Robotic Arm for Arduino Coding Programming 6DOF Hiwonder-xArm1S STEM Educational Building Robot Arm Kits, 6 AXIS Full Metal Robotic Arm Wireless Controller/PC/App/Mouse Control Learning Robot

Opening up the box, all the parts were neatly packaged and undamaged. The quality of the anodization on the metal parts was surprisingly good and I liked how there was decent organization of screws and other small parts into separate bags. Assembly was pretty quick and straightforward (took a bit to get to the instructions) with no issues of fitment so QC seems to be good as well. Came with spares of most things and love the serial bus interface of all the servos, will probably switch to them for a lot of my future projects. One caveat is the included screwdriver isn't that useful since you'll need a smaller one for all the screws on the servos themselves and the cable management is a bit finicky (but way better than not having any cable management at all). After getting the arm assembled, it was pretty easy to set up with the software and get the included controller set up (which is one of the better ways to control any multi-axis robot). Overall, this is a pretty good product and can recommend if you want to get started on robotics / want to play around with a robot arm. They're still regular servo motors so the payload can't be too high but reasonable given the size (and price) of it.

Let me preface with... I've been a tinker'er, gadget geek, etc my entire life. Played with some toy robot stuff a few years back, before the whole maker, STEM, 3d printing, arduino, rasp pi, etc craze and this stuff became affordable. A mid life career change and the quest to always be learning new stuff led me to order this xArm. This review will be just some notes from my build that may help others. -Items are packaged well -out of the entire kit, only found 1 bad item (so far anyway), one of the acorn nuts for the suction cups wasn't threaded, minor issue, found another nut in my junk box. -when you start you build, take the bag of screws and sort them all by size into piles -I had the lewansoul website pulled up on my monitor with the large photo of xArm during my build for reference -watch the youtube build video in it's entirety before starting your build, just to get an idea of what you'll be doing, then build as you watch and pause the next round. The video is VERY good. -watch the wiring video before you start also!! and note where the short and long cables go. I would recommend plugging the proper cables into the servos as your are building, if you wait till it's all assembled it can be tough to get the connectors in -all the arm servos basically end up installed the same direction, the output shaft will be on the same, and the cable connectors will on be on the other side -when you get to the round aluminum cylinders and adding the brackets, the larger cylinder goes closer to the base of the unit, you can kinda see this when looking at the large web photos -as someone mentioned the servos are numbers 1 through 6 from the gripper towards the base -the servos come out of the box all centered, so don't turn the shafts at all, until they are mounted square to the brackets -there was no directions on how or where to install the control board, but's is pretty self explanatory by looking at the photos and parts you have left at that point, just use the screws that are left, and the plastic standoffs -I was unable to connect to the xArm with my bluetooth phone at first, I tried a different tablet and it worked ok, so I uninstalled the app, and reinstalled on my phone, then it worked fine. This may have something to do with permissions, as I denied permission to 'phone location' at first, and allowed it the second install. Hey Lewansoul, why do you need permission to my location with this app??? -Check your servo wiring when complete and make sure the routing doesn't bind up, or get pinched at the servo travel limits, use the included plastic clips to help as/where needed. -I cut some black foam weather stripping and installed it on my gripper to help it hold small plastic parts You don't need anything else to operate this arm, everything needed for basic operation is included in the box. You can manually move the arm, and program in an 'action' with just the 2 buttons on the control board. If you use the PC software to do the same thing, then you can go back and tweak your 'action' to make it more accurate. I'm looking forward to digging into the add on kit, and get an arduino hooked up to start working on my own code. Yes you can buy an arm kit for cheaper, but the fact that everything is included here in one box to get going, it has the serial servos with feedback, and I love the blue anodizing. I haven't found anything to deduct from it's 5 star status. For now, great job Lewansoul... I'll try to remember to update my review after I have more time with this, and dig into the add on kit.

