stars A great kit, a great learning tool and best of all – open source!
It says so in the description, but do note, you need a Raspberry Pi (I used a Pi 3) and two 18650 batteries, which are not included.
I was very keen to build this and try it out, so I downloaded the code and set up my Raspberry Pi, shortly after placing my order. Fortunately, I already had a couple of 18650 batteries. So, when the kit arrived the next day, I was good to go. Assembly took about 2 hours.
First point to note is that I have big fingers and some of the screws are really tiny — I needed fine tweezers for these.
Second point, when assembling the pan and tilt ‘head’, the instructions tell you to plug in the servos and run servo.py to put them in the correct position before assembly. I would recommend carrying out steps 1 to 9 of the 11 illustrated steps (page 51 at time of writing) before connecting the servos.
I would also suggest connecting the cables to the camera and ultrasonic units before connecting the ‘face’ to the ‘neck’ as they are lot more accessible at this point.
Excepting a couple of fiddly bits, the kit was straight forward to assemble, I ran all the test modules and everything worked first time, except it went backwards instead of forwards — but the instructions covered correcting this. It does everything shown in the Freenove video and can also be controlled directly by a phone app (android in my case). I was impressed by the quality of the build and also that all the code is open source.
At the price, having a kit you can control from your phone, pretty much out of the box, is already good value, but the potential for writing your own code is even more appealing and I would imagine would be a great incentive for novice coders. I hope a community will develop where people can share their code and ideas. I also think the kit is ideal for further development — a robot arm would be a cool addition, perhaps Freenove may develop expansion kits in the future.
In summary, a great kit, a great learning tool and best of all — open source!
A great kit, a great learning tool and best of all – open source!
This little kit is my first foray into building robots and using a raspberry pi. I picked it up in preparation for a grad level computer science course in AI for robotics. I also purchased the CanaKit Raspberry Pi Starter Kit. Freenove offers code download and a tutorial to walk you through building the robot and running test code. The tutorial has great pictures and instructions for each model of raspberry pi. One minor issue I have encountered is that the warnings for what could go wrong are after the instructions for assembly and test…which is why I know that they have great customer service! When hooking up the wiring for the ultrasonic sensor, I mixed up the wires and then ran the test code which killed the sensor. When the sensor feedback didn’t make sense, I read the warning about possible damage from incorrect wiring. Oops. Freenove replied to my email within 12 hours and is mailing me a new sensor free of charge. NOTE: 3.7V 18650 batteries with discharge current >10A are required, but not provided.
I’ve bought this product for a project. I’ve encountered a hardware fault with one of the sensor – I’ve contacted the makers and they kindly replaced the faulty part, excellent response time and service. The product itself is great, great for entry into AI, robotics, and electronics.
I’ve bought this product for a project. I’ve encountered a hardware fault with one of the sensor – I’ve contacted the makers and they kindly replaced the faulty part, excellent response time and service. The product itself is great, great for entry into AI, robotics, and electronics.
I built this for my kindergartner to play with. I recommend a tiny magnetic Phillips screwdriver, and assemble over a cookie sheet so that none of the tiny nuts and screws get away from you. A basic knowledge of setting up a raspberry pi computer would really help, but emailing tech support filled in the gaps of my knowledge very quickly. Note that the batteries are sold separately. Thanks to their tech support who were very helpful and prompt.
I built this for my kindergartner to play with. I recommend a tiny magnetic Phillips screwdriver, and assemble over a cookie sheet so that none of the tiny nuts and screws get away from you. A basic knowledge of setting up a raspberry pi computer would really help, but emailing tech support filled in the gaps of my knowledge very quickly. Note that the batteries are sold separately. Thanks to their tech support who were very helpful and prompt.
Very nice for the price. They provide their support email address so you can’t NOT see it. It was fun to assemble. The only problem I had was that the documentation could be rearranged to flow better during the build. I would suggest reading through the docs (they call it a tutorial) before you build. You will probably draw a few arrows to a paragraph below you current location in maybe 3 places. Otherwise, you may do as I did and have to backup a couple steps and undo a step or two. They provide their git links for each product. They have the board schematic for the arduino version but I have not found it for the Raspberry git. I have sent an email to support for this.
Another note. If you use your own screwdrivers, be very gentle on the smaller screws. It is easy to over do it and strip out some threads.
Each screw and nut came with a spare. If you sneeze around the one set of very small ones, you’ll be dragging a magnet around for awhile. 🙂
This car is a great foundation for getting into coding small electronics. The pieces are well organized in labeled bags. The kit has all kinds of room for expansion and growth. The instructions are a little off at times and could be expanded upon, but are far from the worst I’ve seen. The hardest part is getting your RPi image built and SSHing in. The instructions did a good job going through how to do this, but a little extra googling might be required (nothing the average RPi user is afraid of).
Be forewarned, the kit does not come with batteries but the batteries you need are common in the RC world and can be purchased cheaply with a charger.
Rasch geliefert und schnell zusammengebaut. Mit der verfgbaren Software und der Android App schnell und einfach erste Fahrerlebnisse. Raspberry Pi und Python-Kenntnisse muss man aber schon dafr haben. Der richtige Spa fr mich kam dann bei der Anpassung und Ergnzung der Software, z.B. das Fahrzeug nach einem roten Ball ausrichten o… Mit eine Raspberry Pi 4 B als Client funktioniert entgegen der Beschreibung sogar die Gesichtserkennung einigermaen.
I have previously build a Freenove product which is why I decided to go for another of their kits.
The support they gave me the first time was faultless (but i’m hoping i won’t need too much help this time)
After unpacking this 4WD car i can see the quality of some components has improved as there are now metal parts in the kit. I already have the rechargeable batteries needed for this kit along with a PI 4 so I’m all set to go
I really enjoyed the previous project so here goes
I have previously build a Freenove product which is why I decided to go for another of their kits.
The support they gave me the first time was faultless (but i’m hoping i won’t need too much help this time)
After unpacking this 4WD car i can see the quality of some components has improved as there are now metal parts in the kit. I already have the rechargeable batteries needed for this kit along with a PI 4 so I’m all set to go
I really enjoyed the previous project so here goes
Perfect for learning electronics and programming. I appreciate that it is designed for Raspberry Pi (and Linux).
The car is carrying a complete computer with USB ports for whatever you want. I added Apache Tomcat server and my car is now running a web application driven by Spring framework and another web app with Vaadin.
Looking forward to play with Java ,OpenCV,Pi4J and Deep Learning libraries. All on nice, moving 4WD robot like platform! This is not a first product I bought from Freenove and again fully satisfied.
That was the question I asked myself. Ultimately, I decided to take a chance and I bought it. I admit I was definitely apprehensive but it just looked so much fun!
Product Overview:
—————–
– Packaging: seemed well put together. No visible damage.
– Instructions: you have to find these online but they give you the web address on an included business card.
– Instructions Detail: this is why I do not suggest this product for new to robotic projects customers. The details took some head scratching and chin rubbing to figure out some parts. I think this could be solved by including a build video into their arsenal of information.
– Parts Quality: Overall, I thought the parts fit together well and all parts were present. I did have one flawed part within a motor gear housing that I will elaborate on momentarily.
Customer Service:
—————–
As I eluded to earlier, I did find that one of the gears inside a motor housing was broken. I contacted customer service, the only way I could find which was, via email. I was not sure if or when I might be answered. But to my surprise, they got back to me with 24 hours. And they told me they would send a new motor right away. They included a tracking link so I could track the arrival of my new motor assembly.
I also had problems with the camera not working. So I mentioned this in my original email and they requested that I send them photos of my wiring. I sent them photos of both ends of the camera cable connections as requested. They again responded within 24 hours and suggested that I might have plugged the cable into the wrong connector on the Raspberry Pi. After I looked more carefully, I realized they were right as there were two connectors on the Raspberry Pi (one clearly marker “Display” and one clearly marked “Camera”). After I moved the cable to the appropriate connector, the camera worked fine.
My Situation:
I can not wait to receive my motor assembly so I can see my car move! Freenove has included several tests to run to make sure the car parts work correctly. That is how I figured out that the motor that drove one of the wheels was not working. Now that the camera is working, all the other components tested successfully and are ready to go!
This is a great kit with everything you need to build a car. All parts were shipped as expected and the code files are easy to download. The code works too. The chassis has 8 connector pins for servo motors, and you are only using 2 for this project. This means you can additionally use the rest of the slots. It’s a great starting kit for kids and adults looking to get into robotics.
There are few things I wish would be better with this kit:
– the screw driver in the kit is low quality, so I had to use one of my own.
– instrumentation for the front camera and sensor motor should be more robust. This could be due to cheap plastic threading on the servo shaft. The inverted motor falls off almost instantly when started, so I wasn’t able to test the follow object routine.
– The batteries (18650) are expensive at least in Canada, so it took a while to start the car. If there was a way to use the motors with regular rechargeable power supply, it would have been great.
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
It’s not that hard to put together, but my one complaint is that the screws that attach the camera and the distance sensor were too small. They wouldn’t bite into the acrylic and just fell out. I used a free dabs of super glue and it’s ok now. Just be prepared if you are waiting to receive it so you don’t get frustrated if you get the same situation and have to stop building
Buying this kit is my third interaction with Freenove.
I have ordered two items from Freenove. Both items shipped out promptly, arrived in good condition and were exactly as described.
I had a question for Freenove tech support and it was answered within a few hours and the information conveyed resolved my confusion.
I ordered the 4wd Smart Car kit to learn more about what can be done with a Raspberry Pi . Assembly is well documented and straightforward.
Playing with the various sensors on the car after assembly is instructional and interesting.
My young nephews are fascinated with making the car run.
I can’t wait to see what Freenove comes up with next.
I bought this car kit to get some hands on experience with hardware programming on a raspberry pi. This was my first such buy and I found the instructions pretty easy to follow. The code is in python and I do have previous experience with programming in python so that also made it easy for me to get started.
