LAFVIN Smart Robot Car Kit Include Ultrasonic Sensor,R3 Board Compatible with Arduino IDE with Tutorial

I'm in the process of assembling it currently.Issues and comments so far:1) The plastic pieces are laser-cut out of acrylic and have a protective adhesive paper on both sides that you will want to peel off (unless you like the look of that over the clear plastic)2) The manual calls for M3*8mm screws to attach the motor driver board to the baseplate, but the kit included M3*6mm screws (correct according to the label in the bag) which are too short to reach through the 1/4" acrylic baseplate. This required a trip to Home Depot to acquire some M3*10 screws (Hint: they store the metric screws in drawers way down the aisle from the rest of the machine screws) which work but are *almost* too long. You just need four of them as the 6mm screws work fine for mounting the Arduino on the thinner upper deck.3) There is one acrylic piece with a right-angle bend used to mount the ultrasonic transducer. This is made by laser-cutting a flat part and then heating and bending the end, likely by hand. In my case, the bend is less than 90 degrees and will result in the transducer pointing down at the floor without some kind of shim or other adaptation. I ended up only installing the two bottom spacers and gently tightening the nuts which gave it just the right level of upward angle to compensate.4) As all the other reviews correctly point out, the system is powered by two 18650 batteries but no way to charge them is provided and most people will need to acquire a separate charger (that will probably cost more than half what the entire kit costs). It should be clearly stated in the product description that everything you need is not in fact included.5) The connection of the ultrasonic transducer assemby to the servo is not illustrated and is fiddly. You need to attach the servo arm that comes with the servo to the servo FIRST (it won't fit through the middle hole in the tranducer assembly tab) with the small screw incuded with the servo arms. Then they want you to use the servo mounting screws to attach the acrylic bent tab of the assembly to the servo arm, which requires you to use only the outer holes to avoid hitting the servo, and those screws are way to big for this and do not align well with the holes in the servo arm.6) The assembly instructions really don't touch on wiring everything together, and have you mount the top deck before getting into the experiments where they talk about wiring the motor driver board which is between the two decks and not possible to wire with the top deck installed.7) There are specific experiements and code for operating each of the sensors etc. separately, but most of these do not involve the car actually being driven. It's not yet clear if there will be enough storage to load all the required drivers to operate everything together. There's only one complete robot experiment provided which is a line following application. You're pretty much on your own to do anything cool like using the servo and ultrasonic transducer to scan the area in front and choose a path say.8) While there are four motors, one for each wheel, the motor driver board only has two outputs in differential (+/- bidirectional) drive mode so the two left motors are wired together and the two right motors are wired together.I'll update as I make further progress.Otherwise, it's a great kit due to the large number of components you get. The UNO 3 compatible, the sensor shield, the motor-driver board, bluetooth module, 3x line sensor modules, IR receiver, ultrasonic transducer, and servo for example. There's lots of potential for re-using all this in other experiments.The software all comes on a CD, but there's a QR code on the CD that points to: (a google drive URL that Amazon won't let me post) where you can download the contents of the CD if you no longer own a computer with an optical drive.

Overall, this was a great DIY kit for learning how to build an Arduino-based robot. The CD that came with the kit contained very complete documentation and source code for all of the products. The manual starts out with setting up the IDE, installing libraries and uploading source code. If you are completely new to Arduino, you might want to start with Arduino's starter kit before jumping into this project. Despite the fully detailed manual, there is very little hand-holding, especially in regards to wiring-up the robot. I had to do a little bit of research regarding the L298N motor driver before I felt comfortable enough to proceed. However, I was able to learn everything quickly enough to have everything up in running within a day.I had to strip and twist the motor wires together to get good connections to the L298N's output terminals. The batteries that came with my kit required charging before first use. So, make sure you have a battery charger capable of charging 18650 lithium ion batteries first. The source-code that comes with the CD is a great start and you are free to modify it to add your own functionality and improvements. Switching between the robot modes will require you to connect/disconnect sensors and upload new programs to the board. So, you can only use one mode at a time.I mainly use the obstacle avoidance and Bluetooth modes. The obstacle avoidance mode is my favorite mode. It is good, but it is not perfect and it will bump some things, especially in a cluttered area. I am going to see if I can modify the code a bit to make it a little better. That is the beauty of Arduino and open-source software. You are free to modify and improve things and you will learn something in the process.Ultimately, this is an excellent kit and it comes with some great sensors and modules that can be used in other projects. The end result is a pretty fun and fast robot with great starting source for your own programs and modifications. The Bluetooth RC mode entertained my son ,who is also becoming interested in robotics. He was very interested in watching me build it and he thought it looked like a cool "wire-mess" when it was done.

It comes with some issues1) it doesn’t comes with instruction, you need to go to its website and download the instruction and code.2) the code is having some issues, you need to debug or rewrite the code yourself, otherwise it won’t work. The good thing is there’s so many similar products on the market, you can use their code as reference and modified for your own.2) the it receiver is bad.3) missing some screws.

I've removed some stars from my previous review because of several key issues. These issues will not adversely effect an experienced Arduino builder but provide many pitfalls for beginners. The overall instructions leave something to be desired. Wiring diagram graphics are hard to see and interpret. Instead of providing solid connectors for the motors they must be loosely clamped in a block that is not sturdy. Many components such as the photoelectric eyes are not in one piece and no instruction is provided on how to wire them together properly. The wires on the motors are too small of gauge and soldered in a flimsy manner so that I had to repair and replace them so they wouldn't fall off. I found critical hardware missing and had to substitute my own or go without. In short I cannot recommend this kit. Better to spend a bit more, especially if a child is involved.