Pixl is a tiny board used to create low cost robots based on Raspberry Pi board and Dynamixel XL320 motors. It is used on the Poppy Ergo Jr robot.
This GitHub repository is only made for keeping a copy of productions files without having to log in circuit maker.
- You can purchase one at Generation Robots website.
- The release contains production files, you can send them to a PCB (with components mounting) seller. We used to buy it from Synergy near Bordeaux.
- It powers up the Raspberry Pi from the 7,5V motor power with an embedded voltage converter.
- It provides a conversion from the 5V TTL half duplex bus of Dynamixel motors from the 3.3V UART ports of the Raspberry Pi.
- You can power up your motors and the Raspberry Pi from a 7.5V as well as with Robotis batteries (LBB-040).
The Pixl board plugs into the pins 1 to 10 off the Raspberry Pi, please make sure the hole of the Pixl board is aligned to that of the raspberry pi, like that :
To power up your system you have the black Jack DC plug as power input (2,1 mm, 5,5 mm) designed for an external power supply able to output 7.5V at least 2A (ECP-15-7.5E), or you can plug your LBB-040 battery holder on the twice two pins connector like that :
- You need to swith off the power supply of the Pixl board before to put in or to take off the Pixl board of the Raspberry pi. Otherwise, there is a small risk to burn the power converter of the Pixl board.
- Do not use batteries in addition to DC plug.
- Do not reload batteries plugged on the Pixl board, please unmount it before recharging.
This board has been designed to drive 6 motors, some people use it to drive up to 24 motors but it may increase the number of communication errors.
The board is made with circuitmaker, a EDA software tool from Altium available as freeware for any kind of projects.
To modify the board or export the last production files, follow this link. An account on CircuitMaker is needed to download documents.
You can share your experience, new design, ideas or questions on the Poppy project forum.
This board is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC-BY-SA) licence.