AdeeptPiCar-Pro Compatible with Raspberry Pi Robot Kit Programming 2-in-1 Robotic with 4-DOF Robotics Arm, Electronic DIY Smart Car Kit for Teens Adults for RPi 4B Model 3B 3B+

I just wanted to let everyone know that has been on the fence about buying the PiCar Pro, to just go for it!! I bought this for myself (a kid of 55). Although it takes some effort and patience to build this car (it has some very tiny screws and nuts), it is also very rewarding to do so. I learned a lot about how robots operate (servo motors, DC motors, LED lights, etc...). It took me a weekend to build, because I also added onto it. Rather than using the webpage to control its movements, I used a game controller that I connected to the Raspberry Pi (see below for more details). I highly recommend Adeept due to their excellent customer service!! I had a few parts that broke when I installed them (not sure if it was a force issue or not). Adeept promptly replied to my email and sent out the parts that I mentioned to them. Before I got these parts, I found that one of the servo motors didn't work properly. Rather than sending me another motor, they sent me a whole new kit! Now that is customer service!!! I highly recommend buying from this vendor.To add a Game Controller to the car, I used an EasySMX PS3 controller found on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KV7B2CG). I also installed AntiMicroX on the Raspberry Pi to map the keyboard keys to the various controls and buttons. For instance I set all of the arm functions to the two joysticks (I, J, K and L to the left and U, O, P and ; to the right joystick). I set the steering (A and D) on the gamepad. And finally I set forward and reverse thrust to the triggers (for W and S). Eventually I found that the joystick controlled the steering much better, so I swapped the left joystick functions for the gamepad functions.Initially, I had this all working on of my laptop with the game controller's USB receiver plugged into it. However I found that the controller stopped controlling the car after it got about 30 feet from my laptop. I then proceeded to add AntiMicroX to the Raspberry Pi and plugged the controller directly into the Pi itself. I found that as long as the car was within 30 feet of me, the controller would continue to control the car. I also added a 6" USB extension cord (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJG2ZYM) and cable tied it to the back of the car, facing up to turn it into a makeshift antenna and also if the car moves in reverse, it won't bump and damage the USB receiver.To do all of this, I found that I had to learn how to make the Raspberry Pi run headless. What I did was put two shell scripts into the AutoStart folder (under /home/pi/.config/autostart. NOTE: If the autostart folder doesn't exist, you will need to create that folder) this caused AntiMicroX and also Chromium to automatically run upon boot. Chromium was needed in order to run the Adeept Bot Controller webpage directly on the Pi. Being that these two files were sorted in the folder alphabetically, it ran AntiMicroX first and then Chromium. This was important because the webpage needs to be in the foreground in order for the controller to work.I then needed a way to properly stop these programs remotely. If you just switch off the power or perform a shutdown, it can corrupt Chromium. I found that if you just shut it off, Chromium kept asking in a pop up window if I wanted to restore the previously viewed webpage and waited for a response. Whether I clicked restore or cancel it just kept popping up and I couldn't get rid of it. I googled the solution for this to no avail. The only extreme way I found to get around this, was to restore the OS and start over from scratch. Now what I do is use MobaXTerm to remote in from my laptop and pkill both AntiMicroX and Chromium first before running shutdown. That seemed to do the trick. No more pop ups!! There may be a better way to do this, but I also am new to Linux. :)

Kit has hundreds of pieces. They do a great job labeling the bags. They do a poor job with the assembly instructions. Half the steps aren't labeled, some steps don't tell you the parts needed. It's a lot of looking at pictures (of which, the pictures are cluttered with other parts that just confuse you for an hour).The roughest part for me is I am missing pieces. There's 2 ""L" type aluminum alloy" pieces that I'm supposed to have and don't. Fairly critical part of the build process for mounting some of the larger servos.Looks like it'd be a fun toy, but definitely give yourself a day or two of many hours trying to decrypt the instructions and calm yourself from the hundreds and hundreds of pieces, tiny nuts and bolts that you need to work with.

Kit shipped with missing pieces and broken connectors on some modules.Assembly is overly complex.I feel like I wasted money.

Arrived well packaged and in excellent condition. Has great instructions and lots of videos on YouTube if you have questions. Doesn't come with the Raspberry Pi, so don't forget to order one if you are gifting this item.Will order other kits down the road.

Instructions are not for the faint of heart. You’ve gotta love this kinda stuff to stick it through and get it working.

My dog found a new friend. My dog will run circles around it while I drive around the apartment. We have a doggie door that the arm can lift and together they plan escapes to the balcony.

I love this car, works best after assembly. So many things to learn and program.

*BUYER BEWARE* I ordered this as a NEW item. Two things here. Either my package was damaged at the warehouse or most likely it was a returned item that was put back for resale under NEW status. I don't know if these kits come pre-assembled, but mine did with extras, DAMAGED with missing parts!! Also, good look building this no instructions. It's even hard to find online instructions. Good luck!!