Get the car without the Pi Zero 2 W and buy a more powerful Rasperry Pi if you plan to primarily use EZ Block Studio. I upgraded to a RPi 5 4gb from the Zero 2 W, and the improvement was dramatic. It went from laggy to very responsive. The camera does poorly in low light, but you can slap a small flashlight on the head temporarily. I’m going to look for either a better camera or rig the thing with a controllable LED. As far as the build goes, the tutorial is straight-forward and well-documented. I think it took ~3 hours of relaxed work to get it assembled, the OS flashed, and the packages installed. My son and I have barely scratched the surface of the car’s functionality, and I’m excited to get further into it. Read more

This is a good little robot to assemble but terrible to set up. They give you 2 options: EZBlock (a proprietary GUI programming tool) and Python. I don't know very much about Python, so I started with EZBlock. It's OK but very limited and difficult to use. There is minimal documentation for EZBlock and no reference for how to use it and its library. I wanted to use the line following program written in Python. If you don't have a high level of tech skills, this gets really hard and very frustrating very fast. I attempted to access using their terminal command but nothing happened except a message that the connection was refused. I've loaded and erased the SD card many times and haven't had any insight to how to get it connect correctly despite following the brief instructions. There is a large community but they all are way beyond my tech skills. If you're new to this, I'd skip this one and look for a better supported kit. Read more

Let me start backwards. I have the kit put together. Most code samples as described in Sunfounder's documentation work really well. Especially, the facial recognition example. I pointed the camera at my TV from across the room, and I was impressed that it was able to recognize a single frontal faces clearly visible on TV from across the room. Pretty impressive! Similarly, photo capture, stare at face, keyboard control and video car examples worked without any issues. IMPORTANT TO NOTE epecially if you are using the PiZero 2W. If possible, the following order is recommended from experience: 1. For heaven's sake, don't jump in and fully complete the assembly! 2. Instead, flash the firmware first - go with Raspberry Pi Trixie (the version described in the Sunfounder docs has been removed from the Pi Imager). 3. Once installed, ensure you can boot with a mouse and keyboard, and the PiZero 2W can connect to WiFi . Test connection to the pi over SSH and ensure it works. 4. Follow the online instructions and fully update/upgrade the Pi and install all the PiCarX modules completely! The Sunfounder online instructions are excellent and work as listed. 5. Connect to your pi from SSH and ensure you can launch the "center servo" example without errors which will help you below. NOTE: Connecting the Pi to monitor and keyboard after full assembly is difficult- at least without disassembling the PiHat from the Pi! 4. Do not follow just the paper assembly instructions alone. Keep the online instructions handy . Center the servos as described in the online instructions and assemble them as described in the online instructions. NOTE: Centering the servos after full assembly is really painful otherwise! TOP TIP: Make sure that the servo arms are secured properly to the body. The little self-tapping screws are too small and you will need to screw them in fully to attach the plastic servo arms to the frame. Otherwise, you risk them coming off the frame when you attach the servos. As of now, I have calibrated the pan, tilt and steering servos and run the audio tests following Sunfounders online docs. I still need to calibrate the grayscale sensor and hookup the Ultrasonic sensor. I'm able to run the robot around and watch the camera streaming on my laptop. To me the computer vision and AI examples are priority as opposed to line following or Ultrasonic sensor functions. Maybe I'm missing or overlooking something but there is no specific instruction to charge the battery pack or what specific charger is to be used. Read more

Great robot to introduce in electronics and programming. Great documentation and resources. Good quality in the parts Read more

A good starter kit. But still not sure how to use the software. Search on YouTube did not find very helpful tutorial Read more