The Freenove customer support is also very responsive. One of the servo packages was not working in the kit that I had received. I emailed their customer support and they shipped me new servo packages, which are working great.
Overall, my experience has been great and I will recommend this product for anyone looking for a beginner level project with their raspberry pi.
My kid had a lot fun working on this project. Very clean instructions on both assembling the car and setting up the software on Raspberry Pi. We had a little issue with some components, the customer service and product support team did a superb job to help us.
Fantastique projet pour apprendre de manire ludique les joies de l’lectronique et de la programmation…j’adore!
Merci Freenove de nous fournir une belle et complte documentation pour un produit magnifique.
Fantastique projet pour apprendre de manire ludique les joies de l’lectronique et de la programmation…j’adore!
Merci Freenove de nous fournir une belle et complte documentation pour un produit magnifique.
I bought 2 for two of my grandsons. The power switch did not work on one car and we had to purchased another car. Ths tech support was helpful and both cars worked fine. We then wrote our own software and developed our remote and had fun with the cars.
Received the kit about a week ago. It’s very well package and easy to get started. The directions are pretty straight forward. About 3/4’s of the way through I missed a step and broke one of the acrylic pieces by over tightening one of the screws. I reached out to Freenove to see if I could pay for a replacement piece. They not only replaced it free of charge but shipped it to me at no cost even though it was my fault. That is how to do business. I am very pleased with the product itself and for the help that Freenove offered me and will definitely buy from them again. I have my eyes on the spider kit.
This product is well designed and easy to assemble. The python software is well designed and mostly easy to modify and enhance. Some of the software included packages require additional research and learning. The support is excellent, they responded to a design problem and had fixes sent out within a couple of days. This is a great learning tool with lots of ways to enhance its capabilities.
My son is learning Python. I purchased this product for him. As an beginner in Python, we had some difficulty. Fortunately, Freenove has great support. They always respond to our email within 24 hours. We were able to figure out the problem and move forward.
My son is learning Python. I purchased this product for him. As an beginner in Python, we had some difficulty. Fortunately, Freenove has great support. They always respond to our email within 24 hours. We were able to figure out the problem and move forward.
I love this thing. I am pretty new to robotics, and I got it up and running pretty fast. The hardware instructions could be a tiny bit better, but for the most part they are very thorough and plenty of images. The software was pretty simple. They tell you exactly what to type in to install everything. Definitely recommend to anyone who is new to the hobby.
**NOTE**
It doesn’t come with a Raspberry Pi or the necessary batteries. Make sure to order those as well.
I bought this robot kit on the back of enjoying the Freenove Ultimate Starter Kit. The tutorial for this robot kit is excellent and takes you through the assembly step by step. My interest is in programming the robot in Python and all the Python programs you need to run the robot in various pre-set modes are available and explained in the tutorial. It is then easy to adapt them for your own use.
My one gripe is that one of the four drive motors didn’t function properly, however a quick e-mail to Freenove and they sent me a replacement without a quibble. The replacement did take 10 days to arrive though (it was sent by airmail, but post is slow during the coronavirus lockdown).
Conclusion: great piece of kit, amazing value.
I bought this robot kit on the back of enjoying the Freenove Ultimate Starter Kit. The tutorial for this robot kit is excellent and takes you through the assembly step by step. My interest is in programming the robot in Python and all the Python programs you need to run the robot in various pre-set modes are available and explained in the tutorial. It is then easy to adapt them for your own use.
My one gripe is that one of the four drive motors didn’t function properly, however a quick e-mail to Freenove and they sent me a replacement without a quibble. The replacement did take 10 days to arrive though (it was sent by airmail, but post is slow during the coronavirus lockdown).
Conclusion: great piece of kit, amazing value.
Quality:
– The quality of the product is good.
– Pieces go together well.
– All parts are in-place.
– All electronic pieces are working well.
Shipping:
– Shipping was quick and packaging was good.
Handling:
This is NOT a project for beginner or a child. This car is not to be played in the manner kids expect to play with
remote control cars. This is NOT remote control car. Don’t get me wrong, this car is controlled, by you from your Android app or computer because it is a full blown computer on wheels so it is connected to your WiFi.
Kids should not drag this car around by hands or bump it in any way – car is bare naked computer with unprocessed fancy sensors attached to it. So should be handled with care.
Skills:
You should very comfortable very with computers and computer hardware parts. Troubleshooting experience will come handy and especially with Linux operating system – you must be comfortable with Linux terminal and various commands.
Medium level Python programming skills will make this project easier. Sometimes you have to use common sense when connecting wires (for example camera wire) as photo on instructions are not precise sometime. However the manual is well made and covers A LOT OF STUFF, so if you are patient – you will get there and will still have some remaining hear you haven’t manage to pull yet.
Issues:
The only issue I discovered is that wheels spin in reverse direction so when you press forward they go backwards and left and right are also reversed. This makes many things unusable. I wrote email to their tech support and got response in about two day – which I find very reasonable. First one to swap cables on the motor (which would require soldering iron) and another one is to make changes to the Python code in Motor.py and “-” in from of four “(dutyX)” lines. Despite the fact that updating was was way easier, I chose to swap wires for fun – haven’t soldered anything in years.
Other than that everything worked perfectly.
MUST HAVE:
Car needs two 18650 batteries. My recommendation is to buy 4-pack and a charger. These batteries power up a computer (RaspberryPi) with additional board, four powerful motors, many sensors, LED light, buzzer and camera. If you use the car actively the batteries will drain in about 2 hours which is not bad – so having a spare back will definitely help.
FINAL NOTE:
This is a great car and you can do anything with it. Great for learning programming and machine learning (ML). You could learn and apply all modern technologies and build amazing project. I am looking forward to updating the server part and train the car to learn various algorithm such as Reinforcement Learning.
This car can to the same thing Amazon DeepRacer does because you can apply all the same technologies but Amazon DeepRacer is about $399 so I could not justify this as I can do the same thing on this car.
Quality:
– The quality of the product is good.
– Pieces go together well.
– All parts are in-place.
– All electronic pieces are working well.
Shipping:
– Shipping was quick and packaging was good.
Handling:
This is NOT a project for beginner or a child. This car is not to be played in the manner kids expect to play with
remote control cars. This is NOT remote control car. Don’t get me wrong, this car is controlled, by you from your Android app or computer because it is a full blown computer on wheels so it is connected to your WiFi.
Kids should not drag this car around by hands or bump it in any way – car is bare naked computer with unprocessed fancy sensors attached to it. So should be handled with care.
Skills:
You should very comfortable very with computers and computer hardware parts. Troubleshooting experience will come handy and especially with Linux operating system – you must be comfortable with Linux terminal and various commands.
Medium level Python programming skills will make this project easier. Sometimes you have to use common sense when connecting wires (for example camera wire) as photo on instructions are not precise sometime. However the manual is well made and covers A LOT OF STUFF, so if you are patient – you will get there and will still have some remaining hear you haven’t manage to pull yet.
Issues:
The only issue I discovered is that wheels spin in reverse direction so when you press forward they go backwards and left and right are also reversed. This makes many things unusable. I wrote email to their tech support and got response in about two day – which I find very reasonable. First one to swap cables on the motor (which would require soldering iron) and another one is to make changes to the Python code in Motor.py and “-” in from of four “(dutyX)” lines. Despite the fact that updating was was way easier, I chose to swap wires for fun – haven’t soldered anything in years.
Other than that everything worked perfectly.
MUST HAVE:
Car needs two 18650 batteries. My recommendation is to buy 4-pack and a charger. These batteries power up a computer (RaspberryPi) with additional board, four powerful motors, many sensors, LED light, buzzer and camera. If you use the car actively the batteries will drain in about 2 hours which is not bad – so having a spare back will definitely help.
FINAL NOTE:
This is a great car and you can do anything with it. Great for learning programming and machine learning (ML). You could learn and apply all modern technologies and build amazing project. I am looking forward to updating the server part and train the car to learn various algorithm such as Reinforcement Learning.
This car can to the same thing Amazon DeepRacer does because you can apply all the same technologies but Amazon DeepRacer is about $399 so I could not justify this as I can do the same thing on this car.
It is a cool Robot. Easy to assemble. There is a tutorial available with every step to follow. It has almost everything to start with robot programming and testing. I recommend it for beginners who want to learn programming and do cool projects.
Muy buen kit para cacharrear. El entorno de programacin es un poco complicado pero con algo de practica se puede hacer un setup inicial suficiente para la demo que viene con el robot. Por lo demas yo me he permitido modificar la batera (foto) ya que me pareca insuficiente para RPI4 que le he instalado. Por lo dems el soporte del equipo tcnico es excepcional. Resumiendo un magnifico robot, para un nivel medio en robtica, buena calidad y excelente atencin al cliente
Muy buen kit para cacharrear. El entorno de programacin es un poco complicado pero con algo de practica se puede hacer un setup inicial suficiente para la demo que viene con el robot. Por lo demas yo me he permitido modificar la batera (foto) ya que me pareca insuficiente para RPI4 que le he instalado. Por lo dems el soporte del equipo tcnico es excepcional. Resumiendo un magnifico robot, para un nivel medio en robtica, buena calidad y excelente atencin al cliente
This is a great beginner level STEM robotics kit if you are interested in programming with a standard language like Python instead of proprietary block-based languages that many other kits use.
For me, the best part was that most of the GPIO ports of the Pi were open, so its easy to add more capabilities to the robot. In my pictures, you will see I have added headlights, taillights and even a very simple robot arm, with cheap off-the-shelf electronics hardware.
I enjoyed this so much, I even used it as an assignment in a course I teach, and created a Youtube video showing extended self-driving capability that I programmed. Search Freenove on YouTube and you can probably find my video.
Yes you will need to add a Raspberry Pi and a couple of Li-Ion batteries to complete this kit but at this price range I think this is a wonderful little robot.
