For Raspberry Pi 5 8GB Kit, ELECROW CrowPi Advanced Kit Pre-installed 9-inch Monitor, Raspberry Pi 5 8GB, and More Sensors as a Small Computer to Learn Basic Computer Science and Practice Programming

Got this for my nine year old to help teach Python. My nine year old currently is good at Scratch (taught at school) so its great to control the GPIO pins and see what can be exercised in Scratch then to look at the same in Python. The imbedded screen for an older dad :-) is unusable as just to small so a mini HDMI cable is needed (like used in drones) to connect to a bigger display so this will be around $30. Support is excellent. Original Scratch lessons supplied were based on Scratch , within a day or two or saying this is no good they updated to Scratch 3

Loads of great addons to support loads of exciting projects. A great way for someone to jump into robotics and coding and quickly put their skills to good use in a fun way. Came with retro style gamepads to support creation of cool 90s style arcade games, fun for all the family.

Absolutely not for a kid. Maybe for an advanced high schooler. A large pdf to follow isn't a kid friendly course. 64bit image breaks after first apt update. The examples use deprecated libraries, it seems to have been designed for a previous version of raspberry pi and migrated poorly to 5. Hardware seems acceptable, software isn't.

This is a well packaged unit and well presented so a pleasure to use. There is a downside and it is just the little things that you need such as batteries for the mouse and keyboard, which is not unusual, however one of the lessons requires you to use a remote control that also needs a CR2032 battery which isn’t included either. Lesson 20 also isn’t possible since the unit doesn’t come with any jumper wires, which it looks like you need to go out and buy separately. On the downloadable instructions and lessons, there is also a lot of mix up over the PIN numbers which do not correlate to the unit as well as lesson 20 is also missing images. Not a bad system, but it is the little things that make the difference.

This wonderful piece of technology brought a huge smile to my face, easy to use straight from the box, well constructed, and it once more brought the experimental child out in me. I am hoping to have many fun times with this extraordinary piece of kit, cannot praise it enough.

On the whole I actually like this product but a few issues dampened my experience. First the price is a hurdle that is hard to get over, also I had a problem during setup that killed the preinstalled os (a faulty update). I downloaded a new image from the manufacturer but could never get it to work. A new raspian install along with pretty good instructions on the elecrow github page eventually got me going. This could well have been my fault but it's worth noting. Finally, some of the components are quite nice but some are VERY cheap. I think people would pay for better components if given the choice. All that said,for anyone leaning electronics and programming I do think that is a nifty bit of kit.

I must say I had my doubts about this first the price second was it as good as they say. Bouth worries gone fires up out of the box and has everything you need to get started grand kids loved it and so do only one small gripe I prefer to use the wired port for the internet plugged in the lead could not unplug it as the releases leaver at the bottom facing the PCB I know this is an pi problem not yours but would be nice to have a work around

This is a really great kit with all of the Pi 40 pins mapped out to elements within the case which can be disconnected if required. It's a touch screen which is really clear and responsive. All in all a great kit for learning the Pi, you will need another small bag for all the supporting components, but it provides such a great kit to transport your projects around.

To be honest the price originally put me off. After all a raspberry pi 4 is supposed to be the $35 computer right? This kit is almost 10x that. So what exactly do i get for the $300? - raspberry pi 4 2 gig with 32 gig preinstalled and ready to go - integrated 7inch touch screen display (could be bigger) - separate power adapter to provide more than enough juice for the pi 4, screen, and add ons - integrated sensor/input/breadboard for lots of learning projects - keyboard, mouse, game controllers, headphones, and lots of extras - an awesome quality clam shell design - integrated software/hardware. Just turn it on, and it boots up ready to go. - Awesome support and solid company (Claire is the best! - very responsive and accommodating ) - You can upgrade the pi 4 to another one bought separately. Easy to swap out I dont think you could buy all the parts individually and come out for less. And it wouldnt be beautifully integrated. Basically if you want a raspberry pi laptop with lots of nerdy features, this is great. Compared to other 'pilaptops' out there, this is the market leader. In fact there is nothing that compares to this other than the duinokit but that uses a tablet as its display (and remote vnc). I find myself actually using it as a second screen laptop. The PI4 is zippy enough to handle the browser well and 2gigs is enough for most of my needs. And if the screen is too small, i can use the second hdmi port to plug in a larger monitor. (note: they need to allow more room between their adaptor. So for now you have to unscrew the pi and have the hdmi wire plug in that way.) I am looking forward to playing with all the gizmos it has. I think there are some interesting gaming and educational opportunities possible. A child would love this as gift. It has minecraft of course, retropie gaming, and as they grow older they can jump into the python/sensor programming. This is something they can carry around and feel proud ownership. And what a great way to introduce them to an alternative OS like raspi. A great buy and I trust I will get years of enjoyment from it. Completely recommend it. Add it to your cart, order it, and enjoy!

