ELEGOO Tank Robotic Car Kit Compatible with Arduino

We bought this Elegoo Smart Robot Car V4 for our 8 year old grandson. It was intended as a present we could work on together. I watched several YouTube videos to prepare the ground and also made him sit through a speeded up recording of the full build.His previous experience was following the excellent instructions in Lego sets and a few hours bolting together Mecanno.The instructions provided by Elegoo were comprehensive and easy to follow. All the parts were in clearly labelled bags and boxes. Don’t be tempted to open them too early, there are a lot of small items.Everything was in good order apart from an aluminium block for mounting the motor which needed the the screw holes easing with a needle file as they were too far apart. There was also a connector in one of the 4-way plugs that had come out of the housing - luckily it clicked back in easily.We proceeded slowly and carefully completing the build in less than three hours. My grandson did all the work himself with guidance on the importance of lining up pins with holes and not tightening screws too early.We were both delighted that the car worked as expected the first time it was powered up. The infrared remote worked fine, but the car did have a tendency to stop in a position where the sensor was no longer in line of sight with the transmitter.A negative for the remote control operation is that the speed is not proportional. The car zooms off forwards at full speed, reverses at full speed, spins clockwise and spins anticlockwise at full speed, making it uncontrollable. Pressing “9” on the remote control many times (let’s say 30!) reduces the speed significantly and solves this problem. Switching the car off causes it to forget your 30 presses however.Line tracing mode worked OK with jerky movements keeping it on track using the supplied tape on a light grey tiled floor.The object avoidance mode was most impressive. Just be careful not to let the car crash under low furniture that can’t be seen with the ultrasonics, but will still hit the camera mount. The mechanical connection to this servo is a fairly weak looking area that might easily break off.Follow mode was a bit hit and miss.Downloading the app on an iPad Pro and iPhone 12 worked fine. To connect to Wi-Fi ensure the switch is in “cam” mode. The pictures were acceptable for demonstration purposes, but the definition and frame rate will disappoint most users familiar with iPhone and Android video quality.The robot car was a delight to build and use. Software worked out of the box and for an 8 year old it was a fun build and it is now a fun toy. As he gets older the opportunity to dig into the code are modify the operation of the car is there if he wants to go down that path. He is already asking if it would be possible to get the camera to look up and down as well as side to side. There is an unused servo connection on the PCB I wonder if it is possible?

I've experimented with Arduinos quite a lot over the last couple of years, and have been impressed with Elegoo's Nanos and Mega 2560s, this kit looked interesting and a good potential for a friend's boy when he is older, so decided to get one to try out and also improve, during the Covid-19 lockdown.The kit is well presented with parts clearly labelled, bagged and in a selection of attractively printed cardboard boxes. There is also an easy to follow, colurful instruction manual.At this time I havent attempted a full assembly, just connected up the electronic components for testing. However, the hardware looks of good quality and as though it would fit together easily.The Arduino shield is a good design, using different connectors for most components, minimizing the potential for mistakes. Great that all the main Arduino pins are also made available on header pins if you want to add your own modifications (pins A0 to A3, also usable as digital inputs, and the built in LED pin D13 are not occupied by the supplied hardware).As supplied, the multi-function sketch was pre-loaded and worked with the supplied ID remote (albeit with a slight response lag), line tracking and ultrasonic modes. However, my 6-month old Moto G Power would not connect to te Bluetooth module using the Elegoo BLE app that you are supposed to be able to use to control the car.The app does recommend you load the latest sketch on to the Arduino before using the app. The download is about 175MB and includes a number of "learning" sketches demonstrating each component of the car, as well as the multi-function sketch, documentation in several languages, an APK file for the Android app (which you could use as an alternative to downloading it from the Play Store), and datasheets for each component.Trying to load the app onto the supplied Arduino Uni clone was the first problem, reminiscent of the incompatibilities and poor documentation that more generally plagues low cost Arduino clones and accessories. The standard official Arduino programming wouldn't upload the sketch, and in Windows Device Manager the Arduino was listed as a USB to UART bridge that required driver installation to function. Looking at the Arduino clone, it uses a Holtek HT42B534-1 USB chipset. I couldn't find a lot about this on the internet, most indications were that drivers weren't required but I eventually found a driver download "USBBridgeSetup_CA.exe". Running this then updating the driver in Device Manager solved the connection issue; I then noticed a zip file containing the same file is present in the top level of the ELEGOO download package!Still couldn't get the phone to connect to the car's Bluetooth module using the ELEGOO BLE app, using either the main or test sketches in the ELEGOO download. Thought the bluetooth module might be faulty (the LED on the board flashed once, faintly, on startup whereas the LED is suppoed to blink continuously. So ordered a similar-looking replacement. Note although the ELEGOO supplied Bluetooth board was listed in the available Bluetooth devices on the phone, ELEGOO's advice on various forums is that you must connect using their app rather than using a standard Bluetooth pairing procedure.The new HC06 Bluetooth module arrived, but still wouldn't connect to the ELEGOO BLE app. Bouncing around various forums it turns out there are other Android apps available for communicating with HC06 modules, downloaded one called "Arduino Bluetooth Controller" (Guimig Apps) and it easily connected with the new HC06, and could control the car by sending simple commands such as f for forward etc. Swapped back to the ELEGOO bluetooth module, and it wouldn't connect to this, reporting invalid PIN. It seems the ELEGOO bluetooth module might be non-standard only allowing ue of their app (if you can get it to work).Also in the download are datasheets for each component, a nice touch although the quality of the documentation is very variable and much along the lines of typical low cost Arduino clones and accessories: poor grammar, incomplete technical documentation, steep technical learning curve etc. - in stark contrast to the well presented, well written and illustrated printed guide provided in the box. For example the codes aren't listed for the unused buttons on the remote control (although they are defined in one of the supplied Arduino sketch programs if you know what you're looking for).The sketches themselves are written as a large number of small subroutines, I know this is good programming practice but can make it quite difficult to trace what is going on.There is a further problem with the use of the Arduino platform for an educational toy, most children, certainly at the lower end of the recommended 12+ age range will find the C-based programming language and the detailed documentation beyond their ability, which could be frustrating. There is also the steep learning curve just to learn how to use the basics of the Arduino development environment to upload sketches. Kit is best suited to an environment (such as a computer club, or family with a parent or older sibling who is a programming expert) rather than more general home use.Of the two versions said to be supplied at random, the version supplied had a USB charging cable but requires a USB charger.In summary:POSITIVES+ Nicely presented package including simple instruction booklet+ Well thought out hardware+ Good range of features, operating modes include line tracking, ultrasonic avoidance sensing, infra red remote control, Bluetooth control from Android device+ Multi function program pre-loaded which allows use of all the above modes, using the remote control to set the mode.+ Great potential for use in an environment with technical support, e.g. school, computer club or family with someone knowledgeable on hand.NEGATIVES- Supplied Bluetooth module was possibly faulty, connection not possible using companion Android app- Supplied Bluetooth module appears non-standard preventing use with non - ELEGOO apps- Bit crude that Bluetooth module has to be removed to upload sketches, could have used SoftwareSerial on different pins- Driver issues with the USB interface on the supplied Arduino Uno clone- Arduino platform not very suitable for absolute beginner programmers- Sketches and further documentation must be downloaded, no CD / USB stick version provided- Detailed documentation in download is scrappy and incomplete.- Could be very overwhelming and frustrating as a toy for use in an environment without support on hand.

My boy absolutely loved building this. He had help here and there, but at 10yo he was pretty confident at getting this built and working. Great product.