I modified their code to use a mini-keyboard as a game-controller to control the robot and initiate different driving modes, turn on/off the headlights, sound the horn, and even control the robot arm. This way there is no necessity to log in to the pi and start the server – the server is started by a cron job on pi bootup and ready to be controlled.
Update after one year: still using this thing – added many upgrades, the latest one is a fully automable robot arm (see video)!
Simple to assemble - very expandable - use of Raspberry Pi makes it really great for learning
Really great potential but as an experienced assembler I had some difficulties with small screws. Needed to have better specifications for batteries. Needed to include or recommend ribbon to remove batteries. Documentation was pretty good. Very ice control interface. software easy to install if you follow instructions explicitly. Support is very responsive but needs better English translation. Camera cable needed better installation instructions (they are addressing that). Open source may allow me to interface with hand held game controller.
This is the second item I have bought from FREENOVE for my Raspberry Pi. The other being the Ultimate Starter Kit. I am a complete beginner so both these kits have been great. I read the other reviews and watched the Youtube video before buying. The instructions are easy to follow and guide you through the whole build process. The code itself can be downloaded from FREENOVE or you can type it in yourself. If you have any issues or difficulty then you can simply email FREENOVE for help. Being a beginner I got stuck with something very simple with regard to downloading and implementing the code. Once I got over that stumbling block it was easy. FREENOVE seem to have an almost 24 hour response guy as I got help within a very short time, even when I mailed quite late in the evening. I was a little put off by the reviews complaining of batteries being expensive on Amazon. FREENOVE pointed me to Ebay where I got some for 2.99. The build went well without anything too fiddly. It’s satisfying to get it together. My kids were really impressed. I still have a couple of little glitches to figure, which makes the process more enjoyable mind of, but it is working. I’ve not got onto FREENOVE yet for help but if I can’t figure it then I will. On the whole I think this is a great kit. There is no way I was going to piece together the parts to build anything similar and I doubt I’d ever figure the code either, so all in all a good option to move me forward a little with my Pi. Although I’ve not got that far yet I am sure that the individual parts will be useful later when I try other projects.
This is the second item I have bought from FREENOVE for my Raspberry Pi. The other being the Ultimate Starter Kit. I am a complete beginner so both these kits have been great. I read the other reviews and watched the Youtube video before buying. The instructions are easy to follow and guide you through the whole build process. The code itself can be downloaded from FREENOVE or you can type it in yourself. If you have any issues or difficulty then you can simply email FREENOVE for help. Being a beginner I got stuck with something very simple with regard to downloading and implementing the code. Once I got over that stumbling block it was easy. FREENOVE seem to have an almost 24 hour response guy as I got help within a very short time, even when I mailed quite late in the evening. I was a little put off by the reviews complaining of batteries being expensive on Amazon. FREENOVE pointed me to Ebay where I got some for 2.99. The build went well without anything too fiddly. It’s satisfying to get it together. My kids were really impressed. I still have a couple of little glitches to figure, which makes the process more enjoyable mind of, but it is working. I’ve not got onto FREENOVE yet for help but if I can’t figure it then I will. On the whole I think this is a great kit. There is no way I was going to piece together the parts to build anything similar and I doubt I’d ever figure the code either, so all in all a good option to move me forward a little with my Pi. Although I’ve not got that far yet I am sure that the individual parts will be useful later when I try other projects.
The car is easily assembled clear diagrams and instructions. Programming set up is clear and car performs well. Programming is by using Python 2.7 I had a raspberry pi4 and did not realise 2.7 is actually included but needed activating.(support informed me Python 3 programs are being developed). The main control program does not work with remote desktop so need to use VCN. My car had commands round the wrong way but programs are clear and it was easy to amend. I had to contact support and received prompt reply. All in all a good starting model for learning robotics.
The car is easily assembled clear diagrams and instructions. Programming set up is clear and car performs well. Programming is by using Python 2.7 I had a raspberry pi4 and did not realise 2.7 is actually included but needed activating.(support informed me Python 3 programs are being developed). The main control program does not work with remote desktop so need to use VCN. My car had commands round the wrong way but programs are clear and it was easy to amend. I had to contact support and received prompt reply. All in all a good starting model for learning robotics.
Bei dem Raspberry muss man erst diesen einrichten, Software installieren, einen PC / Laptop fr den Remote Zugriff einrichten etc. Mit den vorgegebenen Funktionen kommt man schnell an das Ende des Spaes an. Das Teil ist gut geeignet wenn man selber programmieren mchte und schon ein Stck weit wei was man tut.
Zu FREENOVE selber.
In der Anleitung wird versprochen, dass man immer support bekommt und sich das Unternehmen auch ber den Verkauf hinaus verantwortlich fr seine Produkte sieht.
Ich kann das aus eigener Erfahrung nur besttigen. Ich hatte bereits mehrmals Kontakt zum support um auch tief gehende Fragen zur Elektronik zu stellen und bekam stets innerhalb kurzer Zeit Antwort.
Ich bin begeistert. Deshalb auch 5 Sterne Gesamtbewertung
The assembly instructions are pretty good but could do with a bit more clarity around the servo motors controlling the head. The code explanation are clear and very thorough.
The quality of the robot is higher than average but don’t forget you’ll need a Raspberry Pi tocomplete the kit – It’s designed for Pi v4 but, for those with a bit more knowledge, it can be powered by Pi Zero W if you can get one – they’re all still in short supply
All in all a great kit but would suggest minimum age is really 11/12
Es war “leicht” zusammen zu bauen. Aber 2 von die reder haben immer runtergefallen, musste ich ihn da kleben. Die sensoren die einte schwarze Linie folgen sollte funktionieren nicht mehr richtig nach 1 Tag. Vielleicht liegt es in die Programme. Es kann sich auf Laminat nicht so gut drehen. Einige funktionen “freeze” manschmal. Ich glaube die sind meistens programming Probleme die knnte viel besser sein. Musste die Buzzer ausschalten als er immer beept. Sonst macht spas fr so wenig geld.
It can show you how to use your raspberry pi in practical engineering in your own home, learning to use the camera, line sensors, servos and motors. Just needs a bit of patience, and not get flustered with the tiny screws and nuts lol.
Liked the kit, but the instructions has some holes and the mobile apps required to control the model leavs a bit to wish for.
But over all it has potential and I will most definitely have fun with this one.
All the parts are there, well packed and easy to follow instructions, but a bit un clear at some parts.
Will get more kits.
And I’m planning to upgrade this one.
Overall the quality of some parts as you’d read in other reviews are not as good as expected. Especially the ultrasonic sensor holder and some of the wheels come out when turning, not a biggie, some things you can easily fix at home with glue or other stuff. I think the most valuable part of this robot is the tutorial and the amount of information you get, if you are new with programming or you are getting back to it, like me, it’s worth every penny. Eventually, I bought some more sensors to keep digging into the programming world with Linux and Python.
I have been enjoying putting together this 4WD robot. It is so much fun to see something that I built come alive. I had an issue with one of the steps and emailed their support. On the same day (a Sunday no less!) their support sent me back email and got me up and running.
Works great and I think it’s a fantastic deal for it’s price. As long as you are technical minded and patient it’s fairly easy to assemble. There are some issues though. Attaching the head I had to use an extra nut to stop it from shaking. Sometimes the instructions are vague or repeat themselves. I also didn’t see anything about setting up face tracking in the tutorial. I also think the batteries should be included as they’re a little difficult to find.
Overall, would purchase again.
Das Fahrzeug hat viele vorprogrammierte Betriebsmodi. Nur die beiden Servos fr die Kamera sind etwas wackelig. Whrend der Fahrt zittert das Bild stark. Die Servos lassen sich aber durch solche mir Metallgetriebe fr eine bessere Stabilitt ersetzen.
Essendo sempre stato appassionato di informatica e programmazione, ho voluto anche avvicinarmi anche all’elettronica. Per farlo ho comprato un Raspeberry ed un kit, sempre di Freenove, ed a quel punto ho scoperto un mondo appassionante fatto si di elettronica, ma anche di sistemi operativi (Debian) e programmazione (Python). Ho quindi comprato questo kit e l’ho assemblato abbastanza facilmente pur non avendo una grande abilit manuale, darei solo il consiglio di aggiungerci anche minuteria di riserva, perdere qualche vitina facile. Finito il montaggio sono passato alla parte programmazione che assolutamente ben guidata e spiegata, ed veramente interessante e se ci sono dubbi il servizio di supporto risponde molto velocemente e risolve il problema. Concludendo, ora funziona tutto perfettamente, ma sto rivedendo i programmi per ampliare e migliorare le funzioni. Non vi dico che lo ricomprerei, vi dico che a brevissimo comprer il kit del cane.
Essendo sempre stato appassionato di informatica e programmazione, ho voluto anche avvicinarmi anche all’elettronica. Per farlo ho comprato un Raspeberry ed un kit, sempre di Freenove, ed a quel punto ho scoperto un mondo appassionante fatto si di elettronica, ma anche di sistemi operativi (Debian) e programmazione (Python). Ho quindi comprato questo kit e l’ho assemblato abbastanza facilmente pur non avendo una grande abilit manuale, darei solo il consiglio di aggiungerci anche minuteria di riserva, perdere qualche vitina facile. Finito il montaggio sono passato alla parte programmazione che assolutamente ben guidata e spiegata, ed veramente interessante e se ci sono dubbi il servizio di supporto risponde molto velocemente e risolve il problema. Concludendo, ora funziona tutto perfettamente, ma sto rivedendo i programmi per ampliare e migliorare le funzioni. Non vi dico che lo ricomprerei, vi dico che a brevissimo comprer il kit del cane.
The unit takes time to build so go slow when you are building. The customer support is excellent and will help you in every way possible to get things moving if you get stuck. Highly recommend.
Great tutorial and Video although they were not always in the same sequence. You need thin fingers and some non-metallic tweezers for some of the smaller screws.
