In the past two thousand and fifteen year , Robots can be said to shine , First, the World Robot Conference was held , Later, it was extended to the appearance of robots at various satellite TV parties , The frequent appearance of robots makes the author feel that they are no longer as remote as we were when we were children , Fortunately, we got it for free on Leifeng. com Vortex Experience opportunity of programming robot , Let's get to know this cute little guy .

Vortex The information on the outer package of the programming robot is absolutely massive , In addition to the visual appearance, we can also learn Vortex Programming robot mainly depends on mobile phone control ; Available Ipad Graphical programming for wireless connected devices ; compatible Arduino&Scratch; A brief introduction is also given on the side of the outer package Vortex Device information of programming robot and App The author will not describe the built-in game types .

One ” Steamed buns ” Appears , This is my niece's first impression , The author has experienced it before Makeblock mBot Educational robot , Pudding robot and Piper robot , In the field of programmable robots Vortex Than Makeblock mBot Be more refined , But if from DIY From a perspective, the latter is better , Objectively speaking, each has its own merits .

Simple view Vortex The appearance of the programming robot did not find the function socket and keys , it seems Vortex Programming robot endurance is a problem . Didn't shoot it because of the light problem Vortex Crystal plate for programming robot's two eyes , But it's actually visible to the naked eye .

Lift Your Veil , When the upper cover is removed, there are five circular holes and one V Words are used to transmit light , stay Vortex The light spots can also be seen at the corresponding position of the programmed robot body ; Simply put , The upper cover has no egg use except for aesthetic effect .

The square part in the middle of the fuselage is the battery compartment , Sliding cover design , Vortex Programming robots requires four section five No. 1 battery to meet their own needs . I want to complain that there is no built-in battery LOW.

Vortex Programming robot battery compartment

Vortex Programming robot is a two drive toy , adopt two Balls as balance points , The transparent parts around are six Group Sensor ; The central position is the voice part . and Vortex The switch of the programming robot is also at the bottom , This is also Vortex The only switch that can be manually controlled in the whole body of the programming robot .

Close up of sensor

Vortex The programming robot comes with a color sticker , warranty card , Quick Start Manual , WhenDo Tutorial book and a black and white card , Cards are used to play games , But what the color stickers are for is not found in the instructions .

It can be seen after power on Vortex The programming robot has a colored aperture at the bottom , Only two eyes on the panel can glow , Not at all LED screen . There is an audio prompt when starting up , But it's not like pudding. It's a little pity .

  because Vortex Most interactions of programming robots are on mobile phones , So here we are after unpacking . It is learned in the instruction manual that , If there is a black line on the white paper , Just nudge Vortex Programming robot will automatically start the line finding function , This will be demonstrated in the following video .

In the personalization settings, you can see that the system comes with four Roles , You can also customize roles ; head , V, eye , The light color of the feet can be customized , The eye pattern can also be customized , It's easy for children to operate .

App The interface is very simple , Vortex Programming robot comes with five game best cars , Bumper car , Dance a shake , Robot soccer and leisure golf , One of the best racing cars is actually a remote-controlled racing car , A dance shake can play the set music and be matched with the action of robot rotation .

On the mobile phone App The author saw WhenDo Interface , But the mobile terminal can't do anything , Hope it can be improved in the future!

A simple recording clips a small video. Please ignore the bug in the video automatically! The opening voice broadcast part is completed by pudding robot

Vortex There are only so many operations for programming robots. If we want to play more things, we need to edit them ourselves. Some situations are not shown in the video, such as:

1. When connecting to mobile app, Vortex When the programming robot is powered on, it will pull backward and rush forward like a toy car in childhood

2. For the problem of line finding, I planned to make a demonstration of line finding, but the "black tape line" made by the author may be too thick, Vortex The programming robot could not recognize it, so it did not succeed

DFRobot development Vortex When programming a robot, it is defined as STEM,STEM Science (Science), technology (Technology), engineering (Engineering), mathematics (Mathematics), because Vortex The corresponding crowd of programming robot is six Children aged over , therefore DFRobot Hope to pass STEM Education enables children to learn programming knowledge while playing with robots .

  DFRobot adopt WhenDo App The picture and text tutorial goes from simple to deep and quotes stories to bring children into programming teaching , from WhenDo App Basic introduction of , Expand to custom set emoticons - Obstacle avoidance procedure - Automatically back when touching the suspended position - Custom dance actions, etc , Teach children how to program in the most vivid and concise language , It will also show the effect of sample programming , At the same time, suggestions on adding extension functions will be given , Let children use their brains and learn to create . Vortex Programming robots are better than Makeblock mBot Educational robot , Because of the characteristics of programming , So the author will not demonstrate here .

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Since playing Makeblock mBot Educational robots always like to dismantle, In brief, the author is right Vortex Impression of internal structure of programming robot , In terms of the complexity of the motherboard structure:

Complexity ★★★

Solder joint treatment ★★

Power motor ★★★★★

Removable degree ★★★

Welding spot , The horn and battery power supply connection are not firm enough .

The motor is fixed firmly , Author experience Makeblock mBot The screws fell off after the educational robot played for a short time .

By observing , The simplest thing is that it is very easy to change into a rechargeable polymer battery .

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summary :

shortcoming

Endurance is the key , Hope that the new products can five # battery power supply changed to low-carbon and environment-friendly recyclable power supply battery .

Poor Bluetooth control support , The author cannot control the game when connected to the joystick , Greatly reduces the playability of robots .

Poor interaction ability , although Vortex Programming robot focuses on programming teaching , But if 600+ RMB lets me buy for children I will never buy , In fact, it gives the impression to the author Vortex The programming robot is more like a remote control car like a steamed bun .

As a robot focusing on programming teaching Vortex's performance is fair, but the author, to be honest, The playability of Vortex is really not high, or the price is too high, and high-tech products are becoming more and more popular, If Vortex does not develop more playable things, it will be difficult to walk in the future. Finally, thanks to the free evaluation opportunity provided by Lei Feng. In this evaluation article, the author does not apply professional big data, but simply Vortex's experience is shared without any color If you want to play more interesting intelligent devices, please pay more attention to Lei Feng