Product Description: This kit contains the PCB and all the parts needed to build the uBotino board. Optional, you can choose a keyed FTDI connector instead of regular pin headers, in case you purchase the USB-serial with a keyed connector.
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The uBotino allows a robot builder to easily build a small robot that uses 2 small geared DC motors for driving, directly plug in 6 analog sensors, 5 digital sensors, 5 servos. It has an on board LDO voltage regulator, power switch, reset button, power LED, Arduino pin D13 LED, 16 MHz crystal, ISP programmer connector and FTDI cable connector. The ATmega328 microcontroller has Arduino bootloader installed. The board features 3 jumpers, one to select power for the servo pins (in case you want to use sensors and no servos), one to disable the D13 LED (in case you need to connect a servo to that pin) and another jumper to disable power to the motors (so they don’t move when programming). The 5cm x 5cm size of the board and Arduino software compatibility makes this board a perfect candidate for small robots.
Optional, you can choose a keyed connector instead of the regular 6 pin header, in case you purchase the USB-serial cable with a keyed connector so you don’t have to worry about plugging the cable the wrong way. The good part of these connectors is that they allow you to plug in regular 6 pin female headers, in case you want to plug in an xBee regulated board.
Here is a picture of the assembled board:
Download the Assembly Guide here.
The µBotino controller can be purchased assembled from our distributor, Creatron Inc.
Does this include a motor driver chip? Is that in the bottom right corner? Is it a L293D?
Thanks!
Hi Randy,
The uBotino microcontroller kit contains a ATmega328 and a SN754410 H-bridge (pin to pin compatible with L293D, but 1A per motor) along with all the parts needed to build the board. You will need some extra parts, like crimp pins and 3 pin and 2 pin female housings to make the connections to the motors and sensors. The servos already come with 3 pin female housings.
Hi
Just a question, I have a 7805 regulator, not the LDO, can I use that with the ubotino pcb?
Thanks
A regular voltage regulator needs 7.2V input, which is a bit high for cheap servos. Standard servos will be fine.
My crystal only has 2 pins, but the board has 3 holes.. Does this matter?
Hi Frits, the board was initially designed to use a ceramic resonator, that has 3 pins. In version 2 I decided to add the capacitors so people can use either the crystal or the resonator. I supply the kit with the crystal, because it gives less errors using serial at 115200 baud.
When working with this board, it appears to me that a lot of the pins are “undocumented”?
Am I missing some fact sheet, or is there no way of telling what all the pins are?
Of course it can be measured, and I can track it etc, but a lot of the pins have no text printed, and I cant seam to find quick ways to realize what they are. Am I missing something?
Thanks.
Hi Frits, all Arduino signal pins are labeled D0-D13 and A0-A5. The extra functions of each pin I could not label directly on the board, but you are right, I should add a list to the pdf file. The UART pins had to be labeled, most people will use them, also the external interrupt pins are usually used for encoders, so they are labeled too. As far as I see it, the other pins worth labeling are the SDA and SCL pins.
I started to write a usage guide for this board, but I was swamped with work before Christmas and then I had little time for robotics and I spent it working on another project. Sorry about that, I will resume working on the document and post it as soon as I can.
Basically, the board is intended to be used with servos, sensors and motors. The motors use the hardware PWM pins of Timer0. The Servo library uses Timer1, and it’s associated PWM pins are at the servo connectors, together with one PWM pin of the Timer2. The other PWM pin of Timer2 is pin D3, that is also external interrupt Int1. But usually Timer2 is used by the Tone library.
One more thing, all the pin functions are marked in the header comment at the top of the sample code.
does it come with a cable for conecting it to a pc?
