Initial Impressions of Sparki: NOT good. :(

Sparki
#21

All products have a life cycle. You’re comparing Sparki, which its hardware barely out of design mode, to products that have had years of existence. I understand that it may be your first experience with a product right at the beginning of its life cycle. Yes, it’s painful. I too was surprised when my remote stopped working, it took me a few seconds to think it through.

I teach robotics and computer engineering to kids 8 and up. I’m also a software engineer, or I was before becoming a mom. And I’ve dabbled with hardware while in university. I’ve also played with real industrial robots back then. Talk about lack of tutorials… That may be why I’m not reacting the way you are. Mind you, I have no idea what your background is.

Your points are valid for the current state of Sparki’s ecosystem. But that will change. The hardware is out. And it looks good. Not great (I expected a bit more speed, and more volume, that beeper will be useless in a classroom), but good. The hardware is here, and I, for one, am happy Arcbotics didn’t wait for everything to be in place before releasing Sparki.

What we have in our hands is a finished “hardware”, not a finished “product”.

ITA. Soon, but not this week, not even this month, everything will be in place.

#22

and why do I get to start a new page with each of my posts??? I’m getting paranoid now!
:imp: :confused:

#23

Seems to be the prevailing sentiment on this forum: “Don’t like the fact that the Arcbotic tutorials bricked your Sparki? Shoulda bought a Lego Mindstorms from Target you n00b.”

Yeah, what a great environment to ask for help.

Pleas for help are acceptable, but any (perfectly VALID) criticism of the piss-poor online resources available is not allowed.

And don’t give me any “its just a Kickstarter so you should have expected it to be piss-poor” baloney. I’ve been involved with numerous start-ups. Professionalism isn’t something you get around to AFTER the product is launched. Good lord, I’m trying to imagine the community reaction if we’d released one of our games without tutorials (or worse with tutorials that blue-screened their games). Man, we’d have been eaten alive by our customers, start-up or no.

You all seem to be willing to give Arcbotics a pass on this, but I’m not. And in reality, I’m doing them a bigger favor by being vocal about my disappointment. Like I’ve said in previous posts, their start-up page makes them look amateurish and the broken example code betrays trust and gives the impression that they’re dumping QA and support costs on their customers and calling it “open source”. That kind of nonsense may fly with a niche market of nerd hobbyists, but it most certainly is NOT going to fly with a broader market of busy people (like educators).

As an educator, I can’t imagine allowing my students to turn in a piss-poor effort and then saying to them, “Don’t worry, I’ll fix it for you.” No. I hand it back to them and tell them to give me their best (along with some constructive criticism and an admonishment for not giving me their best effort). This isn’t any different. I’m not asking for help here. I’m asking for them to do better. In the end, we ALL benefit from that, don’t we?

#24

This makes you sound like a condescending prick. Don’t take that the wrong way. I know that sometimes us “nerds” can sound callous and unfeeling to you “humans”.

#25

@pudgimelon

Have you provided specific problem information to the vendor support people so they can help fix your problems?

If you are overall just not happy with the product b ecause it is not as refined and free of bugs and full of information/tutorials as you expected, why not ask for a refund and find something else that truly meets your needs.

bob :smiley:

#26

@pudgimelon:

I’m willing to say what most won’t: You are an ass.

We get it, you are disappointed and frustrated Sparki didn’t live up to your unrealistic expectations. But instead of working with the developers and the community to resolve your issues, you seem much more interested in harming ArcBotics’ reputation.

Your trolling comments are generally nonconstructive and distracting. Most are rude and some are even offensive. I am thankful you are not my child’s educator, and fearful for those children you allegedly educate.

At this point, I hope you do as bobalston suggested and ask for a refund. You’ll likely get it and can then move on to exasperating users on a different forum.

#27

Sparkiguy, I quite disagree with you. I’m afraid I agree with pudgimelon. The Sparki is not ready for prime time.

I’ve spent several days with mine after it arrived, and have given up. I will NOT overwrite my stock Arduino IDE with ‘trust me’ code, so tried the library install. Finally got some Sparki code to compile, but could not get it to download. It’s a driver issue I realize, but at this point, given the number of releases and bugs seen so far, I simply won’t install any ‘trust me’ code provided by Arcbotics in an installer EXE file.

I’ve been teaching robotics / embedded programming at the university level since 1998, so I’m not exactly a newby. I’ve also installed and played with numerous Arduino boards, shields, add-ons, libraries and so on. None failed the way the Sparki library failed. It took me 1/2 hour to restore my Ardunio IDE to where it would again compile my code for the Uno without errors.

This is simply not acceptable at this stage of a release. My Sparki now sits back in the box, awaiting the time when the platform matures to the point where I can have confidence that the libraries won’t corrupt the IDE and the driver can be trusted.

#28

But your ad hominem attacks and insults are constructive, right?

