I have to put this out, you build great hardware and good software, but keeping on the current “keep it hidden” behavior you are not profiting on a long term.
Having something to show the kids, to discuss it and talk alternative solutions could only benefit you.
To get your customers involved please be more open, publish the code/blocks behind all the detected and similar functions you’ve implemented (and hide) in the apps, make these as examples (.sb2) and/or (.ino) on GitHub.
The Ranger and mBot educational robot kits need these bits.
It was the Makeblock-Libraries GitHub and the mBlock apps that turned me into looking at the Makeblock robots.
The idea is just great: a robot set, an app for kids to be used from novice to advanced, a PC Scratch version, Arduino programming and an AppInventor extension. That’s the perfect educational set, so long it allows for tinkering and all the bits are explainable - docs, examples, source.
I really appreciate the new Linux support, using v4.0.4 with Arduino latest and the Makeblock-Libraries, also the App Inventor extension.
On the other side, the mBlock repository is outdated (Feb 27), the mobile apps blocks source is not present nor documented, same for the AppInventor extensions.
The sound detected issue should not happen to an educational toy: a guided tour that fails without reasoning.
If the code/blocks behind the “sound detected” function has been known, we could’ve saved some valuable time. I can just guess that the mBlock App implemented the code like described in Chapter 13 from the ranger-online-course with “Max” hardcoded to 200 and due to BT some events are missed.
Improving the docs, it would be helpful to have examples for all the sensors, e.g. links to github, and also place the objectives next to the chapter names for the ranger-online-course.
The Makeblock App doesn’t implement all the blocks the mBlock app has and probably vice versa, the icons differ too. Please have a look and unify these for better and consistent user experience.
The following is not possible to use in the Makeblock app - missing abs(), but on the mBlock mobile and desktop apps: