BabyO 328 motor drivers and I/O lines

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1

Morning Pololu world,

I just got the Baby Orangutan 328 as an early Christmas present, and what I want to do with it is use it as an ESC for a tiny combat robot controlled via R/C (2.4 Ghz). I read the user manual over and over again, and I understand that the inputs needed are taken over by the H-bridge. My question is: Can it be done, and if so, what pins should I use/program to read the R/C receiver’s commands?

Thanks in advance
WaterDuffalo

2

Hello WaterDuffalo,

The Baby Orangutan can definitely be programmed as an ESC - I know of at least one person who has made several combat robots that way. You might want to use our Pulse/PWM Input library, and you can choose almost any pins to be the inputs.

We also have a tutorial on controlling the 3pi with an RC receiver that does not use the Pulse library. You could use that code almost as-is or simplify it a lot by using the library.

Good luck,
-Paul

3

Paul,

Thanks so much for the fast response. The info really helps. I’ll definitely be using this little wonder-device for an awesome robot soon.

-WaterDuffalo

4

Ok, new question. Has anyone used a BabyO as a differential drive mixer alone? I think all I would have to do is take out the motor speed control code and simply leave the mixing, but I wanted to check before I started frying more things. The reason I ask is my Sabertooth 2x5 went up in smoke (burned the fds 6911 MOSFET for the M2), and I have a SOZbots dual controller, but it doesn’t have onboard mixing.

Thanks

5

I am not sure what you mean by “differential drive mixer alone.” I think you might be talking about RC channel mixing. We have a sample project for doing that with the 3pi, which should be fairly easily converted to the Baby Orangutan.

- Ryan