3pi+ 32U4 Control Board

This is the control board for the 3pi+ 32U4 robot, and it is included as part of the Standard Edition, Turtle Edition, and Hyper Edition 3pi+ 32U4 kits and robots.

AUD$ 126.95

Special Order

Shipping from $7.90

+4 more from our supplier in 7-10 days

Our Code: SKU-007050

Supplier Link: [Pololu MPN:3735]

Description

3pi+ 32U4 Control Board. (1)

Overview

The 3pi+ 32U4 Control Board is designed to be assembled with a 3pi+ Chassis Kit and a pair of 6V Micro Metal Gearmotors with extended motor shafts to create a 3pi+ 32U4 robot. This product is primarily intended as a replacement product for the 3pi+ 32U4 robots and kits that already include it or for those who want to build a 3pi+ 32U4 robot with different gearmotor versions than the ones offered with those complete kits and assembled robots.

This control board is already included as part of the following 3pi+ 32U4 assembled robots and kits:

Included components

3pi+ 32U4 Control Board with included hardware.

The 3pi+ 32U4 Control Board ships with all of its surface-mount components populated, and it includes the following through-hole parts and mounting hardware:

one buzzer
jumper wires for soldering motors to the board
two magnetic encoder discs
one low-profile 2×7 male header for use with an 8×2 character LCD (not included)
four single battery contacts
four 3/16″ #2-56 screws and nuts for mounting the board to a 3pi+ Chassis

Please note that assembly (including soldering) is required; see the user’s guide for assembly instructions.

3pi+ 32U4 Robot, top view with LCD removed.

What else you will need

To build a robot with the 3pi+ 32U4 Control Board, you will need a few additional parts:

a 3pi+ Chassis Kit
two Micro Metal Gearmotors with extended motor shafts (6V MP or 6V HPCB versions recommended)
four AAA batteries: the 3pi+ chassis and control board work with both alkaline and NiMH batteries, though we recommend rechargeable NiMH cells
a USB A to Micro-B cable to connect the robot to your computer for programming and debugging
tools to help with kit assembly; see the user’s guide for a list of specific tools

3pi+ 32U4 Robot.

Optional accessories

You might also consider getting these for your 3pi+ 32U4 robot:

an 8×2 character LCD
more sensors
connectors (headers, jumper wires, etc) for adding those sensors or other peripherals to the 3pi+ 32U4 expansion ports

Comparison with the original 3pi

The 3pi+ 32U4 offers many major improvements over the original 3pi, including:

ATmega32U4 microcontroller with Arduino-compatible bootloader can be programmed directly through a USB connection
Quadrature encoders on both motors for closed-loop position and speed control
Full 9-axis IMU (three-axis gyro, accelerometer, and compass)
Bottom-loading battery holders keep batteries accessible even if additional levels are added
Full wrap-around bumper to protect electronics from collisions
Two bump sensors on the front

The 3pi+ 32U4 uses a different microcontroller with different pin mappings compared to the older 3pi, and some of the software library interfaces are different, so programs written for the original 3pi will not work on the 3pi+ 32U4 without modification.

Specifications

Dimensions

Size:	2.6″ × 3.4″
Weight:	20 g¹

General specifications

Processor:	ATmega32U4 @ 16 MHz
RAM size:	2560 bytes
Program memory size:	32 Kbytes²
Motor driver:	DRV8838
Motor channels:	2
Minimum operating voltage:	2.7 V
Maximum operating voltage:	6.5 V
Continuous output current per channel:	1.8 A
Logic voltage:	5 V
Reverse voltage protection?:	Y
External programmer required?:	N

Identifying markings

PCB dev codes:	3pi03a
Other PCB markings:	0J13071

Notes:

1: Without included hardware.
2: Note that 4 KB of the MCU's 32 KB of flash memory is used by the pre-installed USB bootloader. All 32 KB is available when programming via the ISP header rather than the bootloader.