GrovePI and GoPIGo

General Discussions
1

Hi,
I am new this. I currently have EV3 and kids are enjoying this. My daughter participated in the science fair this year and next year we want to something related to robotics. My friend pointed me to dexter website. We want to do something with Raspberry Pi, learn the interfaces and then decide on a project and concentrate.

My question is on which kit I should get, GoBox, GroovePi, GOPIGo or PivotPI etc? I am really confused.

Please help.

Thanks

2

The BrickPi is for interfacing between the Pi and Lego motors and sensors the others you have mentioned there are stand alone and won’t be abe to mix with your Lego stuff.

Having the BrickPi will allow you to do both worlds together at once, all the Pi stuff and all the Lego stuff. My robots have lots from both platforms on them.

3

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I want to know which one is better if I did not want to integrate with only Lego? Rather my question is which interface is more universal for robotics science project?

4

Exactly the BrickPi is universal it can do everything that Raspberry Pi can do and it can do everything that the Lego brick can do.

Every platform has its advantages and disadvantages.

The Lego advantage is that it is super easy to built the physical robot, can can just clip it together anyway you want and if during testing you find you need to change the setup of the physical robot you just simply clip it apart and clip it back together in the needed configuration.

The Raspberry Pi advantage is it is super compatible to everything, it has every option you can dream of connecting to it and can run any Linux software. The Pi has USB, Blue Tooth, WiFi, GPIO pins, DSI connectors to the graphics processor, It will communicate with all the standard protocols like I2C, UART, SPI. So that makes it super easy for 3rd party manufacturers or yourself to make any sort accessory you can dream of to plug in to thebPI.

5

Thanks again. Now I also want to understand the software that is available, I see something installed on 4GB card and another one on 8GB card (CINCH). What is the difference? Also question about buying directly from dexter vs buying from Amazon?

6

Ok so the raspberry pi is basically a computer but with out a hard drive or screen or keyboard (you can simply plug these in if you want) because it doesn’t have a hard drive the operating system and storage is on a mini SD card. So to make a Pi run you have to install the Linux operating system on to and SD card then boot it up. There is lots of slightly different version of Linux but but the version most used for the Pi is one call Jessy that is slightly modified to work best on Rasyberry Pi. Normally when you install software on your PC the installation program will make some small changes to start up settings on your operating system. The operating system on the SD card is referred to as the image so to run the BrickPi a small change needs to be made to the image on the SD card. There is 2 ways of doing this either modify the image that is already on the SD or down load the modified image directly from Dexter for a simple plug and play.

In Choosing you size of your SD card I suggest the bigger the better as it not only stores you operating system but ti is the whole storage for the pi for any other software or any files you have created and want to store on the pi like programs or pics and video. I personally have a 64GB SD card that I brought for $20AUD and installed the image onto myself.

7

Hi @jindala,

We have two softwares, one is called the Raspbian for Robots and other is called the Cinch. Raspbian for Robots has a lot of add on features to Raspbian Jessie, it is easy to connect and has support for scratch programming and lot more, you can learn about its features from here.

Cinch is a version of Raspbian for Robots where it is for the classroom purpose, where you are likely to have multiple robots and you would like to have your laptop exclusively connected to your robot. You can know more about cinch from here.

Moreover both of these images come on a 8GB SD card and I would suggest you to buy the products directly from Dexter Industries as it would be easy for us to provide you support on our products. However you are open to choose from where you want to buy them.

You can buy Raspbian for Robots from here and Cinch from here.

Please let us know if you need more information,
-Shoban

8

Thanks @Shoban! Few more things. I am interested in teaching kids about robotics, python, and ultimately be prepared for the science fair next year to motivate them to move forward.
I am not experienced in these fields. But I am not new to programming too. So I need some curriculum, project guide and some instruction material, so that I can teach my kids. How can you help me in achieving this? I currently have the EV3 kit as well as Raspberry pi 3B. I am open to buy couple of kits from you, but I need instruction material.

For example for EV3, since I do not have instruction material, my son knows many sensors but since I do not have a something to follow, it is hard to keep him busy and challenged.

Can you please help me decide and suggest what all I need to get to achieve this?

9

Hello @jindala

We have getting started instructions here and many projects that you can duplicate to learn more, like the balancebot or the M&M sorter

If you prefer to have a curriculum, you can look at GoBox for the GoPiGo

10

Thanks a lot for the reply. I am ready to buy the GoBox and I am also interested in BrickPi. I have few more questions.

