Pololu Blog (Page 46)

Welcome to the Pololu Blog, where we provide updates about what we and our customers are doing and thinking about. This blog used to be Pololu president Jan Malášek’s Engage Your Brain blog; you can view just those posts here.

Popular tags: community projects new products raspberry pi arduino more…

Video: LVBots April 2015 line following competition

Posted by Ryan on 29 April 2015
Tags: lvbots

LVBots held a line following competition at Pololu on April 16th. The goal was to make an autonomous robot that does three laps of the course the fastest. Seventeen robots faced off in a head-to-head double elimination tournament. The video above shows the robots in action and the full results of the contest.

Ben’s Mostly Red Racer won the line following competition for the second time in a row with an average speed of 1.2 m/s, but the competition was more fierce this time. Brandon secured second place with The Chariot, which had an average speed of 1.17 m/s and had a best course time that was only 0.7 seconds slower than Ben’s.

There were also some fun exhibition robots. Kevin made a hovercraft named Full of Eels that was able to sometimes follow the line. Kevin and Jeremy made The Next Level, a line follower on top of a line follower.

Here are posts about some of the robots in the contest:

Are you in the Las Vegas area? Check out the LVBots Meetup page to get involved.

New products: 40×7 mm wheels

Posted by Ben on 22 April 2015
Tags: new products

We now have 40mm-diameter wheels (available in black, red, and white) in the same thin style as our 32×7 mm wheels, which help fill the void between those and the 60×8 mm wheels that were previously our next size up.

Black Pololu Wheels with 90, 80, 70, 60, 40, and 32 mm diameters (other colors available).

Like the rest of the Pololu wheels, the 40×7 mm wheels press-fit onto the 3mm D shafts on many of our motors, including the micro metal gearmotors and mini plastic gearmotors.

Pololu 40×7mm wheel on a Micro Metal Gearmotor.

For more information, take a look at one of the items listed below, or check out all the Pololu wheels category page for more options.

Zumo 32U4 kit assembly video

Posted by Ben on 21 April 2015

A customer of ours who is a software engineer in Seattle made this detailed video showing how to assemble the new Zumo 32U4 robot kit. Thanks for sharing it with us, Jamie!

Video: Setting the Current Limit on Pololu Stepper Motor Driver Carriers

Posted by Claire on 14 April 2015
Tags: pololu videos

One of my many roles here at Pololu is overseeing technical support, and I have seen countless cases of customers who have problems with their stepper motor systems because they have not properly set the current limit on their stepper motor driver. To address the issue, we have made a new video that demonstrates how to set the current limit on our stepper motor driver carriers. The video also provides helpful tips and points out a few common pitfalls.

A DRV8825 carrier is used for the demonstration, but the video also applies to our A4988, DRV8824, and DRV8834 stepper motor driver carriers. In the demo, signals for the driver are provided by an Arduino-compatible A-Star 32U4 Prime SV. Here is a simplified version of the Arduino code from the video that can be used to step a motor in both directions:

/* Simple step test for Pololu stepper motor driver carriers 
This code can be used with the A4988, DRV8825, DRV8824, and 
DRV8834 Pololu stepper motor driver carriers.  It sends a pulse 
every 500 ms to the STEP pin of a stepper motor driver that is 
connected to pin 2 and changes the direction of the stepper motor
every 50 steps by toggling pin 3. */

#define STEP_PIN 2
#define DIR_PIN 3

bool dirHigh;

void setup()
{
  dirHigh = true;
  digitalWrite(DIR_PIN, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(STEP_PIN, LOW);
  pinMode(DIR_PIN, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(STEP_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  // Toggle the DIR pin to change direction.
  if(dirHigh)
  {
    dirHigh = false;
    digitalWrite(DIR_PIN, LOW);
  }
  else
  {
    dirHigh = true;
    digitalWrite(DIR_PIN, HIGH);
  }

  // Step the motor 50 times before changing direction again.
  for(int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
  {
    // Trigger the motor to take one step.
    digitalWrite(STEP_PIN, HIGH);
    delay(250);
    digitalWrite(STEP_PIN, LOW);
    delay(250);
  }
}

Video: Zumo 32U4 Robot Example Projects

Posted by David on 9 April 2015
Tags: pololu videos

We have a new video showing several projects you can do with a stock Zumo 32U4 robot. The Zumo 32U4’s motors, encoders, line sensors, proximity sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, LCD, LEDs, and buttons make it a versatile robot that can be used in a wide variety of projects. The ATmega32U4 microcontroller on the Zumo 32U4 robot can be programmed in C++ from the Arduino IDE.

