Maker Pi RP2040 features the first microcontroller designed by Raspberry Pi – RP2040, embedded on a robot controller board. This board comes with dual channel DC motor driver, 4 servo motor ports and 7 Grove I/O connectors, ready for your next DIY robot / motion control project. Now you can build robot, while trying out the new RP2040 chip.
The DC motor driver onboard is able to control 2x brushed DC motors or 1x bipolar/unipolar stepper motor rated from 3.6V to 6V, providing up to 1A current per channel continuously. The built-in Quick Test buttons and motor output LEDs allow functional test of the motor driver in a quick and convenient way, without the need of writing any code. Vmotor for both DC and servo motors depends on the input voltage supplied to the board.
It has lots of LEDs useful for troubleshooting (& visual effects), is able to make quite some noise with the onboard piezo buzzer and comes with push buttons ready to detect your touch.
In terms of powering the board and the motors, you have three options:
- Supply power through the microUSB socket (very handy when you’re testing things out and programming at the same time).
- Supply power via a single-cell 3.7V LiPo battery. (The microUSB input will charge your LiPo as well, with overcharge and undercharge protection built-in).
- Supply power via the screw terminals between 3.6V and 6V (the max is equivalent to 4 x non-rechargeable AA batteries, but you can, of course, use rechargeable ones instead).
All the power is handily isolated by an on-board power switch so if you just need to shut the thing off, one click and you’re done.
Maker Pi RP2040 is basically the Raspberry Pi Pico + Maker series’ goodness + Robot controller & other useful features. Therefore this board is compatible with the existing Pico ecosystem. Software, firmware, libraries and resources that are developed for Pico should work seamlessly with Maker Pi RP2040 too.
CircuitPython is preloaded on the Maker Pi RP2040 and it runs a simple demo program right out-of-the-box. Connect it to your computer via USB micro cable and turn it on, you will be greeted by a melody tune and LEDs running light. Press GP20 and GP21 push buttons to toggle the LEDs on/off, while controlling any DC and servo motors connected to it to move and stop. With this demo code, you get to test the board the moment you receive it!
While connected to your computer, a new CIRCUITPY drive appears. Explore and edit the demo code (code.py & lib folder) with any code editor you like, save any changes to the drive and you shall see it in action in no time. That’s why we embrace CircuitPython – it’s very easy to get started. Wish to use other programming lauguages? Sure, you are free to use MicroPython and C/C++ for Pico/RP2040. For those of you who loves the Arduino ecosystem, please take a look at this official news by Arduino and also the unofficial Pico Arduino Core by Earle F. Philhower.
Features:
- Powered by Rapberry Pi RP2040
- Dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor
- 264KB internal RAM
- 2MB of Flash memory
- the exact same specifications with Raspberry Pi Pico
- Robot controller board
- 4x Servo motors
- 2x DC motors with quick test buttons
- Versatile power circuit
- Automatic power selection: USB 5V, LiPo (1-cell) or Vin (3.6-6V)
- Built-in 1-cell LiPo/Li-Ion charger (over-charged & over-discharged protection)
- Power on/off switch
- 13x Status indicator LEDs for GPIO pins
- 1x Piezo buzzer with mute switch
- 2x Push button
- 2x RGB LED (Neopixel)
- 7x Grove ports (flexible I/O options: digital, analog, I2C, SPI, UART…)
- Preloaded with CircuitPython by default
- Mouting holes
- 4x 4.8mm mounting hole (LEGO® pin compatible)
- 6x M3 screw hole
Resources:
- Getting Started with Maker Pi RP2040 & Example Code
- Maker Pi RP2040 Datasheet
- Maker Pi RP2040 Schematic
- CircuitPython for Maker Pi RP2040
- Getting Started with RP2040 (Raspberry Pi official page)
- RP2040 Datasheet
Packing List:
- 1x Maker Pi RP2040
- 4x Grove to Female Header Cable
- 1x Mini Screwdriver
- 1x Silicone Rubber Feet (Pack of 4)
