Robot Controller Mini (3 Axis Accelerometer+GYRO+Magnetometer)

The Robot Controller Mini from Rhydolabz is a very compact solution for controlling upto 9 servomotors and 2 DC motors or 5 Digital I/O (Servo motors), 4 Analog Sensors and 2 DC Motors with MPU 6050 based motion tracker (3 axis Accelerometer _ GYRO) and magnetometer (HMC 5883) to sense the Direction .The onboard host microcontroller ATMEGA328P running at 16MHz clock controls the Servos, Sensors and DC motors. The chip comes with Arduino bootloader which allows to download the hex code serially ( via USB using a FTDI basic breakout board). There is a 6 pin FTDI connector with DTR, TXD, RXD, +5V, NC, GND for communication which can be used for communication as well as serial programming of MCU. The motor driver used onboard is TB6612FNG which can control 2 DC Motors having current rating of 1A. This Robot controller board is populated with XBEE compatible Connectors, which can be used for wireless control/monitoring using XBEE (zigbee), Bluebee (bluetooth) modules. To interface with XBEE modules operating at 3.3V, MOSFET based onboard level convertors are incorporated. It means that, this controller can receive signals from any devices like micro controller, PC's, Laptops, smartphones etc.

There are 2 push button switches on the board, an arduino reset switch and a user programmable switch connected to an I/O Pin. The user programmable switch is connected to D10 pin of ATMEGA 328P. An user controllable LED is connected to D11 via onboard. Solder jumper J12 apart from the power LED. There is an onboard provision for 5V buzzer interface connected to D13 via on-board user selectable solder jumper J16 and transistor. But it is not populated normally ,supplied along with board, so as to solder by user if desired. The ISP connector on the board allows to bootload host controller.

The module can be powered up through 2 pin RMC connector having reverse polarity protection. 5V and 3.3V onboard voltage regulators are provided to power the microcontroller and sensors. The user has to ensure that the power source is capable of providing enough current that is capable of driving the load(motors).

Highlighted feature of The Robot controller Mini from Rhydolabz is its compact size.

The Robot Controller Mini comes with inbuilt motion tracker (MPU 6050) which can be used to track the movement of an object. The MPU-60X0 features three 16-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for digitizing the gyroscope outputs and three 16-bit ADCs for digitizing the accelerometer outputs. Communication with all registers of the device is performed using I2C at 400kHz.

The Honeywell HMC5883L is a surface-mount, multi-chip module designed for low-field magnetic sensing with a digital interface for applications such as low-cost compassing and magnetometry. This device communicates with I2C protocol standard and fast modes, 100kHz and 400kHz, respectively, but does not support the high speed mode.

The robot controller allows to control upto 9 servo motors + 2 DC motors or 5 Digital I/O (Servo motors), 4 Analog Sensors and 2 DC Motors . Labelled multi-colour male berg strip connectors enable to plugin the servos with ease. The signal pins are directly connected to the port pins of MCU. The pin which controls each servo is labelled on the front side of the board. 2-pin berg strip connector is used to supply working voltage for servo. Since it goes directly without regulator it is necessary to provide only the sufficient voltage (within the range of servo voltage).

The Robot Controller Mini can be used to drive two DC motors. Three 2 pin RMC connectors are mounted on top of the board. One is used to provide working voltage for DC Motors. The other two 2-pin RMC connectors can be used to drive the motor. TB6612FNG is the driver IC for 1A DC motor. All of them are labelled. DC motor driving voltage can range from 2.5 – 13.5 V(maximum voltage is +15V).

Specifications of Robot Controller Mini:

• Onboard chip ATMEGA 328P running at 16MHz clock.
• Option for XBEE/Bluetooth based Wireless with Robot Controller.
• Onboard MPU 6050 motion tracker (3 Axis Acceloeometer + GYRO).
• Onboard  magnetometer (HMC 5883).
• TB6612FNG  motor driver for driving 2 DC motors.
• 6-pin ISP Connector, to bootload the MCU or to program the MCU directly without bootloader.
• 6-Pin FTDI connector for communication using a USB – TTL converter/RS232 – TTL converter.
• Onboard Reverse polarity protection.
• Can Control upto 9 servo motors+ 2 DC Motors or 5 Servo motor, 4 Analog Sensors + 2 DC Motors.
• The berg strips for servomotors are of different colours for easy identification.
• On-board 5V Low dropout Regulator for Microcontroller ans sensors.
• On-board 3.3V regulator and MOSFET Based level converter circuitry for Zigbee.
• There are 2 push button switches on the board, RESET and an user programmable switch.
• Buzzer interface.
• Supply voltage range: 6-12V DC.
• DC Motor voltage: 2.5 - 13.5 V.

Package includes:

• 1 x Robot Controller Mini
• 4 x 2 pin RMC connector
• 1 x 5V Buzzer

Resources:

• RhydoLABZ wiki
• Rhydolabz wiki sample project
• Dimension diagram
• Datasheet – ATMEGA328P
• Datasheet – MPU6050
• Datasheet – HMC5883
• Datasheet – TB6612 FNG