GoPiGo Base Kit from Dexter Industries | DIY Robot Car for Robotics and STEM Education | Raspberry Pi Compatible | Learn to Code in Blockly or Python

My daughter and I assembled this over a bowl of Mac and Cheese on a Saturday afternoon. The entire operation took less than an hour. She is in 2nd grade and once I pulled up the instructions up on my laptop I was largely relegated to glorified piece holder and third hand. The two things that required me vs her were removing the protective film and tape on the acrylic and putting one of the motors on.Removing the film and tape requires fingernails and tenacity. It is easy once you convince yourself that you aren't going to break the acrylic. It is very strong and scratch resistant so don't worry. One of the motor mounts presented a minor challenge and we broke one of the motor holders the first time through (don't over tighten). Luckily, there were several spare mounts included.It is particularly cool that you can program the GoPiGo in scratch. My personal goal was to give my daughter confidence as she is often in the shadow of her older brother. Mission accomplished with this. He is openly envious of her GoPiGo. Hearing her explain to him the purpose of the encoder wheels...priceless. Having the encoder wheels exposed is brilliant. It makes it easy to understand how the little robot knows how far it has traveled.One last recommendation: Paint the wheels with rubber cement and let dry overnight. This solved our traction problems with wood floors. Properly sized rubber bands would likely work well too.

I decided to get my feet wet with RPi robotics and figured this would be a good way to do it. As it turns out, I think was right. The GoPiGo eliminates all the guesswork about the electronics: motor shield, encoder wheels, GPIO pin controls etc. On top of that you get a basic Python code base. My kids and I have had a lot of fun with this thing!Is it worth it? Tough question, there are certainly cheaper basic setups out there that give you more, but as an out of the box package I would say I am quite satisfied. Here are some issues/notes for your consideration:1. The encoder wheels are, as reported in other reviews, really loose. You can formulate your own solution.2. The battery pack is so heavy that the car barely turns on carpet. Solution: relocate battery pack to top of cart.3. Instructions suggest not to use a static IP for WiFi access. But, if you do not want to install a VNC viewer (TightVNC server comes with the image) then you will need to plug your RPi into a monitor to get the current IP assigned via DHCP. There are all sorts of tutorials out there for static IPs, but the key for the Dexter Raspbian image's interface file is the vlan0 settings not the eth0 ones.4. One of my motors had a bum drive shaft. Solution: flipped the motor around so that side of the shaft is driving the encoder not the wheel.5. Having issues with the scratch GoPiGo projects. Solution: B.T.S.O.O.M... but I will keep trying.6. The mounting of the RPi to the MCU board could be more supportive. It seems a bit flimsy to me.7. Your cat probably will not like having the GoPiGo around.I will likely add a PS3 controller and the servo package gear in the coming months.

My siblings are in fourth grade and I look for projects like these to get them interested in engineering. They had fun putting the robot together and seeing it run. Family friends of ours used a smartphone to remote control it but I would recommend paying a little extra to get sensors (like a line follower) so you can program it to go on its own.

Non-stop experimentation with a vast array of compatible add-ons.Great community support and a ton of code examples on Github.Highly recommended for both the beginner and intermediate IoT hacker or students.

It never communicated with my raspberry pi, and when I removed my pi, the pi was burnt out and will no longer boot. I waited too long to set it up and cannot now return it, so I have 2 pieces of garbage to dispose of.

Not durable plastic at all.

I purchased this for my nephew ( 9 y/o) who enjoys anything that can be done with the RasPi. We were confused as to why there weren't any assembly instructions with the unit, but we did find a very detailed version online. He was able to assemble it in about 90 min. We did have some trouble getting the SD card in the computer set up with the OS to get ready for robot programing. Will let you know how the programming goes. I appreciated the very, very fast shipping service.

Excellent kit! I would recommend it to anyone interested into getting into robotics. I might be a bit advanced for younger kids. The "Scratch" software that comes with the "Raspbian for Robots" from Dexter Industries gives some simple examples. However, I've found that this requires quite a bit of tinkering (today known as "hacking") in order to get something to work. There are a few examples for Python with the Raspbian image, but not nearly as developed as the BrickPi examples. Additionally, I wanted to get my PlayStation 4 controller to work to control the robot...however, that has been a journey. First the bluetooth on my Raspberry Pi 3B didn't work (this is not a fault of the GoPiGo2 car...more so of the newness of the RPi 3B). After a week of trying to get Bluetooth to work, I gave up and bought an external Bluetooth dongle. Then, the example that was supplied from Dexter Industries (on the website), was for a Playstation 3 controller...not 4. It makes a big difference, as they use a different Bluetooth configuration. So, I found the bluetooth driver for the PS4 controller and am now just starting to get it to work. I can now drive the car using my own Python script and the PS4 controller....it wasn't easy, but I didn't expect it to be. That's part of the fun. If you could master everything in one day, where would the challenge (or learning) be?If you're looking for a suitable, reduced frustration kit for 8-10 year olds, better stick with the Lego Mindstorms...that's just plug-and-play.