Pololu Blog »
New products: Assembled Zumo 32U4 robots
 |
Customers have been requesting an assembled version of our Zumo 32U4 robot kit ever since we released it in March, so it makes me very happy to be able to announce that we now have three pre-assembled Zumo 32U4 robots to choose from:
The three options differ only in their motors, and while the speed and torque vary across the three gear ratios, the peak output power is the same for all of them. You could maximize speed (i.e. 50:1 motors) or torque (100:1 motors), or perhaps you are looking for something in the middle (75:1 motors). The following table compares the gear ratio in more detail, with the first four columns showing specifications of the gearmotors by themselves and the last showing the measured top speed of a Zumo chassis loaded to a weight of 500 g:
| Micro Metal Gearmotor |
Free-Run Speed @ 6V |
Stall Torque @ 6V |
Stall Current @ 6V |
Top Zumo Speed @ 6V and 500g |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50:1 HP | 625 RPM | 15 oz·in | 1600 mA | 40 in/s | (100 cm/s) |
| 75:1 HP | 400 RPM | 22 oz·in | 1600 mA | 25 in/s | (65 cm/s) |
| 100:1 HP | 320 RPM | 30 oz·in | 1600 mA | 20 in/s | (50 cm/s) |
These three gearmotors are the ones we consider best suited for typical Zumo 32U4 applications (and many of our example programs are tuned to work with 75:1 HP motors), but we have many other gear ratios available that you can use when assembling the kit version of the Zumo 32U4 robot.
At this point, you might be wondering why it took so long for us to make an assembled Zumo 32U4 robot. Well, we have been working on several improvements to the Zumo 32U4 ever since releasing the kit, and we wanted to have them all in place before coming out with these more finished assembled products. The first improvement was to the sprockets, which changed from white with solid hubs to black with spokes. These new sprockets fit better on the motor shafts and make assembly and disassembly easier, and we think they just look cooler! They might also help you hide from your opponent’s IR sensors, but the color is of course no use against other sensing technologies like sonar.
|
|
The second improvement was to make a new component to hold and shield the IR LEDs used by the proximity sensor system. Without this, the LEDs are just supported by their leads and shielded by a piece of heat shrink (see the pictures above), and we wanted something better. Now the kit and assembled versions include a plastic LED holder that mounts directly to the front blade:
|
|
Finally, we have improved the blade. They are now stamped rather than laser-cut, and we have added cutouts around the general-purpose mounting holes so that they can be hand-bent to new angles as desired, independent of the blade angle. This new blade also has the chassis mounting tabs pre-bent to the appropriate angle, so that’s one less step required during assembly of the kit.
|
|
And speaking of the kit, we still strongly encourage people to get the Zumo 32U4 kit and build it themselves. We designed the Zumo 32U4 to be a starting point, and building it yourself will make you more comfortable with customizing and enhancing it. Making it yourself will also make it a little more meaningful when your robot triumphs over the competition!
Related products
-
S3 Pilot board robot
- 28 August 2015Forum member spiked3, whom we previously posted about, has shared another robot with a custom laser cut chassis. The new robot uses his own custom...
-
Zippy: an Arduino Nano-based balancing robot
- 3 September 2015Zippy is an RC balancing robot created by Larry McGovern. It uses an Arduino Nano to read pulses from an RC receiver and accelerometer and...
6 comments
I am glad to hear you are delighted with your Zumo 32U4! We plan on making the new LED holder and blade available as products on our web site later this week (I'll make another blog post about it when we do). If you place an order for some other parts before then and email us, we can throw in a free LED holder.
- Ben
This comment is a request for a solution. I enjoy working with your product(s) in both Linux and Windows environments for flexibility; without being restricted to Windows. I do not consider this a serious issue; since I have been able to work around the issue by moving the Zumo32U4 library out of the Arduino IDE libraries directory while programming the Arduino Zumo in the Debian environment; with ease.
Best Regards,
Al
PS: Arduino IDE libraries are present for LSM303 and L3GD40 products as separate libraries and *.cpp and *.h files in the libraries folder.
Our forums are generally a better place to do troubleshooting like this. Please post some some sample code and the error message there, and we should be able to help you out.
- Nathan
Did you ever get a chance to offer the LED holder as a separate item as per your comment in Aug 2015?
I have purchased a couple of the Zumo 32U4 robots for my high-school robotics club, but the first one didn't have the holder. The second one did.
Also, there used to be a resource file on the site to allow me to 3D print my own holder, which I can no longer find.
Thanks
Bruce
Post a comment
Home | Forum | Blog | Support | Ordering Information | Wish Lists | Distributors | BIG Order Form | About | Contact
© 2001–2024 Pololu Corporation
