Our new circuit logo T-shirts are here! They feature the Pololu logo, composed of a white printed circuit board (PCB) layout, on the front and the phrase “Engage Your Brain” on the back. These pre-shrunk cotton shirts are available in several colors (black, sapphire blue, or cardinal red) and a range of youth and adult sizes.

Black and sapphire blue Pololu circuit logo T-shirts.

Red and sapphire blue Pololu circuit logo T-shirts.

Red and black Pololu circuit logo T-shirts.

When I think of a robot, I usually picture a mobile robot, which generally means it is powered by a battery. Most of our motor controller products are built with that kind of bias in mind, too. But there are obviously many permanent installations that still call for motion, from 3D printers and robot arms to kinetic sculptures and motion simulators. And powering those can be complicated and expensive, with power supplies capable of powering bigger motors often costing more than the motors and the motor controllers. One difficulty is that power supplies are often not particularly good for absorbing the little pulses of power that motors and motor controllers sometimes send back out (typically when a motor is slowing down). The ramifications can be very bad since the supply voltages can quickly get destructively high when the current has nowhere to go. Many better power supplies have over-voltage protection, but that just means the power supply shuts down. While that’s better than expensive parts going up in smoke, it can still keep your project from functioning.

The simplest solution to the problem is often a transient voltage suppressor, or TVS, which is a big zener diode optimized for handling big current spikes. Unfortunately, TVS diodes typically do not have a tight enough tolerance for use with power supplies with over-voltage protection. For example, a 12V power supply might have 5% tolerance, meaning the output voltage could be as high as 12.6V, so the protection device must not kick in below 12.6V. If the over-voltage protection is triggered by a 15% deviation, any voltage spikes must be kept below 13.8V. Most basic TVSes do not have tight enough tolerances to ensure operation in that window.

So, we developed a shunt regulator that should help with that kind of scenario. A simplified schematic diagram of the shunt regulator is shown below. Basically, a circuit monitors the voltage and controls a MOSFET that allows current to flow through a shunt resistance that sets the maximum current the device can sink.

Simplified schematic diagram of the Shunt Regulators.

We offer the shunt regulators with a variety of voltage set points and shunt resistances. Available variations include fixed resistances and multi-turn potentiometers for the voltage set point, different shunt resistances for the load, and different power ratings for the shunt resistance (the higher-power versions have twenty more resistors populated on the back side of the board).

Bottom view of the 3W and 9W Shunt Regulators.

Bottom view of Shunt Regulator: 13.2V, 1.50Ω, 15W.

One version of the shunt regulator is populated with an especially high shunt resistance with minimal power rating; this unit is intended for use with an external shunt resistance:

Shunt Regulator: 33.0 V, 32.8Ω, 3W.

The available versions are shown in the table below:

This product is more for advanced users at this point since it can be difficult to determine how much power your motor is dumping back onto the power supply, but since we have the products working and several customers waiting to use them, we are going ahead with releasing them. We expect to develop additional resources and to put up verified regulator/motor controller combinations over time.

The basic regulators are quite inexpensive, and we are offering an introductory special as we are with all new products this year, so you might want to pick some up to play around with. The first hundred customers to use coupon code SHUNTREGS get 30% off on up to three units (per version).

Related products

	Shunt Regulator: 13.2V, 1.33Ω, 9W
	Shunt Regulator: 13.2V, 1.50Ω, 15W
	Shunt Regulator: 26.4V, 4.00Ω, 9W
	Shunt Regulator: 26.4V, 2.80Ω, 15W
	Shunt Regulator: 33.0 V, 32.8Ω, 3W
	Shunt Regulator: 33.0V, 4.00Ω, 9W
	Shunt Regulator: 33.0V, 4.10Ω, 15W
	Shunt Regulator: Fine-Adjust LV, 1.50Ω, 15W
	Shunt Regulator: Fine-Adjust HV, 4.10Ω, 15W

We now have a new mounting bracket available, this time designed for standard-size servos. Servos are very versatile and often make for an easy way to add precise motion to your project, but they can sometimes be difficult to mount due to their shape and the orientation of their intended mounting holes. Our new Mounting Bracket for Standard-Size Servos aims to solve that problem.