I almost cancelled this item, but missed the deadline and so it was shipped. Despite my misgivings this item arrived and I unboxed it. 2_25_2020 First impressions: The box was much heavier than I had expected, leading me to conclude that the unit just might be pretty solid. My suspicions were confirmed as I opened the box to reveal the contents. Elecrow has done a masterful job of packaging this equipment and presenting it in a tasteful manner. Mine came with an RPI-4B which, as I understand it, is the 2 GB model. Considering that this is a learning and prototyping device I see little consequence of having a 2 or 4 GB controller. This is, after all, not intended to be a final control package; although it certainly could be used as such. The package comes with a nice assortment of accessories which will prove useful as I work my way through the PDF training modules which I have already downloaded from the Elecrow web site. As I have not yet powered the unit I am unable to comment on its functionality, so there will be updates to this review as I have the time to put the CrowPi through its paces. In the mean-time, if you are on the fence about the CrowPi based on fears of its quality...rest easy. This is a well constructed piece of equipment. 6_28-2021 I finally have started using my Crowpi and, boy is it neat. It took me a bit longer to get Raspbian downloaded and installed on the SD card than I expected, but that was partly due to the download link having been changed and partly some glitches in the software I was using. If like me you are used to a standard computer, be prepared for a little difference when you shut it down. The screen turns blue and displays a message that there is no video signal. Don't worry...that means the pi is shut down. I experienced this during the initial configuration run and was a little nervous about turning the power off; but not to worry, everything was fine. That little 7 inch display is bright and clear, no issues with reading text or recognizing objects. I made use of the touch screen and it works very well...as well as can be expected, anyway. Unlike a smartphone a computer is not really optimized for touch control, so things like scrollbars take some concentrated effort to use. I will be more inclined to use a mouse for most operations. So far the only program I have downloaded and installed is Scratch. It looks to be an object based programming language that involves connecting objects instead of writing code. I am accustomed to the traditional way of programming, but I think this will be a good way to write a quick app when I don't have the time to write more serious code. This is a good place to end this review for now since I haven't done any of the tutorials yet. But first I want to put in a good word for the folks at Elecrow. They are some of the nicest, most cordial folks you will ever deal with; they will answer any question you have and do it in a most gracious manner. If you need assistance they are happy to give it. They really want you to succeed. 7-10-2021 After all the time I spent downloading the OS and burning it to an sd card that I purchased, I found that the Crowpi came with an sd card already loaded and ready to go. So, I removed the card I configured and installed the card that came with the kit. I expected to have to re-download Scratch, but Elecrow already had it on the card. It didn't take me too long to find the Python programs for using the distance sensor and the light sensor, so I loaded them one at a time and exercised the devices. Since the programs are pre-loaded onto the sd card you are not required to type them in to use them; although you can certainly remove the programs and type them back in yourself if you want the practice. I really like the integrated aspect of this kit...so many devices mounted and internally wired so that you don't have to spend time making connections. Obviously not everything is on the board and an included breadboard can facilitate wiring external items when needed, but the devices that are on the board provide you with rapid satisfaction. I haven't yet taken a serious stab at completing any of the assignments as I have been checking this thing out and enjoying the experience. So far I am really happy with this gizmo. I suppose there must be some areas that aren't quite to the level of 'wonderful', and one of them is the lack of a place inside the carry case to hold the keyboard and mouse. They give you a bag that would work for this purpose, but then you have to carry the Crowpi and the bag separately. Price-wise you get what I believe is a fair deal. This is a well thought out and engineered kit and you would be hard pressed to do better. You could theoretically build your own, but one look at this beauty and you'd have to realize yours would come up short. 7-17-2021 After a bit more time of using the Crowpi I find myself liking it more and more. I have drawers full of discrete components and breadboards that I have used over the years and will still use in the future. But for right now I am enjoying the utility of the Crowpi without the need to do a lot of interconnecting of devices. I can move some object up and down above the included distance sensor and see the results on the screen, and then not have to remove any wires when I'm through. Call me lazy, but it's nice when my clean-up consists of unplugging the power cord and closing the lid of the Crowpi case. When I want to try a different operating system I simply swap out the sd card and boot into another experience. The more I look at this beauty the more I appreciate it. I bought this Crowpi in early 2020 and just recently bought a Crowpi2 Deluxe kit. Neither one was free, I paid for both of them. And I wouldn't want to give either one of them up. Each one has its strong points and neither one has any glaring weak points. 8-1-2021 Something I have noticed that my Crowpi does is when I tell it to reboot all 64 of the leds in the led matrix turn on bright red and stay on. They get really hot in a short time. As long as I do a shutdown and turn power off before booting back up everything is fine. I just have to remember not to do a reboot. This is just a lesson learned and nothing more. No complaints since there is a workaround.

