Antbo: the story(Review)

This review is written by Ivan Hoe

The story of the late Mr Lutz Michaelis inspired me to get the 7 Antbos through Antbo’s Indiegogo (IGG)campaign.
23rd January 2017, a very happy and exciting day, as I received the 7 Antbos.
Antbo “The World’s First Insect Robot Designed for Anyone to Learn Robotics and Coding” (as described from Antbo’s IGG campaign page) is from DFRobot.

Initially, I was surprised over Antbo’s big package size (Though the package size information was mentioned in Antbo’s IGG campaign page a few months ago, it slipped my mind… hehehehe)

Antbo: A 1st look at the packaging – 23/1/17
A day later, a teeny cockroach tried to snuggle close to the unassembled & unarmed Antbo.
Finally, on monday, 6th Feb, the Antbo was unboxed. During the assembly, i filmed the process and though it was not without hiccup, there were some useful lessons learnt about filming and  following instructions, when assembling something (have a broad perspective and ask yourself how do things fit together, i.e. is this the correct orientation?).
The following picture illustrates the importance of ensuring right part orientation when assembling stuff: servo motor #2 (highlighted pale orange item in the centre) connects to right most connector on the electronic board. You can see a “rectangular shaped protrusion” on the underside of the board. This is the correct part orientation. The mistake: when I attached servo motor #2  to the right most connector, I connected it to the wrong connector.
*Hence, the lesson learnt.

Pg 15 of Antbo User Manual: the purpose of the metal foil pasted on the underside of Antbo’s head cap, intrigued me. It’s purpose was finally discovered in Antbo SKU:ROB0140 (when DFRobot replied to the question of my fellow Antbo backer in the IGG campaign page. The SKU is a troubleshooting manual) and I found it to be extremely comprehensive and useful.

*I showed the Antbo to my mother and remarked that it was of good build quality and it looks cool.
4 x AAA size batteries were inserted, but the Antbo was still lifeless. Now, what could be the problem?
Thank God the above SKU proved useful. A search in the SKU led me to open up (disassemble) the Antbo to check the metal contact (MC). In the picture below, laptop screen shows pt 1.6 of the SKU and counter checking it against my Antbo’s MC revealed that the contact was not arched as it should be. So, following the SKU’s advise, I propped the MC to make it more arch. The purpose of arching the MC is to ensure a better contact with the AAA batteries. After this was done, I tapped on the Antbo’s head for ~3s (as instructed in Antbo User Manual) and sure enough, the Antbo came to life.

As of now, I am unable to control the Antbo with the app, on either tablet and mobile phone. Hopefully, this can be sorted out soon, in Antbo’s forum page/ via email.