Train darknet again on a bigger dataset

Question

I just finished training YOLOv3 on darknet on my custom dataset which only had 100 images. Now i want to train it for a bigger dataset(500 images). I was wondering if there was any way i could use this pre-trained model to train on my new dataset without starting from the beginning. Also, will it train quickly than before?

Answer 1

I think you can use the pre-trained weights to continue training with the new set of images. Check this How to train tiny-yolo.

Answer 2

You can do something like that, just continue your training with yout last saved model. Something like

./darknet detector train data/obj.data yolo-obj.cfg yolov4.conv.137

Change yolov4.conv.137 for your last saved model

./darknet detector train data/obj.data yolo-obj.cfg backup/yolov3_last.weights

You have to change your max_batches in your cfg, because your training will continue where it ended.

And maybe your model will converge to a better model faster than before, but as you are loading 5 times more images, it can be slower.