  1. I do see GroovePi and PivotPi. My question is that what can the GroovePi can do, that cannot be done with the GoBox and BrickPi?
  2. Same question is for PivotPi.
  3. The sensors received with GoBox, are these same as GroovePi?
  4. Is it possible that I can talk to a live person? I would have made my purchase weeks earlier and did not need to spend money on canakit. I feel that if a call service is available, that would have helped me in this particular case. Any help is appreciated.
11

Hello @jindala
We have weird hours and are spread around the world so it’s hard to offer phone services. I’ll try to help out as best as possible.

GrovePi: it can support many sensors as there are multiple ports while the GoPiGo only has one port for each type of sensors. It has no wheels and does not move.
GoPiGo supports two motors and one servo motor and is limited in the number of sensors that are supported (Quite a few but not as much as GrovePi).

BrickPi3 supports the Lego Mindstorms motors and sensors, but they are not the same sensors as the previous two.
PivotPi supports up to eight servo motors but no sensors at all.

You can use PivotPi with any of the other three boards (GrovePi,GoPiGo and BrickPi3) to get some extended functionality.

12

Thanks. I guess few more questions.

  1. I need to know that the sensors you send with GoBox and GroovePi are same?
  2. If these are same, then I can just get couple of things with GroovePi and do not need to get any kit?
  3. The software, that will come with GoBox, can be used with all boards? If yes, then do you think, I still need to buy the Cinch software?
  4. Why do I need Wifi Dongle? The raspberry pi 3 kit I bought from amazon, is able to catch wifi out of the box, so the question is that if Raspberry pi is able to catch wifi, do I still need wifi dongle?
  5. Does almost all projects you have on your website for GroovePi, BrickPi and PivotPi has the step by step instructions?
  6. Basically I am looking to get best of all. I already have one Raspberry Pi 3(that I bought from amazon, I wish I would have spent less money on that, I bought the complete kit). So If I purchase following, would I have most bang for the buck and I will be able to make most of the projects on your website?
    a) GoBox subscription
    b) GroovePi board
    c) GroovePi Box
    d) BrickPi3
    e) GrovePi Case
    f) PivotPi Board
    g) something else?
13

Sensors with GoBox and GrovePi Starter Kit are not the same but there’s some overlap
List of sensors in GrovePi Starter Kit: https://www.dexterindustries.com/shop/grovepi-starter-kit-2/
List of sensors with GoBox (Scroll down) : https://www.dexterindustries.com/gobox-robot-subscription/

The GrovePi is available on its own: https://www.dexterindustries.com/shop/grovepi-board/

The Software (Raspbian for Robots and Cinch) is the same for all our boards.

The Pi3 dongle does not behave well in noisy (from a wifi point of view) environment. So we recommend one that gets a better connection

14

Hi, thanks for the information! I checked all the links. When I asked about the sensors being same between GrovePi and GoBox, I meant that if a sensor is present in both the kits, does it mean that that sensor is common between both and is in fact the same hardware?
Also the sensors those are compatible with GrovePi are also compatible with the GoPiGo?

Lastly if I am putting all the items at once, is there a combination discount? Because if not, then I will wait and order slowly. Until now I have figured out that I need a GoBox and BrickPi3 (may be a base kit. If some combined offer is there then I will order the sensors, grovepi and pivotpi etc

16

When I asked about the sensors being same between GrovePi and GoBox, I meant that if a sensor is present in both the kits, does it mean that that sensor is common between both and is in fact the same hardware?

Yes, sensors that are compatible with GoBox, are also compatible with the GrovePi.

Also the sensors those are compatible with GrovePi are also compatible with the GoPiGo?

Not all sensors compatible with the GrovePi are compatible with the GoPiGo. However, the sensors that come in the GrovePi starter kit are compatible with the GoPiGo. Is there a specific sensor you’re interested in?

Lastly if I am putting all the items at once, is there a combination discount? Because if not, then I will wait and order slowly. Until now I have figured out that I need a GoBox and BrickPi3 (may be a base kit. If some combined offer is there then I will order the sensors, grovepi and pivotpi

Unfortunately, no, there is no such discount. If you’re buying for a school or as a distributor, educator, or placing a purchase order you should contact us through our contact page here.

17

A post was split to a new topic: GoPiGo with DexterOS not booting up