Adeept 4WD Omni-Directional Mecanum Wheel Robotic Car for Raspberry Pi Pico | DIY STEM Remote Controlled Educational Robot Kit with LCD1602 Display and Tutorials

This kit is extremely well designed and comes with all the needed parts, batteries, tools, tutorials, and instructions you need to complete the assembly. However, if you're going to build it, be prepared to learn a LOT! If you don't already know a bit about how things work, it could be frustrating. But if you are curious to learn about how robots, electronics and programming, then this project is an absolute gold mine!

Missing much of the hardware.

My 15y old and I got this working today. Need to follow tutorial step-by-step, first uploading library python scripts to the pico via your pc with Thonny, thru tutorials 9-10, then go ahead with assembly, then follow remaining tutorials. Following some other path may lead to headaches and defenestrations.

This is a really fun and somewhat difficult build. Lots of different parts, and a wide array of hardware. This is definitely not a snap-together build, so be prepared to sort through different nuts, screws, standoffs and other tiny parts. The acrylic is good quality, and the components are par for the course. The instructions are really great, though it takes a minute or two to figure out where to start exactly. I've done quite a few builds of my own, and these build instructions are super descriptive, and very clear. The kit comes with everything you "need" including tools, which are pretty good. The included phillips-head is a little narrow and you could strip out screw heads if you're not careful. The one and only thing that I don't like about this kit, and many others like it, is that it is meant to be used to learn coding, yet very little coding is actually taught. You learn how to use the coding interface (Thonny in this case), but 90% of the coding is copy and paste, or just loading the already-prepared code into the Pi. This is fine if you intend to focus on the hardware, and aren't really looking to walk away from this experience knowing a great deal about Python, but I would've liked to see more explanation for what is going on in the coding sequence. Overall, this is a really fun build. There is a lot you can tinker with once you've completed the tutorial, and in the end, you have a Raspberry Pi Pico that you can pop off and use in a different project if you so choose. If you take it upon yourself to play around with Python, you can really get creative with the parts and components in this kit. Definitely recommend it.

This is a great little kit for the robot curious. It took me a couple of hours to put it together. The instructions were really good and really clear. In the whole thing, I think I only found one discrepancy, which in a kit this large, a kit this complicated, is kind of hard to believe. The discrepancy I found was in how the servo motor bracket was attached to the sonar mount. In the instructions, it shows four holes on each side and you insert two screws on either side. In the kit, there are 6 holes on each side, and you have two extra screws. I still just installed 2 on each side, because they were really really small and my old eyes and fat finger were having hard time with those screws. The sonar assembly was the hardest part of the whole thing, because of the little teeny tiny parts. When assembling I recommend you find a smooth (non carpeted) surface, low to the ground, aka not on a table, or have some sort of damper to keep little tiny parts that you will drop from bouncing off to who knows where. I was really surprised by the detail and the quality of the installation instructions. Then upon completing it and going into the setup, and seeing all the little great lessons about Micro Python and programming. They all looked to be very useful too. That is another thing about this kit. A lot of kits like this, you are going to find come with an Arduino and you program them with C/C++. This comes with a Pi Pico and you program it with Micro Python. So, if you are looking for something to transition, or if you have already done something with Arduino and might be looking for something else to try, this could be a great place to start. As for the components, they are all pretty standard components. But if you went out and sourced them all yourself, which you could do, when all is said and done, you probably would have spent as much as this kit. Just the wheels would be $30. Just the motors would be $10. Just the Pi would be $10. So to get all the parts already sourced for you, and put in a nice kit, and a nice, well designed laser cut chassis to assemble it all, accompanied by good instructions, and lessons. I think it is a nice little kit. Even little details, like using brass standoffs instead of plastic. Little things like that impressed me. They didn't seem to go cheap in places where they could have easily chosen to do so. It is also a great introduction to mecanum wheels. Some similarly priced mecanum wheel robot kits on Amazon don't even include the electronics. They are a lot more do it yourself. This is more we will do it all for you and hold your hand as you go. I would recommend it. This would be great for a parent to work on with their younger kid, at the end of which the kid has a really cool toy, that they actually put together themselves, or to hand off to a high schooler, or even a middle schooler to tackle on their own.