This car is super easy to build and program, To be fair a lot of negative reviews around the fact you do need to by a Raspberry PI computer & 2 x 18650 batteries. But it does clearly state that fact.
After building the robot and configuring the pi following the online guide & videos on YouTube this robot car is up and running, IOS & Android compatible which is great. And just to ease the cost you can quite easily use a raspberry pi zero wh or zero 2 wh and the pi zero camera cable instead of a pi 4 which works the same, Tried and tested… The pi zero will reduce overall cost if you are on a budget. Recommended product for the cost… and the fun…
This car is super easy to build and program, To be fair a lot of negative reviews around the fact you do need to by a Raspberry PI computer & 2 x 18650 batteries. But it does clearly state that fact.
After building the robot and configuring the pi following the online guide & videos on YouTube this robot car is up and running, IOS & Android compatible which is great. And just to ease the cost you can quite easily use a raspberry pi zero wh or zero 2 wh and the pi zero camera cable instead of a pi 4 which works the same, Tried and tested… The pi zero will reduce overall cost if you are on a budget. Recommended product for the cost… and the fun…
Die Idee des Artikels ist sehr gut, jedoch erhielt ich die Schachtel unverpackt, so dass die Adresse auf der Originalverpackung geklebt wurde. Da es sich um ein Geschenk handelt ist es nicht gerade schn zum Verschenken. Schade !
Das Produkt aber ist sauber verarbeitet und in der Schachtel ist alles vorhanden um diesen Flitzer aufzubauen, es ist kein Lten ntig. Kann ich gerne weiter empfehlen !
I’m an experienced programmer, but new to Raspberry pi and Python. I found this car to be easy to build, and it worked very well when assembled. Tech support via email has been GREAT for a few questions that I had – often getting a response the same day, and always accurate. The printed tutorial has lots of helpful information, but you need to watch the assembly video to build this kit. The printed doc doesn’t exactly match the video, but I was able to work it out (if there is a conflict, go with the video first). I rated this low for beginners because there are things that can be a bit complicated, and if you are a TRUE beginner this is a bit complicated, particularly the Linux commands. Prior to building this kit I built the similar Yahboom 4WD kit. That kit has more features, but the kit is not as well designed and the instructions were very poor by comparison. That kit didn’t work well (flaws that are even noted in their website) and I won’t be working with it. The Freenove kit is far superior, even though it doesn’t have as many features. This kit worked the first time, and now I’m exploring all the features.
Il faut quand mme s’y connaitre un peu car la programmation n’est pas si simple!
Nice robot with PDF and youtube tutorial.
Got prompt response for my question.
Recommended.
I enjoyed putting together. I am not done programming it. Some things that might make it better:
1. Onboard 18650 battery charger. I added two additional batteries on top of the RPi with a built in charger.
2. The tires do not do well in a transition from carpet to hard surface. They might need some knobs to get traction.
3. Maybe a USB camera instead of the ribbon cable camera? Not sure about this.
Car is great had to order a new camera the one it came with didn’t work
It is a very cool robot; my daughter managed to assemble it by herself. Configuring Raspberry is easy, but some “hacking” skills can’t hurt! 😉
The only problem was with moving in the wrong direction. I changed a few lines of code, changes can be found in my repository https://www.amazon.de/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=B07YD2LT9D
NICE KIT !!!
1) Not for your pedestrian, or even “average” computer/tech minded; you need to be comfortable with some very basic Linux and Python and a few other basic concepts.
2) Be sure to download the .zip file with all the python code, assembly instructions, etc and preread assembly instructions.
3) If your VNC Client doesn’t load desktop or the android app won’t connect; CHANGE YOUR DESKTOP RESOLUTION IN RASPI-CONFIG and REBOOT….then the virtual desktop will load at the client end and “yer stuff ‘ull werk jest fine”…lol
You ain’t gonna beat this basic robot toy/kit for the money !
..
My first attempts at robotics. The car is easy to put together and the quality of the components is excellent. The software included is also excellent and will form the basis of some fun experiments in the future. It is inherently complicated to run a Raspberry Pi over a remote connection, but they have done a superb job. I highly recommend this.
My first attempts at robotics. The car is easy to put together and the quality of the components is excellent. The software included is also excellent and will form the basis of some fun experiments in the future. It is inherently complicated to run a Raspberry Pi over a remote connection, but they have done a superb job. I highly recommend this.
My son likes the car very much and the customer service is excellent.
During the installation and testing, we had some questions and the customer service support team always gave us very quick response and help after we sent email for help even in weekend!
Rasch geliefert und schnell zusammengebaut. Mit der verfgbaren Software schnell und einfach erste Fahrerlebnisse. Raspberry Pi und Python-Kenntnisse muss man aber schon dafr haben. Der richtige Spa fr mich kam dann bei der Anpassung und Ergnzung der Software, z.B. die Fahrknpfe durch einen virtuellen Joystick zu ersetzen o… Da ich das Fahrzeug noch mit Lidar erweitern will hatte ich nach einer CAD gefragt. 1 Tag spter war sie da. Das nenne ich Support. Bin sehr zufrieden. Da alles mehr oder weniger Open source ist, ein sehr gutes Einstiegsmodell fr das Thema “Robotic in cars”.
I had issues assembling it but they have a fast responding support team to help me along the way
This kit was idiot proof. I did not watch the videos, but followed the PDF.
Fun project to play with Python.
open source
I will reuse the parts for other project.
The car kit is reasonably easy to construct and the after sales service is excellent.
Vielleicht habe ich etwas falsches gemacht (ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich den Strom, wie in der Anleitung beschrieben, whrend dem Aufbau anlie oder nicht).
Ich habe also den Support von Freenove per E-Mail kontaktiert. Nach wenigen Stunden erhielte ich eine Antwort.
Trotz Anleitung funktionierten die Servos nicht richtig.
Ich habe dann den Support erneut kontaktiert und erhielte dieses Mal eine Antwort nach wenigen Minuten. Freenove fragte mich nach meiner Adresse um mir Ersatzservos zu senden!
Ich bin sehr positiv berrascht ber so einen schnellen, personalisierten und zuvorkommender Support!
Ich warte jetzt auf die neuen Servos.
Obwohl ich das Problem mit den Servos hatte, bewerte ich das Produkt mit 5 Sterne: alles funktioniert ansonsten Einwandfrei, der Support ist hervorragend, die Anleitung sehr gut und es gibt auch eine YouTube Video-Anleitung. Die Verarbeitung ist gut, es ist alles sehr gut verpackt und allein der Aufbau hat mir und meinem Sohn viel Spa bereitet. Das Problem mit den Servos habe ich vielleicht selbst verursacht und sehe deswegen kein Grund fr einen Punktabzug.
Das Produkt wrde ich weiterempfehlen.
Ich habe das Produkt aufgebaut und getestet. Alles funktionierte einwandfrei bis auf die Servos (fr die “Kopf-“Bewegung). Diese machten teilweise komische Gerusche bzw. liefen hei.
Vielleicht habe ich etwas falsches gemacht (ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich den Strom, wie in der Anleitung beschrieben, whrend dem Aufbau anlie oder nicht).
Ich habe also den Support von Freenove per E-Mail kontaktiert. Nach wenigen Stunden erhielte ich eine Antwort.
Trotz Anleitung funktionierten die Servos nicht richtig.
Ich habe dann den Support erneut kontaktiert und erhielte dieses Mal eine Antwort nach wenigen Minuten. Freenove fragte mich nach meiner Adresse um mir Ersatzservos zu senden!
Ich bin sehr positiv berrascht ber so einen schnellen, personalisierten und zuvorkommender Support!
Ich warte jetzt auf die neuen Servos.
Obwohl ich das Problem mit den Servos hatte, bewerte ich das Produkt mit 5 Sterne: alles funktioniert ansonsten Einwandfrei, der Support ist hervorragend, die Anleitung sehr gut und es gibt auch eine YouTube Video-Anleitung. Die Verarbeitung ist gut, es ist alles sehr gut verpackt und allein der Aufbau hat mir und meinem Sohn viel Spa bereitet. Das Problem mit den Servos habe ich vielleicht selbst verursacht und sehe deswegen kein Grund fr einen Punktabzug.
Das Produkt wrde ich weiterempfehlen.
I am very pleased by this product, though I suspect it may be a bit frustrating to a real beginner at computer sysadmin work. I had the benefit of having used RPis for several years, and Linux for even much, much longer. The primary benefits for me are 1) it works 2) I can manage it via a CLI from any computer that supports ssh 2) I can just use python scripts on the RPi without needing to install software on some other comuter AND 4) their customer support just astonished me. I broke a plastic piece, probably because I tightened a screw too much. I emailed them about getting a replacement part, even telling them that I think I tightened the screw too much. Within a few hours I got a response saying “Thank you for choosing Freenove. We are fully responsible for any concerns. I am sorry for the issue. We will send you a replacement.” I sent another email, and got another professional and polite response even much faster.
I think they also provide easier and nicer user interfaces than a CLI run python script, but I have not even tried those. My interest was how they connect the hardware (servos, sensors and such) to the RPi, whether I can operate it with simple scripts, while hoping to run some own scripts using theirs as a starting point.
Anyway, nicely done product, in my opinion!
Whilst being one of the more cheaper raspberry pi cars, it certainly doesn’t show that in value. Had a lot of fun from unboxing and building to writing code to interract with its features. If you’re looking to get into this kind of thing, the extremely thorough guide along with many out-of-the-box test scripts make this a great project for beginners or professionals alike.
Whilst being one of the more cheaper raspberry pi cars, it certainly doesn’t show that in value. Had a lot of fun from unboxing and building to writing code to interract with its features. If you’re looking to get into this kind of thing, the extremely thorough guide along with many out-of-the-box test scripts make this a great project for beginners or professionals alike.
