Customer Reviews

OWI Robotic Arm Edge

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My 7 yr old daughter built this in about 8-9 hours. Supervision all throughout is required as parts need to be cleaned from excess plastic, and tightened properly. Some parts will need to be positioned precisely (like the clamp module). The quality of the plastic is quite good. It is similar to plastic model toys. While building, test the motors with a pair of wires to a battery if they can turn the gears properly before closing them in their housing. One electric motor failed to even work out of the box, so to make it work, I had to open it up and reposition the rotor and clean the contacts. My daughter now has some exposure of how those gears work to move something. She got to use a screwdriver, cutter, pliers, a digital multimeter in this exercise. I think she is no longer afraid of wires, since she tested all the motors before installing them. she now wants a butterfly robot. She also now want something that allows the arm to be mobile rather than be in a fixed base (I am thinking Revell Vexplorer). She plays with it by getting pencils from a case. Great weekend activity, quite educational, even for a 42 yr old. Very good value for the money.

So, I got this for my 15 year old brother for his birthday. He's all the time tinkering with things like broken VCRs and CD players and such, so I figured this would be perfect.

It shipped fast and very well packaged. When my brother finally got it, it took him all of 45 minutes to have it put together. He loves it, he's currently 'teaching it how to write' with a sharpie! It's very easy to control and seems very sturdy, it's not too big but it's heavier than it looks. Overall, this was a fabulous gift and my brother was thrilled with it. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge for anyone with a little electronics know-how (though it does have some pretty small parts you need to keep an eye on) and it's a blast to play with!

The most difficult step is building it properly. You must take your time and offer loads of patience. The rewarding part takes place when construction is complete. The robotic arm is adjustable(you can assign different functions to different buttons and switches), flexible, and inexpensive when compared to others of similar quality. If you like toys and gadgets of this nature, I would strongly recommend it, I really enjoy it!!!

This is a good intro into robotics. I got it for father's day and made me very happy. It took me about 3 hour to build. Couple of things to keep in mind:
-Some of the screws look a like but are not. I would say to sort them before hand so not to get them mixed up.
-I was surprised the gears have no lubrication. This could make it quieter. I think this is something you could add your self. Just be careful not to degrade the plastics.
-I would like to have seen a DC adapter rather than batteries. I may build one.

With the simple pin-out system, it should be easy to hack.

I was a little worry after reading all the reviews here, but decided to get one anyway. I purchased this robotic arms in hopes of learning more about how it's made and perhaps one day make my own with servos. You do have to assemble it, but it's not as hard as some people here claim. I'm not a patient person and it took me probably 2 hours, but I was going very slowly and taking greatest care of not to break any part. While it's all made out of plastic it doesn't really feel cheap. I found using small cutters best for detaching plastic parts. Just follow instructions in the book to the letter and you'll be fine! I did make a number of mistakes assembling it and nearly broke gripper. Gripper is the hardest part and manual doesn't mention that long screws are not suppose to be tight (they don't go all the way in) so I stripped two of them :( Another gotcha is size of some screws. They are extremely close in size to each other and I accidentally used wrong screws in couple of places but then realized and redid some parts. Forgot to install washers too, so had to remove and reattach base :)
First thing I noticed right away is how small arm actually is. In the videos I've seen I thought it will be bigger, but it really is a toy size. Another small complaint is battery compartment. Once you close it, it will be hard to replace batteries later on. They should've made an opening at the end for batteries.
Be aware that this arm doesn't have any sensors, so you can break it if you push it beyond it's range of motion. You'll be hearing a lot of nasty clicks but so far I didn't break it. Gripper is actually surprisingly strong and can lift things like a big screwdriver.
Another thing I wish is for another degree of monition - gripper rotation. They way it's now you can only pick up objects that are perpendicular to the base.
I would be fun to modify robotic arm with Arduino. Right now there are no real electronic components (other than motors and connectors), just straight connection from each motor to the buttons, which means it should be easy to mod. I've seen people adding encoders to the motors and pots so it can be made location aware and be programmed to perform specific tasks.
Overall I'm very happy with this arm, you can't find better deal for the price.

I purchased this for my 10 year old grandson who expressed an interest in a robotic toy. The age range was 10 - 16 years. I don't think most 10 year olds would have the patience to assemble this on their own. It took grandpa, dad and son about 3 hours to assemble. We could do it a second time in less than half that time. There is a little learning curve in making the motor assemblies. The arm worked fine immediately after assembly. This was his first robotic toy. My grandson was thrilled with his gift. Strongly recommended.

I purchased this robotic arm after researching the Armatron I remember as a child. I chose this one because it provided a learning opportunity for my 9-year-old son who is fascinated with robots. It took approximately 5 hours for us to build the robotic arm. We were very meticulous and thorough, so I'm sure it's possible to build in less time. The robotic arm works great and I wouldn't trade the quality time I had with my son putting it together!

My only two dislikes about the robotic arm are:
1) It only takes batteries (4x D cell), I wish there were an option to plug it in with an adapter, and
2) the "wrist" does not twist like the Armatron did, it only moves up and down and the "claw" opens and closes. Other than that, this is a great buy and seems to be good quality. I'll try to update after my son and I put it to the test!

My son is 12 years old and he and I put this together in about 3 hours. The directions are good and the arm works great. The education level of robotics for this product is basic but still good for understanding all that needs to go into building a full robotic product. With the amount of controls needed for just the arm to move you can understand all that would be needed to have a fully operating robot.

I had great fun putting this together. It's fun to play with too! All the motors worked out of the box. Refrain from breaking all the pieces off from their racks at the beginning; the diagrams are clearly labeled and the racks help you locate pieces you need at each step. Only reason I gave 4 stars on durability is because I haven't had it long enough to really tell. I may re-judge later when I know how long it works.

Another reviewer commented on having difficulty with the nuts in the gearbox housings. They aren't that bad. Use the needlenose pliars, as is recommended in the instructions, play with it until you get the rotation of the nut right, and press it in. Most of them will go in the same way, though there is one slot in each housing you'll need to do differently. May take a little trial and error, but once you get them right, they'll stay.

This was a Christmas present hit for my 12 year old. He took about 4 hours putting this thing together. He loves to tinker with things like this, he did 100% of the work and only required a little bit of supervisory guidance on some things.