PiCrawler

I got this cause I wanted a robot kit as I need to learn python for a larger robotics project. I really only learn hands on so I need a tool to see tangible results. I didn't get the one with EZBlock so I cannot speak to how well that works. There is a lot of good stuff in this kit for the cost, especially comparatively to other kits. You also don't see too many kits with legs outside of the bumbling two leggers for a good price. The instructions are fine, but you need to work with both a browser open and the assembly leaflet. I feel the leaflet could have a bit more information on it and some "Do this like this OR ELSE" notes as I had a couple times I had to do partial disassembling to adjust leg positions. Also the plastic rivets, its good they come with extra as a couple exploded. I feel like there's a nyloc nut screw combo that could do better. There are also a few repeating difficult screw locations that a better/different/wider cutout could ease some of the pain, ESPECIALLY if you have to do any corrections. Overall though, the build, imaging, and calibration was easy enough once I found what I did wrong. A good note is that calibration can only correct servo>leg position so far, so the position you attach the legs to the body at is real important. The online instructions for getting going, and the explanation of the code and how they did each bit are great. Not a ton of results online for troubleshooting though. I was able to get through it from my IT and 3d printer building experience but I think it could benefit in the long run to have more than "Maybe zero the motors?" cause mine were perfectly zeroed and I still had calibration issues. Also, on the Python script leg calibration, the legs move when you change the numbers, but not all the time. A great many of the inputs are missed, so you kind of have to measure, change it a couple steps, and then save and run the calibrator again so they position properly. Overall though, not enough to take it from a 5 to a 4 star imo.

The kit came with everything listed, assembly was fun but loading up the software for the picrawler was frustrating. Some of the software used in the directions is out of date, such as the speaking functionality. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but good to know before you buy. Other than that, it is a great robot that works well.

This thing is a lot of fun, and Sunfounder support is extraordinary. They are in China, so there is a 12 hour time difference, but they respond promptly. Some stuff you should know. There are several versions and revisions to the Crawler, so a lot of the things you see on-line are not applicable to the current model and this can be really confusing. For instance there is a lot of chatter about having to buy special batteries, but the current model includes a proprietary battery pack. Assembly is not too bad - the instructions are VERY clear, but there are a lot of small screws, so a lighted magnifier and steady hands are a must. They give you all the tools you need, except tweezers. There are some compatibility issues with the Raspberry Pi5 and the Trixie OS. I have a Pi5 and everything works, but I had to install Bookworm to get everything to function. There is a graphical tool similar to Scratch for programming, but it doesn't work with the Pi5, so you'll have to use Python. It ships with a Robot Hat (V4) which draws more power than the one in the Pi-Dog (V5), so the Pi5 gets starved for power and sometimes objects to this. Sunfounder will sell you a V5 Robot Hat for next to nothing, if you contact them. The servos have some plastic gears and I busted 4 of them when I dropped the Crawler. Again, Sunfounder was super-responsive, shipping me some upgraded replacement servos at almost no cost. With the Pi5, some of the Crawler Library functions (like sound) don't work unless you run the Python program as a super user ("SUDO") If you are starting from scratch, I'd recommend getting a Pi4 and installing Bookworm rather than Trixie. It's a fun device. There is very good documentation (which you have to download and print yourself), and a ton of sample code. My only criticism is that I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels because of the Pi5 and Trixie issues. In the absence of that information, you never know whether your errors are truly yours or not your fault. The support is so good, that it pretty much overrides my other concerns. The folks at Sunfounder seem to be really friendly, responsive and helpful.