No, you have to buy it separately. Here is the link: http://robotxdesigns.ca/2011/01/17/usb-serial-cable-5v/
In have three concerns the kit that was sent to me does not have the white keyed power connecter. That seems to be the only item missing. The second concern is the way the LEDs are marked and the location. Did not understand where the top of the board was and I could not find a flat on ether LEDs. Not sure if it is in reversed or not. I got the power LED to lite but not the D13. The third is the locating the keyed FTDI connecter does the key go to the board or off the board? Not clear should the jumpers be in place on the board when testing or off?
Hi Don,
1. I apologize for the power connector… I’ll send you one as soon as possible.
2. LEDs position… First, the top of the board is the upper side when you hold the board so you can read most of the text, also is similar with the pictures. The voltage regulator, switch, power connector go near the top of the board. Second, the LEDs have a shorter lead, that goes towards the top of the board.
3. The keyed connectors are supposed to be mounted with the key towards the inside of the board. For the FTDI connector, I recently added the keyed connector, so it is not shown in the instructions. I will update the instructions to show how it is supposed to look like.
4. The function of the jumpers is documented, so it is up to you if you leave them in place or not. For instance, you need to have the J3 in place for the D13 LED to work. Also, you need to have J2 in place for the motors to be powered and J1 in place for the servos to get power from the Vin (battery). If you use sensors on the servo pins, place the J1 jumper in the Vcc position.
When programming using the FTDI cable, usually the board will get power (5V) from the USB port. That means the motors and servos will not get power, but everything else will. When programming with the hardware programmer, you need to power the board from the battery, so remove J1 and J2 jumpers so the motors (and servos) will not move during programming. Actually, some of the servos will receive some pulses and will jerk around during programming, but a lot less than with the power on.
RO-Box-X, With the J3 jumper in place the red LED does blink. Thank you for the Jumper explanation. That helped a lot. As soon as the programing cable gets here I can put this little board to work.
Don
I have a bot built up and everything seems to be working. I have the sharp GP2D12 which is the one you have programed.
Can you tell me where to look to change the way the bot runs. It just goes forward turn back up around in a circle. I know it is not seeing anything if I put something in front of the IR it backs up. I am not sure what to change in your program to get a different behavior.
I have some photos of the bot. I can send but not sure how to do it.
Hi Don,
Another user had similar problems, you may follow the discussion here:
http://seriousrobotics.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/compact-a-small-arduino-robot/#comment-626
As for the sensor, from these lines:
case MR: //medium range, aka GP2D12 (10-80cm)
return 5*1384.4*pow(value,-.9988); //multiplied by 5, different sensor
break;
remove 5* in front of the 1384.4 (I was using a different sensor, same range, but a wider detection angle).
Even if it is the real GP2D12, depending on the actual voltage on your board, the result of the calculations may be a little off. You might want to recalculate the formula, by taking sensor measurements every 5cm, make a table in Excel, then plot the graph (that will calculate the equation for you) and update the equation in your sketch.
Cheers!
Hi, i’m looking for a board like Arduino and i ask if ther is a schematic of your uBotino ?
Thank you
Hi Daniele, you can find the schematic on my blog, take a look at the latest post here.
Hi, I have assembled the board ad every thing is running, but I can’t upload any programs. The box says
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0×30
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0×14, resp=0×51
I am useing a cable I bought off you.
Thanks
Hi Philip,
Before I send out the cables, I use them on a uBotino to upload the Blink code to the freshly bootloaded ATmega328. So the cable was tested before I shipped it. Just make sure you plug it with the black wire to the GND pin and the green wire to the DTR pin.
Regarding the error you see, that may be caused by an improper board type or the board not auto resetting properly. Also, the microcontroller might have a bad contact with the socket. There are many little things that may happen, so, to be able to better help you out debugging this thing, please take a picture of your setup (board, battery, cable, wires to be seen in the picture). We can solve this problem, I don’t think it’s something major.
Sorry About that.
There is nothing wrong with the cable, but where you plug it into the board is a very dodgy contact. You have to hold it over to the left so all pins make contact. This is not a big deal and I can work around it. Everything now works perfectly.
Thanks Heaps