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Comments by Brandon
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New products: Pololu Isolated Solid State Relay/Switch, SPST
- 12 August 2025Hello, Richard.
You might be able to make a setup like that, but if you wanted it to be trigged by a single input you would need something like an inverter/NOT gate so only one is closed at a time. Also, depending on the timing it could be possible for both to be on briefly when the signal changes, so your setup might need some additional considerations for that case. Finally, note that this kind of solid-state relay requires power in order to close the switch (unlike a mechanical relay that can maintain a normally-closed connection even when unpowered).
Brandon
Curtis's laser-cut arcade stick case
- 3 April 2025Hello, Franco.
The last sentence of Curtis's post has a download link for a zip file containing all of the design files.
Brandon
New products (and demo): Force-sensing linear potentiometers and resistors
- 27 March 2025Hello.
You can find a wiring diagram for the Force Sensing Linear Potentiometers on page 9 of their integration guide. You can also find it under the "Using the sensor" heading of our FSLP product pages.
Brandon
New products: Shunt Regulators
- 27 January 2025Hello, Alex.
We do not recommend using them in parallel since they are not guaranteed to split the load separately.
- Brandon
Jon's line following robot: Usain Volt 2.0
- 18 April 2024Unfortunately, Jon is no longer working at Pololu, but from my understanding his algorithm was mostly the same as the 3pi code but with different PID coefficients, which he tuned empirically through trial and error. The other differences were mostly due to using different hardware (i.e. a microcontroller, motor library, and number of QTR sensors), If you need additional help with tuning your PID coefficients, you can find some good tips in Ben's posts in this forum thread.
Brandon
3pi+ 2040 Robot full release with additional motor options
- 25 August 2023Hello, Steve.
We do not have any specific plans for a 3pi+ robot with built-in wireless communication features, though it is on a general long-term todo list. Using something like an ESP8266 or some kind of Bluetooth serial link would probably be good options for adding wireless connectivity to the 3pi+.
Brandon
Introducing the 3pi+ 2040 Robot
- 24 April 2023Hello.
The RP2040 has no built-in program memory, so programs are stored in an external 16MB flash chip. Like with any microcontroller, when you are writing to flash, you could easily make mistakes that would cause corruption. I recommend always storing a copy of your programs and data on a separate computer when developing firmware. If you want to restore the Micropython interpreter and example programs that it ships with, you can easily do that by following the firmware update procedure in the 3pi+ 2040 user's guide .
Brandon
Introducing the 3pi+ 2040 Robot
- 10 April 2023Hello, Edward.
Thank you for sharing your experience and feedback! I am glad to hear you were able to get it fully assembled and running!
To clarify about the motor clips, they are not used in the default configuration of the 3pi+ robot; you can use them to hold the motors in place if you want to run the robot without the bumper skirt.
Brandon
Kevin's mini-sumo robot: Roku
- 22 March 2023Hello, George.
Please note that our company name is Pololu (not "Polulu").
When using the speed commands in our Zumo Arduino libraries, a value of 400 corresponds to 100% duty cycle (i.e. driving the motor at the full battery voltage). So, you cannot increase the speed beyond that programatically. You might consider replacing your Micro Metal Gearmotors with different ones with a lower gear ratio.
Brandon
Introducing the 3pi+ 2040 Robot
- 15 March 2023Hello, Edward.
It is probably possible to solder headers to the expansion areas after the robot has been assembled, but some of them are very close to the plastic chassis (such as the ones accessible from inside the battery compartment). So, I would recommend removing the board to avoid melting the chassis.
The chassis was designed to allow for removing the electronics after assembly. After removing the skirt and screws, you can carefully lift the PCB, motors, and battery contacts off of the chassis as one assembled unit. The motors will only be connected to the chassis by the soldered jumper wires, so I recommend being extra careful with them.
Brandon