Robot Wars: MonsterBorg vs Trilobot Base Kit
By Marc de Vinck. Posted
This article was originally published as part of HackSpace magazine, which has since been incorporated into Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
The MonsterBorg ($257) from PiBorg is a robust robotics platform for your Raspberry Pi. It features a custom motor driver: the ThunderBorg. This allows you to easily control a variety of DC motors directly from your Raspberry Pi. The kit includes four high-torque 300 RPM metal geared motors, a well-designed aluminium chassis, 105 mm off-road tires, and a mount for a Camera Module.
No soldering is required. All you need to do is add your Raspberry Pi, almost any standard variant will do, and you are ready to tackle the outdoors. PiBorg claims you will get up to three hours of run time on ten AA batteries. Adding a camera, GPS, and some additional sensors could make for a great autonomous outdoor robotics platform capable of withstanding a fair amount of abuse.
The Trilobot ($54.12) from Pimoroni is a sturdy Raspberry Pi-based robotics kit. It was designed with educational use in mind, so it also has great documentation and example files. The Trilobot features 2WD, breakout headers for additional sensors and accessories, six-zone under-bot lighting, status LEDs, and a front-facing ultrasonic sensor for measuring distance.
The PCB is labelled for ease of use, even for a beginner. Pimoroni has a full-featured Python library to help you get up and running quickly. You can pick up the Trilobot with or without a Raspberry Pi, so if you are lucky enough to have an extra one and want to build a bot, this is a great choice. Just remember, if you go for the version without a Raspberry Pi, you’ll also need a battery and a USB card for your Raspberry Pi to get going.
Verdicts
MonsterBorg
9/10
A very robust robotics platform.
Trilobot Base Kit
9/10
Add a Raspberry Pi and get going!
Marc de Vinck is the founder of Unexpected Labs and creator dLUX-dLites
Subscribe to Raspberry Pi Official Magazine
Save up to 37% off the cover price and get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W with a subscription to Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
More articles
Win one of three Raspberry Pi 4 with 3GB RAM!
Raspberry Pi 4 is still a powerful piece of kit, and this new 3GB version is great for projects and builds that need slightly more than 2GB of RAM but don’t quite need 4GB. We have three to give away and you can enter below. Win 1 of 3 Raspberry Pi 4 3GB
Read more →
Etch A Sketch CNC machine
The software controlling the Etch A Sketch logs the image, turns it into vectors, turns the vectors into G-code, then sends the G-code to the Etch A Sketch – and it was all written by AI
Read more →
Vintage Radio Plex Server
There’s an antenna sticking up on this build, but it’s just for show
Read more →