Mikronauts.com

Mikronauts introduces RoboAxe and Scooter - raising the bar for affordable educational and hobby robotics.

• RoboAxe - Mikronauts new middle-range robot controller board
• Scooter - Mikronauts new robot kit
• Wizard - Mikronauts upcoming advanced robot kit

I also updated the SirMorph page.

More products soon

Run, don’t walk, to your nearest news stand and pick up a copy of the September 2011 issue of Servo…

The cover article for this issue is my “Upgrade the Boe-Bot” article, featuring RoboProp!

Click HERE to view the RoboProp product page!

In this article, I take a stock Boe-Bot, and upgrade it with a RoboProp, high capacity Li-ion batteries, virtual front and rear bumpers and wheel encoders; complete with code comparison between PBASIC and Spin.

p.s.

You might also want to pick up the upcoming October issue of Servo

Fixed!
My hosting firm recently migrated this site to new servers - which I understand.

They managed to break all the links to images and files in the process - which I don’t understand.

I opened a support ticket with them, and they tried to tell me I’ll have to re-upload all the content, because they can’t access the files on the old servers any more - which is obviously bogus. I will keep escalating this until they fix the site. My apologies for the lack of images and files until they fix the problem.

If you click on the thumb nails below, you can see a larger version!

“Pollo”

Pollo is my nickname for my youngest nephew (Mateo), and also the name of one of my RoboProp based robots.  Pollo started out as a standard BOE-BOT, but he’s grown up a lot…

“Marco”

Marco is Pollo’s older brother (for some reason my sister did not take my suggestion for Mateo’s name). Marco is based on the two wheel drive / two encoder Dagu Rover 5 platform, controlled by RoboProp, with a lot of extra goodies.

Robot X: One of the new robots I have started building…

Robot Y: The other new robot I have started building…

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For more information about RoboProp, click on the “RoboProp” link on the left

RoboProp is an advanced robot controller board with an integrated L298 full H-Bridge for driving two DC motors.

RoboProp Features:

• 4.000″x3.050″ standard form factor with standard mounting hole pattern
• Designed to fit onto BOE-BOT as an upgrade
• Designed to fit Dagu “Mr. Basic” and “Arduino Motor” robot platforms
• Parallax Propeller processor with eight 32 bit cores running at 100Mhz
• 64KB EEPROM
• uSD for data logging and program storage
• L298 full H-bridge driver with up to 2.5A drive with large heat sink per motor (3A peak)
• optional current sense resistors
• 8 channel / 12 bit ADC for 3-pin 5V sensors (MCP3208)
• up to 24 channels for servos or digital inputs
• Mikronauts I2C connector for upcoming Mikronauts I2C modules
• HCOMM connector for programming via Propeller Plug, or Mikronauts SerPlug
• EXP connectors for breadboards and Mikronauts modules
• can use FlexMem for SRAM/FLASH/FRAM/MRAM memory expansion (uses 6-8 I/O pins)
• can add upcoming MCP3208 module for an additional 8 analog input channels (uses 4 I/O pins)
• can stack on other Mikronauts CPU boards and breadboards with stacking headers for EXP1/EXP2
• two small high-density prototype areas
• screw terminals for Vin/GND, MotorA, MotorB
• on-board 5V and 3.3V regulation
• RoboPropDiag diagnostic software for testing and exercising ADC/SERVO/L298 features included
• uses OBEX objects for pwm, servos and ADC
• fsrw26 modified for RoboProp’s uSD settings included
• extra mounting holes for sensors and other platforms

RoboProp Discussion:

• RoboProp thread with example robot photo’s and more
  

Notes:

• four servo / IO channels are shared with the L298 motor driver
• four servo / IO channels are shared with the uSD socket

Videos:

• Please see the Mikronauts YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/mikronauts
• More videos will be uploaded as time permits

Kit Pricing:

• $99.00USD+s/h - RoboProp Full Kit - DC motor edition (includes L298 H-Bridge and related parts)
• $89.00USD+s/h - RoboProp Full Kit - Continuous rotation servo edition (does NOT include L298 H-Bridge and related parts)

Assembled & Tested Pricing:

• $149.00USD+s/h - RoboProp - DC motor edition (includes L298 H-Bridge and related parts)
• $139.00USD+s/h - RoboProp - Continuous rotation servo edition (does NOT include L298 H-Bridge and related parts)

Ordering:

• please contact Mikronauts at “mikronauts at-character gmail dot com” with your desired quantity and postal address for a shipping quote with payment instructions

Quantity pricing is available for dealers, distributors, educational institutions and robotics clubs.