Instead of using the servo’s intended mounting holes, this bracket clasps around the servo, capturing its mounting tabs and providing an easy way to mount a servo on its side. The mounting holes on the bracket are intended for use with M3 or #4 screws (sold separately).

Rear view of Power HD Continuous Rotation Servo AR-3606HB and Solarbotics red servo wheel with Mounting Bracket for Standard-Size Servos.

Power HD 1501MG servo with Mounting Bracket for Standard-Size Servos.

As with the Romi Expansion Plate we just released, this bracket was originally designed as part of our Robot Arm Kit for Romi.

Related products

Mounting Bracket for Standard-Size Servos

The Romi Chassis Expansion Plate is now available and is a great way to add even more space to the Romi. It is designed to function as a modular expansion option for the Romi. In fact, if you have been following our new product announcements, you might have already seen this plate as part of the Robot Arm Kit for Romi. The expansion plate is a half circle with the same diameter as the Romi base plate, and it can be installed over either the front or rear half of the Romi chassis. Abundant mounting holes and slots cover the plate, matching the pattern used on the Romi chassis base plate and supporting various sizes of screws.

You can combine two plates to make a full-sized platform.

It is also possible to stack multiple expansion plates for even more versatility.

Continuing with the special introductory discounts for all of our new products this year, the first 100 customers who use coupon code ROMIEXPINTRO can get up to 3 Romi Chassis Expansion Plates for just $3.33 each!

Related products

Romi Chassis Expansion Plate - Black

QTRX-HD-05RC Reflectance Sensor Array, front and back views.

We now have five-sensor versions of our new high-density QTR reflectance sensor arrays. Like the versions already released, these new modules are available in analog and RC configurations and with two different sensor types, so this post covers four new products:

QTR-HD-05A Reflectance Sensor Array.

• QTR-HD-05RC Reflectance Sensor Array
• QTR-HD-05A Reflectance Sensor Array
• QTRX-HD-05RC Reflectance Sensor Array
• QTRX-HD-05A Reflectance Sensor Array

(Medium-density versions with 3 sensors on an 8 mm pitch will be available soon.)

We expect these to be the smallest arrays that still offer independent control of the odd and even emitters, which gives you extra options for detecting light reflected at various angles. For more information on our new QTR sensor family, you can see some of our previous blog post about the versions we have already released:

• New products: 1- and 31-channel QTR HD reflectance sensor arrays
• New products: more new QTR HD sensor arrays by student engineering interns
• New products: QTR HD sensor arrays by student engineering interns
• New product: high-density QTR reflectance sensor arrays

Don’t forget to get in on our QTR introductory promotion! Be one of the first 100 customers to use coupon code QTRINTRO and get any of these new sensors at half price! (Limit 3 per item per customer.)

Related products

	QTR-HD-05RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 5-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-HD-05A Reflectance Sensor Array: 5-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-HD-05RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 5-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-HD-05A Reflectance Sensor Array: 5-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current

Pololu step-down voltage regulator D36V6Fx/D24V6Fx/D24V3Fx next to a 7805 voltage regulator in TO-220 package.

Wrapping up our new product releases for the month and for the summer is our new D36V6x family of step-down voltage regulators. These small regulator modules support a large input voltage range and are a great alternative to old three-terminal linear voltage regulators that waste a lot of power and get really hot. These new regulators can take an input voltage anywhere from a few tenths of a volt over the set output voltage up through an absolute max of 50 V, and they can deliver up to 600 mA. We have them available in seven fixed voltage options and two adjustable versions:

• D36V6F3: Fixed 3.3V output
• D36V6F5: Fixed 5V output
• D36V6F6: Fixed 6V output
• D36V6F7: Fixed 7.5V output
• D36V6F9: Fixed 9V output
• D36V6F12: Fixed 12V output
• D36V6F15: Fixed 15V output
• D36V6ALV: Adjustable 2.5 – 7.5 V output
• D36V6AHV: Adjustable 4 – 25 V output

Pololu step-down voltage regulator D36V6Ax/D24V6Ax/D24V3Ax, bottom view with dimensions.

