Price : $39.99
Elenco Escape Robot Kit in USA - A series of Robot Kits for the future engineer. Build these kits and find out how much fun electronics & mechanics can be !
The Escape Robot Kit works just like an A.I. robot. It never fails to find its way out of a maze. The Escape Robot uses 3 IR emitting diodes and 1 IR receiving module to send and receive signals and detect obstacles.
The Escape Robot's built-in microprocessor enables it to "think" on its own: it gathers and processes information on its environment so it can avoid any obstacle. The Escape Robot moves about on 6 legs.
This kit comes complete with 2 sets of differently designed legs that move in their own distinct way. Fun and excitement are guaranteed!
Dimensions: 140 x 150 x 100mm
Also known as Velleman KSR4
Requires (4) AA batteries (not included)
This review is from : Elenco Escape Robot Kit
Putting it together is 90% of the fun . From an assembly point of view, this toy offers a lot. In spite of the stated recommended age, we went ahead and purchased this for my 5-year-old, with the intent that he and I would work on it together.
Of course I had to do all of the soldering, and much of the stuff requiring fine motor skills, such as the gear assembly. But there's still lots he was able to help out with, since all the parts need to be sorted, electronic components need their leads formed, screws need to be tightened, etc.
And he and I had a LOT of fun working together to assemble the kit. The instructions are even surprisingly well-organized and presented, considering that they still were obviously written by someone not a native English speaker.
But, some caveats: this is by no means a durable toy. And even during the assembly, there are pitfalls to watch out for.
There are a lot of self-tapping screws going into soft plastic, which I am well aware need to be handled carefully, lest the threads in the plastic get stripped or components get deformed. But even with that knowledge and caution, it was FAR too easy to overtighten the screws holding the legs in place. I still managed to stress four of the six legs enough to whiten the grey plastic, and a fifth one actually broke (so far the Super Glue is holding fine though :) ).
The infrared LEDs are also a bit tricky. The kit includes LED mounting brackets, but these are not actually brackets in the traditional sense. They are just a spacer the LED goes into, allowing a gentle way to mount the LED at a right-angle to the PCB. Getting the LED soldered without too much play in the bracket between the LED and the PCB is nearly impossible. I wound up just gluing the brackets down and then soldering the LED in.
The other thing to be aware of is that the toy is much more interesting for the electronics aspect than for its movement. The latter being very unsophisticated, and not even very productive. The toy doesn't travel in a straight line by default as one might expect. Instead, it only runs the left side wheels/legs as its normal operation, putting it into a perpetual right turn.
When one of the three infrared sensors detects an obstacle, then one of three alternative motor operations are selected for a moment, depending on which sensor was triggered. Then it goes back to pushing itself in a circle.
At first I thought maybe we'd hooked something up wrong, or shorted a trace on the PCB or something like that. But nothing like that appears to be the case, and the right side motor does in fact operate during the turning logic. Just not during the default movement.
Even my five-year-old is visibly frustrated to a minor degree with the uninteresting movement; it seems likely to me that many children old enough to build this kit on their own would be completely bored after the assembly is done.
On the bright side, the assembly is fun to do, and the project offers lots of opportunities to discuss basic electronics. Of course there's an IC that handles the real logic, but there's still a good representation of regular discrete components (resistors, transistors, capacitors, LEDs and regular diodes, etc.) to talk about. So I wouldn't call this a complete waste of time. Just be aware of its limitations.
Putting it together is 90% of the fun . From an assembly point of view, this toy offers a lot. In spite of the stated recommended age, we went ahead and purchased this for my 5-year-old, with the intent that he and I would work on it together.
Of course I had to do all of the soldering, and much of the stuff requiring fine motor skills, such as the gear assembly. But there's still lots he was able to help out with, since all the parts need to be sorted, electronic components need their leads formed, screws need to be tightened, etc.
And he and I had a LOT of fun working together to assemble the kit. The instructions are even surprisingly well-organized and presented, considering that they still were obviously written by someone not a native English speaker.
But, some caveats: this is by no means a durable toy. And even during the assembly, there are pitfalls to watch out for.
There are a lot of self-tapping screws going into soft plastic, which I am well aware need to be handled carefully, lest the threads in the plastic get stripped or components get deformed. But even with that knowledge and caution, it was FAR too easy to overtighten the screws holding the legs in place. I still managed to stress four of the six legs enough to whiten the grey plastic, and a fifth one actually broke (so far the Super Glue is holding fine though :) ).
The infrared LEDs are also a bit tricky. The kit includes LED mounting brackets, but these are not actually brackets in the traditional sense. They are just a spacer the LED goes into, allowing a gentle way to mount the LED at a right-angle to the PCB. Getting the LED soldered without too much play in the bracket between the LED and the PCB is nearly impossible. I wound up just gluing the brackets down and then soldering the LED in.