I used the Raspberry Pi Zero (with wifi), you need to get a specific Zero camera cable as it is different to the Pi. The height of the zero plus GPIO pins on the zero make the board sit slightly lower on the car. (This might be because I used smaller pins when soldering them onto the Zero) The result is that there is a gap between the pi and the mounting pillars. So you need a few washers and longer screws. The batteries I got were EFEST 3.5K mah 20A (2 in a Pack for 18) plus a the POWXS Universal 18650 Battery Charger.
The instructions are pretty good and take you step by step in setting up the raspberry with different libraries , although for what ever reason I had to do this step twice. The build quality of the car is good and a joy to build.
Once I finished the build and programmed the car, I found the car went the opposite way to the way it should go, but it is quite easy to change the code (reversing the number to or from -ve). To drive the car remotely, I found I had to use a keyboard and monitor to set the program going and not vnc.
The remote control is good, to be able to drive the car while it is out of sight and see where it is going on your phone is cool, although it can loose connection and do it’s own thing. Camera is a bit jerky when moving.
This is a great educational toy and worth the 60
I used the Raspberry Pi Zero (with wifi), you need to get a specific Zero camera cable as it is different to the Pi. The height of the zero plus GPIO pins on the zero make the board sit slightly lower on the car. (This might be because I used smaller pins when soldering them onto the Zero) The result is that there is a gap between the pi and the mounting pillars. So you need a few washers and longer screws. The batteries I got were EFEST 3.5K mah 20A (2 in a Pack for 18) plus a the POWXS Universal 18650 Battery Charger.
The instructions are pretty good and take you step by step in setting up the raspberry with different libraries , although for what ever reason I had to do this step twice. The build quality of the car is good and a joy to build.
Once I finished the build and programmed the car, I found the car went the opposite way to the way it should go, but it is quite easy to change the code (reversing the number to or from -ve). To drive the car remotely, I found I had to use a keyboard and monitor to set the program going and not vnc.
The remote control is good, to be able to drive the car while it is out of sight and see where it is going on your phone is cool, although it can loose connection and do it’s own thing. Camera is a bit jerky when moving.
This is a great educational toy and worth the 60
This product is simply great. I am using it to introduce some high/middle school students to STEM and I couldn’t be more pleased. I had a few problems constructing it but the Freenove team send me a video showing me what I was doing wrong. I really support this company and product to help spread STEM to the youth!
When first building the car I used a couple of batteries that I had lying around. The advice from Freenove is to use batteries that can sustain a high discharge rate. This is good advice. Using poor quality batteries results in the low battery warning buzzer sounding after only a fairly short use. Good batteries cure the problem! One point is that you need to remove the batteries to charge them. I found that making loops out of cable ties makes the process of removal much simpler but anything thick might interfere with the battery fitting properly.
The kit is quick to assemble since much of the building is securing parts to the baseboard which contains the control components. The instructions are generally very good but can be a bit repetitive, e.g. VNC player and the assembly of the pan/tilt module which is covered twice. Best to read the instructions before you start so you know which bits to pay attention to and go straight to VNC viewer if you can.
The car is a genuine four-wheel drive which means that each wheel can be controlled separately. This allows the car to be steered by having wheels go at different speeds (compared to rotating the wheels). On soft carpets the grip of the tyres is not as good so the steering is not as precise.
Freenove emphasise the support they give, encouraging you to ask for help. When I first put the kit together, I could not get the buzzer to work nor the ultrasonic ranging. They are based in China so the reply came back on the following morning. It started off “Thank you for choosing Freenove. We are fully responsible for any concerns.” which is a clear indication that they will do their best to sort out any problems that you have. My problem turned out to be that when I fitted the bridge between the pi and the baseboard, I had managed to bend three of the connectors to the side of the plug so they did not connect. Re-fitted and all was well.
If you are anything like me you look at other kits after you buy one. There are a surprising number of car kits out there. Some have more features than this one, but are more expensive. Some have a sturdier sturdy chassis, but are more expensive. Some kits are cheaper, but do less. One of the significant differences between kits is whether the wheels are fixed or whether they turn to steer. On this kit they are fixed but Freenove do have another kit with steerable wheels.
I came to the 5 star rating by weighing up price, features and support.
The amazon review site seems a bit weird asking for ratings on Thickness and Sheerness. Perhaps artificial intelligence is not as intelligent as one might hope!
Freenove is a very innovative company.
They offer a series of kits that go from the most elementary robot such as the Micro Rover, to more advanced ones such as the Hexapod.
Naturally, they are not all for novices and sometimes they receive negative reviews by rank beginners for futile reasons.
I purchased, built and sometimes modified a handful of the robots and I can tell you that they are all fairly priced, very well designed, the kit components are all of high quality and the instructions and online tutorials are first class.
Some of these kits, especially the ones based on a SBC (You supply your own Raspberry Pi 3B+, or 4B, and the batteries), are ideal educational devices. They can be programmed to perform additional tasks and are ideal platforms for anyone to get their feet wet with programming.
As an added bonus, Freenove offers an unusually friendly and competent technical assistance.
Roberto Pensotti
I decided to build the car with a Pi Zero W H because of the low battery drain. I needed to get a special cable as indicated in the instructions. It ends up very neat as you can see in the photos. All functions work in this configuration but I think things like face tracking might be slicker with the recommended pi 3 or 4.
When first building the car I used a couple of batteries that I had lying around. The advice from Freenove is to use batteries that can sustain a high discharge rate. This is good advice. Using poor quality batteries results in the low battery warning buzzer sounding after only a fairly short use. Good batteries cure the problem! One point is that you need to remove the batteries to charge them. I found that making loops out of cable ties makes the process of removal much simpler but anything thick might interfere with the battery fitting properly.
The kit is quick to assemble since much of the building is securing parts to the baseboard which contains the control components. The instructions are generally very good but can be a bit repetitive, e.g. VNC player and the assembly of the pan/tilt module which is covered twice. Best to read the instructions before you start so you know which bits to pay attention to and go straight to VNC viewer if you can.
The car is a genuine four-wheel drive which means that each wheel can be controlled separately. This allows the car to be steered by having wheels go at different speeds (compared to rotating the wheels). On soft carpets the grip of the tyres is not as good so the steering is not as precise.
Freenove emphasise the support they give, encouraging you to ask for help. When I first put the kit together, I could not get the buzzer to work nor the ultrasonic ranging. They are based in China so the reply came back on the following morning. It started off “Thank you for choosing Freenove. We are fully responsible for any concerns.” which is a clear indication that they will do their best to sort out any problems that you have. My problem turned out to be that when I fitted the bridge between the pi and the baseboard, I had managed to bend three of the connectors to the side of the plug so they did not connect. Re-fitted and all was well.
If you are anything like me you look at other kits after you buy one. There are a surprising number of car kits out there. Some have more features than this one, but are more expensive. Some have a sturdier sturdy chassis, but are more expensive. Some kits are cheaper, but do less. One of the significant differences between kits is whether the wheels are fixed or whether they turn to steer. On this kit they are fixed but Freenove do have another kit with steerable wheels.
I came to the 5 star rating by weighing up price, features and support.
The amazon review site seems a bit weird asking for ratings on Thickness and Sheerness. Perhaps artificial intelligence is not as intelligent as one might hope!
I got this kit as a birthday gift. I have some programming and hardware experience, but I can confirm that the kit is totally self explanatory and the directions are very clear. The software instructions are also clear and very easy to follow. Helps if you get a Rasbperry Pi which has wifi built in (the most recent versions all do), so that you can remote control the device from another computer or phone. The iphone app works incredibly well.
I’m absolutely delighted with this kit, so much fun, straight out of the box. To make it even better, I asked for some support over email from the manufacturer and had a reply within 12 hours with clear instructions on how to fix the issue I was having.
I got this kit as a birthday gift. I have some programming and hardware experience, but I can confirm that the kit is totally self explanatory and the directions are very clear. The software instructions are also clear and very easy to follow. Helps if you get a Rasbperry Pi which has wifi built in (the most recent versions all do), so that you can remote control the device from another computer or phone. The iphone app works incredibly well.
I’m absolutely delighted with this kit, so much fun, straight out of the box. To make it even better, I asked for some support over email from the manufacturer and had a reply within 12 hours with clear instructions on how to fix the issue I was having.
Very easy car to build even for a first timer with the on line instructions taking you through the process step by step. From the prepping of the Raspberry Pi through the build and then the programming and testing of all of the cars features all of which is explained expertly. Once built every part of the car performed as expected, so much so I have an eye on the robotic dog and Spider from the same company.
I was very impressed with this kit, it was simple to assemble with screws and nuts individually marked up and bagged, there is a cross head screw driver supplied with the kit the only other tool I required was a small pair of pointed nose pliers to hold some of the nuts. The download from Freenove contains the code and tutorial which is very comprehensive it shows each stage of assembly and how to enter the commands into terminal to execute the test code for each module.
I used a raspberry Pi 3B+ with the car and Xtar 18650 3500 mA batteries. The client software which controls the car I ran on a windows 10 computer, this controlled all the cars functions very well. Connecting you just need to remember if you have not set up a static IP address for the cars Raspberry Pi to check the current IP address and input it in the client software or phone app whichever you are using.
The mobile phone app also works well on my phone a one plus 8 pro android it, shows the camera view as you control the car from the phone screen, the line tracking , light tracking and sonic functions can also be accessed from the phone app, I’ve added a couple of screen shots using the app.
Very easy car to build even for a first timer with the on line instructions taking you through the process step by step. From the prepping of the Raspberry Pi through the build and then the programming and testing of all of the cars features all of which is explained expertly. Once built every part of the car performed as expected, so much so I have an eye on the robotic dog and Spider from the same company.
I was very impressed with this kit, it was simple to assemble with screws and nuts individually marked up and bagged, there is a cross head screw driver supplied with the kit the only other tool I required was a small pair of pointed nose pliers to hold some of the nuts. The download from Freenove contains the code and tutorial which is very comprehensive it shows each stage of assembly and how to enter the commands into terminal to execute the test code for each module.
