Will Monster Borg replace Yeti Borg in Formula Pi?

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fdrago
Will Monster Borg replace Yeti Borg in Formula Pi?

Hi all, Seems the Yeti borg is still not available but I found the new Kickstarter campaign "Monster Borg". Do you think the Monster Borg will replace the Yeti in the Formula Pi ?

Regards,
Fabio

Arron Churchill
Arron Churchill's picture
MonsterBorg Formula Pi Series

Yes, we are going to have MonsterBorgs as the main robots for Formula Pi and retire the YetiBorgs from racing at some point.

We are intending to offer everyone with a current summer or winter entry to Formula Pi the choice between competing in the YetiBorg based series or upgrading to the MonsterBorg series.

If we do not have enough people interested in running with YetiBorgs to make a full lineup for the summer series then we may only have the MonsterBorg series and retire the YetiBorgs early.

Either way Formula Pi code will be available for both the YetiBorg and MonsterBorg as part of the race entry :)

chris (not verified)
Yay!

Great news on the switch to MonsterBorg. Much more capable platform both within the ForumuaPi context and outside it.

topshed
Choices....

If we have a summer entry, how do we tell you whether we want to race Yetis or Monsters?

Arron Churchill
Arron Churchill's picture
Grand Pi or Monster series

We will be sending out an email soon asking all entrants what series they would prefer to run in, Grand Pi or Monster.

There will be a limited number of places, so everyone might not get their first choice. The actual number of slots available will depend on how many of our Kickstarter backers choose to enter the summer series.

topshed
Custom SD card

Thanks Arron. We were going to submit a custom SD card like we did for the spring series. I was going to post this back with the lid, but to reach you before the deadline for testing session 0 we really need to do that in the next couple of days. The setup for Yeti vs Monster is a little different, as is the Race code.

So I'm not sure how to proceed without knowing which series we'll be entering (ideally we'd like to be in the Monster series - we did back it on Kickstarter but didn't pay for formula pi entry as we already had a place in the summer series from the Yeti Kickstarter).

Arron Churchill
Arron Churchill's picture
Custom SD card

I would suggest assuming you get your first pick (Monster) as it will take a while to get all of the replies back and work out the running lists.

We are expecting most people will get their first choice :)

Anonymous (not verified)
Hi Arron, many thanks for

Hi Arron, many thanks for your feedback. I'm more than happy to back the Monster Borg campaign.

Anyway I have applied for the next summer event in order to get confident with the code. Probably my race code will be plain and maybe it could be used with either platform.

Saska
Which one?

Which one would be the best to pick for the summer series? If I pick the Monster Borg, would that mean that everyone starts from 0 and the race code of the previous​ winner can't be used? Would that make for a fairer competition?

Arron Churchill
Arron Churchill's picture
Starting series

I think it will depend on what you want to try.

The upsides of the Grand Pi series are:

  • The YetiBorgs should be a bit easier to control with the slower speed
  • There is a lot of video of how they react around the track
  • You have two potential starting bases for the code

The upsides of the Monster series are:

  • No-one has tried them yet (except us) so everyone is on a level playing field
  • The additional power of the Pi 3 will allow more complex code
  • The base code running on the MonsterBorg drives better, making it more predictable than the YetiBorgs
  • The MonsterBorgs should drive better flipped than the YetiBorgs

There were some teams that took extensive logging and track photos when racing in the previous Grand Pi, but it remains to be seen if they will prove useful to them for the next series. I also think most of the entries that did well last time are considering the move to the Monster series themselves.

Either should be good to start with, there is still a lot of room for improvement with the Grand Pi code. Personally I would be tempted to start with the Monster series if you want to experiment with the code a lot, or the Grand Pi if you want to keep your changes simple :)

Saska
Hmm...

I'm kind of tempted to try the new Monster series, but then again, I don't have any previous experience with robots in Python. My python knowledge in general is not so great, I've only done a little bit of IOT stuff with it. Tough decision.

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