Custom optical encoder signal processing board for the Zumo

Erich, a professor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland, posted to our forum about a circuit he designed for the robots he’s building based on our Zumo chassis for his embedded system programming course. His Zumos are retrofitted with our micro metal gearmotors with extended backshafts and optical encoder board. The custom circuit he designed converts the analog output of our optical encoder boards to digital waveforms, which makes them more easily interpreted by microcontrollers and other devices. His board uses a Digital-to-Analog Converter (Microchip’s MCP4728) and four op-amps (Microchip MCP6004) to generate the modified quadrature output. The DAC can be controlled directly over I²C and can be calibrated automatically. After verifying that it works, Eric ordered a bunch more boards to use in his course:

One of Erich’s fully soldered optical encoder boards with attached 3-tooth wheel.	This oscilloscope capture compares the processed encoder output (top) with the raw output voltages of the optical encoder board (bottom).
A bunch of signal processing PCBs!	Erich’s optical encoder signal processing board with components populated.

We look forward to seeing how they work with the Zumos!

You can read more about Erich’s signal processing boards on this blog post from his website. You can follow the progression of the robots used in his course by visiting these forum posts:

March 2013: Zumo Robot with FRDM-KL25Z Board

September 2013: Zumo Robot with Pololu Plug-in Modules

October 2013: Zumo Robot with Pololu Plug-in Modules, assembled

December 2013: Zumo Tournament Videos

Related products

	Optical Encoder Pair Kit for Micro Metal Gearmotors, 3.3V
	Optical Encoder Pair Kit for Micro Metal Gearmotors, 5V
	Zumo Chassis Kit (No Motors)