I used a raspberry Pi 3B+ with the car and Xtar 18650 3500 mA batteries. The client software which controls the car I ran on a windows 10 computer, this controlled all the cars functions very well. Connecting you just need to remember if you have not set up a static IP address for the cars Raspberry Pi to check the current IP address and input it in the client software or phone app whichever you are using.
The mobile phone app also works well on my phone a one plus 8 pro android it, shows the camera view as you control the car from the phone screen, the line tracking , light tracking and sonic functions can also be accessed from the phone app, I’ve added a couple of screen shots using the app.
This is not my first Raspberry Pi kit, but it has the best instruction so far. It is fun to build, and as an IT professional, it helps me better understand and stepping into the AI and robotic world!!!!
The remote Android app works out of the box and makes this a full-featured remote controllable car to a fair price but actually much more: With all the options, it is a platform that stimulates learning of programming and to develop own projects.
My child liked the easy start (to play with the car and the colorful LEDs) and is curious to learn more about programming. I’m sure he will be doing some projects with it as he grows. Otherwise, I will for sure do some fun projects with it. Being open-source, extensions of existing code (in Python) are easily possible.
Out of the box, there are several programs included, like the tracking of black lines and obstacle detection. I think these are nice demonstrations of it that show the potential and that ask to be expanded by the users.
The vehicle is rather easy to manufacture as there are just 2 Servos to install, took about 1 hour to get it working.
Notes: Be careful when attaching the camera head onto the car as the pieces are a bit thin and not very robust.
The initial setup of the Raspberry Pi (I used the 3B model) is well described in the tutorial PDF but you should have some technology affinity or interest to learn.
I would therefore not classify it as a toy that can be used out of the box but rather a development platform.
You can set up the Raspberry Pi such that it automatically runs the server software upon startup.
I actually use the same Raspberry Pi for multiple projects as it is not too much effort to unmount/remount it here.
The only drawback of the car is that the battery needs to be removed to be charged.
However, during development, you can connect the power supply of the Raspberry to reduce the need to charge it.
In the robot dog, the charger is embedded which has its advantages.
To sum up: I’m very pleased with the experience of this kit, its quality, and potential.
The price for it feels more than fair given what you get.
I hope FreeNove will continue to make more of such high-quality kits.
The remote Android app works out of the box and makes this a full-featured remote controllable car to a fair price but actually much more: With all the options, it is a platform that stimulates learning of programming and to develop own projects.
My child liked the easy start (to play with the car and the colorful LEDs) and is curious to learn more about programming. I’m sure he will be doing some projects with it as he grows. Otherwise, I will for sure do some fun projects with it. Being open-source, extensions of existing code (in Python) are easily possible.
Out of the box, there are several programs included, like the tracking of black lines and obstacle detection. I think these are nice demonstrations of it that show the potential and that ask to be expanded by the users.
The vehicle is rather easy to manufacture as there are just 2 Servos to install, took about 1 hour to get it working.
Notes: Be careful when attaching the camera head onto the car as the pieces are a bit thin and not very robust.
The initial setup of the Raspberry Pi (I used the 3B model) is well described in the tutorial PDF but you should have some technology affinity or interest to learn.
I would therefore not classify it as a toy that can be used out of the box but rather a development platform.
You can set up the Raspberry Pi such that it automatically runs the server software upon startup.
I actually use the same Raspberry Pi for multiple projects as it is not too much effort to unmount/remount it here.
The only drawback of the car is that the battery needs to be removed to be charged.
However, during development, you can connect the power supply of the Raspberry to reduce the need to charge it.
In the robot dog, the charger is embedded which has its advantages.
To sum up: I’m very pleased with the experience of this kit, its quality, and potential.
The price for it feels more than fair given what you get.
I hope FreeNove will continue to make more of such high-quality kits.
However, there are a few issues. One issue is that the car kit doesn’t come with rechargeable 18650 batteries. I ended up spending some time on Amazon doing research and buying a bundle of these expensive batteries and charger. I wish the car kit can include batteries and charge a little extra.
My second major issue is that the manual is poorly written. There are duplicated sections all over and it can confuse people. Most importantly, some key installation steps should be emphasized. For example, my kid was stuck between Step 9-11 on Page 51 (duplicated on Page 72) when attaching camera module to servo package. After quite a while of watching the video of assembled car like a detective to gather clues, I realized that one needed to attach a white rocker arm on Step 9. Then Page 73 says there are two ways to fix the servo 0. I don’t think the second way works. Another example is when wiring the ribbon for camera (Page 54). A kid would simply insert a ribbon into the slot. Step 1 on Page 54 should emphasize that one needs to pull the lever out first, insert the ribbon and then push the lever in.
In retrospect, the car worked great. I am surprised that the installation of software is very smooth. The assembling process was frustrating sometimes and there is a lot of room for improvement and simplification.
However, there are a few issues. One issue is that the car kit doesn’t come with rechargeable 18650 batteries. I ended up spending some time on Amazon doing research and buying a bundle of these expensive batteries and charger. I wish the car kit can include batteries and charge a little extra.
My second major issue is that the manual is poorly written. There are duplicated sections all over and it can confuse people. Most importantly, some key installation steps should be emphasized. For example, my kid was stuck between Step 9-11 on Page 51 (duplicated on Page 72) when attaching camera module to servo package. After quite a while of watching the video of assembled car like a detective to gather clues, I realized that one needed to attach a white rocker arm on Step 9. Then Page 73 says there are two ways to fix the servo 0. I don’t think the second way works. Another example is when wiring the ribbon for camera (Page 54). A kid would simply insert a ribbon into the slot. Step 1 on Page 54 should emphasize that one needs to pull the lever out first, insert the ribbon and then push the lever in.
In retrospect, the car worked great. I am surprised that the installation of software is very smooth. The assembling process was frustrating sometimes and there is a lot of room for improvement and simplification.
This kit was a joy to build. The parts were clearly identified and even the various screws were in labelled plastic bags. The tutorial gave very clear and detailed instructions both for the hardware and also the software with useful checks at key stages. They even provide a screwdriver, but I would recommend magnetising it to help position the screws it as some of them are very tiny.
I did have trouble with the camera, where the instructions were a bit misleading, but the tutorial positively invites you to contact support. Their support is about the best I have come across and soon had me on the right path.
The car itself performs very well and is controlled via an app on a phone. The tutorial uses a windows based program to control the car but I would recommend using the phone app, it is much better.
The software source is provide in the tutorial so it will be easy to add my own programming, but the included software does much of what I had expected to have to do myself.
In some ways it has been too easy. Having built the car I am struggling to think of ways I can extend it — but it’s fun!!
This kit was a joy to build. The parts were clearly identified and even the various screws were in labelled plastic bags. The tutorial gave very clear and detailed instructions both for the hardware and also the software with useful checks at key stages. They even provide a screwdriver, but I would recommend magnetising it to help position the screws it as some of them are very tiny.
I did have trouble with the camera, where the instructions were a bit misleading, but the tutorial positively invites you to contact support. Their support is about the best I have come across and soon had me on the right path.
The car itself performs very well and is controlled via an app on a phone. The tutorial uses a windows based program to control the car but I would recommend using the phone app, it is much better.
The software source is provide in the tutorial so it will be easy to add my own programming, but the included software does much of what I had expected to have to do myself.
In some ways it has been too easy. Having built the car I am struggling to think of ways I can extend it — but it’s fun!!
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_V5obGb6X7CV0Q
Here 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. Impressive
3. 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.
The best robot kit I have yet assembled. Very beginner friendly and has lots of spare parts. Contacted the support for help and they replied the next day. Comes with a very detailed tutorial. If you understand English you can build one regardless of your previous experience.
Es war ein Geschenk. Meinem Mann hat es super gefallen.
I was very keen to build this and try it out, so I downloaded the code and set up my Raspberry Pi, shortly after placing my order. Fortunately, I already had a couple of 18650 batteries. So, when the kit arrived the next day, I was good to go. Assembly took about 2 hours.
First point to note is that I have big fingers and some of the screws are really tiny — I needed fine tweezers for these.
Second point, when assembling the pan and tilt ‘head’, the instructions tell you to plug in the servos and run servo.py to put them in the correct position before assembly. I would recommend carrying out steps 1 to 9 of the 11 illustrated steps (page 51 at time of writing) before connecting the servos.
I would also suggest connecting the cables to the camera and ultrasonic units before connecting the ‘face’ to the ‘neck’ as they are lot more accessible at this point.
Excepting a couple of fiddly bits, the kit was straight forward to assemble, I ran all the test modules and everything worked first time, except it went backwards instead of forwards — but the instructions covered correcting this. It does everything shown in the Freenove video and can also be controlled directly by a phone app (android in my case). I was impressed by the quality of the build and also that all the code is open source.
At the price, having a kit you can control from your phone, pretty much out of the box, is already good value, but the potential for writing your own code is even more appealing and I would imagine would be a great incentive for novice coders. I hope a community will develop where people can share their code and ideas. I also think the kit is ideal for further development — a robot arm would be a cool addition, perhaps Freenove may develop expansion kits in the future.
In summary, a great kit, a great learning tool and best of all — open source!
I was very keen to build this and try it out, so I downloaded the code and set up my Raspberry Pi, shortly after placing my order. Fortunately, I already had a couple of 18650 batteries. So, when the kit arrived the next day, I was good to go. Assembly took about 2 hours.
First point to note is that I have big fingers and some of the screws are really tiny — I needed fine tweezers for these.
Second point, when assembling the pan and tilt ‘head’, the instructions tell you to plug in the servos and run servo.py to put them in the correct position before assembly. I would recommend carrying out steps 1 to 9 of the 11 illustrated steps (page 51 at time of writing) before connecting the servos.
