Few questions for when I receive my Zumo…
My experience with programming and development isn’t the problem. It’s more of the hardware/electronic/power aspect of things.
Do you need any ‘special’ soldering tips. Would a generic pointy tip one that usually comes with an iron work?
I also ordered some ultrasonic sensors and other things to try and set it up with. It seems that without trying to reuse/disable other sensors/pins I would have to use i2c and I already have a few Arduino Nano clones around I plan to use as a slave for controlling the sensors.
Am I correct to assume that there isn’t much special/weirdness about trying to use the i2c bus?
If I want to setup a LiPo type battery with maybe more power or mAH on it, since it looks like there are connections on the board available for other battery connections. I just am not familiar with the best combo/parts needed for hooking up and go.
What would I need in the way of a micro usb charging breakout/board or should I look towards some external charger?
What would I need in the way of a LiPo battery itself?
It is not clear which Zumo version you ordered, can you tell me which Zumo it is?
Ultimately, which soldering tip you use comes down to what you are comfortable with. You can certainly use the tip that comes with your soldering iron; I personally like a small wedge tip for most of my soldering.
There is nothing special or different about using I2C on either the Zumo 32U4 or the Zumo shield for Arduino with the normal Wire library. It should be possible to attach additional I2C slave devices to the Zumo 32U4’s I2C bus without giving up any features as long as the additional devices’ slave addresses do not conflict with those of the inertial sensors…
Some people have added LiPo battery packs to their Zumo Robots, which battery pack you use might depend on the Zumo version you ordered. However, since you are new to hardware, I recommend getting started with the Zumo with standard batteries before trying to modify it.
Yes I will start with just some regular alkalines. I do want to be able to upgrade to a bit more juice if I will be throwing some Nanos on it to run other sensors over i2c.
Nothing big and powerful needed. Just trying to get a feel for what sort of LiPo batteries would work.
I guess I should ask. If all 4 AA batteries are fresh and new. What average runtime can I expevt.?
For the Zumo 32U4, you can use power sources up to around 10V without additional modification to the Zumo, so you might consider a 2S LiPo battery when you make those changes.
Alkaline batteries typically do not last as long as rechargable NiMH batteries, so you might consider starting with rechargable AA batteries.
Your run time will vary widely, depending on what your Zumo is doing. For Mini Sumo competitions I generally got a couple of hours of operation using rechargable batteries.