You might notice that the board for the adjustable version shows a 2010 copyright year (the fixed version is an even smaller board, and we did not fit the year on there). That’s because these new regulators are actually old designs updated with new regulator chips that use the same package and pinout. The older products were our D24V3x and D24V6x families of regulators, which were based on the Texas Instruments LMR14203 and LMR14206 ICs. For the new D36V6x family, we are moving up to the newer LMR16006 regulator. This chip has several exciting new features that we think will make it our favorite general-purpose regulator for many of our products: higher maximum voltage, better low-dropout performance, and better quiescent current.

Higher maximum voltage

The LMR16006 has a 60 V maximum input voltage, up from the 42 V of the LMR1420x parts. Even 42 V covered most of our typical applications, but it’s not quite enough for 36V nominal applications, which are getting more common. Our more advanced, integrated products such as motor controllers are often limited by some complex part or circuit, such as a motor driver, and we would like the overall operating range of the product not to be reduced by the regulator. Many stepper motor drivers, such as TI’s DRV8825 or the Toshiba TB67S249FTG and TB67S279FTG that we released carriers for in June, support maximum input voltages of 45 or 50 volts. It’s nice not to be limited by your regulator when you are making systems with those kinds of parts.

For our new D36V6x modules, we are limited to the 50 V maximum of the capacitors from Vin to ground. Unfortunately, capacitor options get a lot more restricted (and expensive) once we go beyond 50 V, so we decided to stick with our old boards so that we could continue to offer these regulator modules at a low price while still providing some substantial improvements. We might still make a new board with higher-voltage capacitors for those who would like to make full use of the regulator’s 60 V maximum. (For anyone thinking of just removing the caps and putting on your own external ones, you might also want to change the diode, which is also a 60 V part.)

Better low-dropout performance

Having a higher maximum input voltage is nice, but often we’re trying to squeeze the most we can out of a dying battery, so it’s nice to have a low dropout, which is the voltage the regulator needs between the input and output. The older LMR1420x parts had an annoying quality of the dropout voltage going up as the load current went down. The newer LMR16006 has a nice, low dropout as the current goes down, so if you don’t need much current, you can get 5 V out with just 5.2 or 5.3 volts in. Here is a comparison of the dropout performance of the old and new regulators:

Typical dropout voltage of Pololu step-down voltage regulator D24VxF5.

Typical dropout voltages of Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6Fx.

Lower quiescent current

The new regulators also have much lower quiescent current, which is the current the regulator uses when it’s just sitting there and your load isn’t drawing anything. On the old regulators, the quiescent current was under 2 mA, and we did not characterize it beyond that. For these new regulators, it’s typically under 200 microamps, ten to twenty times better than the old regulators. I realize it’s not that amazing for modern regulators, but it’s nice to know that your low-cost, general-purpose regulator module isn’t wasting a lot of power.

Typical quiescent currents of Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6Fx.

Even when we put a new chip onto an old circuit board as I have described, we still test and characterize with different parts to get a good overall result. In the case of these regulators, where the circuit is quite simple, this phase of development is much more time consuming than laying out a circuit board. We build and test dozens of prototypes with different inductances, and even though you can’t see it in the pictures, we build the different voltage versions of the regulators with different inductors to get the best performance we can (within a given inductor type and size).

So how about getting a few to have around for general-purpose use on your next project? You can get one for just $3 as part of our introductory promotion using coupon code D36V6XINTRO, limited to the first 100 customers and to three per item (so you could get up to 27 regulators at that price if you get three of each voltage version). It’s always difficult for us to predict which versions will be how popular, so initial stock is limited, but we make these here in Las Vegas, so even if the version you want goes out of stock, you can backorder it with the promotional price, and we should be able to ship within a day or two.

