![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.dxcdn.com\/productimages\/sku_128715_1.jpg\" "\\"Multi-Function")
<\/p>\nWhile browsing through DX.com’s new arrivals section, I stumbled upon this package:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Multi-Function 4WD Arduino Robot Car Kits<\/a><\/p>\n Seeing as I still had a bet with a friend to, at some point in our lives, do a real-life Robot Wars<\/a>, I figured I’d give it a shot. It just got in a few days ago, so I figured I’d write a quick review.<\/p>\n The dx.com site can be a bit cryptic, so here’s a full list of what I found in my package:<\/p>\n From the dx.com description, I noticed a few flaws:<\/p>\n When you order on a site like dx.com, you know that it’s not always the best quality you can get. However, this package was pretty bad quality wise even compared to a lot of other things I bought at dx.com. Here’s a few of the things I noticed first, on a per component basis:<\/p>\n When you look at the complete package, it doesn’t really get any better. Nothing really seems to fit together:<\/p>\n All in all, the quality is far from perfect.<\/p>\n Seeing as most of the components can be bought seperately on DX.com, I figured I’d check out how much it’d cost if bought seperately. Here’s the list:<\/p>\n Parts I couldn’t find:<\/p>\n The total comes down to precisely $74.90, whereas the complete package costs $79.60 at the moment of writing. That’s only $4.70 more for the acrylic parts, motors, and wheels, which seems like a fairly good deal. If you know how to use all the parts, and could probably use them in other projects anyway, this might be a pretty good buy.<\/p>\n If you’re expecting a complete kit that you can easily put together and then program using the arduino, this will be a complete let-down. However, if you’re creative enough and willing to get your hands dirty, I think there’s loads of potential in this kit for a nice RC-car.<\/p>\n Yes, it doesn’t really fit out of the box, but it’s easy enough to drill a few extra holes in the acrylic plates.<\/p>\n Some things that I feel might be worth trying:<\/p>\n While browsing through DX.com’s new arrivals section, I stumbled upon this package: Multi-Function 4WD Arduino Robot Car Kits Seeing as I still had a bet with a friend to, at some point in our lives, do a real-life Robot Wars, I figured I’d give it a shot. It just got in a few days ago, … Continue reading Dx.com’s Multi-Function 4WD Arduino Robot Car Kit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[64,65,50,49,62,63,66,67],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-4wd","tag-arduino","tag-dealextreme","tag-dx","tag-dx-com","tag-rc","tag-sensor","tag-shield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Package contents<\/h3>\n
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Missing or misnamed parts<\/h4>\n
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Quality<\/h3>\n
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Price<\/h3>\n
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Conclusion<\/h3>\n
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![this<\/a> when complete)<\/li>\nAn assortment of screws\n\n10 nuts<\/li>\n10 short bolts (philips head, 0.5cm)<\/li>\n10 longer bolts (philips head, 1cm)<\/li>\n6 short copper cylinders (1cm)<\/li>\n3 longer copper cylinders with bolt-ending (2cm + 0.5cm screw thread)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nMissing or misnamed parts<\/h4>\nFrom the dx.com description, I noticed a few flaws:<\/p>\n\nBoth acrylic plates appear to be roughly 5mm thick, instead of the stated 3mm and 5mm.<\/li>\nThe “Holder kit” seems to refer to the 9V block battery holder.<\/li>\nthe “Steering gear” seems to refer to the pan-tilt holder, which appears to be completely unrelated to steering.<\/li>\nThe copper pillars packaged are 3x4cm, 3x2cm, 6x1cm (instead of the 3×3.5, 2×2, 6×0.6)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nQuality<\/h3>\nWhen you order on a site like dx.com, you know that it’s not always the best quality you can get. However, this package was pretty bad quality wise even compared to a lot of other things I bought at dx.com. Here’s a few of the things I noticed first, on a per component basis:<\/p>\n\nThere were a lot of bent pins on both the arduino and the sensor shield. They didn’t even fit together without manually bending everything back.<\/li>\nThe silkscreen on the Arduino is barely readable, much much worse than an earlier Arduino clone I ordered from dx.com.<\/li>\nThe power jack on the 9V Block battery is so fragile that it falls apart when you try to pull it from the Arduino.