As someone who is perhaps the most recent noob confused about just how EZ-robot works, perhaps my input would be helpful (or not).

Specifically regarding the video: for it to be truly helpful it would have to be highly available to us noobs. I CANNOT say there is any shortage of information on the site already that would help people understand the EZ-robot architecture. Despite my reading of various information I just did not 'get' it. For me I dove into specs and whatnot at did not look at a lot of introductory stuff that might have clued me in. There is probably plenty but I just missed it. If EZ-Robot is as unique as it appears to be then there will be a regular flow of people that don't notice the difference initially.

I think it part of the battle is because it is just common for the average person to think of robots as self-contained. Frankly a lot of people probably think of Hollywood robots and those are pretty much self-contained..right? Likewise, for those of us that are semi-technical and we have some knowledge or experience we are familiar with (in my case lego mindstorms mostly) the simple robot platforms that are also self-contained. My understanding on most of these is you program on a PC typically and download to the robot. As you know there are a plethora of arduino, raspbery PI and other kits that work this way. Also consumer robots like roomba or robots like toy like dogs and what not are pretty much always self-contained. In the back of my mind I guess I had a tecnical bias that just made me think that sending commands to a bunch of servos and all remotely just didn't even seem possible.

To me the type of device 'robot controller' versus 'micro controller' alone did not call out a difference. Also, with servo ports and I2C and this the ezb appears a lot like a beefed up arduino to us noobs. I did see that the program interface looked really good, but the lego mindstorms seemed on the the surface similar so that did not clue me in to the difference in architecture. I presumed the wifi connection was mainly for interaction not actual all processing. My particular initial application doesn't call for much of that anyway so was not a focus.

I now greatly appreciate the power and logic of the EZB architecture (although I have yet to power mine up!). To be honest though, most of my robotic project ideas are REALLY simplistic and don't require an EZB at all. So being a cheapskate and wanting to be efficient also really arduino is a better fit for most. Having said that, I am looking forward to using the EZB because I do have one project that is beyond arduino and the built in wifi/customizable controls is a huge bonus to about any project.

So that was in fact how I ended up coming upon EZ robot in the first place. I was looking at how do I remote control arduino through a mobile device using wifi. Not sure if this would be a common entry point for other likely to be confused noobs.

Maybe this already exists, but just some (more?) prominent points on a FAQ.... like "how is EZrobot architecure different than...x,y and z?"

I hope my perspective was in some small way helpful.

Wow, well said Kennard. Out of the mouth of babes (if you'll forgive me ). I'm right there with you.

Some of these guys here are so far ahead of the curve on the uniqueness of ezb and robotics in general then us common folks (the proclaimed target customers) that I think they forget how confusing this stuff can be. I think you're suggestion of more simple explanation of the uniqueness of ezb and how that sets it apart from x,y,z in several parts of this Web site is a great idea. It may be all that's needed.

Ken/Dave. yup, you have precisely captured the issue. The information is here in the forums, and if you watch some of the tutorials, it becomes obvious. But for someone new, who hasn't read through dozens of topics, watched videos or take tutorials, it isn't clear that EZ-B is different from everything else out there, and what is so good about it.

This page does a good job of explaining the benefits: https://synthiam.com/About/Default.aspx and a careful reading of the page does explain how it works, but it doesn't jump off the page. Maybe just some edits there to really highlight that you are using all the processing power of your PC along with the rich features of the software combined with the powerful i/o of the EZ-B to go an (r)evolutionary step beyond anything previously available in consumer robotics is what is needed.

Then a mention of the various SDKs for those students or hobbyists who want the excitement of writing all of their code from scratch, and some examples of combining. i.e. Let ARC do all the heavy lifting, and write custom functions as plugins or with the SDK.

Alan

@kennard42 and @Dave_Schulpuis That is my goal. I don't want to "sell" ez-b's, but give a resource for people who may not understand or people who don't feel like explaining it for the 13th time.