I would also suggest connecting the cables to the camera and ultrasonic units before connecting the ‘face’ to the ‘neck’ as they are lot more accessible at this point.
Excepting a couple of fiddly bits, the kit was straight forward to assemble, I ran all the test modules and everything worked first time, except it went backwards instead of forwards — but the instructions covered correcting this. It does everything shown in the Freenove video and can also be controlled directly by a phone app (android in my case). I was impressed by the quality of the build and also that all the code is open source.
At the price, having a kit you can control from your phone, pretty much out of the box, is already good value, but the potential for writing your own code is even more appealing and I would imagine would be a great incentive for novice coders. I hope a community will develop where people can share their code and ideas. I also think the kit is ideal for further development — a robot arm would be a cool addition, perhaps Freenove may develop expansion kits in the future.
In summary, a great kit, a great learning tool and best of all — open source!
En menos de 24 horas me ayudaron a configurar la raspberry 2B para que funcionaran los leds
This little kit is my first foray into building robots and using a raspberry pi. I picked it up in preparation for a grad level computer science course in AI for robotics. I also purchased the CanaKit Raspberry Pi Starter Kit. Freenove offers code download and a tutorial to walk you through building the robot and running test code. The tutorial has great pictures and instructions for each model of raspberry pi. One minor issue I have encountered is that the warnings for what could go wrong are after the instructions for assembly and test…which is why I know that they have great customer service! When hooking up the wiring for the ultrasonic sensor, I mixed up the wires and then ran the test code which killed the sensor. When the sensor feedback didn’t make sense, I read the warning about possible damage from incorrect wiring. Oops. Freenove replied to my email within 12 hours and is mailing me a new sensor free of charge. NOTE: 3.7V 18650 batteries with discharge current >10A are required, but not provided.
I’ve bought this product for a project. I’ve encountered a hardware fault with one of the sensor – I’ve contacted the makers and they kindly replaced the faulty part, excellent response time and service. The product itself is great, great for entry into AI, robotics, and electronics.
I’ve bought this product for a project. I’ve encountered a hardware fault with one of the sensor – I’ve contacted the makers and they kindly replaced the faulty part, excellent response time and service. The product itself is great, great for entry into AI, robotics, and electronics.
I built this for my kindergartner to play with. I recommend a tiny magnetic Phillips screwdriver, and assemble over a cookie sheet so that none of the tiny nuts and screws get away from you. A basic knowledge of setting up a raspberry pi computer would really help, but emailing tech support filled in the gaps of my knowledge very quickly. Note that the batteries are sold separately. Thanks to their tech support who were very helpful and prompt.
Very nice for the price. They provide their support email address so you can’t NOT see it. It was fun to assemble. The only problem I had was that the documentation could be rearranged to flow better during the build. I would suggest reading through the docs (they call it a tutorial) before you build. You will probably draw a few arrows to a paragraph below you current location in maybe 3 places. Otherwise, you may do as I did and have to backup a couple steps and undo a step or two. They provide their git links for each product. They have the board schematic for the arduino version but I have not found it for the Raspberry git. I have sent an email to support for this.
Another note. If you use your own screwdrivers, be very gentle on the smaller screws. It is easy to over do it and strip out some threads.
Each screw and nut came with a spare. If you sneeze around the one set of very small ones, you’ll be dragging a magnet around for awhile. 🙂
Thanks guys. Nice work!
This car is a great foundation for getting into coding small electronics. The pieces are well organized in labeled bags. The kit has all kinds of room for expansion and growth. The instructions are a little off at times and could be expanded upon, but are far from the worst I’ve seen. The hardest part is getting your RPi image built and SSHing in. The instructions did a good job going through how to do this, but a little extra googling might be required (nothing the average RPi user is afraid of).
Be forewarned, the kit does not come with batteries but the batteries you need are common in the RC world and can be purchased cheaply with a charger.
Rasch geliefert und schnell zusammengebaut. Mit der verfgbaren Software und der Android App schnell und einfach erste Fahrerlebnisse. Raspberry Pi und Python-Kenntnisse muss man aber schon dafr haben. Der richtige Spa fr mich kam dann bei der Anpassung und Ergnzung der Software, z.B. das Fahrzeug nach einem roten Ball ausrichten o… Mit eine Raspberry Pi 4 B als Client funktioniert entgegen der Beschreibung sogar die Gesichtserkennung einigermaen.
I have previously build a Freenove product which is why I decided to go for another of their kits.
The support they gave me the first time was faultless (but i’m hoping i won’t need too much help this time)
After unpacking this 4WD car i can see the quality of some components has improved as there are now metal parts in the kit. I already have the rechargeable batteries needed for this kit along with a PI 4 so I’m all set to go
I really enjoyed the previous project so here goes
I have previously build a Freenove product which is why I decided to go for another of their kits.
The support they gave me the first time was faultless (but i’m hoping i won’t need too much help this time)
After unpacking this 4WD car i can see the quality of some components has improved as there are now metal parts in the kit. I already have the rechargeable batteries needed for this kit along with a PI 4 so I’m all set to go
I really enjoyed the previous project so here goes
Perfect for learning electronics and programming. I appreciate that it is designed for Raspberry Pi (and Linux).
The car is carrying a complete computer with USB ports for whatever you want. I added Apache Tomcat server and my car is now running a web application driven by Spring framework and another web app with Vaadin.
Looking forward to play with Java ,OpenCV,Pi4J and Deep Learning libraries. All on nice, moving 4WD robot like platform! This is not a first product I bought from Freenove and again fully satisfied.
That was the question I asked myself. Ultimately, I decided to take a chance and I bought it. I admit I was definitely apprehensive but it just looked so much fun!
Product Overview:
—————–
– Packaging: seemed well put together. No visible damage.
– Instructions: you have to find these online but they give you the web address on an included business card.
– Instructions Detail: this is why I do not suggest this product for new to robotic projects customers. The details took some head scratching and chin rubbing to figure out some parts. I think this could be solved by including a build video into their arsenal of information.
– Parts Quality: Overall, I thought the parts fit together well and all parts were present. I did have one flawed part within a motor gear housing that I will elaborate on momentarily.
Customer Service:
—————–
As I eluded to earlier, I did find that one of the gears inside a motor housing was broken. I contacted customer service, the only way I could find which was, via email. I was not sure if or when I might be answered. But to my surprise, they got back to me with 24 hours. And they told me they would send a new motor right away. They included a tracking link so I could track the arrival of my new motor assembly.
I also had problems with the camera not working. So I mentioned this in my original email and they requested that I send them photos of my wiring. I sent them photos of both ends of the camera cable connections as requested. They again responded within 24 hours and suggested that I might have plugged the cable into the wrong connector on the Raspberry Pi. After I looked more carefully, I realized they were right as there were two connectors on the Raspberry Pi (one clearly marker “Display” and one clearly marked “Camera”). After I moved the cable to the appropriate connector, the camera worked fine.
My Situation:
I can not wait to receive my motor assembly so I can see my car move! Freenove has included several tests to run to make sure the car parts work correctly. That is how I figured out that the motor that drove one of the wheels was not working. Now that the camera is working, all the other components tested successfully and are ready to go!
I’m using this for A STEM project for a robotics class I am teaching. The kids are 6th – 12th grade
This is a great kit with everything you need to build a car. All parts were shipped as expected and the code files are easy to download. The code works too. The chassis has 8 connector pins for servo motors, and you are only using 2 for this project. This means you can additionally use the rest of the slots. It’s a great starting kit for kids and adults looking to get into robotics.
There are few things I wish would be better with this kit:
– the screw driver in the kit is low quality, so I had to use one of my own.
– instrumentation for the front camera and sensor motor should be more robust. This could be due to cheap plastic threading on the servo shaft. The inverted motor falls off almost instantly when started, so I wasn’t able to test the follow object routine.
– The batteries (18650) are expensive at least in Canada, so it took a while to start the car. If there was a way to use the motors with regular rechargeable power supply, it would have been great.
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
It’s not that hard to put together, but my one complaint is that the screws that attach the camera and the distance sensor were too small. They wouldn’t bite into the acrylic and just fell out. I used a free dabs of super glue and it’s ok now. Just be prepared if you are waiting to receive it so you don’t get frustrated if you get the same situation and have to stop building
Buying this kit is my third interaction with Freenove.
I have ordered two items from Freenove. Both items shipped out promptly, arrived in good condition and were exactly as described.
I had a question for Freenove tech support and it was answered within a few hours and the information conveyed resolved my confusion.
I ordered the 4wd Smart Car kit to learn more about what can be done with a Raspberry Pi . Assembly is well documented and straightforward.
Playing with the various sensors on the car after assembly is instructional and interesting.
My young nephews are fascinated with making the car run.
I can’t wait to see what Freenove comes up with next.
Jeff
I bought this car kit to get some hands on experience with hardware programming on a raspberry pi. This was my first such buy and I found the instructions pretty easy to follow. The code is in python and I do have previous experience with programming in python so that also made it easy for me to get started.
The Freenove customer support is also very responsive. One of the servo packages was not working in the kit that I had received. I emailed their customer support and they shipped me new servo packages, which are working great.
Overall, my experience has been great and I will recommend this product for anyone looking for a beginner level project with their raspberry pi.
My kid had a lot fun working on this project. Very clean instructions on both assembling the car and setting up the software on Raspberry Pi. We had a little issue with some components, the customer service and product support team did a superb job to help us.
Merci Freenove de nous fournir une belle et complte documentation pour un produit magnifique.
Merci Freenove de nous fournir une belle et complte documentation pour un produit magnifique.
I bought 2 for two of my grandsons. The power switch did not work on one car and we had to purchased another car. Ths tech support was helpful and both cars worked fine. We then wrote our own software and developed our remote and had fun with the cars.