The other thing to be aware of is that the toy is much more interesting for the electronics aspect than for its movement. The latter being very unsophisticated, and not even very productive. The toy doesn't travel in a straight line by default as one might expect. Instead, it only runs the left side wheels/legs as its normal operation, putting it into a perpetual right turn.
When one of the three infrared sensors detects an obstacle, then one of three alternative motor operations are selected for a moment, depending on which sensor was triggered. Then it goes back to pushing itself in a circle.
At first I thought maybe we'd hooked something up wrong, or shorted a trace on the PCB or something like that. But nothing like that appears to be the case, and the right side motor does in fact operate during the turning logic. Just not during the default movement.
Even my five-year-old is visibly frustrated to a minor degree with the uninteresting movement; it seems likely to me that many children old enough to build this kit on their own would be completely bored after the assembly is done.
On the bright side, the assembly is fun to do, and the project offers lots of opportunities to discuss basic electronics. Of course there's an IC that handles the real logic, but there's still a good representation of regular discrete components (resistors, transistors, capacitors, LEDs and regular diodes, etc.) to talk about. So I wouldn't call this a complete waste of time. Just be aware of its limitations.
Elenco Escape Robot Kit Reviews
Great beginner robot! . I would highly recommend this beginner robot. My son found the directions easy to follow.
It did help that we also bought the beginner's soldering kit "Elenco AK-100 Learn to Solder Kit."
Great beginner robot! . I would highly recommend this beginner robot. My son found the directions easy to follow.
It did help that we also bought the beginner's soldering kit "Elenco AK-100 Learn to Solder Kit."
Elenco Escape Robot Kit Opinions
A great buy! . I ordered this and another Elenco Kit as part of a class I was teaching to eight to ten year old kids. The kids loved it. They especially loved being able to solder all the components on themselves. I did also order a practice soldering kit and that definitely helped with teaching them to solder before we started on the robot kits. The directions for the kit were fairly easy to follow though there are a couple parts that need to be placed in a specific direction and if you are not paying close attention, you may put them in backward and it won't work. I do have to warn you that it is very easy to make a mistake on a kit like this or even ruin the board when you are soldering (or desoldering, when mistakes are made). In my case, my kids did make mistakes (all part of the learning process) and were not able to get their robot fully functional. Regardless, I think this product is completely worth it and an excellent value.
A great buy! . I ordered this and another Elenco Kit as part of a class I was teaching to eight to ten year old kids. The kids loved it. They especially loved being able to solder all the components on themselves. I did also order a practice soldering kit and that definitely helped with teaching them to solder before we started on the robot kits. The directions for the kit were fairly easy to follow though there are a couple parts that need to be placed in a specific direction and if you are not paying close attention, you may put them in backward and it won't work. I do have to warn you that it is very easy to make a mistake on a kit like this or even ruin the board when you are soldering (or desoldering, when mistakes are made). In my case, my kids did make mistakes (all part of the learning process) and were not able to get their robot fully functional. Regardless, I think this product is completely worth it and an excellent value.
Great entry into robotics . I purchased this to get my 10 year old more interested in building kits and in robotics. We worked on it together and learned about gears, electronics and controls.
Initially we got one gear reversed on one side and it was binding. After some examination of the drawings we discovered the problem and fixed it. The electronics controlling the legs on one side are not working but I assume that we did something wrong in the electronics during the assembly. We will be looking into it more soon.
Even thouth the drawings are good there are almost no written directions. I would recommend this project at s joint venture between a child and an adult. Soldering is required and so it is not a true toy and should be only done by someone at least 15 years old or someone that is familiar with soldering.
The only disappointment that I have with this item is from an educational standpoint. It would be much better if written material was provided that explained control systems, electronics, and gearing. This might raise the low price of $21.00 but it would be worth it.
Otherwise great fun - would purchase again.
Initially we got one gear reversed on one side and it was binding. After some examination of the drawings we discovered the problem and fixed it. The electronics controlling the legs on one side are not working but I assume that we did something wrong in the electronics during the assembly. We will be looking into it more soon.
Even thouth the drawings are good there are almost no written directions. I would recommend this project at s joint venture between a child and an adult. Soldering is required and so it is not a true toy and should be only done by someone at least 15 years old or someone that is familiar with soldering.
The only disappointment that I have with this item is from an educational standpoint. It would be much better if written material was provided that explained control systems, electronics, and gearing. This might raise the low price of $21.00 but it would be worth it.
Otherwise great fun - would purchase again.
Very fun Get your money's worth . First off,
I have never done any sort of electronics before, although I have always wanted to. I recently struck an interest in robotics and figured I should start somewhere simple and inexpensive. The package contained everything, and looked in great condition and all that.. The instructions seem as if they might be translated from a language other than English, but still readable.
