3.c. 3pi in Control

The m3pi robot is a fully functional robot without any additional hardware modules or microcontroller boards: the microcontroller on the 3pi base can be programmed directly to perform your desired behaviors. The main benefit of the m3pi expansion board in this case is room for extra sensors and electronics along with sockets for wireless modules. The 3pi does not have a lot of free I/O lines for connecting additional electronics, but the few it does have can be accessed on the m3pi expansion board. For more information on accessing the 3pi pins from the expansion board, see Section 4.i. For more information on how the 3pi’s serial lines connect to the wireless sockets, see Section 4.a.

To get started using the m3pi with the 3pi in control, please see the 3pi user’s guide.

Note: This option requires an AVR programmer, such as our USB AVR programmer. If you plan on using another microcontroller board, such as an mbed or Wixel, and your 3pi is running the 3pi serial slave program, no AVR programmer is required.