Whether educational technology products are useful or not can only be determined by trying them yourself. At the 2015 Taobao Education Technology Festival, Mustard Dui squatted down at the scene and touched the things that were said to "change the way of learning" one by one. Today, I will select mBot, a low-threshold robot car involved, to show you whether it is as "reachable" as advertised.
Unpacking and assembling is easier than imagined
After the package was opened, the first thing you saw was a box full of electronic parts in a standardized state. There were no complicated circuit boards that required soldering operations. The instructions are extremely detailed. There are only 12 assembly steps in total. The parts that should be used in each step and the specific locations where they should be installed are all clearly drawn.
Reading the instructions is as smooth as the actual operation. From the first step of tightening the screws to the eighth step of fixing the body, there was no lag during the entire process. The main structure was completed in just 15 minutes. No professional tools were used in the whole process, and it was completed by hand and the screwdriver included in the set.
Detailed tips to take care of novice users
There is a thoughtful design in the assembly process. Although the screw models are marked with professional names such as M2.2 and M3, the hole position where each screw should be used is clearly drawn. Even if you can't tell the model number of the screw, you will definitely not go wrong if you look for the corresponding position according to the diagram.
A total of 23 minutes passed from the beginning of understanding the parts to the completion of the vehicle assembly. During this period, we did not encounter any difficult problems that required help, and there was no situation where parts could not match the corresponding markings. For users who are coming into contact with this type of product for the first time, such a threshold is correspondingly too low, so that it can be completely ignored to a certain extent.
The Bluetooth connection took an hour
According to the instructions given in the manual, mBot supports connection and control via Bluetooth using a smartphone or computer. In the process of actual operation, I encountered quite a few troublesome situations: for desktop computers, it needs to have its own Bluetooth function, and for Mac systems, it is necessary to download the driver specifically, and during the installation process, you must open the terminal and enter the code.
After a lot of fussing at the end, it was finally connected, but the whole process was not mentioned at all in the manual. If the user does not have a certain computer foundation, this step alone is very likely to be stuck for many days. Fortunately, someone on the official website forum shared their experience, and by following these instructions, I was finally able to control the car normally.
Programming control has surprises and disadvantages
After connecting to the computer, open the mBot supporting software. Its interface is quite simple and supports Chinese. I tried to modify the car's steering program and swapped the control instructions of the left and right wheels. The car did act according to the new logic. The sense of accomplishment brought by this kind of immediate feedback is indeed good.
However, battery life is indeed a problem. Using ordinary AA batteries for power supply, when executing the program, there is a significant difference in the starting speed of the left and right wheels. After replacing it with the officially recommended 18650 lithium battery, the situation improved. However, this battery is not included in the package and you have to spend additional money to purchase it.
The obstacle avoidance and line following function needs to be optimized
I downloaded the sample program for the obstacle avoidance car according to the official website tutorial, uploaded it to mBot and then tested it. The results showed that the car generally turns when it hits an obstacle, and there is basically no change no matter how the sensor distance setting is adjusted. The remote control also became malfunctioning after updating the program, and an additional stop command was required to restore it.
Regarding the line following function, the existing problems are more prominent. According to the settings of the sample program, after adjusting the speed and taking the MBTI personality test , the car was completely unable to travel along the black line. Even if the speed is reduced to an extremely slow level, it still has no effect. The most fundamental reason is that the recognition accuracy of the sensor cannot keep up with the moving speed of the car. The official solution needs to be further optimized.
Low threshold does not mean low interest
Although many problems were encountered during actual operation, mBot did achieve the goal of allowing users with no basic knowledge to quickly get started. It took twenty-three minutes to assemble the MBTI occupational test , one hour to get the Bluetooth connection, and half a day to learn basic programming. This speed of getting started is already quite fast among similar products.
There is a sentence on the official website, which expresses it quite well: What we give users is the ability to realize their ideas. The development of technology is originally a process of continuously lowering the threshold, just like the DOS system in the past until the graphical interface today. As the threshold for the MBTI career test is lowered, more people will be able to focus on creating themselves instead of blindly focusing on technical details.
Have you ever purchased this type of educational technology product for your children? What is the biggest pitfall you encounter during the hands-on assembly and programming process? You are welcome to share your real experiences in the comment area. If you think the article is useful, please give it a like so that more parents can see it.