PiDog

Pidog just seems so happy, wagging his tail and doing superman and howling and trotting tricks. I watched the assembly videos and used the paper assembly instructions too - the two together complemented each other, and the only problems were where I failed to follow the instructions, which nevertheless were really good. You do need patience and good dexterity to build it - some parts are quite small and the screws and nuts for servos can be challenging. You want to think about building it as a fun challenge, like a puzzle, not as a chore full of difficulties, and you'll have a good time. It's not a simple build - there are about 70 steps, but all the parts are there and clearly labeled. The documentation is really well done - from the hardware build to how to install & run the software. The canned example programs are fun and pidog is perky and does fun stuff. It has so many sensors and behaviors. Support is good. There's a forum for asking questions and you get an answer in a day. I dropped Pidog and broke a neck servo, and also the speaker failed so no sound initially. Sunfounder shipped me replacement parts which arrived in about 2 weeks. I've run all the examples, and I'm working through the section where you create your own programs based on the source code they give you, and I find the function examples documentation clear. I suspect there's an API doc in there somewhere but haven't found it yet. It is not a software programming course, but rather a vehicle for trying python programming in a robot. Depending on your skill level with software you may spend more or less time trying to understand and re-create the sample code they give you. I'm an experienced roboticist and I was prepared to struggle and the whole experience turned out to be pleasantly problem-free. There will be learning experiences for those not so advanced - but that's why you choose a kit like this. But be careful not to give it so someone who doesn't have the right mind-set.

Completely agree with the other reviews, this is a clever design showcasing how a variety of sensors and the SunFounder's robot hat can be combined to achieve complex actions and behaviors, in this case mimicking the behavior of a dog! The examples you see on the video are real, the ear scratching, the howling, including the superdog pose when getting picked up. It is educational to be shown examples of how all these are achieved with a capable board, a bunch of sensors, and programming. Sensor readings, servos and motor controls are very easy to work with via Python. The instructions are very clear, and the website has plenty and very good examples showing every aspects of using the board to build what you want, including autoboot into listening mode so it can be always on. I have yet to try the ChatGPT integration, but I have worked with OpenAI APIs before so I am confident it will work. I can imagine prompting additional puppy actions triggers and verbal dialog / action capabilities into PiDog, making it a perfect STEM toy and kids companion. PiDog is sheer fun, but the hardware that comes with it has a lot of potential uses. It is definitely worth getting if you are like me who want to experiment building robots, but just want to focus on the level of events and actions, and don't want to spend time on the low-level hardware integration, interrupts, register readings side of things! I am excited to experiment building things I had in mind for a long time but was limited by not knowing how to work with sensors. Now I am no longer blocked! One more thing to highlight is their responsive and helpful customer service. My speaker failed on arrival, and after some troubleshooting back and forth with their patience customer service, including showing them videos of my testing, I was given a replacement board for free and everything now works.

Don't worry about reviews that say it is complicated to build. It's not, but it will take a bit of your time. Take it slow, look carefully at the pictures, and double-check things before continuing. Anyone that wants to play with this thing will likely have the patience to put it together. Just know that it takes a few hours, and then you're done! The motors are strong, the platform is well balanced, and the features are awesome. It comes with a lot of cool demo programs written in Python, and there is a remote-control app for your smartphone that will do everything you might want, if you're not interested in programming it yourself. But if you want to experiment with robotics, programming, or just plane hacking, this is an incredibly useful platform to learn on! Not to mention - it's so darned cute! The "eyes" are actually ultrasonic range finders. The "nose" is a video camera. The "tail" wags like a real doggy. And it can growl, bark, pant, whine and bark. It's even got voice-recognition! (A little finicky, but works if you speak clearly.) This is the most fun I've had in robotics in years. You'll love your new doggie almost as much as your furry friend! (Don't tell them that...)

This project was very challenging to assemble at first, but once you understand the process, it becomes much more manageable. There are a lot of pieces involved, and it took my partner and me several days to complete. At one point, I even had to get help from my neighbor to fix wiring issues—he mentioned that this project is quite advanced for beginners who have never built a robot before, which was definitely us. After resolving those issues, I was able to run the programs successfully. Since I already have some experience with programming and using ChatGPT, I was able to get everything fully functional. That background made a big difference, especially when troubleshooting things like Python libraries not loading properly. Sometimes ChatGPT can suggest steps that aren’t necessary, so having a solid understanding helps avoid wasting time or having to reset and start over on the Raspberry Pi. I used a Raspberry Pi 4, which made the overall process smooth in terms of performance and compatibility. I was also able to connect it to our school network using Pi Connect without any issues. In the end, this project became my professor’s favorite, and he even expressed interest in keeping it. I learned a lot throughout the process, especially on the hardware side of robotics, not just software. I would definitely consider buying this kit again in the future to build with my kids, since I now understand both the physical assembly and the programming side. The instructions and online manual that come with this kit are excellent and very helpful. Once everything is built, it’s honestly fun (and funny) to watch it talk and operate using its AI features, which I connected through an OpenAI API key. Overall, this project is absolutely worth it and is a great way to demonstrate real-world applications of computer science. If you understand hardware and can figure out the software side, you're good to go on this project. My kit was missing parts and the Sunfounder team are excellent to contact. Also, Amazon has been super helpful throughout that process as well. I had the absolute best experience with this as my first time project in building a robot.

