UBTECH JIMU Robot Tankbot App Enabled Stem Learning Robotic Building Block Kit (2016)

Jimu Tankbot is one of those products that seems to offer great potential, at least when you see it and read about it on UBTECH or Amazon site. Once the box is open, the robot assembled, Jimu fails to deliver. It's hard not to like cute design, goofy eyes, and close resemblance to Pixar animated robot. The personality is there and kids love it! But this is also where experience starts sliding down the hill. I purchased this for my 7yo son with notion that we'll build the robot, play in interactive mode which will then lead to more interest in programming, creating and navigating obstacle courses by using Blocky programming language, use built-in IR sensor for obstacle avoidance etc. The Jimu system performance is underwhelming, some design choices are simply bad. Things that we love and hate about Jimu:PROS1. Large number of servos (take a note LEGO) - this is by far #1 strength of this kit (and most other Jimu kits). Unlike LEGO Mindstorm that costs twice as much and give you basic 3 servos, this little kit comes with no less then 6. UBTECH was smart about servo connectivity and unlike LEGO that limits you to 4 servo/4 sensors (one servo per port unless splicing cables which doubles number of servos but makes them one-way), Jimu will let you connect servos in series (daisy chain) with each of 6 ports on the control brick. Maximum recommended number of servos is staggering 32!!. LEGO cannot match this unless you buy multiple control bricks at $189 each.2. Jimu robot is easy to expand. UBTECH sells 2- servo expansion for $39. You can also use parts from other Jimu kits - i.e. two Tankbots kits will get you 12 servos!!3. Jimu kits are relatively affordable. Relatively for what they offer and what's included, but be sure to read CONS before you get excited.4. Included battery life is very good. Make sure to charge the battery before you start building the robot. The control brick is part of the robot body, once you are in middle of the build charging wire will be in the way. It's rather disappointing to kids to have robot built just to find the battery needs an hour or so to charge! It's Lithium Polymer battery, so I do not blame UBTECH for delivering them half-charged, but this has been one of few minor complaints among Amazon customers. Charge yoru battery BEFORE you start building.5. Apple Playgrounds app support some of Jimu models, but not Tankbot. Perhaps in the future they will support make-your-own Jimu bot and let users control their own Jimu creations.6. Great packaging, and I mean really neat and pretty to look at. All different pieces in their own little boxes. But once you open them, what do you do with all these pretty colorful boxes? Trust me, you will not reuse them - trash! What a waste!!7. AWESOME building instructions. Instructions in 3D no less! LEGO take a note!!CONS1. Small number of parts. Once the robot is built, you have no parts left aside from bunch of little tiny pegs (Note to UBTECH - pegs are not parts, you cannot build anything with pegs alone). Why not include handful of extra building blocks? Your options of rebuilding Tankbot into anything else meaningful is slim to none. Why is there no expansion sets that only include mechanical (non-electric) building blocks? You could make Tankbots arms shorter, you can mount eyeballs slightly higher or lower... that's about it, there are no parts to pull off from one side and add to another. This is somewhat correctable if you buy two kits, but then you are looking at Mindstorms price tag.2. Wimpy servo cables - TERRIBLE CHOICE for a kids toy. Wire connecting servos are small, tiny, fragile wires with connectors that are typically found inside your laptops (laptop internal CD/DVD drive will use these), monitors etc. These are not heavy duty connectors and if not careful, you will bend pins on the control brick!! There is simply no excuse why would UBTECH use these on kids toy!! If you are trying to save few cents and unwilling to use something heavy duty, why not use generic RJ45 or RJ11? Inexcusable and this one alone warrants 2 stars down!3. The robot connects to your tablet via blue tooth connection. This is easy to accomplish, but the connection is slow. When playing in interactive mode, your control actions are slightly delayed. It's not terrible, but it's not good either.4. The robot has no internal memory to store program and run routine without tablet. Unlike LEGO brick that will download a program and run your contraption independently, your Jimu robot will require connected bluetooth tablet at all times5. Jimu building blocks are not as easy to put together (or pull apart) as say Lego bricks. TO be fair to Jimu LEGO has been doing bricks for past 50+ years. In other words, do not expect your 6yo to be able to properly "seat" and "click together" all the pieces.6. Not big con but con nevertheless - Jimu parts that look suspiciously LEGO like in photos are actually not LEGO compatible. No, LEGO Technics parts will NOT fit. I suspect LEGO would not allow this to happen, but those parts in photos look like Technics. They are not!7. Parts in general do not fit together as nice as you would experience with LEGO. There is always slight "talk" between parts. Tank tracks are real pain to keep together and will readily disconnect while Tankbot is driving. I rarely have this issue with LEGO tracks.8. Building blocks are not very intuitive in design. I bet your 5yo will have no problems identifying which side is up or down of basic 2x8 LEGO building brick. Not so with Jimu block.9. Battery is proprietary design. Battery will wear out (LiPo chemistry is good for about 200 charges) eventually if you kid plays with robot often. You will end up buying another battery. You cannot put in generic AA as an economy option in a pinch. Battery life is very good as I noted in PROS.10. Programing is limited to tablets. There is no programming option beside tablet based Blocky. Why not? Why not let your kid use keyboard and real computer to program Jimu? Lego does it!?11. Blocky programs are SLOW. Add to that slow bluetooth link and you can expect that your Jimu will be anything but fast to execute commands.12. Blocky commands are very limited. FORWARD means drive forward for about 2 seconds. Useless if you are trying to program robot to precisely navigate obstacle course and bring back that M&M reward. Yes, there is ability to program precise servo deflections, but this slows down programming process to crawl - not a good way to excite kids about STEM. Why not make forward go forward 2" instead of two feet?13. Blocky is buggy. Try this: FORWARD, TURN RIGHT, TURN RIGHT. Jimu drives forward and does not turn. Try TURN RIGHT by itself and the robot will turn about 15-20 degrees to the right. Perhaps I'm missing some sort of STOP MOVING command before I issue TURN RIGHT?14. No real sensor options. IR distance sensor is so-so. It will detect chance in contrast, not real distance. UBTECH should have used ultrasonic sensors like most other robot manufacturers. IR sensor is good for line following applications. Other brands (including LEGO) offer entire lineup of sensor options. Robots without sensors are not robots. You want STEM reputation, bring in Gyro, compass, heat sensor, light sensor, ultrasonic distance sensors, accelerometer, etc.15. No extra parts are included in Tankbot kit. There is very little that you can rebuild Tankbot into regardless how creative you are. Buy two kits if you want to build your own designs.So there you have it, Jimu looks great, but under-delivers. Still, I think there is a great potential if UBTECH listens to their customers and keep eye on what their competition does. Ditch those wimpy cables with HORRIBLE connectors. I DO NOT own LEGO Mindstorms because of the price and # of servos limitation. I hoped Jimu was the answer to what LEGO is lacking, Unfortunately that is not the case.

