MegaPi vs Me Auriga

#1

Hi,

We are interested in getting a good and versatile robotics kit for our son. He is familiar with building circuits using Snap Circuits and has been doing Scratch programming and has also just started to play with Python. He is 8 years old.

  1. We have been looking into the great Makeblock kits and are not sure which is currently the better and most up-to-date set of the following two:

mBot Ultimate 2.0
mBot Ranger 3-in-1

I noticed the following:

The mBot Ultimate 2.0 has the MegaPi whereas the mBot Ranger has the ‘newer’ Me Auriga.

It also seems that the Me Auriga has different accessories (sensors) available, which all seem newer than the ones for the MegaPi unit. The sensors are not compatible it seems?

I would really appreciate if you can get back to me as soon as possible as I would like to order the kit. Important for us is that the kit is up-to-date and current so that he can grow with it and expand as he’d like. The initial cost of the kit is not a factor, it is more important that the kit is current and expandable so that he can use it for the coming years…

  1. What are the real differences between MegaPi and Me Auriga?

Thanks,

Andrew

#2

Underneath, they are both based on the Atmel ATMega2560 microcontroller. If you are using mBlock 5-RC, you’d need to select the Mega2560 board as the device. Regardless, the sensors, etc., should all work on either robot.

@tech_support, please feel free to correct me if I have misstated anything.

Regards,

Chuck

#3

Thank you @chuckmcknight
Ultimate 2.0(MegaPi) is not included in mBlock 5 support list. If you use mBlock 5, Ranger (meAuriga) is ok.
@wolkt if your son is trying to play with Python, I think you can consider Codey Rocky.

#4

Thanks for the replies @chuckmcknight and @tech_support .

I think Codey Rocky is a bit limited for him in robotics, as he likes to build things and like tanks, robots and machines…

You are saying that the MegaPi is NOT supported in the new mBlock 5 platform? So does this mean it would also have impact on using Scratch 3.0? Will the MegaPi be included soon in #mblock 5?

Lastly, is all Me components and sensors still compatible with the MegaPi? e.g Me LED Matrix, etc?

Thanks,

Andrew

#5

I am afraid there is no plan to add Ultimate 2.0/MagaPi to mBlock 5.
mBlock 3 is based on Scratch 2.0, which can link to Arduino IDE
There is no impact using MegaPi in mBlock 3.
All Me components are compatible with MegaPi.
You are suggested to download mBlock 3 and 5 for a comparison. Currently 3.4.11 is the latest version for mBlock 3 and RC version is latest for mBlock 5 (the official version will be released soon).

#6

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