PiDog

This project was very challenging to assemble at first, but once you understand the process, it becomes much more manageable. There are a lot of pieces involved, and it took my partner and me several days to complete. At one point, I even had to get help from my neighbor to fix wiring issues—he mentioned that this project is quite advanced for beginners who have never built a robot before, which was definitely us. After resolving those issues, I was able to run the programs successfully. Since I already have some experience with programming and using ChatGPT, I was able to get everything fully functional. That background made a big difference, especially when troubleshooting things like Python libraries not loading properly. Sometimes ChatGPT can suggest steps that aren’t necessary, so having a solid understanding helps avoid wasting time or having to reset and start over on the Raspberry Pi. I used a Raspberry Pi 4, which made the overall process smooth in terms of performance and compatibility. I was also able to connect it to our school network using Pi Connect without any issues. In the end, this project became my professor’s favorite, and he even expressed interest in keeping it. I learned a lot throughout the process, especially on the hardware side of robotics, not just software. I would definitely consider buying this kit again in the future to build with my kids, since I now understand both the physical assembly and the programming side. The instructions and online manual that come with this kit are excellent and very helpful. Once everything is built, it’s honestly fun (and funny) to watch it talk and operate using its AI features, which I connected through an OpenAI API key. Overall, this project is absolutely worth it and is a great way to demonstrate real-world applications of computer science. If you understand hardware and can figure out the software side, you're good to go on this project. My kit was missing parts and the Sunfounder team are excellent to contact. Also, Amazon has been super helpful throughout that process as well. I had the absolute best experience with this as my first time project in building a robot.

Pidog just seems so happy, wagging his tail and doing superman and howling and trotting tricks. I watched the assembly videos and used the paper assembly instructions too - the two together complemented each other, and the only problems were where I failed to follow the instructions, which nevertheless were really good. You do need patience and good dexterity to build it - some parts are quite small and the screws and nuts for servos can be challenging. You want to think about building it as a fun challenge, like a puzzle, not as a chore full of difficulties, and you'll have a good time. It's not a simple build - there are about 70 steps, but all the parts are there and clearly labeled. The documentation is really well done - from the hardware build to how to install & run the software. The canned example programs are fun and pidog is perky and does fun stuff. It has so many sensors and behaviors. Support is good. There's a forum for asking questions and you get an answer in a day. I dropped Pidog and broke a neck servo, and also the speaker failed so no sound initially. Sunfounder shipped me replacement parts which arrived in about 2 weeks. I've run all the examples, and I'm working through the section where you create your own programs based on the source code they give you, and I find the function examples documentation clear. I suspect there's an API doc in there somewhere but haven't found it yet. It is not a software programming course, but rather a vehicle for trying python programming in a robot. Depending on your skill level with software you may spend more or less time trying to understand and re-create the sample code they give you. I'm an experienced roboticist and I was prepared to struggle and the whole experience turned out to be pleasantly problem-free. There will be learning experiences for those not so advanced - but that's why you choose a kit like this. But be careful not to give it so someone who doesn't have the right mind-set.

Don't worry about reviews that say it is complicated to build. It's not, but it will take a bit of your time. Take it slow, look carefully at the pictures, and double-check things before continuing. Anyone that wants to play with this thing will likely have the patience to put it together. Just know that it takes a few hours, and then you're done! The motors are strong, the platform is well balanced, and the features are awesome. It comes with a lot of cool demo programs written in Python, and there is a remote-control app for your smartphone that will do everything you might want, if you're not interested in programming it yourself. But if you want to experiment with robotics, programming, or just plane hacking, this is an incredibly useful platform to learn on! Not to mention - it's so darned cute! The "eyes" are actually ultrasonic range finders. The "nose" is a video camera. The "tail" wags like a real doggy. And it can growl, bark, pant, whine and bark. It's even got voice-recognition! (A little finicky, but works if you speak clearly.) This is the most fun I've had in robotics in years. You'll love your new doggie almost as much as your furry friend! (Don't tell them that...)

Completely agree with the other reviews, this is a clever design showcasing how a variety of sensors and the SunFounder's robot hat can be combined to achieve complex actions and behaviors, in this case mimicking the behavior of a dog! The examples you see on the video are real, the ear scratching, the howling, including the superdog pose when getting picked up. It is educational to be shown examples of how all these are achieved with a capable board, a bunch of sensors, and programming. Sensor readings, servos and motor controls are very easy to work with via Python. The instructions are very clear, and the website has plenty and very good examples showing every aspects of using the board to build what you want, including autoboot into listening mode so it can be always on. I have yet to try the ChatGPT integration, but I have worked with OpenAI APIs before so I am confident it will work. I can imagine prompting additional puppy actions triggers and verbal dialog / action capabilities into PiDog, making it a perfect STEM toy and kids companion. PiDog is sheer fun, but the hardware that comes with it has a lot of potential uses. It is definitely worth getting if you are like me who want to experiment building robots, but just want to focus on the level of events and actions, and don't want to spend time on the low-level hardware integration, interrupts, register readings side of things! I am excited to experiment building things I had in mind for a long time but was limited by not knowing how to work with sensors. Now I am no longer blocked! One more thing to highlight is their responsive and helpful customer service. My speaker failed on arrival, and after some troubleshooting back and forth with their patience customer service, including showing them videos of my testing, I was given a replacement board for free and everything now works.