While been tech for decades wanted exposure to robots to include python programming. Great, fun, challenging toy with Sunfounder providing helpful diagnosis and parts if needed. I would go with raspberry pi 4, for raspi 5 burns out servos but used raspi 5 for personal assistant using pironman 5. Would be great fun for kids!

Well first of all - robot companion? No. It's okay. Not very sturdy. Screws are garbage. I like it. Instructions are extremely difficult to follow... Feel very backwards. Setting up and programming the pi is a nightmare if you have never done coding with python before. Setting up TTS and SST is even harder. Can it be a robot companion? Sure. But you better know how to code... The instructions and website are extremely clumsy... Something definitely got lost in translation. You must be EXTREMELY careful with every single part. No bends, no tears, no hard torques... The screws are very flimsy. They break easily. Make sure you know what you're doing before you buy this thing. I learned the hard way.

So, I wanted to get PiDog because he provides a robotic platform to extend with my VR and AI projects. And he's got just a ton of motors and sensor--the dog form factor is fun, and he wears it well. Putting them together, I think, was very straightforward. The instructions from SunFounder were very clear. The parts are tiny, so you have to be dexterous to put it together. I think it maybe took me about 10 hours to do in total. And I'm looking forward to playing more with PiDog. And I'm very excited to do so because I think there's so much potential for just extending it to do fun stuff. I will say that I did have an issue with the speaker. I think there may have been a malfunction and the speaker stopped working. When I originally got it, the speaker did work and then it stopped working and I contacted SunFounder product support and they got back to me right away and were able to send out a replacement circuit board that has the integrated speaker. I put it in and now it works. So I am extremely pleased with the support from SunFounder which is most of the reason why I am taking the time to write this glowing review for them. I mean, you know, look at the picture here, look at what you're getting, look at the price, and I think you'll agree that the package is worth the price, and know that if something goes wrong, you can reach out and get support from the manufacturer, which is pretty awesome.

Nice kit and not my first from Sunfounder. Unfortunately, the main robot board doesn't work - there is no power to the servo bus. This was a gift and I didn't put it together until after my return date ended so I am a bit out of luck on this. The first time I ordered one of these, it go delayed forever so I cancelled it. Now I got one that doesn't work so this is probably it. Once put together, it does look pretty sharp ... just wish the thing worked.

I’m kind of an older guy (57) but recently I started looking into Raspberry Pi, programming an own Voice assistant with locally deployed AI models etc. I wanted to turn it up a notch and found SunFounder where the PiDog was my direct choice to learn about the combination of mechanics and electronics. I loved the building and programming although I ran into 1 little issue. At some point when running some of the examples where all servo’s were turning on, the power dropped to the Raspberry Pi and rebooted. This is where the difference comes in…… SunFounder has an awesome community on their forum helping out each other with challenges they are facing. SunFounder themself are actually very engaged on this forum and after briefly communication they brought me into contact with their official support and without any problems I received a replacement robot hat which is working perfectly fine right now. Customer Support, good customer support, is a rarity these days but SunFounder just simply delivers. In the meanwhile I also have the Pironman5 and if all well, I will receiving today the Mars Rover on Arduino to take me to the next level ;) I can only recommend.

Die Montage ist dank guter Anleitung + Videos gut machbar. Einige Schrauben sind argh klein, nur als Hinweis für Menschen mit Sehschwäche, es ist von Vorteil schon einmal mit einem Feinmechaniker-(Uhren-)Werkzeug gearbeitet zu haben. Eine Schraube hatte ich im Servo zu stramm angezogen und brach ab - der Support schickte auf mir anstandslos und kostenlos das Ersatzteil zu - vorbildlich!! Nun mache ich mich nach dem Zusammenbau nun an die KI, erste Tests bewältigte der Hund schon meisterhaft und die Python Projekte des Herstellers machen Lust auf mehr. Fazit: Tolles Projekt und absolut empfehlenswert!

great product, I had my own raspberry pi and was working on AI vision and speech anyways so it is a pretty good instrument for that. I wish they had designed the feet a bit better so it could walk better on different terrains. a simple 3D printed foot makes it a lot better, and I am planning to add doggy ears which would make him look cute(and not terminator dog!) over all instructions are easy to follow and parts well made, extra pieces added and for the price I think it is a fair product. basically an open source robot you can practice coding on, pretty hardy too, fell a few times from top of the table and still all intact!

E' stato divertentissimo assemblarlo . Istruzioni chiare e precise. Il Robot l'ho montato su un Raspberry Pi 4 da 8 gb che disponevo ma è compatibile anche con altre versioni. Fa egregiamente quanto descritto. Consigliato

A great educational kit to learn a bit about robotics and programming in Python and AI The kit is well put together with quality parts and clear instructions As for all the tiny fixings, there are ample spares to avoid any stress if you happen to lose or drop something The only caution is that this is the V1 kit for which the Raspberry Pi must be a Pi 4 or earlier If you want to use the Pi-5 then you must order the V2 kit which is currently only available directly from SunFounder and not from Amazon The V2 kit contains improved sensors and servos and has a lower power consumption to extend the life of a charged battery