Important: Do not forget to buy Raspberry Pi, two 18650 batteries and a 18650 battery charger. First impressions and assembly: Very positive: The set is very nice and feels very premium. The white-painted metallic parts are beautiful. No blemishes. The assembly instruction is printed in color on high-quality paper. The drawings are great. The instructions also serve as a calibration stage. It's probably the best instruction for an inexpensive robot I've seen. The set includes everything including 2 screwdrivers, a nut key, cables, etc. There are spares for each screw type. I think there is a spare flex camera cable and a spare ultrasound connector cable. Small issue: One of the metal parts was bent a little bit. I straightened it with a tool. Small negative: I did not quite like the black nylon standoffs for the Raspberry Pi - When I tried to screw them into the holes they resisted and one of them broke. Fortunately there was a spare. Brass standoffs would probably be better. But maybe there is was some reason to choose nylon. Slight negative: Attaching servo to the outer part of the leg is hard. There is not enough space. The middle servo is OK because there is ~1mm more spacing/width. Also, the included screwdrivers do not fit through the holes in the middle part of the leg. Small proposal: The top part of the leg is currently "rounded" by making 2 cuts in a seemingly arbitrary way. It would be better instead to make 3 cuts ate regular angles: 22.5, 45, 67.5. This would looks a little bit nicer and would make setting up the legs at 45 degrees easier. Two of the servos made different sound compared to other 10 (when you rotate them by manually). However I did not notice any difference in performance. Negative: The Robot hat cannot charge the battery, so you need to buy a battery charger and keep it around. Some of robots have built-in USB Type-C battery charging support. Software: Positive: Ezblock Studio looks pretty solid. There are some good preloaded samples that cover all important aspects of controlling the robot. There is a pre-built sample that allows you to control the robo using a virtual gamepad. Positive: A very important aspect of this robot kit is that it allows programming the robot using the Python programming language. This opens limitless possibilities for designing the robot behavior and computer vision systems. Experimentation: Positive: The robot can walk on carpet (while my other robot dog couldn't). It's not very fast, but this is understandable given the leg movement range and the need to move the legs in sequence. Other thoughts: I wish SunFounder also had a robot with 6 legs instead of 4 (hexapod vs quadruped). 6 legs allows more ways to experiment with movement and different gaits. Overall: A nice quadruped robot kit.

Easy to build, would be a really fun kit for a 10-16 year old kid, but also very flexible for use as an adult, documentation is phenomenal. Came with replacements for some of the smaller parts. Will say it could use some updating on some of the parts just because of the difficulty charging the batteries.

It's really a fantastic little robot to play around with. The kit is relatively easy to assemble. It's more time-consuming than it is difficult. But the plus side is that you can really learn a lot about the underlying concepts while putting it together. I also liked that there were a fair amount of spare screws. The python code samples are all pretty straightforward and easy to understand. And the little remote app functions extremely well as a way to get a basic idea of what the hardware is capable of before diving into it. I did have one big issue at the start. The robot hat which attaches to the pi seemed to have a problem properly communicating over one specific pin. But on contacting support they got back to me extremely quickly. And after a bit of troubleshooting they sent me a replacement hat. Which, in turn, worked perfectly. One thing that really surprised me was the size. I'd initially thought that the smaller form factor would be a detriment. But in actually using it in real-world situations it was the exact opposite. The small size makes it a lot more maneuverable than if it was larger. All in all I liked it enough that after testing out the replacement hat I bought a second one in hopes of rigging up a little robot soccer.

The material of the parts and packaging are great. They did ship some wrong parts but i made due by cutting down some of the standoffs. I'm using raspberry pi 4 with legacy os. some of the modules just arent supported with my setup. tried emailing support and tried forums but no luck. really disappointed i wasnt able to finish assembly as the finished product looks amazing. Edit: im not sure if it was intended that some of the parts are different from the manual but i was able to jerry rig the assembly and put together the entire assembly while making it look decent. -I definitely didnt follow onstructions for the servo zeroing. After running the prompt you just connect each servo one by one to get it to the default positioning. I thought the prompt was giving me an error when it wasnt. - if you go python route on raspberry pi os and use your own screen the only way to run bash i2samp is to run command: "sudo killall pulseaudio" even then only time sound worked was during the test after running the bash script - i wish i wouldve just installed ezblock with pi os from the start. Insanely easier, quicker and the sound worked right away. You can also code python on ezblock os as well. - after i figured it all out i was really grateful to get this project and it came out amazing. Great fun and learning moment 4.5/5

A few things - this is hard to put together if you have large hands. The nuts and screws are very small, so keep in mind this will take some time and patience. I can't say this was worth the money yet, as I have only just put it together, but a major limiting factor appears to be my choice of board. I chose to do a Pi Zero 2 W and wish I had just done a full-sized Pi because the Pi Zero seems to be too weak to do anything meaningful, but I'll see how I can tweak it to make it better. I'm really disappointed about the camera being nonfunctional. I have installed everything correctly and checked everything possible - the camera just doesn't show up at all. I'm not happy about this since it was $140 when I purchased the kit + the cost of the Pi, and with how insanely tedious it was to assemble I'm not taking it apart to return it lol. It's just a huge bummer that it is missing a key point of functionality. My major recommendation to anyone looking at this - buy it, but use a Pi 5. EDIT: Sunfounder reached out about the camera and has been more than willing to help with getting this working. I believe the issue ended up being the ribbon cable or the camera connector. I really appreciate them doing their due diligence to make this right. Definitely going to be looking at more of their products since the customer service is so good.