Nicole over at Elecrow got in touch with me about a new robotics kit they’ve been developing called the CrowBot BOLT. I agreed to review the product and give my honest opinion.

TL;DR

A really well thought-out, and well-produced, kit from Elecrow. A few problems with the language in the documentation aside, it is a valuable learning product for both young and old. You can buy the kit from Elecrow here.

Packaging

The whole kit comes in a box with protective foam on the inside. Very high quality packaging, suitable for a retail environment.

What’s in the box?

• Components to make the CrowBot BOLT including two ESP32-based circuit boards – one for the BOLT, one for the joystick.
• Components to make the joystick controller for the BOLT.
• An instruction manual for assembly of the BOLT.
  Annoyingly, it doesn’t come with instructions for the joystick, but once you’ve put the robot together, you kind of get the idea!
  The instruction sheet has a line follower course on the reverse, though, which works very well!
• A USB-C cable
  I was pleasantly surprised that it was USB-C.
• A screwdriver
  Handy
• An IR remote for the BOLT.
  However, no battery in it, even though the plastic tab is there to release the battery… Bit annoying, that, as I don’t have any of those batteries, but they’re easily available.
• Some expansion cables for connecting up other sensors
  I didn’t try this but on the reverse of the main chassis/PCB, there are ports for both analog input and I2C input.

Features of the BOLT

• 2 x GA12-N20 Micro DC gear motors
  I’m not sure on the RPM of the motors. All I can say is… they’re quite zippy, and have a decent amount of torque, so a good balance.
• Line following sensors.
• Distance sensor/object avoidance
  This sensor has LEDs built into it – first time I’ve seen that!
• Light detection
  This is so the robot can follow a torch, or other light source.
• A buzzer
  A…surprisingly loud buzzer!
• Bluetooth connection for remote operation.
  The joystick operates over Bluetooth, so that’s what that’s for. However, do make sure you’ve switched the DIP switches to the correct mode for Bluetooth.
• Wi-fi onboard.
  This isn’t covered by the tutorials and it is left to the user to get the Espressif-based boards working themselves, which is fair.
• Some under-chassis Neopixel-like LEDs.
  Well, it’d be disappointing if there weren’t some blinkies.
• Infrared receiving ability for the small remote control which has been enclosed.
• Ability to be programmed using the Letscode visual programming environment, Arduino IDE and MicroPython.

Assembly & impressions

All the Perspex (and I do mean every single little bit!) is covered in protective paper. So, that’s your first job. I found it easy enough to do it once I remembered to use the small screw driver blade to scrape at the edges of the paper. This gives enough purchase to slooooowwwwwly peel them off.

The instructions are pretty clear for the assembly of the robot, and I was able to follow them without much trouble. I did find that I needed at least four hands when it came to fitting the battery box into slots on the rest of the parts all at the same time, but it was doable. The whole thing took about 20 minutes, which I think is acceptable. Smaller hands may need adult supervision or an extra pair of hands!

This is what it looks like when almost completed. That small piece in the background at the top is the front plate, which I missed first time.

One small thing: although it looks better as built, the batteries are inaccessible once installed without taking the chassis apart. This is okay-ish, as I’m sure the batteries will last a while, but it is something to bear in mind. It would have been interesting if the battery box could be mounted either way up – it just would have needed a slot to get the connection cable through the custom plate that the battery box is attached to.

Joystick

The Joystick comes in bits:

Once peeled and separated, it’s just a case of putting it all together with the circuit board sandwiched between the two large pieces of Perspex, given strength by spacers and screws. The joystick comes with a small OLED display which plugs in before you put the top layer of Perspex on. This gives you an idea of what “mode” you’re in, driven by presses of the various buttons. If you want to make the robot come to a dead stop, centre-press the main joystick knob. That caught me out – lack of instructions here giving me a few nervous “catch it before it falls off the table” moments!

Opinion and Who is it For?

I liked the kit a lot. The instructions, as given, were very good, with a high standard of clarity throughout. I felt that a small space should have been given over to instructions for the joystick, but that’s a very minor thing.

Programming it is simple enough with MicroPython an option, though younger hands may prefer Letscode, which is a visual programming environment. I did have a few teething problems with ports using Letscode, but nothing that a little perseverance couldn’t cure.

The joystick is really well thought out and has demo code on it which use all the included sensors as well as giving you the obvious remote control option.

The excellent beginners’ guide helped greatly, getting the environment on my Windows laptop set-up and then going through a lot of examples and instructions to get the most out of the robot. There is a lot of learning here, a lot of it pictorial form, and a lot of fun with the included joystick functions and the simple-to-understand tutorials.

The level of English is satisfactory, I would say, rather than outstanding. You might find that, as a parent, you need to interpret some of the language. This is a shame as I would have thought getting a native English speaker to read through the documentation first would be a relatively simple thing, given the size of the maker/coding community. That might be something Elecrow could consider next time they release something like this.

Cost

The price of the kit with joystick is $58, $35 without it. I think this is fair, as the engineering is certainly top-quality, as are the rest of the parts. The documentation that comes along with it is also valuable, and is sure to be a lot of fun for the tech-minded, both young and old.

Overall

As I said at the top of the post, this is a really well thought-out, and well-produced, kit from Elecrow. A few problems with the language in the documentation aside, it is a valuable learning product for both young and old. You can buy the kit from Elecrow here.

Demo video

Here’s me turning both the robot and the joystick on and setting the robot to follow the black line on the back of the instruction sheet:

Useful links

• Getting started with the CrowBot BOLT
• Buy the kit
• Download Letscode
• CNX Software review of the same kit
• Marketing video from Elecrow (see below)