Related products

	3.3V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F3
	5V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F5
	6V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F6
	7.5V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F7
	9V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F9
	12V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F12
	15V, 600mA Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V6F15
	2.5-7.5V Adjustable Step-down Voltage Regulator D36V6ALV
	4-25V Adjustable Step-down Voltage Regulator D36V6AHV

This week, we released what we expect to be the extremes of our new line of QTR HD reflectance sensor arrays, with two sizes of a single-sensor board on the small end and a massive 31-sensor array for the maximum size. This picture shows the relative sizes of the boards, along with some of the intermediate sizes we have available:

The QTR Reflectance Sensor Arrays are available in many different sizes.

We made the two single-sensor sizes because we could make good arguments for each one. Part of the point of doing a single-sensor board is to make it really small, so you can fit it into tight spaces. But “really small” means different things depending on the dimensions you care about. So we have one version that is only 5 mm (0.2") wide, with components on both sides of the PCB, and one version that is 7.5 mm (0.3") wide, with components on just one side. The 7.5 mm wide version is a little thinner and flatter because it doesn’t have parts on one side, can be used with a 3×1, single row connector, and costs slightly less because of the single-sided assembly.

QTRX-HD-01RC Reflectance Sensor, front and back views.

QTRX-MD-01A Reflectance Sensor, front and back views.

As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts (here and here) about this new line of sensor arrays, we are using two sensor types: more economical units we are calling “QTR”, and higher-performance units with lenses that we are calling “QTRX”. The main appeal of the QTRX sensors is that they can give the same readings at much lower IR emitter currents, which can really make a big difference for big sensor arrays. But if you crank up the current in those QTRX sensors, you can also get more distance. We did not do that on the QTRX arrays because the sensor modules leak light out the sides and interfere with each other when they are closely spaced, but with these single-channel boards, we are also making available the QTRX sensors with the higher 30 mA maximum emitter current, which allows for a range of up to about 8 cm (about 3 inches). We are calling these sensors QTRXL.

This video (taken with an old camera that does not have as much IR filtering as most newer cameras) shows the IR light leakage around the side of the QTRX sensor module:

I should point out that all of these new QTR modules offer variable brightness control by varying the current through the emitter using the control pin. However, if you want to take advantage of the maximum brightness and range, and have several sensors close to each other, you will need some barriers between them to prevent them from blinding each other (or just turn on one emitter at a time).

The 31-sensor arrays are huge! Well, at least compared to the tiny single-sensor boards.

QTRX-HD-31RC Reflectance Sensor Array.

The routing on those boards is quite complex because adjacent IR emitters are not just wired in series (because we want to have separate even/odd emitter control, plus the alternate density population options I discussed in this post), so we ended up having to go to a 4-layer PCB to route it. This did let us make the vertical dimension a little lower, so the board is just 16.5 mm tall, compared to the 20 mm board height for the versions with 15 and fewer sensors. The 31-channel board is also 0.062" (1.6 mm) thick, compared to the thinner 0.040" (1 mm) boards we use for the lower channel counts. You can compare all the dimensions of the various boards in the detailed dimension diagram (1MB pdf).

The sixteen new boards we released this week brings the total available in this new QTR HD product line to 40. You can see the options neatly summarized in the tables below to pick the best array for your application.

Our introductory promotions are still going strong! Be one of the first 100 customers to use coupon code QTRINTRO and get any of these new sensors at half price! (Limit 3 per item per customer.)

Related products

	QTR-HD-01A Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 5mm Wide, Analog Output
	QTR-HD-01RC Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 5mm Wide, RC Output
	QTR-MD-01A Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 7.5mm Wide, Analog Output
	QTR-MD-01RC Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 7.5mm Wide, RC Output
	QTR-HD-31A Reflectance Sensor Array: 31-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTR-HD-31RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 31-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTRX-HD-01A Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 5mm Wide, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTRX-HD-01RC Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 5mm Wide, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-MD-01A Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 7.5mm Wide, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTRX-MD-01RC Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 7.5mm Wide, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-HD-31A Reflectance Sensor Array: 31-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTRX-HD-31RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 31-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRXL-HD-01A Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 5mm Wide, Analog Output, Long Range
	QTRXL-HD-01RC Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 5mm Wide, RC Output, Long Range
	QTRXL-MD-01A Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 7.5mm Wide, Analog Output, Long Range
	QTRXL-MD-01RC Reflectance Sensor: 1-Channel, 7.5mm Wide, RC Output, Long Range

I’m super excited to announce our newest product, the Robot Arm Kit for Romi. The Romi arm is designed to mount to the back half of a Romi chassis with two fixed servos controlling the height and angle of the gripper through a nifty linkage system.

