Here is a robot arm made by an EZ-Robot intern. You could certainly do something similar with parts from JD, using his head instead of the smaller camera, and just a few other parts (I think you might want a rotation servo and a mounting plate to attach the arm to some kind of base).

https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/6844

And one that @bhouston made from 3D printed parts:

https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/6916

What part of Virginia are you in? I am in Maryland, near DC and I have a bunch of extra EZ-Bits and other parts. I might be interesting in getting together for a day to collaborate on something.

How old are your kids?

Alan

Hey, that's a good idea. A kit from ez robot that let's you build several robots or anything else you can think up. Kinda like Lego or Tinker Toys. You can call it EZ Robot's Tinker Bots kit! I love it!

While I've not got around to it I did order a load of extension blocks, lever servos and rotation servos for just playing around with. Straight away out of the box I built a snake without even realising it

Throw the kids a bunch of servos and a bunch of extension cubes and see what they make, just like Lego.

I'm barely remember, but when I 3D printed the extension blocks, they didn't turn out good. I was hoping the files were setup so that they was download, print, and go. But I think mine didn't come out so well. The robot head did ok.

So I agree, if there were more items/kits to pick from the ARC software, then the kids would probably enjoy it more as they would have something to follow and build. For example, (I could be wrong), the BiLoid kit allows you to build different things out of the box.

Thanks for the link to the robot arm, that's what I had remembering seeing. Guess I could try to get the kids into this one, but I don't have all the parts. Its a good idea for sure.

My kids are 11(boy) and 9 (girl).

Another member printed me some parts to convert lever servos to rotation servos (I have too many of one and not enough of the other), and they do need a bit of sanding or filing to fit. The tolerance on the clip and play bits is pretty tight.

That is why I asked where in Virginia you are. If in Norva, I would be happy to bring my box of parts, and my modified Roli over and we can see if they are interested if they have more stuff to work with before you invest more in parts that they might not wind up wanting.

I have most of what we would need to build an arm without scavenging anything from your JD - Servos, extension blocks, claws, camera, EZ-B. I don't have the SIX base, but I have a mounting plate we could screw down to a piece of board or something.

It the kids like what we built enough they want to keep it, you could just pay me for the parts and I can re-order replacements from EZ-Robot.

If you don't want to narrow down your location in public, we can move the conversation to email: [email protected]

Alan

You won't be able to make the exact robot arm as we did, because you will be missing a few parts that we used (extension blocks and rotation servo).

But, you can be creative and make a robot arm yourself! If you'd like to see an example of we did - the project is available in the App Store or you can click on the AppStore in this website.

Look at the top menu under COMMUNITY and there is a menu option that says "Robot AppStore". Press it and there are robot apps.

to install the apps, use ARC and press OPEN in the EZ-Cloud menu option.

What exactly comes with the: Hexapod Body (includes battery) $69.00 USD

It just says 1 body and 12 connectors. Which connectors/blocks?

The 12 connectors are on the body.