The media could not be loaded.  For the past couple of years JIMU robot toys have improved leaps and bounds in its user interface for 3D modeling, as well as their version of the Blockly programming. Even though you can’t find it in Amazon Kindle Fire App store, you can easily search for JIMU APK from the Silk Browser, download it, and install it. Works great.After building the model, if you see exclamation signs over the layout of servo motors, don’t worry, just click OK, and it will then begin to update the firmware for all the components, including the controller.There is no better recommendation I can give for this amazing toy than to say I bought another one of these kits for my daughter’s birthday.

Purchased for 9 year old niece. Assembly was simple with the help of the downloaded app with step by step instructions and 3D views. Robots mobility was impressive, turns on a dime! Overall great gift.

Got it for my 10 year old niece who is into robotics. She loves it. Constantly playing with it and doing things with it. Great toy that builds children’s skills with coding and robotics

Got Tankbot for my 10 year old daughter, and she absolutely loves it! The App made it super easy for her to build, and program the robot to do things like move around the house. Will definitely be looking to buy one of the others for her in the near future!

My bestfriend bought the Meebot Kit from Apple store last Christmas and her kids enjoyed building and programming it - that little robot is the cutest dancer! Since I know her kids like Jimu already, I ordered the Tankbot Kit for her son's 10th birthday. Great toy. Perfect gift.

Purchased the Jimu Inventor kit before and this is my second purchase for my kid. Had fun of assembling this with my son and he had no problem to program it to pick up small boxes since he is currently learning coding. Very fun educational toy!

I bought this kit for my niece and it took us about 2 hours to build together. The instructions on the app make it really easy to follow along and we loved playing with all of TankBot's moves