The Romi with Robot Arm and various electronics to enable RC control.

Side view of the Romi with Robot Arm and various electronics to enable RC control.

The gripper itself uses a micro servo with two parallel fingers or paddles that open and close through a rack and pinion arrangement. Here is a quick video demonstration of a Romi chassis with the arm attachment:

You can see the available range of motion in the drawings below:

Range of motion of the height of the Robot Arm for Romi.

Range of motion of the wrist tilt on the Robot Arm for Romi.

Range of motion of the gripper on the Robot Arm for Romi.

The kit ships with all mechanical parts, including special servos with a fourth wire for reading the position of the output shaft:

Contents of the Robot Arm Kit for Romi.

We are also making the gripper used on the arm available as a standalone Micro Gripper Kit with Position Feedback Servo. Here is a picture of the assembled gripper:

Fully assembled Micro Gripper with Position Feedback Servo.

Products like this arm kit, with many injection-molded components, are some of the most complicated and time-consuming products we make. As those of you who have followed our growth over the past decade are probably aware, we try to develop our more complete robot kits incrementally, starting with components like just a wheel or a motor bracket, and then using those components in the more integrated robots. For example, we came out with this line of wheels in 2010:

Pololu Wheels with 90, 80, 70, and 60 mm diameters in three colors: blue, red, and yellow.

The Romi and Balboa robots, which use those wheels, did not come out until 2016 and 2017.

Romi Chassis Kit – Blue.

One of the many possible configurations of the bumper cage on the Balboa 32U4 Balancing Robot.

If you look at the parts that go into just the gripper portion, you can see that each of the components is roughly as complicated as one of those wheels, and you can’t really do much with just one of those parts:

Contents of the Micro Gripper Kit with Position Feedback Servo.

So, a lot of work goes into designing these kits. We also do not machine the molds or do the injection molding in-house (we did that on the first few parts for the 3pi robot), so that adds a lot of delays compared to our electronics boards, which we make in the same building that we design them in. We do 3D print prototypes to maximize the chances that we get the designs right, but there are invariably little modifications that we end up having to make when the components are this complicated, which is why it takes us years to go from the initial idea to the released kit.

We are at least sticking to our incremental product release approach as far as integration with electronics goes: at the time of the Romi arm attachment release, we do not have a specific solution for controlling the robot, which we will be working on next. Therefore, this kit is currently intended for advanced users who are comfortable powering and controlling several servos on their own.

As with all of our new product releases this year, we are offering substantial introductory discounts for the first customers to try out our new designs. You can use coupon code ROMIARMINTRO to get the whole arm for just $49 and code GRIPPERINTRO to get just the gripper for only $13. Each coupon is limited to 100 uses and 3 units per customer.

Related products

	Robot Arm Kit for Romi
	Micro Gripper Kit with Position Feedback Servo

All the student engineering interns we had over the summer from out-of-town colleges are headed back to school, so I get to announce the release of products they worked on over the summer. The new QTR sensors we are releasing today include the 15-channel version laid out by seventeen-year-old Chris H.

Hadouken! (2018 summer engineering intern Chris couldn’t come up with a clever pun to use for this picture of him posing with a circuit board he designed.)

You can see more about our new line of QTR reflectance sensor arrays in the first blog post I wrote about them a few weeks ago. One cool design and manufacturing aspect I did not mention then is that we designed these boards so that they could be populated at various densities. For example, that lets us make an 8-channel version with 8 mm sensor pitch on the same board that also works as a 15-channel array with 4 mm sensor pitch:

QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array.

Here are some diagrams showing some of the thought that went into the soon-to-be released 31-channel version, which can also be populated to be an 8 mm pitch, 16-sensor array; a 12 mm pitch, 11-channel array; and a 20 mm pitch, 7-channel array:

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with all sensors populated.