I originally bought the CrowPi with the hopes of adding it to my classrooms Raspberry Pi curriculum. As I have been diving into the CrowPi's lessons they provide, it is clear they have not properly update the material or the YouTube videos that they advise you to use to get started. All the videos are for the last version of the CrowPi and at most all they have done to updated the video is added a small diagram to the videos to show you how version 2 is different, but they never go through how to properly use the current version that is being sold. I can understand not remaking all the video's since there are quite a lot of similarity between version 1 and version 2 of the CrowPi, but for things like the relay, the documentation is not correct. A person could easily damage their CrowPi of the components they are trying to connect to relay since they have not properly updated the documentation. The company also says they are big into open source, but when I reached out to get a schematic of how the CrowPi was assembled (so I could figure out how the CrowPi is set up/ so I could modify mine as I see fit) they company said that is something they do not give out. I can understand not giving the schematic, but then they should provide proper documentation that explains what the unused J10 socket is for, or what the unused solder points are for. Also all the lessons they provide don't actually require the user to think, it doesn't actually make the user do any actual coding, they just give you the completed code with no work actually require to make is work. My last issue is that the company doesn't provided an image for the pi that is easily used with NOOBS or BerryBoot for dual booting your Raspberry Pi. This is an issue if you hope to use the CrowPi as both a learning tool and a retro emulation system, since with how the Raspberry Pi is installed into the CrowPi there is not easy way to swap out your SD card out. To change the SD card you have to remove completely remove Raspberry Pi from the CrowPi. This may not be a problem for most users but for users that are hoping to uses the CrowPi with different OS's this is a major problem. I think this it is an awesome product in the sense that it could be a programmers dream, no wiring required and all you have to do is code and the value is amazing. It is hard to find a Raspberry Pi kit with all these components for under $300. But with how poor and outdated their documentation I know I will not be using this in my Classroom's Raspberry Pi curriculum. This is a good product for a parent that doesn't know much about coding, computer science or electronics and they want to spark an interest in their child for the field. But if you truly want to learn how to use a Raspberry Pi you may want to look else where.

The good: There is so much cool tech packed into this awesome and stylish little suitcase, I can't wait to do all sorts of hardware projects with this and it's built in systems alone! And having the expandability of the small breadboard makes the possibilities endless! This product is also very well made and put together, easy to install as well. All the negatives below I will be trying to correct myself as the kit is able to be taken completely apart from what I can see, even the (horrid) screen has exposed screws holding it in place! Why 4 stars? The screen is atrocious, it's low res, tiny and compared to the rest of the kit cheap and washed out, this is the biggest flaw in the kit. I don't see how you could use it without another monitor made for human eyes or going blind. Things I wish were different but not negatives: -The breadboard is in the center of the kit, if it was on the edges it would be easier to hook up more things as they could hang out of the case without being on top of the other components. -The instruction manual is written in a way that implies there is not an sd card that came with the kit (there is) -Wish it had an internal power source, even one that could only last an hour or so would be awesome as I could whip out this kit anywhere and show it off to friends

As a Parent with 4 children,3 girls age 9, 11, and 17, and one boy aged 14 finding something that appeals to all of them, not to mention my wife and myself, is nearly impossible. They're either too young, think they're too old, or decide it's pointless. And the CrowPi had literally something that interests everyone. My middle daughter and son are both interested in the robot building, my oldest is more in the general use and game side, along with my youngest who is quite the storyteller and wants to make games herself someday. Honestly I expected getting them through the basic stuff would be the problem but we've been using it as a family for about a week going through the lessons and learning the basics and even that is keeping them interested because of how well layed out they are and the intuitive way they build into each other because they can see how it's going together and where it's leading. But beyond being a tool that provides activities for the whole family, which is very important to me since the time flies by and the oldest is already looking at colleges, it teaches useful skills that I believe are vital in this age and in a manageable way. I took for granted that being immersed in technology on the level they are the kids would pick up certain technology basics that are more and more necessary to function every day. Unfortunately since the focus has been on "easy" so long they have no idea how anything actually works. The CrowPi teaches them that in a way that makes it manageable and they can easily see how, at the end of the day, it's all just a lot of simple steps. And unlike a lot of other Pi starter kits that are a pi, a handful of sensors, and a pdf that showed up in an intimidating box of wire and circuit boards the CrowPi is a self contained platform that looks like a neat laptop so there isn't that feeling of being overwhelmed that is so common anytime you try to start learning electronics so the kids don't feel lost when they start using it the way they have when I've played with Pi projects in the past. Elecrow has done something amazing here and turned a subject that is viewed as being absurdly complex and overwhelming and made it friendly and approachable. And then tucked it all into an elegant package and added a lesson plan that really does make it something for the whole family.