FREENOVE Hexapod Robot Kit with Remote (Compatible with Arduino IDE), Walking Crawling Twisting, App Remote Control, Servo STEM Project

Very clear instructions, easy to assemble, works perfectly! I couldn't be happier. As expected there are many small screws and the wires are a bit messy, but that will be the case with any hexapod. The software that comes along with it is very nice, installation/calibration/control are all very user friendly.As another reviewer suggested, I went with batteries/charger from Nitecore's website (2x NITECORE IMR 14500 Battery 650mAh 3.7V - Rechargeable, 1x NiteCore NEW Intellicharger i2 2016 2-Channel Charger). Unfortunately I couldn't find something equivalent on amazon prime so I had to wait a few days, but it was worth it!I ended up containing all of the wires by taping the extra portions of wire (which there was a lot of, only the 3rd servo on each leg actually needs a bit of slack) into a small bunch with electrical tape, and then carefully lodging it somewhere in the body. It worked pretty well, just be careful that you are not obstructing the range of motion of any of the servos.

This is a nice kit and I highly recommend it. First the limitations. Hey! It's small. It's all plastic and small weak servos. They did a good job with the kit design and the assembled robot worked very well for me on smooth flat surfaces. This robot is not for walking on tile, inclines or anything that will stress the joints or servos because this won't take much nor carry much. However the kit looks impressive assembled and the directions are decent. Everyone who I show it to is impressed with the kit and the motion of the legs, the way it walks, shifts and dances. Scared my landlord though but she hates spiders and kept calling it a giant spider. She actually screamed when it powered on and the servos zipped the robot in a standing position. (Poor sweet woman!) I made a video of the calibration on a glass table top so it made a funky scraping noise with the plastic feet described as erry. Hey! Most people were so impressed and said they can't believe I made that. (Huh? What is that supposed to mean? Am I not smart enough?) Seriously though the directions are a little confusing at times and describe sections very well but assume you know (or leave it up to you to search for some of the arduino stuff.) Those 144 little screws that hold every joint together are not your friends! I recommend laying back in a chair with a baggy shirt and force those little self-threading annoying tiny screws in there. They are so small and impossible to find if dropped to the floor hence forth the baggy shirt to catch them when you will drop them. There are allot of small screws in the kit. Thankfully there are a few extras of each. The instructions weren't very good on the calibration but by the time you get to that point you pretty much know what needs to be done. Fortunately the design of the kit is very forgiving. The legs of my kit aren't completely at 90 degrees but I was able to the angles close enough in the "X" pattern. My robot walks fast and looks great when it is walking and moving around. No one notices it is not exactly 90 degree perfect but I know. ;-P Ok so I could unthread the screws and reline it up but after all it is plastic. I am happy with the way my hexapod went together and how it looks and acts. I plan on purchasing at least one or two more of these hexapod kits to possibly make a "how to" tutorial video to cover the places where the instructions could have given more detail, how to program it, control it with controller and android device, etc... What is great about the kit is they have everything you need to get started on git including all the calibration software environment. The next step is limited on your creativity and programming skills. I have some other concepts for the kit as well including fpv and inductive charging from a pad the hexapod can just go stand on to charge. I think this kit is very reasonably priced. It comes with 18 servos, an arduino with servo controller and all the pieces and everything cleanly cut. I recommend this kit for anyone ages 8 to 60 years in age however an 8 year old and a 60 year old will both say allot of nasty expletives trying to put in those 144 tiny screws. They are NOT your friend... HA!

Seemed like a great kit to build with grand kids. After hours of fighting with the software downloads, finally gave up and trashed. Hours of calibrating makes it completely impractical. Do not buy!

Freenove HexapodThis was a project I had purchased for my daughters (teenagers) and I to do together. Ideally we were shooting for Halloween to have the project complete. This didn’t happen do to a few bumps along the way. All in all it was a good experience and experienced the “joy” of Arduino and Processing with a couple cuss words along the way...lolI had downloaded the manuals first and looked at it before deciding to purchase this Hexapod. If you’ve never built a project like this before I found it helpful in determining the skills needed to complete the project. The manual was pretty well laid out.First let me say I’m a novice and this was my first Arduino experience using the Arduino IDE software and Processing PDE software. It was installed on a Raspberry Pi. I had zero experience with either program before doing this project. I had wanted to mess around with the Arduino boards for sometime.Construction:Thanks to the well laid out manual. Construction of the hexapode went smoothly for the most part. My daughters and I had fun sitting around the table as they assembled the servos onto the legs and various parts to connect it all together.Software:The small examples of connecting the Ardiuno and getting the LED to flash and was pretty straight forward. I had a little trouble with the Processing PDE software but finally got that going after a few tries.Batteries:This part really sucked big time and I didn’t realize how hard these batteries were going to be to get. Amazon carries about everything you could think of but these batteries. I don’t use Ebay and that’s one of the sources that Freenove directed me too. I also had to invest in another battery charger after finding a source for the batteries. Which are expensive also.Servo assembly and calibration: Once assembled I wasn’t able to connect via wifi but used the USB cable to complete the process. I had to do this step over a couple times to get it right also. I had to replace one of the servos also. That was on me because I had difficulty during my first attempt to calibrate.Remote control instructions:Assembly was easy enough on the remote and was able to put together quickly. I did find the instructions for the remote confusing though when I downloaded the instructions and building a circuit for uploading the software? Come to find out it wasn’t really needed.WiFi:One bump we did hit was using the ESP8266 ESP-01 supplied with the hexapod. It was dead and never showed up on our wifi list to select to control the hexapod. I went out to Amazon and purchase another one. They are really cheap so figured this was faster than contacting customer support. The replacement arrived and the wifi signal came up immediately ones I connected the new ESP8266 ESP-01 to the board.I was then able to control the hexapod from the computer and my Android phone once I installed the new wifi card.Retrospect:Overall this was a fun project with a couple pain points along the way. My daughters, and I had a good time putting this together. They are teens and usually hang out in their rooms on their phones so the time spent together was great. Completing this project and watching them control it was the highlight of the day. They’ve had fun with it and showing it to their friends what they made.Pros:The parts were well laid out in bags labeled and came with extras in the event you drop and lose a screw or nut because they are really tiny. Instructions on assembling are very good. Loading the software and calibration were good. Remote was confusing for me. But that could be me? Overall it’s a well designed kit.Cons:Points off for the batteries. Freenove really need to rethink this part and change construction to a 7.2V battery which is apparently available on Amazon per other customers. The batteries Freenove currently use add a lot of expense to this project. In retrospect I might not have invested in realizing the cost after ordering this kit.Final thoughts:Looking back we were able to build and get this kit up and running. I did take a dive into the deep end of the pool with jumping into a hexapod. But we made it and it works as advertised. I wouldn’t classify this kit as a kit for beginners. Download the manual and take a look at it. Assembling was easy. Software and calibration were a bit of a struggle. Troubleshooting I had to replace a couple parts and that solved the problems I had. Overall I’m very satisfied with this project.Freenove: Think about upgrading the batteries and it would be nice to have a schematic of the board layout since my girls asked if we could add a camera to the hexapod. Can you provide a schematic since it’s a modified arduino board?ThanksMike