<\/li>\nSeveral of the LEDs on the motor shield just didn’t work (although the shield itself did)<\/li>\nThe motor gearboxes were horrible without manually oiling it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWhen you look at the complete package, it doesn’t really get any better. Nothing really seems to fit together:<\/p>\n\nThe only components to actually fit the chassis are the ones already mounted on it (motor-driver and motors), and the pan-tilt thing.<\/li>\nThere are no holes that match those in the arduino, none that match either of the battery-packs, none that match any of the sensors.<\/li>\nThe pan-tilt system needs two servos, but the package only contains one. Furthermore, the pan part needs a servo attachment piece that isn’t packaged with the servo.<\/li>\nNeither of the battery boxes seem to pack enough power to easily power the motors.<\/li>\nThe remote features a lot of buttons specific to an audio-player, which doesn’t really fit an RC-car. Apart from that, it’s IR which has horrible range, and requires both the remote and the receiver to be aimed precisely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAll in all, the quality is far from perfect.<\/p>\nPrice<\/h3>\nSeeing as most of the components can be bought seperately on DX.com, I figured I’d check out how much it’d cost if bought seperately. Here’s the list:<\/p>\n\nArduino UNO Clone<\/a>, $17.40 (with the added benefit that this is apparently an R3, whereas the package comes with R1)<\/li>\nArduino Sensor Shield v4.0 Clone<\/a>, $7.40<\/li>\nL298N Stepper Motor Driver Controller Board for Arduino<\/a>, $6.70<\/li>\nHC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor Distance Measuring Module Clone<\/a>, $4.60<\/li>\nThree\u00a0Arduino Line Hunting Sensor Module<\/a>s, $3.80\/pieces, $11.40 total<\/li>\nIR Receiver Module Wireless Remote Control Kit for Arduino<\/a>, $5.30<\/li>\n6 x AA Batteries Holder with DC2.1 Power Jack for Arduino<\/a>, $2.40<\/li>\n9V Battery Holder Case Box with Leads<\/a>, $3.90 (Note that this one does not contain the jack, but the 6xAA one does, so you can solder that over)<\/li>\n170 Points Mini Breadboard – White<\/a>, $2.20<\/li>\nSG90 Mini Servo with Gears and Parts (2Kg Torque)<\/a>, $4.00<\/li>\n30cm Breadboard Wires for Electronic DIY (40-Cable Pack)<\/a>, $4.90<\/li>\nCamera Platform Mount for Aircraft FPV 9G – Black<\/a>, $4.70<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nParts I couldn’t find:<\/p>\n\nThe acrylic chassis<\/li>\nMotors, gearboxes and tires<\/li>\nNuts\/Bolts\/Screws assortment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe total comes down to precisely $74.90, whereas the complete package costs $79.60 at the moment of writing. That’s only $4.70 more for the acrylic parts, motors, and wheels, which seems like a fairly good deal. If you know how to use all the parts, and could probably use them in other projects anyway, this might be a pretty good buy.<\/p>\nConclusion<\/h3>\nIf you’re expecting a complete kit that you can easily put together and then program using the arduino, this will be a complete let-down. However, if you’re creative enough and willing to get your hands dirty, I think there’s loads of potential in this kit for a nice RC-car.<\/p>\nYes, it doesn’t really fit out of the box, but it’s easy enough to drill a few extra holes in the acrylic plates.<\/p>\nSome things that I feel might be worth trying:<\/p>\n\nBuy one of those cheap bluetooth to UART kits<\/a>, and use an Android (or other bluetooth-capable) phone to control it.<\/li>\nHack up a wireless Wii nunchuck<\/a> as a remote control. (Wii expansions use I2C, which is easy to control using an Arduino)<\/li>\nUse a single thumbstick<\/a> or a full blown joystick shield<\/a> as a remote control instead, possibly paired with the 433 solution.<\/li>\nGet an RC-battery<\/a> and use that instead of the packaged battery-packs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While browsing through DX.com’s new arrivals section, I stumbled upon this package: Multi-Function 4WD Arduino Robot Car Kits Seeing as I still had a bet with a friend to, at some point in our lives, do a real-life Robot Wars, I figured I’d give it a shot. It just got in a few days ago, … Continue reading Dx.com’s Multi-Function 4WD Arduino Robot Car Kit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[64,65,50,49,62,63,66,67],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-4wd","tag-arduino","tag-dealextreme","tag-dx","tag-dx-com","tag-rc","tag-sensor","tag-shield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fw.hardijzer.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/image.made-in-china.com\/2f0j00KvREzawcCmor\/Cm210-Fpv-Pan-Tilt-720-480-HD-CMOS.jpg\"){kind=link}