EDIT 1:BATTERIES ARE INCLUDED! I just didn't see them in the box. You do get two batteries to run the car, so I'm editing this review and removing the section about no batteries.EDIT 2:THIS KIT WILL NOT WORK WELL WITH A PI 5.I'm taking a star off of my review for this reason. The listing says it will work with a Pi 5, but that isn't the case. There are a couple of things. First, and most importantly, the included batteries cannot supply enough power through the HAT to keep the Pi running. Every time the car goes through it's initialization, the voltage dips and the Pi shuts off.To be fair, when you download the instructions, they do say that a Pi 3, 4, or 4b+ are the recommended boards, but they still say the project will work with a Pi 5.It won't. I purchased some high capacity 9800mAh batteries to supplement the included 2000mAh batteries and neither set make it through the initial setting of the servos before the Pi shuts down on low voltage.I'm going to replace the Pi 5 with a 4B+ and see if that is more stable. If it is, then I'll continue with this project. If not, well the review will reflect that.REVIEW:First, I want to be clear. This will be a multi part review. This is not a simple one-day project that will be quick to assemble and easy to review. THis is a complex project that will take a few sessions to build, and then code before I can evaluate it fully. So my plan is to write and publish this review in stages in order to get this posted in a timely manner.The phases will be (1) Initial opening, manual evaluation, and video tutorials. (2) Initial Assembly. (3) Coding and programming. (4) Conclusions.First, the box is packed to the rim with compopnents to build your rover. They are bagged in a thoughtful, logical way, making it easy to sort the parts. The only thing you will need to buy separately is a Pi. You might want to get a couple of extra battereis (2 are included). The correct battery is 18650. The car is set up to allow you to charge the batteries internally, so you don't need an external charger.As for the Pi, the page says the car will run on any Pi Model 3-5, but when you look at the instructions, it says the Pi model 3B+ or Pi model 4 are preferred. Given that the Pi model 3B+ can be found for $44, while the Pi 5 goes for $71, you can save some dollars and get a longer run time on your batteries.When you open the box, there's a sheet of paper that gives you the link to download the manuals, they are well written and very well organized. You can print them out if you'd like a physical copy, but I just copied the pdf files to my tablet.The tutorial videos are all hosted on YouTube, but the website where you get the manuals also has a link to Adeept's page which links to all the videos. They aren't organized as well as the instruction manulas, but of the videos I've watched so far, the information is well presented, with an overview of the subject, step by step instructions to implement, and some basic troubleshooting.I have my Pi5, and I'm going to start building tonight, following the instructions. For those familiar with the Pi, loading an OS should be very familiar, although in this case, Adeept recommends an older version of the OS to ensure compatibility. The install procedure is a bit different since we're not installing the latest and greatest, but the printed instructions prove to be a good guide for the process.When I complete the build, I'll edit this and add the next section of the review. For now, I'm happy with the quality of the components, the instructions, and the video tutorials and I'm looking forward to the build.