Contrary to what the manufacturer claims, this is a 5 axis arm. The fact that it has 6 servos does not make it a 6 axis robot. The 6th servo motor on this arm controls the gripper, commonly known as the end effector in the robotics world. A true 6 axis robot has an additional axis of rotation between axis 3 and 4. This is similar to the forearm of a human arm being able to rotate so the palm of your hand is able to face up or down. Search for 6 axis robot videos and you'll see what I mean. A minor point, but the naming of the axes on a multi axis device always begins at the base of the robot. Axis 1 is the base of the robot and the joint at the end of the arm is axis 5. This is true regardless of whether you're talking about a 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 axis device. How do I know this? I wrote software for SCARA and 6 axis industrial robots for 18 years before I retired. That said, this is a decent toy. You can learn the basics of robotics using it. The manufacturer claims their control software runs on iOS and macOS. Be aware that you must have a M1 or greater Mac to load the software. It will not install on an Intel Mac. This is not mentioned anywhere in Hiwonder documentation. You will only find out once you go the the app store and try to install the app. Overall documentation is poor for this device. The servo motors have an input side and an output side. Their description of setting up the arm call both ends servos, when the input side is actually an encoder. An encoder supplies feedback to the controller telling the position of the motor. Don't expect smooth movements of the arm. Depending on how much the arm is extended (their joints 2 and 3). The further you try to reach for and object, the more jerky movements become. The motors are too heavy and contribute to instability. It would be better to use a pneumatic actuator for the gripper instead of a heavy motor. I bought this for my grandson who is 5 years old. After putting it together and operating it I came to the conclusion that it wasn't suitable for a child that age. He would surely damage it in no time. Be aware of this before you purchase it. Regards, Redwingz

I've built a few robotic arms, and this gives you the best bang for the buck, is pretty well designed with quality parts, and both the software and examples are well done. The coolest feature is the feedback from the bus servos, which makes it soooo easy to "train" the arm. But there's a major design flaw, and that is with the wiring of the servos. They put the connectors on the side of the servos, which means the wires are being pushed around by the joints and are stressed by every move. The connectors are also poorly designed, so even a little bit of stress will pull the wires out of the connectors. One result, which I experienced, is an electrical short circuit. I didn't smoke anything, but the power supply starting flashing, the USB interface went crazy, and everything stopped working until I noticed the short. In addition to that major flaw, some minor faults: the assembly instructions are video-based and seem to be sub-optimal, with at least one incorrect reference to hardware the hardware is unsorted, so you have to be able to visually detect a millimeter difference in parts mine came with some hardware missing, but the seller quickly sent out a replacement the software is PC-based, and the controller uses a proprietary serial protocol. It would have been nice if they had used off-the-shelf arduino stuff. On the plus side, they do publish some aspects of the protocol and people have written open-source code to talk to this thing.

It's a birthday present for a 10-year-old boy. I think it would work well as a present for all the way up to 15-year-olds. He's very good with building other things (graduated from Legos), so he's experienced. The assembly instructions were in video format, not something he's used to. But it's workable and complete. He probably could not have finished it all by himself. Needed adult supervision and perhaps sometimes a little helping hand, but not much more than that. We had to play and pause the video many times to get through it. Once assembled, we tested it using the (included) PS2-style remote controller. He was excited to say the least when it worked. Controlling it can be done in one of 3 ways: the remote controller via bluetooth, using tablet (ios/anroid app) via bluetooth, or a Windows PC over USB. When we got the first program to work, it was super ecstatic high-five time. Overall, it was a very educational experience. Well worth the money and time. If your kids have any interest in STEM or robotics, then this is a must. That said, it's not perfect. Here are the issues that we've encountered. 1) The assembly instructions were not clear about the placement of the base bearing subassembly (including the bottom servo, bearings and the associated pieces). It's tricky to get it right because the available turning arc of the servo may or may not match the turning limiters of the metal plates. It's trial-and-error. We had to partially disassemble it a couple times to get it right. That's the reason for the 1 star being deducted in the easy-to-assemble category. 2) That bottom servo had failed one time. However, I'd like to point out that the seller's level of support was excellent. They were able to properly diagnose the issue and send out a replacement unit quickly. While I took 1 star off for sturdiness because of this, I still gave it 5 stars for the overall experience with no reservation. 3) this is not so much a complain but a wishlist -- the tablet app and the PC software are very different. They do different things. Also, the PC app was triggering all kinds of malware warnings from Windows. Need to get that stuff signed better.

