MeArm Pocket Sized Robot Arm

Easy to build, fun to play with. It was a bit tricky to set up on the Raspberry Pi, but all part of the fun!

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OK, first I want to mention to all potential buyers: you need to have an existing Arduino (or another microcontroller set) to connect this arm to it, and to program the arm.I bought this robotic arm to build with my 9 yrs old daughter, as we previously bought and successfully experimented with an Arduino set, which was a good (and much more expensive) product.We did manage to connect the robotic arm parts, though with great difficulty, as the supplied instructions and especially drawings were very poor (we found better instructions on the internet, but still they we pretty difficult to understand).Also we had to use one of our old cell-phone chargers (cut away its connector and stick its wires into Adruino), for power source, as no power source supplied with the robotic arm (i.e. it is not that the batteries are not included, but also the placeholder for batteries not supplied).Well, we managed to connect the motors of the robotic arm to our Arduino set, but here we got stuck. The motors would not work at all and would not obey the Arduino programmed commands! The instructions for the commands we found in the internet were pretty clear, but the motors either start rolling infinitely, or the other way round: just jerk and stop, but never do what they are programmed to.So after two evenings wasted, we gave this thing up. I realize it was not wise to buy so cheap product.

Firstly it was obviously packaged with care as you can see from the photo. Not often you get something that seems to have this kind of personal level to it.Ok - I must admit that after reading some of the other reviews I was a little nervous about breaking this before it was built! But it seems that there have been some improvements to the build quality and the tolerances are fine.I tested all of the servos with my Arduino before building and made sure that the joints moved easily. Setting up was simple and there is plenty of information on how to do it, there's also a forum should you get stuck (I didn't).I put this together with my 10 year old daughter, all in all it took us a few hours building, but it was a fun few hours and as much of a joy as playing with it has been. I'm now becoming proficient moving small items around my desk.... I mean learning about coding with my kids.

Received the order very quickly from Amazon and built the next day. It took a bit of time to set up the controller and work out what needed to go where before starting, which was very tempting. There is a fiddly bit where you have to peel off all of the protective coating which I’d rather not repeat but the build itself was quite fun. There’s a youtube video on how to do it and there are various instructions around the internet, including the manufacturers website.The finished product was a bit stiff at first but I loosened off some of the bolts a bit and it moved around really quickly. An impressive bit of kit really.Could have done with some written instruction in the box to be totally honest.

Most of the parts have either too small holes so u can’t assemble them or they miss them completely. I’m super disappointed with quality of the robot. Can’t even complete it. And I already done it on my uni many times so it’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing

Be warned this is super fragile. Weak breaking points are not reinforced at all. If there is any slight resistance as you put this together stop. Nothing easily slides together. Instructions could include some real photographs as it's hard to understand where cables have to run. I'm sure this is a great toy when constructed just not really very robustly made. I can't really recommend it.I didn't get as far as to tighten the nut because it didn't fit and a slight pressure cause it to snap in 2 places.

I bought this for my daughter, she built it in one afternoon and has been a great learning experience for her.She keeps tweaking the software and trying new ways to control this little robot.The kit is well designed and the instructions are well written.