Can You Disassemble a Prebuilt Zumo Robot? - a mom

My boys asked for the kits for Christmas, but the preassembled is a great price right now. Can you disassemble it, and rebuild it, modify it? Or is it soldered? Thank you for your help, from a roboteer’s mom.

Hello.

While it is possible to disassemble an assembled Zumo, it is not easy and we do not recommend it. Desoldering would be required to fully disassemble it.

If you think your roboteer can handle putting a Zumo Robot kit together, the Zumo Robot Kit for Arduino, v1.2 (No Motors) and a pair of our 50:1, 75:1, or 100:1 Micro Metal Gearmotors would probably be a better option if you want him to have the experience of assembling the Zumo. I suggest you read through the assembly instructions for the Zumo kit to see if you think your child has the skills it takes to put a Zumo together (soldering is required, and this is a somewhat advanced robot that requires at least basic understanding of electronics and programming).

If you choose to get the kit, you might also consider adding a Zumo Reflectance Sensor Array (the assembled version comes with this array), and don’t forget that an Arduino is also required. We have all of those items on sale in our Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale 2014 as well.

-Derrill

I just tried doing this and I broke it. I tried to get the sprokets off the motors and the motor casing separated breaking the motor. I wouldn’t recommend it.

After assembing a non-prebuilt kit, I understand better how to disassemble it. However desoldering the battery tabs and the motor power leads might leave you in a difficult spot for reassembly. You solder things together and then clip those leads very short so reassembling it will be much harder than the first time assembly (and first time assembly is already involved).

Aloha e:

I am new to Zumos.

@jay

If not needing a complete teardown of the Zumo, it might be simpler to leave motors attached to board. Use some blutac to keep motors in place while manipulating board when removed from chassis. Also, of the two battery terminals soldered to the board, the spring on the negative side can be compressed and withdrawn through the large cutout in the battery box/chassis. The positive side will slip out easily enough through its cutout. This negates need to desolder those tabs. There is a spacer plate ass’y in there that need be removed and replaced with some care. My description here is used solely for accessing board to ADD (solder) headers in a few spots. I found everything I needed referenced in the user’s guide.

@mom

I hope you took advantage of the holiday sale. These Zumos are fun fun fun.