Pololu Blog (Page 90)

Welcome to the Pololu Blog, where we provide updates about what we and our customers are doing and thinking about. This blog used to be Pololu president Jan Malášek’s Engage Your Brain blog; you can view just those posts here.

Popular tags: community projects new products raspberry pi arduino more…

3pi PCB skeleton

Posted by Paul on 21 October 2010

Alex Louden has released an open-source template for custom 3pi expansion boards for use with the Eagle PCB design software. The picture shows an example expansion with an mbed microcontroller, Xbee, and accelerometers.

Featured link: http://alexlouden.com/2010/3pi-pcb-skeleton/

Interfacing a FrSky telemetry receiver with a Baby Orangutan.

Posted by Paul on 15 October 2010

Forum user erik46 wrote up a document (523k pdf) showing how to read FrSky telemetry data and display it with a Baby Orangutan. The whole setup is small and light enough to clip on to an RC transmitter. For more information, see his forum post.

iPhone-controlled 3pi Robot.

Posted by Ryan on 20 July 2010

In this project, a WiFi module is connected to a 3pi robot, allowing it to be controlled by an iPhone. Here is a video of the robot in action:

Featured link: http://forum.pololu.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2816

Obstacle Avoider

Posted by Paul on 14 June 2010

This simple obstacle-avoiding robot by forum user TomatoWire is based on the Maestro and uses continuous-rotation servos and distance sensors. The robot is programmed using the Maestro’s internal scripting language, without the need for an additional microcontroller.

Featured link: http://forum.pololu.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2756

AIRbot

Posted by Ben on 21 May 2010

AIRbot is a robot that can be controlled by a cellphone and can send images back to the cellphone. It uses a yellow RP5 tracked chassis, a transparent clear RP5 expansion plate, and a qik 2s9v1 dual serial motor controller along with the AIRcable S.D.K. and the AIRcable OptiEyes. The source code (both AIRcable and Nokia) and circuit diagrams are freely available.

Featured link: http://wiki.opensensors.org/airbot

Automatic Infrared Light Source Tracking HD Camcorder

Posted by Ben on 26 February 2010

In this project, an HD camcorder sits on a pan/tilt mount controlled by a Micro Maestro 6-Channel USB Servo Controller. A Wiimote is used to track an IR light source. Here is a video taken from the mounted camcorder:

Featured link: http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?p=1868143#post1868143

Using the Pololu Pushbutton Power Switch

Posted by Paul on 22 February 2010

This instructable shows how to power an Arduino through the Pololu Pushbutton Power Switch and use the self-shutoff feature.

Featured link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Using-the-Pololu-Pushbutton-Power-Switch/

Maestro Support for RoboRealm

Posted by Paul on 17 February 2010

This module for RoboRealm provides an interface to the Pololu Maestro USB servo controllers, linking advanced video processing to RC servo motion control.

Featured link: http://www.roborealm.com/help/Pololu_Maestro.php

R2D2 dome position control

Posted by Paul on 16 February 2010

This replica of the famous Star Wars droid R2D2, built by Glenn Pipe, uses a Jrk USB motor controller for position control. The video below shows how Glenn uses the Jrk Configuration Utility to control and analyze his system, and his blog post has more information.

Featured link: http://astromech.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/adding-position-control-to-r2s-dome/

Paparazzi Autopilot for Linux

Posted by Paul on 16 February 2010

Patrick Hickey and Bradley Lord use a Pololu Micro Maestro for servo output and a Pololu 4 servo multiplexer to support manual control override in their model aircraft autopilot project.

Featured link: http://moreproductive.org/autopilot/

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1.4-7V, 3.4A Fine-Adjust Step-Down Voltage Regulator w/ Adjustable Low-Voltage Cutoff D30V30MALCMA
ACS72981LLRATR-050B3 Current Sensor Large Carrier -50A to +50A, 3.3V
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Zumo 2040 Main Board
Zumo 2040 Robot Kit (No Motors)
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