Advice regarding Me Auriga Vs. Orion

#1

A few months back I purchased a large quantity of Makeblock parts that I understand came from the closing down of a large retail chain. I feel I got an excellent deal and my haul includes 4 DC motor Kits, beams, brackets, hardware packs, and 2 grippers. My plan was to buy the rest of what was necessary to turn it all into an Ultimate Robot Kit (1.0) and give it to my son as a gift. As it gets closer to the time to purchase the rest of what I need… I find myself confused by the new choices.

My son is still young so the new MegaPi seems a little daunting and I am gonna say that we will keep that out of the running for now (I am sure we will want one soon enough!). So it comes down to me sticking to my plan and getting an Orion (and sensors) or instead picking up a Me Auriga. I have to say the Auriga looks like the better choice since it has so much functionality. I am a bit concerned that if I get an Orion, I will be buying into a dated piece of equipment. but on the other hand, the Me Auriga seems so new that I am finding less information about it and fewer designs built around it.

Here are my main questions/concerns:

  1. Will the Me Auriga physically fit into the 10 Ultimate Robot Kit 1.0 robot designs?
  2. Will the sensors onboard the Me Auriga be recognised as their Me Module equivalents?
  3. Can the onboard encoder motor ports be used to drive the older style DC motors (or would I need a second Me Dual DC Motor Driver)?

Thats all I can think of at the moment, I would really appreciate any feedback I have spent a couple of days researching the topic and feel I have exhausted the online information.

Thanks, Doc.

#2

Hi MuddockScott,

Normally we suggest that customer buy the whole package for the robot kit since we sell these robots in the form of kit.
And we have done a lots of tests for the mechanical structure and specs.
You are going to construct a robot similar to the Ultimate blue with the scattered components and modules even with different main board, this equal to develop a new project so that we may not able to provide detailed suggestions to you without any testing.
As for your question:

  1. Since the Me Auriga board has different size and there is a cover for it, you may try to use the me Auriga as the main board but the structure and shape of the robot should be some different with our Ultiamte Blue robot.
  2. I may not understand the question very well.
  3. The onboard encoder motor ports on Auriga cannot be used to drive the older style DC motors since the onboard motor interfaces on Auriga are different with ones on Orion board.
#3

Hi,
Thank you for your quick response. I found it very helpful!

Knowing that you are concerned that I may not be able to make the Auriga work in the same space is great information! Thanks. I am sure we could work around it, but perhaps that is not the best plan to start.

I suspected that the encoder motor ports would (understandably) not be backwards compatible. the added cost of another Me Dual DC Motor Driver is another check mark aginst getting the Auriga. (I am already planning on spending an amount that is raising eyebrows).

I know that I am purchasing the products in an unconventional way and I appreciate you taking the time to advise me. I like to buy products that I feel are well made and flexible wich is what drew me to Makeblock over other robot construction systems. I love the open nature of Makeblock and look forward to my son and I using it for many years. I am most interested in creating our own designs so, in the long run, these questions are not critical… but as he is still young and I prefer to leave the technically savvy part of myself dormant when not needed, it would be nice to have several designs that are tested and known to work that we can start with and fall back on.

So, I think I will pick up an Orion (and a bunch of bits) for now and maybe get an Auriga or MegaPi down the road. It’s likely we will want several controllers for different projects eventually, and since I hope to have a large collection of Makeblock parts… we will need them. : )

Thanks, Again.

#4

Hi MuddockScott,

It’s my pleasure to help.
Glad to hear that and thanks for sharing your stronge interests with our parts.

Best Regards!

#5