I recently purchased a PiCar-X as a gift and assembled it strictly following the official instructions, using a Raspberry Pi 5. Unfortunately, it is not working as expected, which is very disappointing.
Issue 1: Servos not responding (Raspberry Pi OS, Pi 5)
Standard Raspberry Pi OS installed, recommended libraries added.
During the assembly test step, the servos moved briefly, so the hardware initially worked.
After that:
Steering and camera servos stopped responding completely
ZERO button only flashes the green LED on the HAT, no servo movement
Python servo test scripts run but do nothing
The car can move forward and backward, but cannot steer or move the camera at all.
Issue 2: EzBlockOS WiFi setup fails
Flashed EzBlockOS to a new SD card.
No WiFi configuration option during flashing.
After boot, connected via Bluetooth (iOS).
Entered correct WiFi SSID and password.
WiFi connection always fails, tested with:
Multiple iOS devices
Android devices
Same working WiFi network
At the moment, the product is not usable, and I would appreciate clear guidance or a fix.
Short update. I figured that wiring was not correctly done and have fixed it. However, pressing ‘Zero’ button or running the servo script makes the steering turn quickly to complete right and it stops there. The camera servos move slightly but it does not appear to ‘zeroed’. I disconnected and connected again, same behavior with the servos. The wheels just turn extreme right and stop there.
Based on the video you provided, we can determine that the servo homing assembly was either not done or not done correctly, which is causing the inconsistent servo angles. The order of your servo assembly and fixation was incorrect.
You need to perform servo homing first, and then secure and assemble the servo and servo horn onto the metal plate. Therefore, we recommend that you remove all the servos, redo the homing procedure, and then reassemble them.
The steps are as follows:
Power on the Robot HAT to make it operational.
Briefly press the ‘Zero’ button twice.
Connect the servo cable to the PWM pin. You will see the servo return to its zero (home) position.
Do not unplug the servo that has just been homed. First, fix and assemble this servo according to the assembly steps, and then unplug it.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 to home and then assemble the remaining servos.
The homing and assembly steps are the same for all three servos. Only after completing the assembly of all servos should you proceed to run the calibration example to calibrate them.