Look, I’d already said my piece and moved on, so you’re the one bumping a week-old thread just to flame me, bub. If you’ve got something constructive to add to the discussion, then do so, but otherwise keep the hypocrisy and fanboy-rage to yourself, please.

As for posting about problems, I did that. I mentioned problems in the tutorial, the compiler, and the example codes. In response, I was told to buy a Lego Mindstorm if I wanted a product that actually worked out of the box. In another thread, I mentioned problems with Win8 and Win8.1 compatibility and I was told to “use Windows 7”.

So you’ll excuse me if I find the level of support less than satisfying. This is supposed to be an “entry-level” product. I AM an “entry-level” consumer, and so my feedback (even if negative) IS constructive, because it helps Arcbotics to see that they have a considerable gap to bridge between what they THINK is entry-level and what actually IS entry-level.

#29

There is no overwriting that occurs. It creates an entirely separate install. We created the installer specifically to avoid all of the problems you stated. I don’t think its fair to go against all of our recommendations, then say it doesn’t work.

#30

I’m sorry, but you are not. By your own admission you claim that you are a former web designer and programmer on the TRS-80. Part of the problem was that you messed around with COM ports yourself, instead of initially asking for help. Had you asked for help in the first place someone would have asked what operating system were you using and the whole mess with COM ports could have been avoided. An “entry-level” consumer would have just asked for help.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

What is it with people wanting to establish their credentials before saying something that any junior engineer would scoff at?! If you’ve spent any time with software or hardware you would know that they often fail, or have compatibility issues. 30 minutes to fix a problem! That’s quick!

#31

Pudgi

Perhaps this TedEd video will help you understand why you are getting the negative reactions to your posts.

youtu.be/eK0NzsGRceg

I feel it pretty much sums up your attitude and temperament. And I am certain your first impression of Sparki was not a good one, but you are a broken record. We all have had some negative experiences with comsuer products but It appears that you are very unlucky. I am sorry for your luck. By the way I am implying that you are the obnoxious dude with drink. And one last thing, I was not implying you should go to Target and buy a Mind Storm, I think you should buy a Roomba.

Ralph

#32

No I didn’t.

I was expressing amazement at even having to set the COM ports when first running the app, I didn’t “mess around” with them at all.

My problem was that multiple COM ports showed up (sometimes two port 8’s, sometimes a port 4,5,6,8, and sometimes nothing), and there was no error message if the wrong port was selected. It just stalled and did nothing.

Yes, I am.

I’m an entry-level user on THIS product. I’ve never used Arduino before, so I’m not familiar with all it’s quirks.

The tutorials and examples assume a level of knowledge that is above what an entry-level user possesses. Like I said, at this point, the product is shelved until the website manuals are up to snuff.

Sparki ships with no manual. So the website should have been revised before it was shipped. Sending the product out without adequate documentation and error-free example code is akin to shipping an incomplete product because for something like this, a proper manual/tutorial is an absolutely NECESSARY part. Without it, an entry-level user cannot make use of the robot and is more than likely going to brick the damn thing and give up in frustration.

Clearly you’ve never worked with kids before. Try piddling around for 30 minutes on some random bug fix while a classroom full of fidgety 10 year olds grows more and more bored.

Yeah, for a narrow hobbyist market with lots of time on their hands, this might be acceptable, but for an educational product intended for mass-market and/or classroom use, the “error recovery” time needs to be brought down considerably.

Like I’ve said before, a “default reset” should have been included in Sparki’s design (perhaps a pinhole switch), that could restore the robot to it’s original state so you could get it working again if something went wrong with a code-upload. At least that way, you could hand the kids the remote and let them draw pictures with the Sparki while you piddle around online looking for a bug fix or whatever.

#33

Yawn, more ad hominem crap. Got anything constructive to say? Or is this just a circle jerk pile-on now?

I’ve made a number of good, constructive criticisms in this thread. Sorry if you fanboys find that obnoxious, but not everybody is willing to do free QA and manual-writing in the name of “open source”. Some of us actually expected a complete product in the mail (and by complete, I mean one with an actual manual, tutor, and/or curriculum available).

The impression that I got was that the robot was rushed out the door to satisfy hobbyists (yeah for you guys), and that the website support was not prioritized as a result. In fact, I was told that it would be up to people like ME to create that content.

The outside of the box says its an entry-level product. The inside of the box says “go to the website” for instructions. Those instructions do not exist and entry-level users are expected to create them. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

How am I supposed to help create content for a product I can’t even get to work?

You say I’m being “obnoxious” by pointing out that glaring catch-22. I say I wouldn’t have to “sound like a broken record” if you guys would stop piling on with the personal attacks and start listening to a legitimate concern. So how about it? Instead of attacking the messenger, why don’t you answer my question: how is an “entry-level” consumer supposed to help create content for a product they cannot get to work because the website lacks WORKING code/examples and basic “getting started” instructions?

#34

Okay, I’m closing this thread. Its just turning into a flameware. I appreciate the feedback, and valid points were made, but nothing new is being said and its just turning into attacks back and forth.