Hello Backers 
some of you have already made a Ralph. Remember that this is the first step - its firmware is open-sourced so together we can make it work (and look) better.
Let’s share our experience here!
Thanks for your movie! It’s nice to see that Ralph works I’ve noticed that leg is not closing after Ralph stand up, did you connected it to proper hMotor port? If so, maybe 3-pin connector was inversed?
Yeah, cool video 
Here’s my first experience:
When I first tried to turn on the device, nothing happened. I checked the power and there was no voltage between the pins on the barrel plug. I traced this to the battery housings, and found that both inputs to the plug were connected to the +ve outputs from the two battery housings, and their grounds were connected together. Okay, so I resoldered that.
That fixed, I plugged in, turned it on, and it started moving forward and trying to mate with any obstacle in front of it. 
A little recalibration later, and it was standing on its own with no support from me. Yay!
Next, I tried the android app. I first tried a cheapo apex TM772 device. The app seems confused as to whether it supports upside-down orientation, which is important here as the TM772 has the USB port on the top. Anyway, I could login and connect to the device, and do device registration, but the app pretty quickly crashed thereafter. No problem, lots of apps seem to have trouble with that device.
So I tried another android device - the HTC One M8. This can login and connect to the device. It also seems able to connect to the cloud because it knows the nickname I assigned by robot, and it says that the platform status is “authorized but not connected.” When I go to the web interface, I see that my bot is listed as offline.
I rebooted the phone, in the hope that that would help. Amazingly the “no installed apps work with this accessory” message pops up in the middle of the bootloader, but once I’m fully booted things seem to work okay. I’m back at the same “authorized but not connected” prompt though. I try to telnet to the “local serial” port listed, but nothing’s happening there.
The bot itself seems to be working fine, but the android app seems to be having trouble. Given that I’m only the 5th download of the app, I imagine that these issues will be worked out in due time. I’ll try again with a different device tomorrow.
2 Likes
Hi, thanks very much for your post, we have noticed that on some Android devices there is a problem with connecting to Cloud Platform, we are working to solve this problem and it should be fixed in next releases of application. For now, it would be best if you could try with another Android device.
1 Like
If this could help you, we made youtube movie, which is a step by step guide how to build and program Ralph - - YouTube .
I tried again today with a nexus 7 2012, and it worked just fine. Thanks!
RoboCORE arrived today and I quickly got Ralph built and calibrated. I used a Moto X Pure (2015). Once it was calibrated almost everything went well. I live in a rural area with crawling internet speeds. The ability to control Ralph via LAN would make it much more useful for myself.
I do not have a webcam on my desktop, but if I did would that display the webcam image on the screen of the mobile device used on Ralph? And would a mic on my desktop allow me to talk through the device on Ralph? I can hear on my desktop speakers via the mic on the device on Ralph.
1 Like
Video
Yes, this is exactly how it works, if you have webcam and/or microphone on your desktop you will be able to use telepresence features of RoboCORE (your face will be shown on Android device and audio will be forwarded).
LAN
This question has been answered in post Using RoboCORE over LAN
2 Likes
My first experience… where to begin… Lets start with the unboxing, My robocore ralph kit showed up today in the mail. First I took out all the parts, only to discover the main acrylic board was cracked nearly in 2 right across the middle. I remedied this temporarily with some super glue. Attempted to contact them about it only to find out that the robocore “Contact Us” page give a 404 error in some other language… NOT happy at this point. Send a contact form through the Husarion website letting them know it is cracked. After the superglue dries, I assemble the robot (with the abysmal instructions) and turn it on… only to discover one of the motors is broken. the working motor offers moderate resistance when attempting to turn by hand (unplugged from robocore to prevent damage) and the other motor simply will not turn at all. Do they have any quality assurance at all? I have waited nearly a year for my robot to show up and I am extremely upset and let down by this. I know what i was hoping it would be and I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but I at least expected something that worked. So probably at least a month before i see a new motor…
Hi, thank you for a feedback, we just send you a private message. Don’t worry, your Ralph will work soon. In case of any similar problems we would be grateful for sending photos of broken elements at support@robocore.io .
The instructions were less than perfect, but I was able to get it put together with them. I did have a caliper handy to make sure I was using the correct bolts. One thing that could be improved is packing the different sized screws in different bags and a piece of paper with an image of an exact size of each piece. I had to take Ralph apart and put him back together again a number of times trying to find one elusive sized bolt.
Nocturne, thanks! Your idea to pack the different sized screws in different bags looks good and should shorten the time needed to assemble Ralph. In the next manufactured batch we’ll solve problems that you faced. All opinions of our Backers are very valuable!
I just want to make sure that you have seen not only video but also this http://files.robocore.io/RalphGuide.pdf . In video we make some steps better than in pdf guide, but types of elements are better visible in pdf, so using ruler would help to distinguish M3x10, M3x8, M3x6 etc. bolts.
I did view the video a little, mostly I used the PDF on my tablet. Having the caliper to measure the different sized bolts helped a lot, but not enough in the end and trial and error won.
I’ve used Ralph around my house for fun with my kids, but where I wanted to use it the most is with my Cub Scout Den, here I ran into a problem with the batteries dying quickly. Has the company found a good rechargeable battery pack they would could suggest? I have been considering trying an Anker external battery that I use to charge my cell phone. There is a lot of weight from those and I’ve not found a suitable way to mount it low enough on Ralph as to now throw off the center of gravity so much it does not work.
I assembled Ralph after jury rigging the leg. Heat bonded it after the glue did not work. Then I assembled Ralph and registered it online
That part went ok, but now I am receiving “authorized but not connected”, Now I do not have another android device to try it on. It recognized my boot name and when I try to go to the platform it tells me that it is offline.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Ken
Hi Ken, on some Android devices this is known problem, and we are working hard to fix it. You can try with another device or wait for a RoboCORE Android app update. So stay in touch with community.robocore.io .
What is your Android device?
Hi Dominik,
Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 5.0.1
OK, Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 have some problems running RoboCORE app. We will fix it, but before that we suggest testing on different Android smartphones/tablets.
Hi Dominik,
Unfortunately I only have that, nothing else to work with.
Ken