This is my 2nd adept robot kit. The first was a robot kit based upon a full Raspberry Pi 3B, and it was a super complex kit that took several days to build. This kit is far simpler, and I would say is of “intermediate” difficulty. It’s appropriate for a middle-school level (and above) STEM oriented student. For reference, I built this kit with my 8 year old daughter. I had her do substantially all of the mechanical assembly while I just helped read/interpret the directions for her. It took about 4 hours from start to finish, including downloading the software, etc. When we were finished, she said “I enjoyed that a lot more than I thought I would”. So, yeah, this is a very approachable kit for intermediate students to build independently, or beginners to build with some guidance. Everything pretty much worked perfectly. The tutorials are downloadable, and they walk you through literally every step. I’m not new to the Pico microcontroller, but I’ve always programmed it from the Arduino interface before. This kit was my first time learning how to use microPython, and it was very easy to follow the tutorials. All of the sample code worked, and there are even some bare-bones physics tutorials about how the Mecanum wheels work. You can also easily take the Pico out of the robot to use for other things, if desired, then easily replace back in the robot. One thing about this kit and the sample code, is that not all of the capabilities of the robot are fully utilized with the “final” code. There is sample code, for example, to show how to use the onboard RGB LEDs. But the “final” robot code doesn’t use these LEDs at all. The robot also has a buzzer, and there are tutorials covering its use, but then the final code doesn’t use it. It’s an opportunity for the student to add these things later, thus adding to the educational value. You can run this from either IR remote or Wi-Fi. If you use the IR remote, you have to be a few feet away and point DIRECTLY at the IR receiver, or you get errors and weird behavior. The only problem is with the Wi-Fi. You have to connect to the ESP-01 module Wi-Fi. Ok, that’s fine, but then you need to side-load an android app to control the robot. The app is NOT in the app store. I absolutely dread side-loading apps, because they haven’t been vetted by the app store. However, I went ahead and did it, just to test it for this review, and the app is small (I think only 1.6Mb), and it did NOT request ANY phone permissions. So, I think the app is probably safe (but I can’t guarantee it, since it’s not from an app store). Adeept really needs to get their apps into the app store. Also, once the app is loaded, it doesn’t have all the same functionality as the IR remote. Notably, the turn left and turn right functions are missing. Since this robot uses Mecanum wheels, it can move directly left/right without actually turning left/right. This is super cool, but you still need to turn the car sometimes, and only the IR remote can do that, not the app using Wifi. Other than manual control, there is pre-programmed code for obstacle detection (attached video). But, the robot can get stuck in corners, because the obstacle detection only moves the robot left/right, and never turns it around. Again, a great exercise for a budding microPython STEM student would be to add this capability. Just a lot of opportunities to learn and keep adding functions. By the way, the product page doesn’t show it in the picture, but it DOES come with two 18650 batteries (but no charger). However, once you put the batteries in the holder, you’ll have a very hard time getting them back out again. I suggest putting a thin ribbon under them so you can pull them out with the ribbon later when you need to recharge. The other Adeept robot kit I have came with these battery removal ribbons, but this one didn’t. There were a few problems with this kit. First, the cat face arrived scratched up a bit. The protective paper was already peeling, and the acrylic was scratched. It’s not a big deal but is unprofessional for the kit to arrive like this. There was also one laser cut hole in the chasses that was not fully cut. I had to drill it out, only to find later that it was an extra hole that didn’t actually need to be used (you attach the motors with only two screws, even though there are 4 holes for the bracket in the chasses). The only other problem was with the M3*10 screws. There is supposed to be 36, but I only got 35 plus one strange screw that obviously didn’t belong in the M3*10 bag. In the end, there were pretty minor problems for how awesome this kit was. Final rating: 5 stars. There were a few little drawbacks, but overall, this kit is pure awesomeness!

I've been picking up many items from ADEEPT lately for all things Arduino/Raspberry/MC/Robotics to augment my collection of parts and the Adeept 4WD does not disappoint. They have seem to found the magic formula for re-imagining all types of shapes and sizes of cookie cutter vehicles/robots for construction then building them out around Raspberry Pi both full fledge and now Pico along with other MC. This one is no different but complete. This comes with everything you will need to dip your toe in the STEM Raspberry pool at a very attractive price. Fairly easy to construct, comes complete WITH Pi Pico, remote and downloadable instructions for coding you really will start to explore the world of Raspberry and Robottics in an affordable way. For many projects I prefer the Pico for size and power constraints. It gives you the size and power advantages of Arduino but with more advanced coding, compatibility and control of a Raspberry. 5/5

This kit offers a great experience if you go into it with the right frame of mind. This is not a toy to play with as much as an exploration into robotics and automation. Building, trouble shooting, problem solving, and critical thinking is what makes this an enjoyable experience, only if those things are enjoyable to you.

I am a little bit of a techie, I wouldn't say I'm great at coding but I know little bits. I got this to build with my daughter, she has just started to be introduced to coding concepts at school, not coding itself but the building blocks. This was really good to build together. There are fiddly bits which I did but other bits she was able to do without much help. I liked that the coding side of things wasn't too in depth, it was helpful for us because she got the satisfaction of making it work without it being too difficult or complicated. Everything needed is included in the pack which is great.