All of the projects shown in the video use unmodified, stock Zumo 32U4 robots (except for the Zumo driving on the refrigerator, which had strong magnets taped to it). However, you can open up even more possibilities by adding your own electronics to the Zumo 32U4. The FuzzBot, Pixy Pet, and this smartphone-controlled tank are some example projects by our customers that involved adding hardware to our older Zumo Robot for Arduino.

The source code for many of the projects shown in the video is available as examples in Zumo32U4 library, and we are working on adding more of them. Check it out, and get some ideas for a cool Zumo 32U4 project!

New product: Sharp GP2Y0A60SZLF Analog Distance Sensor

Posted by Ben on 9 April 2015
Tags: new products

We are now offering Sharp’s GP2Y0A60SZLF analog distance sensor by itself. This is a great sensor with a wide 4″ to 60″ (10 cm to 150 cm) detection range and a high update rate of 60 Hz, but it requires additional components to use and has a non-standard 1.5 mm pitch. You can use this sensor with our compact carrier boards to make a complete sensor module, or you can get our carrier boards with the GP2Y0A60SZLF already installed.

For more information, see the GP2Y0A60SZLF product page.

Looking for Wixel feedback

Posted by Ben on 3 April 2015


PeterPan, an active member of our forum, recently started a thread asking other Wixel users to push for us to get Wixels FCC certified. The Wixel is getting to be one of our older products, so it is due for some updates, too (e.g., our new USB products have moved on to Micro-B connectors). We realize many of our customers do not necessarily want to publicly discuss their projects, so if you do not feel like participating in the forum thread, please feel free to contact us directly about your thoughts on FCC certification and other ways you would like to see the Wixel improved.

Arduino Day 2015 Sale

Posted by Ben on 27 March 2015
Tags: arduino

Tomorrow is Arduino Day, and we are joining in on the fun by offering big discounts on many of our Arduino-related products, including our A-Star programmable controllers and Arduino shields. The sale has already started, and it will run through the end of Sunday (I know, Arduino Day is a one-day event, but this makes sure the sale lasts all Arduino Day in every time zone). You can find all of the sale items on our Arduino Day 2015 sale page.

Free magazines: March 2015 Circuit Cellar and March/April 2015 Elektor

Posted by Ben on 25 March 2015
Tags: new products

Get FREE copies of Circuit Cellar magazine’s March issue and Elektor magazine’s March/April issue with your order, while supplies last. To get your free issues, enter the coupon codes CIRCUIT0315 and ELEKTOR0315 into your shopping cart. The Circuit Cellar magazine will add 6 ounces and the Elektor magazine will add 9 ounces to the package weight when calculating your shipping options.

For back issues and more information, see our free Circuit Cellar magazine offers and free Elektor magazine offers.

New products: Stepper motors with lead screws, traveling nut, and mounting bracket for NEMA 23 stepper motors

Posted by Brandon on 23 March 2015
Tags: new products

NEMA 17-size stepper motors with 18, 28, and 38cm lead screws.

Since we started carrying the stepper motor with 28cm lead screw, we have routinely received requests for shorter and longer versions of it, so we are happy to announce that we are now carrying two additional versions: one with an 18 cm lead screw and one with a 38 cm lead screw. All three of the stepper motors with lead screw use the same NEMA 17-size stepper motor, which is also available without a lead screw.

All of the stepper motors with lead screw come with a traveling nut, also known as a carriage nut. This copper alloy nut features a mounting flange with four holes threaded for M3 screws to make it easy to integrate into your project. From time to time, we also get requests to make the traveling nut available for purchase separately, so we did! If you are interested in picking up some spare traveling nuts, more information can be found on the traveling nut’s product page.

We also have a new NEMA 23 stepper motor bracket as pictured above. Around eight months ago, we started carrying our stamped aluminum mounting bracket for NEMA-17 size stepper motors, and since then, we added a stamped aluminum NEMA 14 stepper motor bracket to our selection. We looked into getting similar aluminum bracket for NEMA 23-size stepper motors but ultimately decided to go with a more rigid 3mm-thick steel mounting bracket for NEMA 23 stepper motors. On this bracket, two steel supports are welded in the corner along the bend of the bracket to provide extra reinforcement.

New Products

9V, 2.5A Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S13V25F9
VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight 8×8-Zone Distance Sensor Carrier with Voltage Regulators, 400cm Max
7.5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S8V9F7
3.3V, 3.7A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D30V30F3
3pi+ 2040 Robot Kit with 30:1 MP Motors (Standard Edition Kit)
Zumo 2040 Main Board
4.2-15V, 3.3A Fine-Adjust Step-Down Voltage Regulator w/ Adjustable Low-Voltage Cutoff D30V33MASCMA
3pi+ 2040 Robot - Standard Edition (30:1 MP Motors), Assembled
LPS22DF Pressure/Altitude Sensor Carrier with Voltage Regulator
ACS724 Current Sensor Carrier 0A to 20A
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