SunFounder PiCar-X Review

I’ve been wanting to get into robotics for a while, and starting with one of the many four-wheeled kits available online seemed like the easiest way to begin. However, most of these kits rely on a Raspberry Pi, and for quite some time now, Pi boards have been unreasonably expensive.

Thankfully, that seems to be changing, and with the launch of the Raspberry Pi 5, I finally decided to pick one up—along with a robot car kit. After some research, I settled on the SunFounder PiCar-X, available on both Amazon and SunFounder’s own website. It looked like a great little project with plenty of potential for expansion beyond its advertised features.

PiCar-X: First Impressions

The internet is full of wheeled robot kits for the Raspberry Pi boards, so what makes SunFounder’s PiCar-X stand out from the competition?

At its core, it’s a four-wheel platform with a steering axis, a dedicated camera module mounted on a two-axis “head”, and a handful of sensors attached to a 18650 battery-powered chassis.

Key Features:

Steering Axis – Unlike many other kits that use independent wheel control, PiCar-X uses a steering axis, making it much easier to drive.
Camera & Sensors – A dedicated camera module and various sensors unlock new possibilities.
Expandable Controller Board – Comes with more inputs and outputs than required, allowing for future modifications.

Included Components:

✅ Proximity sensor
✅ Line-following/cliff detection sensor
✅ Speakers (built into the motor board)

Assembly: Easier Than It Looks

The PiCar-X arrives in a fairly large box filled with surprisingly good quality metal parts and various fittings needed to assemble the car. There are quite a lot of parts for this sort of kit, but the manual is well-written, and assembly only took around 1-2 hours. Depending on your own level of experience this may take more or less time.

I didn’t have any problems following the manual or the wiring diagram, although I did get a couple of connections wrong on the main board but this wasn’t a problem. Additionally, you should be aware that some of the steps are quite fiddly with small parts, so another pair of hands may come in handy.

Getting Started

SunFounder has put together a dedicated documentation page for the PiCar-X, covering everything from setup to advanced usage:
📌 PiCar-X Documentation

Setup Overview:

⏳ Approx. 30 minutes
🖥 Requires Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy) for camera support

For best control, calibrate and zero your servos by running the provided scripts and aligning the servos physically where needed.

EzBlock:

I didn’t actually have a go with EzBlocks as I jumped straight into operating the PiCar-X with Python, but here are some of its main features:

Key Features:

✅ Drag-and-drop logic programming (similar to Scratch)
✅ PiCar-X-specific function blocks
✅ Web dashboard support (charts, controllers, GUI elements)

🚫 Note: You can’t switch between EzBlock and Python, which limits flexibility.

Python:

If you’re already familiar with Python, this is where things get interesting. With complex libraries for camera and AI processing, PiCar-X offers huge potential when running with Python.

SunFounder provides examples for:

📌 Obstacle detection
📌 Edge detection and line following
📌 Text-to-speech tasks
📌 Computer vision (AI & face recognition)
📌 Remote control & video streaming

🛠 Expansion Possibilities – The motor controller board has plenty of extra outputs, so modifications and upgrades are possible.

Example of Python script provided by SunFounder

from picarx import Picarx
import time

POWER = 50
SafeDistance = 40   # > 40 safe
DangerDistance = 20 # > 20 && < 40 turn around,
                    # < 20 backward

def main():
    try:
        px = Picarx()
        # px = Picarx(ultrasonic_pins=['D2','D3']) # tring, echo

        while True:
            distance = round(px.ultrasonic.read(), 2)
            print("distance: ",distance)
            if distance >= SafeDistance:
                px.set_dir_servo_angle(0)
                px.forward(POWER)
            elif distance >= DangerDistance:
                px.set_dir_servo_angle(30)
                px.forward(POWER)
                time.sleep(0.1)
            else:
                px.set_dir_servo_angle(-30)
                px.backward(POWER)
                time.sleep(0.5)

    finally:
        px.forward(0)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Pre-Built Samples: Just the Beginning

While the provided example scripts work, they’re far from complete solutions.

For example, the obstacle avoidance script functions, but it’s nowhere near sophisticated enough to handle real-world navigation. SunFounder gives you the basics, but the real challenge is improving on these scripts to create something truly functional.

Mobile App: A Handy Testing Tool

A mobile app is included, making it easy to test whether everything is working correctly.

Features:

✅ Basic driving controls
✅ Toggles for object & face detection
✅ Colour recognition
✅ Sensor activation

The controller layout is displayed over a real-time camera feed, so you can drive the robot remotely. 🚗💨

Note: There’s some input lag, so controlling the robot takes a bit of practice.

A Few Issues & Areas for Improvement

🔸 Camera Module Issues – Required installing additional libraries on Raspberry Pi OS.
🔸 Speakers Were Quiet – The provided speaker was extremely quiet, which made it difficult to hear what was playing through them. 🔸 Occasional Script Freezing – Particularly with remote control scripts, but a restart usually fixes it.
🔸 Servo Control is Harsh – Can be improved with better motion smoothing.

Final Thoughts

The SunFounder PiCar-X is a fantastic kit and can be exapanded upon greatly with a bit of Python/programming knowledge. I have plans to make my own web interface with it, so I can start it up remotely and drive it around (Will let you know how I get on if I get around to this).

💰 Price: $89.99 (SunFounder’s website without Raspberry Pi)

💡 Overall, if you’re looking for a fun robotics project, this is one of the better kits out there.