Before we could teach the arm to see, trace or dodge anything, we had to build it. The ACEBOTT QD022 kit arrives as a bag of laser-cut acrylic panels, four MG90 servos and a lot of small screws and nuts. A big chunk of our first day was spent on turning the components from that kit into a working arm.

What we followed

We used ACEBOTT's official assembly tutorial for the QD022.

 It's beginner-friendly with each step showing exactly which panel and which screws to use. If you're building one yourself, we'd recommend following it step by step.

What we learned (tips for beginners)

• Set the servos to their centre position before attaching the servo horns. If you skip it, a joint can end up at the edge of its range and won't be able to move fully one way.
• Don't overtighten screws into the acrylic since it cracks easily. Tighten until snug, then stop.
• Peel off the protective film on the acrylic panels before assembling. It's much harder to remove afterwards.
• Check that every joint moves freely before moving on. A joint that's too tight makes the small servos strain, jitter and heat up.
• Label the servo cables (base, shoulder, elbow, gripper) as you go. You'll need to know which is which when you wire them up and write code.

Result

By the end of this step we had a fully assembled arm that moved on all four joints when tested with the kit's joystick module.