Elenco Escape Robot Kit

by Elenco

Product Features

• Requires soldering assembly
• Escape Robot uses three infrared emitting diodes as its ?eyes?
• Never fails to find its way out of a maze
• Built-in microprocessor which enables it to ?think? on its own
• Easy to understand kid friendly step-by-step instructions

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.2 x 3.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002VRNC6E
• Item model number: 21-886
• Manufacturer recommended age: 11 - 15 years
• Batteries: 4 AA batteries required.
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,645 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Escape Robot kit works just like an A.I. robot. It never fails to find its way out of a maze. The Escape Robot makes use of three infrared emitting diodes and one infrared receiving module to send and receive signals and detect obstacles. Escape Robot has a built-in microprocessor which enables it to “think” on its own, as it processes information about its environment and maneuvers itself around obstacles. Escape Robot moves on six legs. The kit comes complete with two sets of differently designed legs, which provides endless fun and excitement with its different sets of movements.

Product Description

A series of Robot Kits for the future engineer. Build these kits and find out how much fun electronics & mechanics can be ! The Escape Robot Kit works just like an A.I. robot. It never fails to find its way out of a maze. The Escape Robot uses 3 IR emitting diodes and 1 IR receiving module to send and receive signals and detect obstacles. The Escape Robot's built-in microprocessor enables it to "think" on its own: it gathers and processes information on its environment so it can avoid any obstacle. The Escape Robot moves about on 6 legs. This kit comes complete with 2 sets of differently designed legs that move in their own distinct way. Fun and excitement are guaranteed! Dimensions: 140 x 150 x 100mm Also known as Velleman KSR4 Requires (4) AA batteries (not included)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Putting it together is 90% of the fun, December 28, 2010

By 

Harvey Woodmeadow (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Elenco Escape Robot Kit (Toy)

From an assembly point of view, this toy offers a lot. In spite of the stated recommended age, we went ahead and purchased this for my 5-year-old, with the intent that he and I would work on it together.

Of course I had to do all of the soldering, and much of the stuff requiring fine motor skills, such as the gear assembly. But there's still lots he was able to help out with, since all the parts need to be sorted, electronic components need their leads formed, screws need to be tightened, etc.

And he and I had a LOT of fun working together to assemble the kit. The instructions are even surprisingly well-organized and presented, considering that they still were obviously written by someone not a native English speaker.

But, some caveats: this is by no means a durable toy. And even during the assembly, there are pitfalls to watch out for.

There are a lot of self-tapping screws going into soft plastic, which I am well aware need to be handled carefully, lest the threads in the plastic get stripped or components get deformed. But even with that knowledge and caution, it was FAR too easy to overtighten the screws holding the legs in place. I still managed to stress four of the six legs enough to whiten the grey plastic, and a fifth one actually broke (so far the Super Glue is holding fine though :) ).

The infrared LEDs are also a bit tricky. The kit includes LED mounting brackets, but these are not actually brackets in the traditional sense. They are just a spacer the LED goes into, allowing a gentle way to mount the LED at a right-angle to the PCB. Getting the LED soldered without too much play in the bracket between the LED and the PCB is nearly impossible. I wound up just gluing the brackets down and then soldering the LED in.

The other thing to be aware of is that the toy is much more interesting for the electronics aspect than for its movement. The latter being very unsophisticated, and not even very productive. The toy doesn't travel in a straight line by default as one might expect. Instead, it only runs the left side wheels/legs as its normal operation, putting it into a perpetual right turn.

When one of the three infrared sensors detects an obstacle, then one of three alternative motor operations are selected for a moment, depending on which sensor was triggered. Then it goes back to pushing itself in a circle.

At first I thought maybe we'd hooked something up wrong, or shorted a trace on the PCB or something like that. But nothing like that appears to be the case, and the right side motor does in fact operate during the turning logic. Just not during the default movement.

Even my five-year-old is visibly frustrated to a minor degree with the uninteresting movement; it seems likely to me that many children old enough to build this kit on their own would be completely bored after the assembly is done.

On the bright side, the assembly is fun to do, and the project offers lots of opportunities to discuss basic electronics. Of course there's an IC that handles the real logic, but there's still a good representation of regular discrete components (resistors, transistors, capacitors, LEDs and regular diodes, etc.) to talk about. So I wouldn't call this a complete waste of time. Just be aware of its limitations.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great beginner robot!, March 22, 2010

By 

H Johnson - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Elenco Escape Robot Kit (Toy)

I would highly recommend this beginner robot. My son found the directions easy to follow.
It did help that we also bought the beginner's soldering kit "Elenco AK-100 Learn to Solder Kit."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great buy!, July 29, 2011

By 

Mackenzie Speare - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Elenco Escape Robot Kit (Toy)

I ordered this and another Elenco Kit as part of a class I was teaching to eight to ten year old kids. The kids loved it. They especially loved being able to solder all the components on themselves. I did also order a practice soldering kit and that definitely helped with teaching them to solder before we started on the robot kits. The directions for the kit were fairly easy to follow though there are a couple parts that need to be placed in a specific direction and if you are not paying close attention, you may put them in backward and it won't work. I do have to warn you that it is very easy to make a mistake on a kit like this or even ruin the board when you are soldering (or desoldering, when mistakes are made). In my case, my kids did make mistakes (all part of the learning process) and were not able to get their robot fully functional. Regardless, I think this product is completely worth it and an excellent value.