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KicCrab walker

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robologist's picture
By robologist
@ April 24, 2009

Price: 
$79.95 USD
Vendor's Description: 


Cool little crab walker, simple 3 servo set-up, programmed in KicChip BASIC.

Check out this video of one.

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By Zeitron
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 00:43

The servos on this Crab have only 5.73in/oz of torque. See the Images Co. for a better hexapod kit which comes with 3 x 42in/oz torque servos. Not as good looking as the Crab but stronger and more capable and also more expensive..............

http://www.imagesco.com/kits/hexapod-walker-kit.html 

By robologist
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 06:35
robologist's picture

The Imagesco Hex appears to have a $194.95 price tag. Was that the "little over $100" you were refering to?

 Note also that Imagesco has gone from a 15% to a 25% restocking fee on return of non-defective items. I got nailed by them on a return with 15%, which was bad enough. 

By Zeitron
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 07:15

I tossed the body in the trash. Not the Micro, Servos or Battery. These were sold on ebay with other electronic parts. Managed to get 1/4 of my money back. The bottom line is the KicChip micro, the 5 ounze torque servos and that 290mAH battery is pathetic. For $80, you could buy 3 x Hitec servos with plenty of torque, 1 x small Picaxe board and throw in a little extra money to get some material and build yourself a damn walker that would not look as great but perform 10 times better!

Also, I've never bought from Images Co. so if you got nailed by them, then I guess I won't. It was just a suggestion and you get a much stronger kit at that price anyway..........

By Zeitron
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 00:26

This picture is close. It's a little smaller than the pen but you'll have to buy it to understand it's quality. I guess I was expecting something bigger and stronger. It cannot support much weight and there is no room to work with. The battery is a tiny 290mAH lithium cell. For a little over $100 you can get much better hexapod kits online made from acrylic compared to this weak foam PVC thing............Buy at your own risk!

By Zeitron
@ Fri, 2009-04-24 23:59
Purchased about 6 months ago. This kit is horrible with very cheap parts and the PVC foam legs don't even stay secure because there are no screws, but weak plastic rivots to hold them on that come loose when moving. A complete waste of money. The worst deception was the size of the Crab. On the video and in the pictures it looks bigger than it is when in reality the entire Crab fits in the palm of your hand and runs off a mini lithium battery, so forget about adding the weight of 3 or 4 AA batteries to this Crab, you would crush it like a pancake. This is probably the worst hexapod kit ever made! Believe me it is not worth $79.95..................
By Myc Holmes
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 16:16
Myc Holmes's picture

That's pretty harsh criticism for a pretty decent bot kit. It sounds like you spent the money for a Volkswagen and are now complaining you didn't get a Rolls Royce! You have no one to blame but yourself.

Let's put it in perspective, the cost $80 is about the same as building the LMR Start Here Robot. Walkers are much more mechanically complex than a simple rolling bot.

You get a lot more than the cheap styrene 1 motor "walker" kits . rechargeable battery 3 servos, 18 pin KICchip.

BTW, the Kicchip is very similar to the PICAXE, but has a much better user interface and at lower cost. The 8 pin version is open source and you can burn your own.

 

By rik
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 00:00
rik's picture
Would like to see what they look like "in real life".
By robologist
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 00:07
robologist's picture

The picture above has the red and yellow one with "earbud" eyes, if that gives you any idea. Earbuds, that come with many mp3 players. They have this image on their website beside a pen as a reference. Not "deceptive" as far as I can see.

On-Patrol.jpg

By jklug80
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 00:09
jklug80's picture
Seems small and simple for $80 bucks.
By robologist
@ Sat, 2009-04-25 06:40
robologist's picture

Yeah, I imagine it could do more, but I really did think it was a cute design, kinda arty.

 At worst, even if there was a problem, I can't see throwing a tantrum and tossing the whole thing away. That's still 3 servos, a micro, and an lipo battery that could be used in another project.