I bought this with some reluctance having assembled kits from China before, but the specifications, capabilities, and features for the price made me want to try it anyway. The kit was well packaged and complete. The parts were all Identified and all there. The robot arm uses the newer bus servo motors and this is great. You simply tell a motor the absolute location you want it to go and how long you want that motion to take, This helps synchronizing different motions so they can all get there at the same time. You could also issue a short vertical motion and a long fast horizontal motion to tailor the movement shape. The built in shaft encoder allows you to know exactly where you start and where you are going, without drift when you get there or apply a load. There is no need to calculate the PWM signal and know where precisely, and drift. This also allows completely closed control application. I am an English only speaker however; assembling the kit was fairly simple considering the complexity. There are good graphic video demonstrations of each step along with a running audio descriptions. All the parts fit well together and there were no extremely difficult assembly steps needed .The bus wiring made the electrical part of the assembly easy. steps. The included control board has a great amount of capability and can store several complex programs for stand alone operation or download programs from the computer. The software for running the robot on the computer is powerful and has English versions. Programming can be done on the computer with discrete commands, by learning from manual movement steps or a combination of both. The robot can also be controlled by the supplied wireless game style controller, a cell phone or a mouse. One problem developed after assembly, The manufacturer (LewanSoul) responded quickly sometimes on the same day until the obscure problem was resolved. The finished robot performs well as expected, movements were consistent and repeatable. Ray Rew

This is my 3rd HiWonder product. I have the SpiederPi Pro and the PuppyPi Advanced (no Lidar). All of their products are well made and fairly well suppported. xArm went together easdily thanks to the 4 videos on YouTube. The girl that explains the assembly does a good job of showing not only what to do but also what not to do. I recommend strongly that you pay close attention to the servo arm position as you assemble. I think they are shipped in the "center" position but if you turn them during assembly, when it starts up and centers, your arm can move unexpectedly. This happened to me with servo 5 and the arm slammed down 90 degress upon going to the home position. You would think after decades of building RC planes and knowing to check center before assembling I would know better. Fortunately, like my other HiWonder robots, the device is sturdy and was not harmed by this action. The included game controlled has some good built in routines. It can pick up and object, move it to the right and drop it. They have a library of canned routines you can view and even create your own simply. What it most interesting is this works just like the large million dollar factory robots which can pick up, place, weld, screw, etc. This product is a great way for children and young adults to learn the basics of robotic arm action. Overall I am very pleased with the product and feel it is a great value for the money!

This was my first experience with a robotic device. I wanted to see how versatile this product could perform. I first used the PC software that was downloaded from Lewansoul, which allowed me to "program" each of the servo's positions and action time. They call this "action groups". You can move the arm to a specific position either manually or using their software, and have it read the angle which puts a value of each of the 6 servo positions as an entry into a table. The table then is used like a program, starting from the first row downward executing each action with a specific time you set. It actually works quite well, and is somewhat precise in positioning the arm repeated times. Each servo has a precision of 0.24 degrees. If you do the geometry calculation, the variance at the full arm's length (approx 14") comes out about 0.058" or about 147 microns. For individual joints, at a distance of 1", results in an accuracy of 0.004" (or 10 microns). With this type of precision, you can do some fun experiments. I had it pick up a washer and had it drop it on a bolt. I could not take a nut and put it on a bolt, though I could have it thread the nut if it was on the bolt. I also had it "mix" a drink by picking up various plastic cups and pouring them into a glass, then shake the glass. I next hooked it up to a Arduino board and wanted to use the arm's controller for secondary programming. After some initial communications issues, which were fixed by Lewansoul providing the correct library for the Arduino sketch program, I was able to have it do some maneuvers and call stored action groups that were downloaded to the controller board from the PC software. As this is a new product for Lewansoul, I found it missing some documentation on the assembly instructions and certain feature operations, and after contacting their support, provided me with what I needed to know. It took me about 4 hours to build the X-arm. Much of the time was sorting out the numerous screws and while they have an excellent animated video showing how to construct the arm, I found myself trying to figure out what metric screw size was what in the kit. They should have a picture of each screw size, so you can match it up to the size you use for the assembly. The component list was incomplete, and it took a while to figure out where everything belongs. Aside from that, the assembly went quite well. In the video's, you'll see I put some soft putty on the edge of the grabber, so it does not slip out of the grasp. Also, if the servo tightens too much with bare metal, for some reason the servo does not want to release the grip. I have to ask Lewansoul about this behavior. I will be doing more "experiments" with the Arduino board, to give the X-arm more intelligent tasks. I will report back in the future with what I was able to accomplish.