I bought a Bittle on Amazon and generally I'm impressed.
But the right hind leg seems to have a problem. It gives way when walking, leading to Bittle walking in circles. Is that a defect or can it be calibrated somehow? See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M3gM2HJCXg
I contacted support via email but got no answer, does anyone know how the response times are? TIA
The kit was sold by Amazon themselves and as you can guess it makes absolutely no sense to contact their support about this. ;) That's why I went here. I don't mind coding and I have lots and lots of programmable robots that are not toys, but this is my first quadruped. I lack the time to assemble one, so I was happy to find a preassembled version, I would not have bought an unassembled kit, for that I have too much other projects lying around. It would have been really helpful to have clear information in the box that Bittle needs a calibration and maybe a new firmware. A small paper slip would have been enough.
Sorry for the inconvenience. Calibration is one common step in programmable robots. We try to avoid advertising it as a regular toy that can be brainlessly played with. On our official site, we only sell unassembled kits to find users who won't mind programming. However, the distributors usually omit some facts to promote sales. Their sales team operates separately from the customer service and all they focus is more sales. We've tried to correct some of their statements before and always answer questions by ourselves if their Amazon team is not responsive.
I did not get that text shown on Amazon Germany, but it was a similar one. However, from what I can see the right hind leg is not correctly calibrated and has a wrong angle in EQ mode. I'll connect it to a computer, upload a new OpenCat from Github and try to recalibrate. Thanks so far.
I checked the Amazon site and found what's misleading. We do not manage the listing, and I will try to ask them to add a note about the pre-assembled model.
Thanks. I am referring to exactly this manual, here on this website. As I wrote in the opening post: I bought a preassembled Bittle on Amazon. I was expecting that a preassembled unit comes calibrated. And from the way the documentation is setup I was definitely not expecting information about a preassembled Bittle there, as I was under the impression that the information in the shown location is or kits. As I said: the way the manual is set up is confusing as it mixes different topics and releases.
Walking and balancing is a hard problem. By changing the gaits' parameters (sometimes it means making smaller steps or moving faster) can improve the tolerance of bad leg alignment. So for people who don't know how to program, making it walk faster can help in general.
The detailed calibration instruction is here: https://bittle.petoi.com/6-calibration#6-2-initial-calibration. If you got the pre-assembled one, you can still find the link at the beginning of the manual.
The manual was originally written in English. May I know which manual you are referring to? Seeed is one of our distributors on Amazon. I guess they are trying to avoid citing our resources directly?
That answer does not make sense to me. If there is an imperfect limb alignment, wouldn't it be better to align the limb? Just running faster ist not a solution, it is not even a workaround. How can I align the limb? I will try to install a new OpenCat version from Github, but I cannot see how that can solve a hardware problem? If you refer to the manual it would be good to provide a direct link to the relevant section. I have already read through portions of the manual, but in parts it looks like a bad Google translate and is difficult to comprehend. I have worked with arduinos a lot of times in the past, So basically I know what to do, but the manual is ... complicated to say it friendly.
No answer via email, no answer here. I fear I will have to send Bittle back. A pity.