Robotic Arm Edge | No Soldering Required | Extensive Range of Motion on All Pivot Points

The Robotic Arm Edge was one of our 10 year old son's top five Christmas requests. In the end it proved to be a great pick. He spent approximately 4 hours from start to finish to complete the project, with some guidance along the way from Dad. Once it was finished however, it did not work and he was discouraged. By then it was late and we were all tired, so we put it aside for evening.The next evening we went back to the troubleshooting page and read over the reviews here at Amazon to give us some clues about what the trouble might be. We also tested the wires and motors independently, one at a time, using a 9-volt battery and two wires to create a circuit with each motor. We knew that all of the connections were good because the motors and gears worked properly when powered by the nine volt battery.We then checked the battery terminals. We discovered they were not bent and positioned down properly. Once the terminal placements were corrected, we were able to get some partial movement with the control box levers, but only in one direction. We removed the top of the control box and 'warmed up' the metal plates by pressing each of them down manually in each direction with our fingers, to ensure they were making contact with the circuit board, and the robotic arm's mobility greatly improved. (You may have to repeat this step occasionally to maintain full mobility, double check wire connections, and make sure that the wires are not being crimped, tangled or pulled out of position by the movement of the arm. The wire clips are very helpful when placed correctly for this reason). The movement specs* from the manual are as follows:Gripper: 0-1.77"Wrist motion: 120 degreesElbow motion: 300 deg.Base motion: 180 deg.Base rotation: 270 deg.Search light: on when on switch is on.*We found these measurements to be pretty accurate.Finally, we smoothed off a few plastic 'burrs' that were catching as the robotic arm spun on it's base, untangled and repositioned a few wires to keep them from tugging and pulling out of their connectors as the arm revolved, screwed the control box back together, and Oila! The robotic arm now works beautifully, LED light and all.Our son declared, "I am Satisfied!" with a huge grin and a sigh of relief :) It was great outcome to a slightly challenging project. The gearboxes were a bit taxing to put together from a 10 year old's perspective, but he stuck with it, even though it was a initially frustrating. After putting together several of the gearboxes he was a pro. We encouraged him to take his time and read the instructions thoroughly to become familiar with the concept and sequence of steps before he began, and we think that really helped to make the project go much smoother for him than it might have otherwise.One precaution: If you hear clicking noises as you move the robotic arm with the controls, that means to stop and go back in the other direction! We have explained that it is important NOT to try to manually force the arm to move in one direction or another, or the gears may break! You may also be trying to lift too much, depending on where the center of gravity is in relation to the weight of the object. Because of the plastic gears and other components, it is a TOY more than it is a tool.Our son is looking forward to using the 'RAE' to assist him in other building kits, such as legos, kinex, and maybe another similar robotic project. The best lesson that came out of this for us was that putting our heads together and combining our knowledge, skills with a little perseverence kept us from giving up on it and assuming there was something defective about the kit. We worked backward and retraced our steps, and it was a great success. What could be better than learning and having lots of fun in the process? :)I am writing this review because we were helped greatly by the informative reviews already posted here, and I hope that what we learned along the way can help someone else, incase they get stuck a bit as we did. It's worth it to press on and find solutions to problems, and our son is enjoying the fruits of his labor and is all smiles now :) The stars were his review of this product.

This thing is awesome! And, for less than $40, it's a steal.I'm 37, and it makes me feel like a kid. I bought it for my office to have as a fun conversation piece and stress-reliever. I built it in under 3 hours. Lots of little pieces and tricky things to pay attention to, but it was actually a lot of fun to build. The instructions are very good and easy to follow. I've assembled IKEA furniture that was harder than this, so its not that bad.Do yourself a favor and buy some D batteries from Amazon at the same time you order your robot arm. You'll want them handy when you finish building it so you can start playing with it immediately. It only runs on batteries. No AC adapter. You'll also need a mini-philips screwdriver. I used the Stanley 66-052 6-Piece Precision Screwdriver Set, also available on Amazon. You'll also need some basic needlenose pliers, and some nail-clippers to clips the plastic stubs off when you're breaking apart the plastic pieces. Think of old plastic model sets where you have to break out the pieces. It's like that. The instructions say to use an exacto knife and a file. I just twisted them and broke them by hand and used the nail-clippers to trim the stubs. Faster that way I think and good enough.You have to be careful. There is no auto-shutoff when you're using it. If you close the pincers for example and keep the motor going, you'll strip the gears. I made this mistake, had to disassemble a portion of it, re-seat the gears and then it was fine again. But, you have to be careful. If you hear the gears slipping (it'll sound like clicking) you need to ease off the controls and make sure your next move is in the other direction because you maxed out in one direction. Other than that very easy to use.It can only lift 100g per the specs, so it's not very powerful. You're not going to be moving furniture or anything with it, but I set up a little game to pick up wiffle golf balls and put them in a container. Easy enough task for people who come in my office and want to play with it. Highly recommend this!!

This is not for 13 year olds. The tiny hex screws and the shaft do not fit properly and the gear box has to be redone multiple times and kids will lose patience. Definitely a very cheap product not designed properly and the materials are of really poor quality

This little robot arm is great and fun to play with. Assembling is another story. The tiny hex nuts will make you angrier than you have ever been in your entire life when they pop out of place as you’re tightening the entire gear box. I had to assemble each gear box about 2-3x simply because of the hex nuts. Turns out, you have to hold the gear box together as tightly as humanly possible while tightening the screws to get them to stay. My hands are raw and sensitive now. Other than that, assembly isn’t bad at all. I almost returned this because of the gear box assembly. They should glue the hex nuts in place before giving it to the consumer. Also, make sure you have a very small Phillips screw driver before attempting to assemble. Would have been nice if that was included.