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Orangutan Robot Controller mega168

Clearance! Want to build a small robot that doesn’t look like a PCB on wheels? The Orangutan is small enough for integrating into a small robot, rather than being the small robot. With a powerful Atmel mega168 AVR microcontroller, motor drivers, buttons, display, and buzzer, all you need to add is your own chassis, sensors, software,… you know, the fun stuff!

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Clearance: This product is being replaced by a newer version Orangutan SV-328 and will be discontinued after the remaining units are sold. This original Orangutan is not compatible with the Pololu AVR library.

Overview

Pololu Orangutan Robot Controller back view.

The Orangutan robot controller is a complete control solution for small robots. It includes an 8-character x 2-line liquid crystal display, two bi-directional motor ports, a buzzer, three pushbuttons, and up to 12 user I/O lines, yet the compact module measures only 2.00" x 1.85" and weighs less than 1 ounce. Because of the complete feature set, very few additional components (such as sensors or motors) need to be added to complete the electronic portion of a small robot. The small package allows for greater flexibility in incorporating the electronics into the mechanical design of a robot.

The Orangutan is based on Atmel’s ATmega168 AVR microcontroller, which features 16 Kbytes of flash program memory, 1024 bytes of SRAM, and 512 bytes of EEPROM. Up to 8 channels of 10-bit analog-to-digital conversion are also available. Because the user has direct access to the microcontroller, any development software for Atmel’s AVR microcontrollers, including Atmel’s free AVR Studio and the WinAVR GCC C/C++ compiler, is compatible with the Orangutan. An in-circuit programmer, such as our USB AVR programmer, is required for programming the Orangutan.

The Orangutan input voltage is 5-10 V, making it well-suited for use with small DC motors and 5- to 8-cell NiCd or NiMH battery packs. The motor driver can supply up to a maximum of 1 A per motor channel, subject to power dissipation requirements. Total power consumption (with motors and buzzer off) is under 15 mA.

Specifications & On-Board Hardware

overall unit dimensions: 2.00" x 1.85"
input voltage: 5-10 V
2 bidirectional motor ports connected to LB1836M motor driver (1 A maximum per channel)
programmable 8 MHz Atmel ATmega168 AVR microcontroller (16 kB flash, 1 kB SRAM, 512 bytes EEPROM)
12 user I/O lines, 10 of which can be used for digital I/O and 8 of which can be used as analog input channels
8-character x 2-line LCD
buzzer
3 user pushbutton switches
1 user LED
user potentiometer tied to ADC7