Let's Make Robots!

Results of the Mr Basic competition

fritsl's picture

O-M-G!

What started out as a good idea got complicated. Sounds like any robot-project? Well.. perhaps this is why; the contest works / not works like the robots it's driven by.

Re-capture:

DAGU first let me taste & try some of their products. Really good products, and DAGU was (and are) really polite, nice, fast responding, fair.. the kind of people that I'd like to support!

We somehow got to the idea that a new product of theirs, MR Basic, should get a promotion on LMR, while they on the other hand should sell us cheap HW and reward the 3 robots made using this kit - each with the grand price of USD 100.. What could go wrong?

Well.. as you know, first there where some issues with the kit. To be frankly there where a lot, so that part (the foundation) pretty muchfell apart :)

DAGU at least lived up (and more) to what one could expect, and not alone send people replacement parts for free, but even included a gadget.

Next, the voting..

To put it short, it turned out to be a crap idea to vote "best robots" on LMR. It sounded so innocent, but turned out that of course people did not like to vote, because they would have to discourage other fellow robot builders.. wich is pretty much everything this LMR-thing does NOT stand for (we let other sites do that).

Oh boy.

Well.. I hope you all forgive me the crap I have done here, and know that the intentions where good. Next time we will make up something better.

HOWEVER! The robots made are really cool. And none of this should be taken so serious, it IS after all just for fun.

Just to make matters just that little extra difficult, maneuver managed to squeeze in a robot in the last second. And tell us all how great it could have been if not the base of the competition was a mess.. And then he voted it 5 stars. Or somebody did.

Since the voting is based on average, this one vote of 5 stars completely kills all competition. OMFG, what to do?

Well.. I have decided, that I will just rule here. I am sure it is a bad idea, but this whole competition was, so here goes.

 

The 3 winners of the doomed LMR DAGU Mr Basic contest are, in random order:

Mr.Flex (Pimp My Ride) - Bridge on the River Qwai

Mr. "Red" Adair - Firefighting robot

retro light show bot - now with extra details

 

A price of honor goes to

Mr. Tidy

(But since it's master is about to work for the company paying the price, this can only bea price of honor, though it was in the top, judged from the votes)

 

- And we all know that the whole concept was a bad idea; There is no point in saying that one is better than the other, so a BIG THANKS to everyone participating, and I'd like to mention these:

Jeep Mr Basic

Mr. Passive agressive

1069-E1 - Hunting for Dust Bunnies

Mr Mouse Droid - Ericski's Mr Basic Contest Entry

Brainy Basic

Mr BASIC + AXE020

Some has really done a great job!!

- And a big thanks to rik, for tipping Make Magazine

 

I will NEVER make a competition like this again, we should all be winners, we will find other ways to involve vendors.

Thanks again, I suspect DAGU will get in touch with the lucky 3.

Congratiolations to you, guys! :)

 

PS: Thanks again for playing along.. Yes, you too ;)

Rudolph's picture

If nothing else, now we know

If nothing else, now we know how _not_ to do bigger contests. We can only hope this kind of exposure will happen again. Before the powers that be agree to it though, a better voting system can be worked out, including at least two weeks between the entry deadline and the counting of the votes (and not using the 5 star rating system to do it!).

Contratulations to the three winners!  And a big Thank You to all the entrants. Even if you didn't get a prize, believe that I'm not the only one that really enjoyed seeing your work.

ericski's picture

Congrats to the winners

Great job guys.
OddBot's picture

Contest problems - alearning experience

I think the competition was a good idea but unless a suitable voting system can be integrated into the site then a single Judge may be a better solution :)
voodoobot's picture

Or we could have a panel of

Or we could have a panel of impartial judges selected/ nominated by the site members.  :D
CaptainTuna's picture

Or maybe  polls integrated

Or maybe  polls integrated in forum posts, some forums do have them.
Ant's picture

Congratulations

Congratulations to Gareth and RobotFreak, and all the other entries, they were all worthy of winning. I agree the voting system didn't do so well and I hope it doesn't discourage the others; mif had a cool design and an excelent robot for a first robot,  rik loved your video as always (and hurry up with the next pulse), ericski I really feel bad for yours, it is a great bot and worthy of winning, I can't remember what the votes were doing at the time, but I think it may have been a different outcome on the 1st of July. maneuver the tank is cool, sorry to read about the troubles you had along the way, looking forward to seeing kitty on top.

But the best one by far was  OddBot and Mr Tidy, as always has a great writeup of how things are done,  just a good idea and implementation from the start.

Thanks to everyone for the support in making Retro bot (and voting), and thanks to Frits for the great site to start with, DAGU for contest and Mr Basic and the cool robots at good prices :)  

 

ericski's picture

This may sound bitter,,,

...and I am a bit.

Depending on when on July 1st I was either in 3rd place or tied for 3rd place.  That didn't matter because not only did the deadline change, the way the winners was decided was changed, too.  No, I won't be taking place in any "contests" or "challenges" for a while.  I'm totally discouraged and put off. 

The three winners are awesome and I don't begrudge them one bit.  I do expect to see some cool bots with the Dagu stuff they get, though.

 

 

fritsl's picture

Sorry

I hope you forgive me the crap I have done here, and know that the intentions where good.
ericski's picture

Yes

I know that the intentions were good and that it wasn't personal.
maneuver's picture

No, Fritsl, no!

Under no circumstances are you allowed to prevent another contest like this from taking place, fritsl.

I've done several competitions for musicians and have run into all the problems we encountered here. We've ended up with a fairly simple voting system that makes all the competitors feel it was a fair vote. And I'll happy to help implement it the next time somebody offers us cheap kits and free prizes.

We're scientists here and every good scientist knows that failure is an important part of the process. So, with that in mind I conclude that this competition was a successful step forward. -Next time will be awesome!-


Oh, and ericski. It's just a game man. I won too, you know. We still got really fun kits extremely cheap!

 

 

TotoroYamada's picture

Don't overreact fristl, it

Don't overreact fristl, it haven't been that bad!!! and it was pretty funny to see the different things that lmr members made with the same base.

In a contest, there always are people who are disppointed, but if they don't want to be sad, they just don't take part into, that's it... (for example, i've made my entry for oddbot contest, just to see that it's not even a valid one... but what the hell, funny to do, funny to see other entries, and good motivation for everyone!)

So stop that, it wasn't crappy at all!!! :D

mif's picture

Good job everyone. Great robots.

 

First of all, congratulations to the winners. They were my best voted ones.

Thank you for your support, If you are patient, you will see Jeep Mr Basic fully working soon.

And finally some words about the challenge: Don't give up fritsl, it wasn't that bad. The experience earned with this challenge will help LMR to improve.

 

TeleFox's picture

Congrats!

Congratulations guys, this contest resulted in some pretty sweet bots. I've been too busy these last few weeks to follow the end of the competition as closely as I wanted, but it's good to see Ant rewarded for his retro light show bot - I have a great deal of sympathy for anyone interfacing sensitive low-voltage μCs with high-voltage peripherals =D
Ant's picture

thanks telefox, did you see

thanks telefox, did you see the 555 I killed?
TeleFox's picture

Yep, the photo made me feel

Yep, the photo made me feel oddly nostalgic for some reason...

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