Cerevo Releases Mini 4WD Hacker Kit to Learn Programming and Making IoT Gadgets Controlled via a Smartphone

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

5th July 2016, Tokyo

Cerevo, the IoT (Internet of Things) startup based in Tokyo, has started to sell a product named “MKZ4”, a hacker kit for Tamiya Wild Mini 4WD toys in Japan. With this kit, you can learn how to program and how to develop an IoT gadget – a smart toy controllable with your smartphone. MKZ4 is priced at $79 including shipping to the US ($89 including shipping to the rest of the world) and will be available at the Official Cerevo Store (http://gstore.cerevo.com).

image02Tamiya Mini 4WD toy customized with Cerevo MKZ4

The MKZ4 kit includes a wireless module “ESP-WROOM-02” with a SoC “ESP8266EX”, a special circuit board for Mini 4WD toys, special steering parts to enable motion and turning controls and other parts necessary to customize and hack the toy made by Tamiya.

image01MKZ4

Customizing Tamiya’s Wild Mini 4WD with MKZ4 makes it possible to control via a smartphone web browser to move forward/back and turn right and left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9qCwAzl3iQ
Prototype Movie

MKZ4 originated at a workshop to teach IoT gadget development to children. After huge demand in Japan for the workshop, we decided to move forward with mass production for this hacker kit. Cerevo will also release an additional kit to send a program to the MKZ4 wireless module from a browser – MKZ4WK. MKZ4WK will be priced at US$29 including shipping to the US and at US$99 in a bundle with MKZ4 including shipping to the US.

image00MKZ4WK

Prices may differ for overseas markets. Currently, we’re only planning to sell from Japan and ship those products to foreign customers via our direct e-commerce store (http://gstore.cerevo.com). For any distributors or resellers who want to sell in overseas markets, please contact us at globalsales@cerevo.com. Some countries may need additional certifications to sell these products but we would like the opportunity to promote education for children in programming and IoT products by hacking toys into smart toys.

Product Information

MKZ4 – Tamiya Wild Mini 4WD Hacker Kit
Price: $79 including shipping to the US ($89 including shipping to the rest of the world)

MKZ4WK – Programming kit for MKZ4 (Transferring programs to MKZ4 can be done without this kit too)
Price: US$29 including shipping to the US and US$99 in a bundle with MKZ4 including shipping to the US (US$109 including shipping to the rest of the world)

Cerevo has confirmed the following Tamiya Wild Mini 4WD series models work with MKZ4, please refer this site for more details on the series – http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/list/32wildmini/kit17001.htm

  • Lunch Box Jr.
  • Wildsaurus
  • Nissan King Cab Jr.
  • Bullhead Jr.
  • Toyota Hi-lux Monster Racer Jr.
  • Toyota Hi-lux Surf
  • Nissan Terrano ’93 Paris Dakar
  • Dash-CBW Command Saurus
  • Mammoth Dump Truck

Prices and composition of those kits may differ for overseas markets. We will make another announcement to update on any changes.

About Tamiya Wild Mini 4WD

Please refer to the Tamiya website for more details.
http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/list/32wildmini/kit17001.htm

Press Images

A selection of high resolution images can be found at the link below.
https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/cerevo-share/image_mkz4.zip

About Cerevo

Cerevo Inc. (Consumer Electronic REVOlution) is located in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan with a branch office in Redmond, WA, USA. Cerevo focuses on creating networked devices for consumer and professional users. Cerevo’s products have been recognized globally for their unique connected solutions.

Cerevo has developed and released CEREVO CAM – a digital camera with internet connectivity, the LiveShell series – devices to enable live streaming on Ustream and YouTube using only a digital camera, SmartTrigger – a Bluetooth remote to enable the release of your digital camera shutter from your smartphone, LiveWedge – a 4 input HDMI switcher with live streaming capabilities and the XON series of smart sports products. These products are sold in more than 50 countries. For more information, please visit – http://cerevo.com

Press Contact

Cerevo Inc
info-global@cerevo.com
https://www.facebook.com/CerevoGlobal
https://twitter.com/CerevoGlobal