So, I wanted to get PiDog because he provides a robotic platform to extend with my VR and AI projects. And he's got just a ton of motors and sensor--the dog form factor is fun, and he wears it well. Putting them together, I think, was very straightforward. The instructions from SunFounder were very clear. The parts are tiny, so you have to be dexterous to put it together. I think it maybe took me about 10 hours to do in total. And I'm looking forward to playing more with PiDog. And I'm very excited to do so because I think there's so much potential for just extending it to do fun stuff. I will say that I did have an issue with the speaker. I think there may have been a malfunction and the speaker stopped working. When I originally got it, the speaker did work and then it stopped working and I contacted SunFounder product support and they got back to me right away and were able to send out a replacement circuit board that has the integrated speaker. I put it in and now it works. So I am extremely pleased with the support from SunFounder which is most of the reason why I am taking the time to write this glowing review for them. I mean, you know, look at the picture here, look at what you're getting, look at the price, and I think you'll agree that the package is worth the price, and know that if something goes wrong, you can reach out and get support from the manufacturer, which is pretty awesome.

PiDog is awesome! SunFounder has tons of tutorials (video and text) on their web site (click on their Online Tutorials, and then on Robotic Kits, and finally on PiDog Robotic Kit). This kit is not for the faint-hearted to assemble, but everything is labeled very clearly (probably the most organized kit I've ever ordered and assembled honestly). It would be a great intro into robotics for anyone and you can learn to code in Python as well as learn some Linux administration. There are quite a few Python routines already included with PiDog, so it's easy to play with. Just remember, you'll need to already have a Raspberry Pi as this kit does not include it (I used it with a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 2019 Quad Core 64 Bit WiFi Bluetooth 4GB RAM) and it works well. Definitely worth the price IMO.

This was awesome to build, already having fun programming my own AI pet robot. Tho some people said it doesn't work with a Pi5, it worked for me just fine. It definitly worth the money, it served me to understand how all of the sensor systems could connect. Btw, only problem I had was with a script that came with it, the one to test balance, tested it and broke 4 leg servos, so be aware when testing this premade scripts. Recomended.

Sunfounder has repeatedly failed to solve the programming issue with my dog. When I did what their Ai said to do it made the problem worse. Beware there are no human available to solve problems, just a very poor Ai system.

I’m kind of an older guy (57) but recently I started looking into Raspberry Pi, programming an own Voice assistant with locally deployed AI models etc. I wanted to turn it up a notch and found SunFounder where the PiDog was my direct choice to learn about the combination of mechanics and electronics. I loved the building and programming although I ran into 1 little issue. At some point when running some of the examples where all servo’s were turning on, the power dropped to the Raspberry Pi and rebooted. This is where the difference comes in…… SunFounder has an awesome community on their forum helping out each other with challenges they are facing. SunFounder themself are actually very engaged on this forum and after briefly communication they brought me into contact with their official support and without any problems I received a replacement robot hat which is working perfectly fine right now. Customer Support, good customer support, is a rarity these days but SunFounder just simply delivers. In the meanwhile I also have the Pironman5 and if all well, I will receiving today the Mars Rover on Arduino to take me to the next level ;) I can only recommend.

This is a fun project for those of you that are interested in robotics and are just getting your feet wet. The robot is surprisingly capable considering the low price. 12 servos and multiple sensors make it a complete package. The instructions were very good (if not a little fragmented) and all the parts were included with even a few spares. The video tutorial implies that you go straight to Step Two when installing the software. Do not skip Step One: update your system.

Super produit et un service exceptionnel (réactivité, écoute et qualité) Je recommande vivement

E' stato divertentissimo assemblarlo . Istruzioni chiare e precise. Il Robot l'ho montato su un Raspberry Pi 4 da 8 gb che disponevo ma è compatibile anche con altre versioni. Fa egregiamente quanto descritto. Consigliato

Ich nutze den PiDog mit einem Raspberry Pi und hatte leider von Anfang an Probleme mit dem IMU-Modul (Beschleunigungssensor). Der Gyro funktionierte, aber der Accelerometer lieferte keine gültigen Werte – Balance- und Pick-Up-Funktionen waren dadurch nicht nutzbar. Was ich wirklich hervorheben möchte: Der Support von SunFounder war absolut vorbildlich. Nach einer kurzen, aber sehr sachlichen Fehlerbeschreibung und ein paar gezielten Tests wurde schnell klar, dass es sich um ein defektes IMU-Modul handelte. Mir wurde ohne Diskussionen ein Ersatzmodul zugesendet. Nach dem Austausch funktioniert nun alles einwandfrei – IMU, Balance-Test, Beispiele, alles genau so, wie es soll. Gerade bei komplexeren Projekten mit Hardware + Software ist guter Support extrem wichtig, und hier wurde ich wirklich positiv überrascht. Freundlich, kompetent und lösungsorientiert. 👉 Klare Empfehlung – sowohl für den PiDog selbst als auch für den Hersteller.