In my opinion the Baby Orangutan is the best small robot controller available due to the compact design and integrated motor control. I started in the hobby with a 3pi and moved to building my own line follower and maze solver robots using the Baby Orangutan to provide all the 3Pi capability. I bought a 3pi+ recently and I’m bowled over by the huge increases in features and capability over the old version. How about a new BO-sized robot controller incorporating all these extra 3pi+ features and maintaining the integrated motor control? I’m sure it would be a winner!
Hi.
We are glad to hear you like the Baby Orangutan! We do not have anything currently in the works, but an updated Baby Orangutan-type robot controller is on our to-do list! The closest thing we currently have to an updated Baby O are our A-Star robot controllers. They are much larger than the Baby O, but come with integrated motor drivers that handle more current and do not need an external programmer.
It would be hard to fit all the features of the 3pi+ in that small a space. Are there particular features you are most interested in?
-Claire
Hi Claire,
I would welcome a similar upgrade to the Arduino Nano 33 boards vs the original Nano: a more powerful 32 bit processor with more program memory and RAM, an on-board IMU, and a usb connection in place of ISP. Bluetooth serial comms would be useful for data logging too. I don’t want to lose the integrated motor control though, as that is what makes the Baby Orangutan so unique. Personally I could tolerate a moderate size increase, although the Arduino Nano upgrade provides all those capabilities yet maintains the same form factor. I could happily live without the on-board pot which takes up space and loses an analog i/o port!
Chris