This was a kit from Solarbotics and I paid a bit over $100 for it. Maybe $120. Right off the bat I knew that I had found a quality kit. The instructions were impeccable and it would take an idiot to mess up the assembly of this robot. I apparently turned out to be one of those idiots.
The Solarbotics Sumivore (assembled)
A spectacular aspect of Solarbotics is that they permit you to send your ailing or misassembled robots in for service. So I sent mine along to them and they had it back to me in a week. The repair sheet said that my upper battery box was too tight and was not permitting the batteries to get full contact. Ergo, the robot was getting no power. They complimented my soldering and said that I might need to use a small screwdriver to make sure the batteries made proper contact. So all my fancy work was undone by a battery box that wasn’t up to snuff.
Sumo, ready for final assembly
At any rate, they shipped it back on their dime and I had it crawling about in seconds of opening the box. I have a lot of respect for a company that takes responsibility for their products. I have even more respect for companies that take responsibility for their products that their customers build. Ergo, Solarbotics and their Sumovore will always take a high place in my choice of vendors I trust. Believe me, there are companies that won’t touch responsibility for their products at all. I bought a sonar transducer from a company called Maxbotix, only to discover that they didn’t provide any usage information at all. The only products they supported were those upon which they had their own patent. I wouldn’t buy another Maxbotix product if they paid us to take them.
Solarbotics is definitely a great company with great products and they stand firmly behind them all. And because of that, I have a robot that can either be a line follower or a Sumo wrestler.
What a great little ‘bot this is.