I love the quality of MakeBlock and how solid it is, but there is always room for improvement? I have a suggestion! Some weeks ago, there was a Maker Faire in Oslo (Norway) and both my kids had built robots based on the MakeBlock Starter Kit. They had their own booth showing off the robots to the many thousand visitors during the weekend. Since I’m a “basic user” in this forum, I cannot upload images of the robots, but you can check them out at this Maker Faire page http://makerfaireoslo.no/en/program/walter-og-vera
My son (12) made a tracked vehicle that he built, programmed and soldered. Using the DC Motor-25 and a 11.1V Lipo battery, this became crazy fast! My daughter is only 9 so I had to help her quite a bit. Her idea was to make a drawing robot that looked like a Troll! She did most of the soldering, the “doll”, the clothes, helped with cleaning up and mounting 3D printed parts. I did the 3D modelling, electronics & code. For both robots I made a small 2.4 Ghz radio that could be used to remote control them.
We tested the robots quite extensively before Maker Faire, but we didn’t see any problem then. Once we arrived there, we realised that the weakest piece in the entire MakeBlock system is the set-screws that are used for the Shaft Connectors and the Universal Joints. These will unscrew themselves over time and that became a source of embarrassment the kids. They would show the robots and all of a sudden they didn’t work/failed.
For the Shaft Connectors, we found a trick: you just use two set-screws! The second will hold the first one in place. The Universal Joints however kept coming off and I think this is a problem that needs to be solved. I would suggest using a more solid joint with a better screw.
MakeBlock also got 10 seconds of “prime time” on a Norwegian news channel where my son showed off his robot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0woYjGVXu18 (0:11 - 0:21). Another fun thing - I found that there is now a Norwegian reseller for MakeBlock: http://eriksenprocare.no 