Hiwonder Raspberry Pi 5DOF AI Vision Robotic Arm Smart Robotic Arm Mecanum Wheel Chassis Robot Car Kit DIY Robot for Beginners

Update: the seller reached out and it turned out the motor control board is specific to either rpi 4 or 5. The one I bought was for pi 5 but I was using a pi 4. That is really weird because the two boards have the same pinout. I guess the different internal pull up resistors might make the difference. I hope this is conveyed more clearly but afterwards it works flawlessly. ———- Unfortunately the motor control board doesn't work. It does not connect to RPI with I2C. The app / wifi connects, but motor control does not work. LEDs on the motor board do light up, so it shouldn't be a power-related issue. Ran some debugging, ssh'ed into the RPI, and the issue turned out to be related to I2C connection. I ran `sudo i2cdetect -y 1` and got nothing, which means the board is not talking to RPI properly. I toggled enable/disable of I2c in `raspi-config` but no luck either. I therefore conclude the motor board is defective. I spent time putting it together and the robot looks neat. It's unfortunate that the board doesn't work.

Why did you pick this product vs others?: We have purchased 10+ various Hi Wonder robots for student projects and they all work perfect. Support is excellent and immediate especially with driver updates. Recent kits with Raspberry Pi5 have upgraded fans and heat exchangers. Image is from another Hi Wonder robots purchased at the same time

AWESOME Robot can be upgraded

parts there and looks ok to build, have not progammed it yet but have booted its pi5 os microsd to look at program items

Uses the WonderPi app, which is versatile. There are multiple ways to control it, but the app is probably the most accessible for most people. I do have concerns about the long-term support and availability of these apps. They have the option of ordering with or without a Raspberry Pi board. It's very cool. Wheels rotate smoothly, make tight turns. And it's actually faster than you might think. Parts are all good quality. Durable aluminum alloy chassis. It's accessible to a variety of skill levels. There are lots of actions you can perform without needing to code. Stacking functions gives you infinite possibility. For example, color tracking, facial recognition, object tracking, object sorting... and all of those commands can be stacked. Assembly is pretty straightforward.