Sparkly 2.0 Guide ENG

1. M3x25 plastic screws
2. M3x16 plastic screws
3. M3x10 plastic screws
4. M3x6 plastic screws
5. M3x10 spacers
6. M3x5 spacers
7. M3x60 spacers
8. Wheel axle
9. Batteries
10. Battery holder
11. Photoresistors
12. Receiver
13. Token
14. Wheels
15. Sparkly PCB
16. Electric motors
17. M3x3 spacers
18. M3x10 plastic screws
19. M3x6 metal screw
20. Antenna
21. Button caps
22. Transmitter
23. Controller PCB
24. M3x6 metal screws
25. Acrylic casings for controller
26. Acrylic casings for Sparkly
27. Stickers
28. Tires

Welcome to the Sparkly build guide!

Ready to build your very own Sparkly robo–car? Follow these fun and easy steps to bring Sparkly to the roads!

Let’s start by getting your acrylic casings ready.

Carefully peel off the protective foil from both sides of each casing so they are clear and shiny.

  

Let’s transform into real engineers now! The first step is to connect the battery holder to the PCB and insert the batteries into the holder. For this step, you’ll need the following components:

   

Insert the metal screws into the battery holder as shown in the photo:

   

Hold onto those screws and pop the casing on top of the battery holder. Make sure it’s on the right side, just like in the photo—this part is super important for later!

   

Now you can fasten everything together from the back side!  If you can’t tighten it enough with your fingers, grab a screwdriver for some extra help.

   

It’s time to set up the motors and connect them to the casings. This part is a bit trickier, so we need your full attention. Take these components:

  

For each motor, we’ll use these identical casings, two long bolts, and two spacers. Start with one motor and one casing. Attach the casing to the part where the wire is, just like in the photo. The casings have cutouts that fit perfectly with the motor, making it easy to assemble everything correctly.  

 

Now, take a long bolt and insert it from the side where the casing is. Push it through the motor until it comes out the other side.

 

  

Add another bolt in the same way. While holding everything in place, attach the second casing on the other side, ensuring it is positioned in the same direction as the first.

   

Take the spacers and use your fingers to fasten everything together.

  

 

 This is what your first motor should look like now:  

Ensure that both motors look exactly like this for everything to work properly. Next, we’ll need both motor parts and the battery holder.

Let’s connect these parts together. Attach the motors to the casing from the back side of the battery holder, ensuring the part with the wire is positioned towards the part with the hole.

 

 

Let’s switch gears to the PCB for a moment. Take the PCB and the photoresistors, and place them in the left and right corners. The photoresistors should stick out from the PCB; they don’t need to go all the way in.  

 

Time to get creative! In your kit, you’ve got various stickers—now’s the perfect moment to jazz up the casings and make your final robot look cooler. Remember to stick them on the correct sides, or your Sparkly might end up all inside out!

Let’s begin assembling Sparkly into a vehicle. But before we do that, let’s insert batteries into the battery holder.

 Be careful to put the batteries in the right way. Inside the battery holder, there are + and – signs indicating the correct polarity. The same + and – signs can be found on each battery.  

Now we can move on to connecting the casings. We’ll start with this one:  

 As you probably guessed, this is the side casing. Connect it with the battery holder on the upper side and ensure the narrower part aligns with where the wires are located. 

Now, take these casings and let’s connect everything together like solving a puzzle:

Now that we’ve completed that step, it’s time to connect everything into a car. Grab another side casing, 3 long spacers, 3 regular spacers, and 3 medium bolts.

The bolts will go through the three holes of the casing, but from the outside.

From the inside, we’ll secure them first with the smaller spacers, and then stack the long spacers on top of those.

 Before connecting the two sides of Sparkly together, we’ll need to add the PCB. 

 

You’ll notice three connectors on the PCB – that’s where you’ll connect the wires from the motors and the battery holder so everything can function properly.

 Here’s how you should connect it: the far–right connector in the photo is where the battery holder is connected; the middle connector is for the right motor, and the far–left connector is for the left motor.  

 Now, take this blue module and plug it into the pin header on the board.  

  

Take the casing with the black–green sticker and thread the photoresistors through the holes. Now, connect those parts to the rest of Sparkly.

Add the side casing part with the long spacers:

Hold everything together, then turn Sparkly to the other side and grab three bolts.  

 

Insert the bolts into the three holes where the long spacers are located. Use the screwdriver to fasten your Sparkly together.

The final casing part to add to your Sparkly goes at the back.

  

To make sure Sparkly can drive around, we need to add wheels. Here are the parts you’ll need for the wheels:

First, place the rubber tire on the black part of the wheel. This will ensure that your Sparkly drives smoothly.

Now take one of the bolts and an acrylic casing. On the front side of the wheel, there are two parts where you need to attach the acrylic piece. Insert the bolt through the casing and secure it with the black wheel. You’ll need a screwdriver to help you with that.

Repeat this step for all four wheels. Then, take those four wheels, spacers, and six bolts.

Insert one part of the spacer into the back side of the wheel, then take a bolt and fasten it together.

You might need a bit of strength for this, but ensure that your bolt is tightened all the way to the end. Next, pull the other end of the spacer through the casings in front of the motors.

Take the bolt and secure it into the spacer to prevent it from falling out.

Repeat this step for the second front wheel. Mounting the back wheels is quicker and easier. Simply connect them to the white motor part, take a bolt, and make sure everything stays securely in place.

You might have noticed that there are some other parts still waiting to be assembled. Those are for the controller you’ll use to drive Sparkly around.  Step one: Give the controller a cool look with the stickers of your choice. Pick any stickers you like!

 Once you’re done with customizing, you can take a PCB, antenna, and a round–head metal screw. 

Do you see the two white arrows pointing to one part of the PCB? That’s where this screw will go. Its job is to secure the antenna in place. Position the antenna on the metal part like this:

The next step is to add this small module that handles communication with the module on Sparkly. This communication allows you to navigate Sparkly around by clicking on the controller.

 You have to connect it to the pin header like this: 

Now, take the coin battery and place it in the battery holder with the + sign facing towards you.  

It’s time to add the casings. Let’s start with this one:

Now take the second identical casing and place it on top of this one.

You may have noticed that we’re missing the pushbuttons – well, the mechanical parts of them are already on the PCB, and now we’ll add the caps so you can click on them.

To secure the pushbuttons in place, we need to add another casing on top.  

 Take the biggest casing and place everything on it:

 Take one bolt and use it to screw all of the casings and the board together. 

Secure it at the back with a spacer.  

And you’re done!

Give Sparkly a spin! To turn on your Sparkly, click the on/off switch located on the right side of the PCB.

Sparkly has two driving modes: 1. Controller Mode: If you want to drive it using the controller, set the left– most switch to the controller mode, and turn on your controller. Then, click on pairing on Sparkly to connect it with the controller, and you’re ready to go.  2. Light Mode: If you prefer Sparkly to drive away from light sources, switch the left–most switch to the side with the bulb icon. Use your phone or any light source and point it at the photoresistors on Sparkly’s back. Sparkly will move around, avoiding the light source. That’s it! We hope you had a great time building Sparkly and its controller, and that you learned something new along the way.