***PLEASE SEE UPDATE DOWN BELOW***Everything here component wise seems to be of great quality. The solder work on the boards looks to be good. The acrylic plates that make up the frame look to be professionally made. All body pieces have protective paper/cling on both sides so no scratches from shipping. Each piece seems to be well cut, they also include a tape backing on every acrylic sheet I assume to prevent pieces from coming apart during shipping.They provide a piece of paper with a link to their website where you can download a RAR archive that they have put together a bunch of documentation and a few images. The file is named: ADR012-V5.0_PiCar-B_MarsRover_SmartCarKit_for_RPi-20240425.zipThis includes collection includes PDF's for:An intro to this carHow to charge the included rechargeable batteriesPacking list of all components/pieces17 lesson "basic course" directory. 17 different lessons covering various aspects of this kit like making the buzzer on the main HAT buzz audibly on the car (you can make tunes also).Assembly PDF's including a couple stand alone images - The instructions are extensive and easy to follow.8 lesson "comprehensive course" directory. 8 different lessons going deeper into things you can do with thisPersonally I don't see any negatives with this kit, because I am already pretty technical. Is this a kit for some parent who is not already technical to "jump in" with their kid(s)? Or even for themselves? Or for some 12 year old who does not already have knowledge? Not in my opinion. I would say if you already have experience with Raspberry Pi's, setting them up to be used for whatever that would be half the battle and this will likely be a blast. If you have never downloaded a copy of Raspbian and setup a Pi before utilizing command lines and etc, you will want to read everything at least one time before diving in. They DO cover all aspects of obtaining the proper version of Raspbian and how to flash the image etc.. Not impossible but without a decent handle on the foundation of what this car revolves around (Raspberry Pi and its OS) you will probably just get frustrated and give up. There are a ton of individual guides on different sensors and functions of this car including a web based controller. If you want to go beyond this you will have to take what you learn from all of this and produce your own python code to accomplish that.Extras:There is a github repository for this specific car that includes all the example code and more. adeept_picar-b2. This company has made other items and has github code for different things going as far back as 2013 so this company is not some fly by night place it looks like. If there are any bugs I am sure they will update the code, or even add additional examples from other contributions.I will update the review after I have time to play around with this with my kid some. I just wanted to share what I have found so far for anyone who wanted to know more.****Update: 07-14-24****I have revised my review to be 1 stars out of 5. I will re-adjust if the maker of this replies or fixes this. The python script they point you to in the documentation to get all the "libraries" downloaded and to setup the webserver to auto-load on bootup of the pi is a mess and from my tests does NOT work.I downloaded the version of buster they said was recommended from back in 2021, got everything setup to the point of cloning the github and then when I went to run the setup.py included in their github repository that was cloned locally it would NOT make it through a full run (setup.py). It would error out with really no indicator what was wrong. I eventually updated Raspbian buster with apt upgrade and made it through the script finally but with various errors through the setup, several of the packages it has set to download were not found.In the end it adds to /etc/rc.local (a file that runs on bootup of your pi) "//home/usernamestartup.sh start"Which DOES NOT WORK. It is missing a character it should be "//home/username/startup.sh start"The variable "username" above is whatever the username's home directory you are logging into your pi with that you ran the setup.py with. Then when you fix that, it STILL does not start the webserver on boot of your pi. When you dig deeper you find that the startup.sh bash script they put is totally off.They have in the startup.sh script:sudo python3 //home/username/adeept_picar-b2adeept_picar-b2/web/webServer.pyit should be:sudo python3 //home/username/adeept_picar-b2/web/webServer.pyAfter making these changes still the webserver DOES NOT start, there are python errors related to a certain module not being present. (See above where it is unable to download certain modules during setup.py process.The last modifications to their github repo for this was 3 months ago. They should have tested this better.I will revise my review if this is fixed. I have reached out to the maker and nothing they have told me via email so far gets beyond these issues. The image they reference in the documentation that contains all the libraries and webserver does NOT exist. They confirmed this is email. I cannot recommend this now at all given the above. This should be much more polished and tested on the software side of things.

Building this smart rover kit from building to programming is achievable by teens to adults provided that they have the patience and proper guidance by an adult. Don't get me wrong, the building aspect isn't much harder than a Lego kit rated for ages 6+. That said, it's just riddled with tiny screws and nuts that need be fastened by hand that are more often than not, located in nooks and crannies. Even an adult with the most deft hands would have trouble without specialized tools. Trying to thread M1 or M2 sized nuts in a space that the tip of my fingers wouldn't fit in was less than joyful, to say the least.As indicated, this kit requires Raspberry Pi, an SBC mini computer capable of running a wide range of Linux distributions from Alpine to Ubuntu, and more. That said, the user would need to install Raspbian OS, a custom Linux distribution for this build. Details on installation to circuit diagrams are well documented and further, reads as if it were written by a person that actually speaks English. Thank the lord so the user should have no trouble with comprehension. That said, it is a lengthy read so the user really needs to put in the time to at least read up the important bits.Let me just get down to it. I deducted one star for each of two issues that I have with this STEM build kit, leading to a 3 star rating for the product. First, I just don't think this kit is suitable for a pre-teen child. An eight year old can build this sure, but that's the easy part and not at all the point of this build-kit. An eight year old probably doesn't know how to write a Linux distribution onto an SD card. They probably don't know how to install an OS nor would they be to traverse through relevant directories, much less possess the fluency of a script language like bash for more sophisticated tasks. Yeah, it's not rocket science so these can be taught. But to what end?Secondly, the manufacturer recommends the user to download a bunch of applications on both their smartphones and computers. I've never heard of these applications and they require a lot of permissions only to perform trivial tasks so they appear quite sus to me. For an example, the user is asked to download an app and grant enough permissions to ask for a hand in marriage after first opening it up. Then the user finds out its sole function is to return the IP address of Raspberry Pi connected to the same network. This isn't needed at all. There are a number of ways of obtaining this directly from Pi itself. I can get it from my WIFI router too, if I were less familiar with the commandline.Expanding on the second point, the user is asked to download a couple of SSH clients on their PC. Yes, as in more than one! Even if these programs were harmless in design, there's just no point of installing two programs that perform the same task. Especially when even having one isn't completely justified. The user can just rely on the default terminals that come pre-installed on either Windows or Apple to SSH into remote devices without installing a third-party program.To close, it can be a fun kit provided that the user is discerned enough to pick and choose what to follow from the instructions given to get the most of out this kit. If the reader is just trying to buy a STEM kit for their child, I'd sincerely just go with branded options like LEGO that are much more straight-forward even if they are less friendlier on the wallet. 3 out of 5 stars.

This car kit for my raspberry pi is a great project for kids and adults alike. Teaches a lot about using the pi and programming it

Requires a Raspberry Pi (an older 3 model will work fine), everything you need to build not super complicated. If you're the type of person who can handle their AV software I think you can handle this. My son and I love doing these projects together.