Waveshare wave rover...yeah I really have no idea what im doing. Challenge was accepted but not understood!

Help & Support Robots & Kits
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Long story…not so short my 4 year old became obsessed with robots (mainly rc type things) so i researched and found the wave rover. He can be hard on things so the all metal body seemed like a good idea. 2x2 driving? perfect! well I dont even know where to begin with coding and aside from the base program ran off of a webpage not much i could do with it.

Basically idk where to begin with it. waveshare doesnt help much with support as it only powers on now while plugged in.

Should I chalk it up as a loss or is there something else i can do with it?
I am an electrician by trade, primarily in ag and controls.
Is there something i can replace the inner workings with to make it more just a remote controlled device without code? like a rc microcontroller or something.

Any help in any direction would be great. I do have a raspberry pi 4 if that helps with anything.

Thatnk you for anyone who took the time to read this.

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Hi @TheRealClayvis and welcome to our forum!

Was this product purchased from RobotShop?

If yes, do you have order ID so we can see which exactly product is this?

Thank you.

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Thanks for the welcome! And it was purchased through amazon actually. I just discovered this website last night while doing some research.

here is a link to the official site

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According to this product page, this product has a lot of potential for expansion, you just need to decide what you want to achieve.

For example, you can add some of these boards and then start expanding:

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For example, you could try to connect your Raspberry Pi 4, then connect some peripherals to it (LIDAR, camera etc.) and try to program an autonomous rover.

I guess you would need to do some research on this, ordering some parts, programming, trial and error, etc. but that is why robotics is fun :slight_smile:

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Sorry, I havent been on here to reply! My life had some changes. Nonetheless, thanks for the reply! To be honest, I have no clue where to start with coding. I purchased a pico kit to start learning micro python a while back as well but any advice would be appreciated lol. Id like to start building robots with my son, hes only 4 but is obsessed. Maybe there is something you would recommend where we can both learn.

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Hi @TheRealClayvis ,

Which kit did you get?

Maybe this one Kitronik Discovery Kit for Raspberry Pi Pico (Pico Included) – Kitronik Ltd?

As usual, start with the basic lessons!

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ultronics starter kit for micropython uctronics starter kit

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In that case, I would recommend that you start with this guide:

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I bought the same rover and had similar problems. Turns out the rover needs 3 18650 cells. On the bottom of the rover, take out the 4 screws and lift it off the upper frame. Wiggle it gently and firmly; the lower part is a little tight. After you put the batteries in and put the frame back together, press the power button and wait a couple of seconds. Then, on your phone, go to Wi-Fi and find “UGV” and connect to it. Make sure your 5G is turned off. After that, go to your web browser and type in 192.168.4.1. The site gives you controls like direction and speed. The site is kind of clunky.

I poked around on the main board. It’s a flavor of ESP32. I plugged it into USB, and the PC had trouble finding the driver—CP2102N USB-to-UART Bridge Controller. It’s probably a proprietary blend of hardware and firmware. I’m wondering if you could flash the firmware to make better use of the onboard Bluetooth, or maybe it’s controlled with the Pi 4. I haven’t got that far yet. Anyway, my plan is to have different types of sensors, like Ultrasonic Sensors, Infrared Sensors, and a Camera with Object Recognition. I hope that helps.