Received the kit about a week ago. It’s very well package and easy to get started. The directions are pretty straight forward. About 3/4’s of the way through I missed a step and broke one of the acrylic pieces by over tightening one of the screws. I reached out to Freenove to see if I could pay for a replacement piece. They not only replaced it free of charge but shipped it to me at no cost even though it was my fault. That is how to do business. I am very pleased with the product itself and for the help that Freenove offered me and will definitely buy from them again. I have my eyes on the spider kit.
This product is well designed and easy to assemble. The python software is well designed and mostly easy to modify and enhance. Some of the software included packages require additional research and learning. The support is excellent, they responded to a design problem and had fixes sent out within a couple of days. This is a great learning tool with lots of ways to enhance its capabilities.
My son is learning Python. I purchased this product for him. As an beginner in Python, we had some difficulty. Fortunately, Freenove has great support. They always respond to our email within 24 hours. We were able to figure out the problem and move forward.
Awesome car leadings to many other projects.
Make just you order correct battery, all info in product descriptio
I love this thing. I am pretty new to robotics, and I got it up and running pretty fast. The hardware instructions could be a tiny bit better, but for the most part they are very thorough and plenty of images. The software was pretty simple. They tell you exactly what to type in to install everything. Definitely recommend to anyone who is new to the hobby.
**NOTE**
It doesn’t come with a Raspberry Pi or the necessary batteries. Make sure to order those as well.
I bought this robot kit on the back of enjoying the Freenove Ultimate Starter Kit. The tutorial for this robot kit is excellent and takes you through the assembly step by step. My interest is in programming the robot in Python and all the Python programs you need to run the robot in various pre-set modes are available and explained in the tutorial. It is then easy to adapt them for your own use.
My one gripe is that one of the four drive motors didn’t function properly, however a quick e-mail to Freenove and they sent me a replacement without a quibble. The replacement did take 10 days to arrive though (it was sent by airmail, but post is slow during the coronavirus lockdown).
Conclusion: great piece of kit, amazing value.
I bought this robot kit on the back of enjoying the Freenove Ultimate Starter Kit. The tutorial for this robot kit is excellent and takes you through the assembly step by step. My interest is in programming the robot in Python and all the Python programs you need to run the robot in various pre-set modes are available and explained in the tutorial. It is then easy to adapt them for your own use.
My one gripe is that one of the four drive motors didn’t function properly, however a quick e-mail to Freenove and they sent me a replacement without a quibble. The replacement did take 10 days to arrive though (it was sent by airmail, but post is slow during the coronavirus lockdown).
Conclusion: great piece of kit, amazing value.
– The quality of the product is good.
– Pieces go together well.
– All parts are in-place.
– All electronic pieces are working well.
Shipping:
– Shipping was quick and packaging was good.
Handling:
This is NOT a project for beginner or a child. This car is not to be played in the manner kids expect to play with
remote control cars. This is NOT remote control car. Don’t get me wrong, this car is controlled, by you from your Android app or computer because it is a full blown computer on wheels so it is connected to your WiFi.
Kids should not drag this car around by hands or bump it in any way – car is bare naked computer with unprocessed fancy sensors attached to it. So should be handled with care.
Skills:
You should very comfortable very with computers and computer hardware parts. Troubleshooting experience will come handy and especially with Linux operating system – you must be comfortable with Linux terminal and various commands.
Medium level Python programming skills will make this project easier. Sometimes you have to use common sense when connecting wires (for example camera wire) as photo on instructions are not precise sometime. However the manual is well made and covers A LOT OF STUFF, so if you are patient – you will get there and will still have some remaining hear you haven’t manage to pull yet.
Issues:
The only issue I discovered is that wheels spin in reverse direction so when you press forward they go backwards and left and right are also reversed. This makes many things unusable. I wrote email to their tech support and got response in about two day – which I find very reasonable. First one to swap cables on the motor (which would require soldering iron) and another one is to make changes to the Python code in Motor.py and “-” in from of four “(dutyX)” lines. Despite the fact that updating was was way easier, I chose to swap wires for fun – haven’t soldered anything in years.
Other than that everything worked perfectly.
MUST HAVE:
Car needs two 18650 batteries. My recommendation is to buy 4-pack and a charger. These batteries power up a computer (RaspberryPi) with additional board, four powerful motors, many sensors, LED light, buzzer and camera. If you use the car actively the batteries will drain in about 2 hours which is not bad – so having a spare back will definitely help.
FINAL NOTE:
This is a great car and you can do anything with it. Great for learning programming and machine learning (ML). You could learn and apply all modern technologies and build amazing project. I am looking forward to updating the server part and train the car to learn various algorithm such as Reinforcement Learning.
This car can to the same thing Amazon DeepRacer does because you can apply all the same technologies but Amazon DeepRacer is about $399 so I could not justify this as I can do the same thing on this car.
ENJOY!
– The quality of the product is good.
– Pieces go together well.
– All parts are in-place.
– All electronic pieces are working well.
Shipping:
– Shipping was quick and packaging was good.
Handling:
This is NOT a project for beginner or a child. This car is not to be played in the manner kids expect to play with
remote control cars. This is NOT remote control car. Don’t get me wrong, this car is controlled, by you from your Android app or computer because it is a full blown computer on wheels so it is connected to your WiFi.
Kids should not drag this car around by hands or bump it in any way – car is bare naked computer with unprocessed fancy sensors attached to it. So should be handled with care.
Skills:
You should very comfortable very with computers and computer hardware parts. Troubleshooting experience will come handy and especially with Linux operating system – you must be comfortable with Linux terminal and various commands.
Medium level Python programming skills will make this project easier. Sometimes you have to use common sense when connecting wires (for example camera wire) as photo on instructions are not precise sometime. However the manual is well made and covers A LOT OF STUFF, so if you are patient – you will get there and will still have some remaining hear you haven’t manage to pull yet.
Issues:
The only issue I discovered is that wheels spin in reverse direction so when you press forward they go backwards and left and right are also reversed. This makes many things unusable. I wrote email to their tech support and got response in about two day – which I find very reasonable. First one to swap cables on the motor (which would require soldering iron) and another one is to make changes to the Python code in Motor.py and “-” in from of four “(dutyX)” lines. Despite the fact that updating was was way easier, I chose to swap wires for fun – haven’t soldered anything in years.
Other than that everything worked perfectly.
MUST HAVE:
Car needs two 18650 batteries. My recommendation is to buy 4-pack and a charger. These batteries power up a computer (RaspberryPi) with additional board, four powerful motors, many sensors, LED light, buzzer and camera. If you use the car actively the batteries will drain in about 2 hours which is not bad – so having a spare back will definitely help.
FINAL NOTE:
This is a great car and you can do anything with it. Great for learning programming and machine learning (ML). You could learn and apply all modern technologies and build amazing project. I am looking forward to updating the server part and train the car to learn various algorithm such as Reinforcement Learning.
This car can to the same thing Amazon DeepRacer does because you can apply all the same technologies but Amazon DeepRacer is about $399 so I could not justify this as I can do the same thing on this car.
ENJOY!
Muy buen kit para cacharrear. El entorno de programacin es un poco complicado pero con algo de practica se puede hacer un setup inicial suficiente para la demo que viene con el robot. Por lo demas yo me he permitido modificar la batera (foto) ya que me pareca insuficiente para RPI4 que le he instalado. Por lo dems el soporte del equipo tcnico es excepcional. Resumiendo un magnifico robot, para un nivel medio en robtica, buena calidad y excelente atencin al cliente
Muy buen kit para cacharrear. El entorno de programacin es un poco complicado pero con algo de practica se puede hacer un setup inicial suficiente para la demo que viene con el robot. Por lo demas yo me he permitido modificar la batera (foto) ya que me pareca insuficiente para RPI4 que le he instalado. Por lo dems el soporte del equipo tcnico es excepcional. Resumiendo un magnifico robot, para un nivel medio en robtica, buena calidad y excelente atencin al cliente
For me, the best part was that most of the GPIO ports of the Pi were open, so its easy to add more capabilities to the robot. In my pictures, you will see I have added headlights, taillights and even a very simple robot arm, with cheap off-the-shelf electronics hardware.
I enjoyed this so much, I even used it as an assignment in a course I teach, and created a Youtube video showing extended self-driving capability that I programmed. Search Freenove on YouTube and you can probably find my video.
Yes you will need to add a Raspberry Pi and a couple of Li-Ion batteries to complete this kit but at this price range I think this is a wonderful little robot.
I modified their code to use a mini-keyboard as a game-controller to control the robot and initiate different driving modes, turn on/off the headlights, sound the horn, and even control the robot arm. This way there is no necessity to log in to the pi and start the server – the server is started by a cron job on pi bootup and ready to be controlled.
Update after one year: still using this thing – added many upgrades, the latest one is a fully automable robot arm (see video)!
Really great potential but as an experienced assembler I had some difficulties with small screws. Needed to have better specifications for batteries. Needed to include or recommend ribbon to remove batteries. Documentation was pretty good. Very ice control interface. software easy to install if you follow instructions explicitly. Support is very responsive but needs better English translation. Camera cable needed better installation instructions (they are addressing that). Open source may allow me to interface with hand held game controller.
The car is easily assembled clear diagrams and instructions. Programming set up is clear and car performs well. Programming is by using Python 2.7 I had a raspberry pi4 and did not realise 2.7 is actually included but needed activating.(support informed me Python 3 programs are being developed). The main control program does not work with remote desktop so need to use VCN. My car had commands round the wrong way but programs are clear and it was easy to amend. I had to contact support and received prompt reply. All in all a good starting model for learning robotics.
The car is easily assembled clear diagrams and instructions. Programming set up is clear and car performs well. Programming is by using Python 2.7 I had a raspberry pi4 and did not realise 2.7 is actually included but needed activating.(support informed me Python 3 programs are being developed). The main control program does not work with remote desktop so need to use VCN. My car had commands round the wrong way but programs are clear and it was easy to amend. I had to contact support and received prompt reply. All in all a good starting model for learning robotics.