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with 1/2 sensors populated.

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with 1/3 sensors populated.

Diagram of emitters and drivers on a QTR-HD-31x sensor array board with 1/5 sensors populated.

With so many combinations of sensor types and output circuits, we won’t make every one of the possible arrangements a stock product, but the idea is that if you have an application where a particular sensor pitch is ideal for you, we can quickly make some for you without having to lay out new PCBs.

We expect eight channels on an 8 mm pitch to be a popular variant, so those will be stock products. We have also added the corresponding 4-channel version (using the same boards used for the full-density, 7-channel product), so this new product announcement covers twelve new stock sensor arrays:

QTR-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTR-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array	QTRX-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array.
QTR-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTR-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array	QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array.
QTR-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTR-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array QTRX-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array	QTRX-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array.

Our introductory promotions are still going strong! Be one of the first 100 customers using coupon code QTRINTRO and snag any of these new sensors at half price! (Limit 3 per item per customer.)

Related products

	QTR-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-HD-15RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-HD-15A Reflectance Sensor Array: 15-Channel, 4mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTR-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-MD-08RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-MD-08A Reflectance Sensor Array: 8-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current
	QTR-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output
	QTR-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output
	QTRX-MD-04RC Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, RC Output, Low Current
	QTRX-MD-04A Reflectance Sensor Array: 4-Channel, 8mm Pitch, Analog Output, Low Current

We have just released our USB 2.0 Type-C Connector Breakout Board. The Type-C connector has become increasingly common on devices like smartphones and notebook computers over the past few years, and it offers a number of interesting improvements over the legacy USB A and B connectors it is supposed to replace.

One of the most noticeable features is that the connector is reversible: you can plug a Type-C cable into a receptacle with either side up, and since Type-C ports can be used for both USB hosts and USB devices, the two ends of the cable can be interchangeable too. The USB-C specification also provides for negotiation of increased power (up to 20 V and 5 A) and alternate uses of the USB interface wires.

All of this flexibility comes at a cost. The Type-C connector itself, which measures about 1 cm (0.4″) square, has 24 separate tightly-packed pins:

• 4 power pins (VBUS)
• 4 ground pins
• 4 USB 2.0 data pins (D+ and D−, each duplicated for reversibility)
• 8 USB 3.1 SuperSpeed data pins
• 2 configuration pins
• 2 auxiliary (sideband) pins

Making all the required connections for a prototype or hobby project is therefore a much more daunting task with a USB-C receptacle compared to a Type-A or Type-B connector with only 4 or 5 pins. This is where our Type-C connector breakout board comes in, exposing all the pins necessary for USB 2.0 communication along a row of 0.1″-spaced holes. (Note that the board does not break out the USB 3.1 SuperSpeed differential pairs.)

If you are designing something that uses USB-C, you also need to consider what to do with the Configuration Channel (CC) pins. These pins are used to determine the role of a port when it is connected—whether it is a USB host or device, and whether it provides or consumes power—and they are also used to configure more advanced functionality like higher-voltage power delivery and alternate modes that allow other protocols over the USB interface.

Since we expect many users of this breakout board to employ it as a USB device port, we populate the board with pull-down resistors on the CC pins that make it a straightforward replacement for a Type-B, Mini-B, or Micro-B port. If you have a different application in mind, you might want to disconnect or remove the resistors yourself, or you can contact us about customizing the termination resistors.

We are interested in hearing any feedback you might have about the USB Type-C connector in general, this board in particular, and any follow-on boards you would like to see. Are you excited about using Type-C connectors instead of Micro-B? Would you have a use for the USB 3.1 SuperSpeed pins brought out to 0.1″-spaced holes? Do you want something with an on-board configuration controller that makes it easier to set up USB Power Delivery or other advanced functionality? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

As with all our new products this year, we are offering a special introductory promotion. You can get up to three of the new breakout boards for just $1.92 each, limited to the first 100 customers using coupon code USBCINTRO.

Related products

USB 2.0 Type-C Connector Breakout Board (usb07a)