Makeblock mBot Mega: Smart Remote Control Robot Car for Kids to Learn through Play

This is going to be a gift to my grandson. He has not yet opened it. I would hope it would be a way for you not to send out he’s reading questions rating questions so soon.

Granddad actually purchased mBots Neo, Ranger, and Mega for three grandchildren. Video gives some idea of their enjoyment as well as ability to use robots almost "out of the box". Overall very pleased -- G'dad and G'kids! Extremely capable robots with a myriad of options in sensors and programming. Tech support from MakeBlock is excellent and G'dad used it often. MakeBlock Forum is also immensely helpful. The level of complexity to provide the extreme capability is overwhelming at times. The fact that each robot has a "different brain" was disappointing and creates multiple learning curves for G'dad. Fortunately, each G'kid only has one brain to worry about. Nonuniformity in USB connectors and power supply is another complexity that was disappointing. Furthermore, using a Fire tablet (which seems to be so much safer for younger children than a PC) presents some issues -- USB connections are not straightforward, mBlock on tablet doesn't show full screen, etc. But Bluetooth connection to use tablet as remote control seems to function well.

Durability and reliability could be better. Mega mBot looks very rugged but the positioning of the sensors makes them a bit fragile and the nylon hex spacers are delicate. One trip off the counter resulted in a destroyed "crash sensor" and two broken standoffs. Replacements are easily available online but not necessarily readily available from MakeBlock. Maybe brass standoffs would be a better choice. The battery packs do not hold batteries very securely. Both the Ranger and Mega will allow batteries to pop out of position with relatively small bumps to the robot if the bot is tilted significantly. The third section of the video demonstrates that repairs can be made; alternate crash sensor, new standoffs, and tape over batteries.

Bottom line, G'dad is extremely pleased and has had lots of fun with the mBots. The G'kids have picked up aspects of the mBots to allow them to have some enjoyment and will probably continue to find new ways to enjoy them if G'dad can be available to suggest a next step -- residences are across the state line. On a 10-point scale, these bots come in at a solid 9!

My apologies for the "watermark" on the video. I thought I had a media editor, but had to download a "free" one (with watermark) to develop the file.

Updated: the seller reached out and remedied the problem the way they could. From the "meh" customer experience they made it fantastic!---This was a gift for a friend with a PhD in electrical engineering. We were able to build the device quite easily by just following the instructions. Not that the Ikea-style instructions were perfect, but we made progress by using the most important tool in an engineer's arsenal: common sense.The iPhone and Android controller apps (and we've tried both) were fine. There was a bug in the iOS app, that prevented us from switching between the speed modes. Android app worked just fine.However, the main reason I got this bot is for it's supposed versatility in software. Oh, how much we were looking forward to get our code on it during the Xmas day. But alas, neither of us (a PhD in EE and me, with a masters in Computer Science) were able to get either Mac or Linux software kit working. Not only it would not connect to the device, but our attempts at building the simplest program would fail with compilation errors.The software distribution for this thing is huge: more than a 1GB in size. That is due to the fact, that it's fully self sufficient: there are no dependencies, all the libraries, even a C++ compiler and a Python interpreter are included. That notwithstanding, it all flat out doesn't work.Incredibly disappointing. I wish I could return the mBot Mega, but unfortunately it was a gift.

mBot Mega Advanced Mechanical Programmable Coding Robotic Kit

No review yet…..grandson is in Texas, we are not. After it’s put together (he’s enjoying doing that!) I’ll find out if he likes it. So far, so good.

Very intelligent gift to the kids.

Love this thing, given I did have to return the first one for a few missing pieces, this thing is awesome!! Im building mine with cameras, a 7in screen, WiFi, Im about to control it when Im away from home and can play with my dog while at work he wont fully comprehend at first but Im sure after a few days/weeks it will be a pleasant treat everyday for him to heard my voice, see my face and hopefully add a treat option which this is fully capable of just finding the hardware for additions is the only hard part. I recommend this for kids 8yrs old to 100yrs old if you like small projects and have patience this is perfect!!

video shows the robot doing the classic 'line follower' trick.its an honest review. you can see it works 'most of the time' and then it loses the line, wanders a bit and then finally self-corrects. this is with factory stock firmware and no real adjustments made, yet, so I give that a 4/5 or even higher.check your boards for solder flash (splashes) or shorts, but this is for all china electronics.check that your wheels are L and R as marked, but also check ahead on the printed guide before you screw them to the hubs, as they are directional and its not clear in the early photos how to install them the right way.rubber on tires is not super grippy BUT once its all built, it does run and has no problems walking on paper or flooring. the wheels will wobble a little since this is a lower cost set of parts.the arduino controller is a nice board. the wireless module seems to be BLE and I'm sure its just a serial converter (which is the right way to do things). you can remove that and put in your own board with, say, esp8266 (I'm going to do that).I have not yet looked at the code, and I'm not expecting professional code from the arduino world, but this model does work OOTB and so the hardware and drivers work, at least. lots of i/o on the controller board. I dont know if the 4 socket areas are stepper motor style controllers or something else (h-bridge?). they give you 2 and those 2 control the 4 wheels, individually.

Worked immediately, which is nice considering the last robo car thing I bought was a mess. Just followed the instructions carefully and it worked immediately. I did need to connect it to my PC to download the firmware as the app instructed me. Really happy with this product.

Dislike the enability to purchase additional components to match exact as in the kit. Used for a school project woth additional modifications.