Fair warning : There are about 100 TINY parts (transistors, diodes, capacitors) and are very easy to lose if not careful.
After about 3-4 hours of soldering and mechanics, everything was complete, I put batteries in, But nothing happened. :( I was pretty sad, after all that work and no cool robot, but After a closer inspection found that the Microprocessor was put on backwards and pretty much stuck (like 20 pins soldered is a pain to unsolder).
So now I've ordered a second one to give it another shot, After I put that one together I'll update this review.
I have never done any sort of electronics before, although I have always wanted to. I recently struck an interest in robotics and figured I should start somewhere simple and inexpensive. The package contained everything, and looked in great condition and all that.. The instructions seem as if they might be translated from a language other than English, but still readable.
Fair warning : There are about 100 TINY parts (transistors, diodes, capacitors) and are very easy to lose if not careful.
After about 3-4 hours of soldering and mechanics, everything was complete, I put batteries in, But nothing happened. :( I was pretty sad, after all that work and no cool robot, but After a closer inspection found that the Microprocessor was put on backwards and pretty much stuck (like 20 pins soldered is a pain to unsolder).
So now I've ordered a second one to give it another shot, After I put that one together I'll update this review.
Not for a 12 year old... not really for a 37 year old either . I bought this as a gift for my girlfriend's young brother, the idea being we could build it together. Note this kit requires soldering, something I assumed it didn't if it was appropriate for 12 year olds. But we went out and got a small soldering iron. Solder has lead in it and the fumes can be toxic as well as the molten metal. There's considerable safety considerations for children because this stuff affects children even more than adults. Ok, all that said - I'm by no means an expert soldering things, but by profession I work with technology. It took me and the lad about 8 hours to put this thing together soldering all the tiny resistors and capacitors and integrated circuits on to the circuit board. And as it turns out? The thing doesn't work at all. I bet one of the components got fried when soldering it in. Point is, this wasn't a good experience for the person I bought it for. It wasn't safe for him to do alone, for sure. And as an adult with electronics experience, I couldn't make the darn thing work.The instructions are ok, better than the usual you might expect, but there's nothing about soldering safety, etc. I would not recommend this unless you have advanced electronics experience, are really good with a soldering iron, and can supervise the young ones very closely.
Loved it! . My 10 year old son enjoyed building this robot and was very proud of himself when he completed it. But he was even more excited when it worked the way it was supposed to! This is a great beginner's kit for children that want to learn how robots work. I highly recommend it.
Excellent learning and playing toy . I bought this as a learning and playing toy for my grade-school age daughter. She had a blast. I taught her how to solder, how to trip excess wires, how to tighten nuts and bolts, and how to a bunch of other things. She had fun not only while putting it together, but also playing with it.After putting the round wheels (not the rotating "legs"), she suggested that we could mix wheels and legs to get traction on carpet as well as hard wood. We just did that, and the bug now crawls and drives on any floor material.
Great starter kit . Did this with my kid (9 years old), and we had fun. My child did over 90% of the solders, I did the IC because it was a bit intimidating. The instructions were pretty clear, I never had a problem understanding what to do next. But the instructions where mostly a parts list with a few diagrams. For my kid, it was mostly a fun experience of working on a several day project, learning how to solder, and flicking the switch. I am not sure how much we would have liked it, if it did not work. There was no guide for amateurs that discussed trouble shooting. If it did not work, I would have checked the connections, but my lack of knowledge of all but the simplest electronic theory would have turned it into a static sculpture. Still I would recommend it to people who are interested as long as they know what to expect.
Educational . The robot was more than I expected. It was harder to assemble (approx. 150 soldering joints)and trouble shoot. After my son soldered all the joints, he was ready to see how it worked. One side was not working properly, but it was due to wire connections touching each other where they were not insulated. We were able to separate them with a little plastic. Overall, it was a success and very educational. My son enjoyed making the maze for the robot and seeing it work.
Feature Elenco Escape Robot Kit
- Easy to understand kid friendly step-by-step instructions
- Built-in microprocessor which enables it to ?think? on its own
- Never fails to find its way out of a maze
- Escape Robot uses three infrared emitting diodes as its ?eyes?
- Requires soldering assembly
Product Details
EAN : 0756619007304UPC : 756619007304
MPN : 21886
Brand : Elenco
Weight : 1 pounds
Height : 4 inches
Length : 9 inches
Width : 7 inches
Binding : Toy
Manufacturer : Elenco
Manufacturer Maximum Age : 15 years
Manufacturer Minimum Age : 11 years
Model : 21-886
Publisher : Elenco
SKU : 21-886.
Studio : Elenco
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Where To Buy
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