Overview

The 3pi+ 2040 is a versatile, high-performance, user-programmable robot that measures just 9.7 cm (3.8″) in diameter. At its heart is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller (like the one on the Raspberry Pi Pico), a 32-bit dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor running at 125 MHz, which can be programmed with C, C++, Arduino, or Python. The 3pi+ 2040 has 16 MB (128 Mbit) of flash memory that ships preloaded with a MicroPython interpreter, so you can get started right away by plugging into its USB C port and editing the included example Python programs. For advanced users who want to customize or enhance their robots with additional peripherals, the robot’s power rails, power system controls, and microcontroller’s I/O lines can be accessed via several 0.1″-pitch expansion ports.

3pi+ 2040 Robot, front view.

3pi+ 2040 Robot, side view.

3pi+ 2040 Robot, rear view.

The 3pi+ (or 3𝜋+) 2040 features two H-bridge motor drivers and a variety of integrated sensors, including a pair of quadrature encoders for closed-loop motor control, a complete inertial measurement unit (3-axis accelerometer, gyro, and magnetometer), five downward-facing reflectance sensors for line-following or edge-detection, and left and right bump sensors along the front face of the robot. Three on-board pushbuttons offer a convenient interface for user input, and a 128×64 graphical OLED display, buzzer, and six RGB LEDs allow the robot to provide feedback.

The robot also features a unique power system that runs the motors at a constant 8 V independent of the battery charge level, so the speed of the motors does not vary with the battery voltage.

The 3pi+ 2040 robot is available as a kit or fully assembled:

For those who would prefer to use different motors than these versions above, the 3pi+ chassis and 3pi+ 2040 control board are available separately and can be combined with a pair of motors to make a custom kit.

What else you will need

• four AAA batteries: the 3pi+ robot works with both alkaline and NiMH batteries, though we recommend rechargeable NiMH cells
• a USB C cable to connect the robot to your computer for programming and debugging

Assembling the kit version

The following video shows the steps to assemble a different version of the 3pi+ robot (the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot), but these steps generally remain the same for the 3pi+ 2040:

Details for item #5000

This product is the assembled Hyper Edition of the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED Robot. It is very difficult to control and fast enough to damage itself from impacts, so it is only recommended for advanced users. We strongly recommend keeping motor speeds below 50% on this version. A spare gearbox is included with this edition and instructions for installing it can be found here (note that this video was made for an older version of the 3pi+ robot, but the mechanical instructions for replacing the gearbox still apply to this newer 2040 version).

A kit version of this robot is also available.