Erector Spykee - The Spy Robot
by Erector
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Our Price: $499.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $249.00 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Erector Spykee - The Spy Robot
Customer Review: Spykee's Fun, With A Little To Be Desired...
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife ended up buying this for me (after recommendation from myself) and I was very excited.
The first thing I did after receiving it was to put the base into the charger. The unit arrives uncharged, so I strongly recommend starting with this step.
The next thing you will notice, is that you have a box full of bags of parts, and nothing that looks like a robot. The base turns out to be one of the last pieces you will use, which means most of the assembly can commence while the charging is occurring.
Assembly is somewhat tedious, though not overly difficult if you take your time. It will take you an hour or two, to do, so make sure not to get overly anxious as there is a lot of work between receiving and using.
The most difficult part seems to be the wireless configuration. There are a lot of rules to follow, a few of which may require you to reconfigure your home wireless network. Spykee doesn't like spaces or special characters in network names, and even in passwords. It took me several resets before I came to realize this was the problem.
The biggest downfall once you are up and running is the fact that the camera isn't movable. The issue is that the higher you have the camera pointed, the less ground you see and the harder it is to navigate. The lower you have it the easier to drive, but the less you can actually see. Once its up and running this seems to be the biggest downfall. Also, Spykee features a light that can be switched on for dark rooms. I found the only thing this light really lets me do is avoid hitting stuff I'm right next to. The light is nowhere strong enough to allow practical use of the robot in a pitch black room...
Also, the robot has a vox mode, allowing the user to speak and listen though the robot, however if you try to do so without some kind of headset you will get a lot of echo. One of the reasons I got it was so that instead of calling a friend or messaging them, I can have them connect and interact with them...
The remote mode, which allows access from outside your home, is nice and works without much lag. The only problem I found with it is that my work's firewall is blocking the ports necessary for access. But aside from at work it allows me to take a look around my house from almost any computer...
Customer Review: Perfect for me as Security Cam but not a toy!
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I do not consider this a toy so all those reviewers below who have bought it for their kids, take it back from them and play with it yourself.
Initial build I would say requires patience more than anything else. Take your time and understand the different parts and the angle they are shown in the instructions. This will pay off big time! Allow 2 to 3 continuous hours at least. Once built, put on the charger for a day! Once charged, allow another 2 to 3 hours to set it up. Start with the simple local direct mode and then configure the more complex modes with the remote mode the last. Remember, that the complex modes require you to have through knowledge of WiFi configuration of your router, especially port forwarding. Check your router manual to ensure you will be able to do this. Also remote mode require you to have access to skypee outside of your Wifi and lan. You will probably need to go to your mall or starbucks to test this (somewhere not too far from home).
Auto docking is a hit or miss. What I have learnt is that if you stop about 3 feet in front of the charging unit with the back of the unit to it and then select autopark, it tends to find it. Always leave enough charge on the unit to park successfully. As a confirmation of parking, what I do and recommend is, after auto parking, start the unit again and reverse back into the charging unit so that secure contact is made to the charging connections.
When using it remotely ( and I use it from UK to USA), ensure you have good bandwith at the location you are at. Be careful when going against walls as it will topple over.
I use this as a security cam and for me it works great. I've had it for 8 months now.
Good luck!
Customer Review: Interesting but not thrilling
Summary: 3 Stars
I opened it up to build with my son and realized that it wasn't going to be fun for a small kid to work on. So a few months after I bought I had a couple of hours to kill and put the thing together myself. It wasn't a real fun project to build. I hurt my finger trying to get the ball joint connected and what for? The arms don't do anything. If it was built with true Erector set parts I may have enjoyed it more. Once you connect to it via ad hoc mode you do get a little excited about connecting to a remote device other than someone's laptop. Then you set the wireless info up and you are set to test it out. In a cluttered room like my office it doesn't function. They also need to work on the algorithm that returns the unit to the charger pod. It seems lost half the time and unless it's real close to the pod it doesn't seem to find it. The website they provide is annoying. It's just a mediocre toy that had some potential to be a great toy. Thus my dissappointment. Knowing what I know now about it, I would not have bought it. But it's a novelty and some people will enjoy it more, but I suspect most people tire of it pretty quickly. You can't replace the battery which is a big downside, so I suspect it's meant to last a year or two and then that's it. What it needs is a replacable battery. Also add optional add ons to make it more of a full functioning robot. You want to be able to go up to the cat and pinch it, not just bump into it. If it had functioning arms you could remotely assist it in getting up after it falls on its back. It would be good if the company provided some insight into an API for it so you could add your own functionality. It really should be open source hardware and software.
Customer Review: Lots of Fun but needs work in a few areas
Summary: 4 Stars
I got one of these from Toys R Us for Christmas. Here's my review of it. 1st the instructions could have been written better. (a lot Better)After spending 3 hours to get it together its a lot of fun. being able to control it from anywhere via wi-fi is cool. There is a slight curve in learning to maneuver it around without tipping it over (once its tipped your done if you are remotely controlling it) all in all its a pretty cool toy, yes, just a toy, that said here's what I'd like to see improved in the next version or maybe just an update to this.
1 The camera, there's no zoom, pan, tilt or rotate on this so what you see when controlling it is strait ahead. Seems like this would have been and easy addition since there are already web cams out that can do this
2 the arms, the arms, they do nothing, can we get some arms that maybe pick things up? or maybe even assist when the thing is tipped over.
3 The Sound, the volume is not very good, if your in a quiet room yes you can hear the thing. but the slightest noise downs it out..maybe we can get stereo speakers with a little more volume?
All in all I'm happy with this product and feel its worth the money. yes I'd like to see improvements, but compared to other items like it on the market this one rocks..
Customer Review: Spykee fun had by all!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Due to the many poor reviews I just had to put in my two cents...we got this after a great deal thru Woot. It arrived, we put it together in about 1 hour. The instructions were easy to read and follow (not sure why everyone is having such difficulty with this?). Let it charge for 3.5 hours as stated, and we were up and running in no time. It immediately worked in ad hoc mode, I selected our wifi network, it immediately connected with that. Went to a free wifi hotspot with the laptop to control it remotely and it worked great that way too!
That being said, we use it to spy on our pets, not potential intruders that we expect to use the video/audio in court or some other such thing. This is a TOY. A fun toy, but a toy nonetheless. It was fun to put together, so far it has withstood running around the kitchen & living room, being attacked by a cat, followed by a couple dogs, etc. It finds its charging dock well (after positioning Spykee nearby), and we have had absolutely no problems with it. -Have not had to deal with any customer service, but typically customer service is horrible across the board so I wouldn't expect anything less (more) for Spykee.